University of Arizona

School of Information Resources & Library Science

IRLS 401/501 - Organization of Information

Fall 2004 - Syllabus

Instructor: Anita Sundaram Coleman
Contact: Office - SIRLS 21, Phone +1 (520) 621-4026, Email - WebCT
Instructor Office Hours: By WebCT email and appointment in the WebCT Chatroom
WebCT GAT: John Stanton
Course GAT: Youfen Su
Mode of Instruction: WebCT
First day of classes: Aug. 23, 2004; First day for IRLS 401/501: Sept. 3, 2004 (but you can start familiarizing yourself with this syllabus Aug. 27 - see below, Schedule)
Course Listserv: For WebCT backup and announcements you must subscribe to IRLS401-501, the official course listserv. You must have u.arizona.edu email - which you can get from here, http://account.arizona.edu/
Communication Policy: Students who have NOT subscribed to the IRLS401-501 course list by Sept. 3 will be administratively dropped. The course list is your communication tool should WebCT go down or you lose WebCT access. Therefore, it is imperative that you subscribe and be able to use the listserv to communicate with the class and the instructor.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Taylor, Arlene. 2004. The Organization of Information. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Coleman, Anita. 2004. Guide to Selecting and Cataloging Quality WWW Resources for the Small Library. Fairfield, CA: LRACCC.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You must buy the Guide from the UA Bookstore to get a discounted price.This guide is needed for completing assignments.

CATALOG DESCRIPTION

IRLS 401 -- Organization of Information (3 units)

Description: Introduction to the theories and practices used in the organization of information. Overview of national and international standards and practices for access to information in collections. May be convened with: IRLS 501. Usually offered: Fall, Spring.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course studies the history, theory and practices of information organization, primarily in traditional and digital libraries. However, other organizations and information evironments such as archives, museums and management information systems are also included. This is an introductory course that surveys the information and knowledge organization techniques that exist or are emerging and focuses on standards and tools that are used in large text-based information environments.

COURSE HISTORY

Read Coleman, A. 2002. Interdisciplinarity: The Road Ahead for Education in Digital Libraries. D-Lib Magazine, 8 (7/8), July/August. Available online. URL: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july02/coleman/07coleman.html This article will help you understand the sequence of courses that you can take in the area of Knowledge Organization. Note that the old course name was Knowledge Structures I and may still be used within WebCT or by adjunct professors teaching this course.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The main goal of the course is to become familiar with the concepts and practices of bibliographic and non-bibliographic information organization. By the end of the course, the student will be able to:

Define the knowledge structures (a.k.a. information handling tools) used in various information environments for organizing information and knowledge
Describe the main theories in library and archival cataloging (including recent trends in metadata), categorization, classification, and subject analysis
List the uses, advantages, and disdvantages of a sample range of knowledge structures (information handling tools)
Demonstrate basic skills in subject analysis
Demonstrate basic skills in metadata creation
Demonstrate basic knowledge of at least two metadata standards
Articulate the similarities and differences between a thesaurus, ontology, authority file, subject heading list, and library classification scheme

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Deliverable: Exercise in resource selection & metadata creation
Details shared in WebCT

Deliverable: Major Project in electronic resources organization
Details shared in WebCT

METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

The classroom environment for this virtual course is WebCT. Here are guidelines to help learning:

I have never had significant problems with WebCT but students do seem to have WebCT woes when Fall classes start. Therefore, I do not expect you to do too much within WebCT until Sept. 3. Use this time to read your text, familiarize yourself with the course syllabus, etc.
Course Notes (lectures) will be posted weekly by 5 pm Friday
General Class Participation and Discussions are encouraged!
Use Discussion and the topics *Main* for ALL questions related to course.
Complete weekly readings from the text (Author: Taylor) by the end of the day they are scheduled.
Course Requirements help assess instruction and student learning and it is important that you follow posted guidelines.
With the exception of Discussions all work must be submitted using the Assignments WebCT DropBox link. This will allow submissions only until a pre-determined date and time. Make sure you DO NOT miss this date or wait until the last minute to submit. Assignments submitted late (and not excused) or not in HTML will automatically earn a grade of C or lower.
Netiquette is essential in the electronic world. Learn and practice it. A good introduction to Netiquette is available from the Instructional Computing Online Library at Indiana University at Bloomington. Another good source is an interactive quiz (thanks to Garry Forger in the Office of Distributed Learning for this pointer) that you can take - http://www.albion.com/netiquette/netiquiz.html.
When reading electronic text, give others the benefit of the doubt; remember that the written word has no verbal/body language cues to soften it's effect, and don't always be quick to assume the worst. Don't be afraid to post or ask questions but at the same time, make sure you've read everything. Practice by reading this course outline thoroughly and then, give yourself time to reflect on it.
Successful learning for this course REQUIRES weekly participation, DAILY visits to the course pages within WebCT, and prompt, thoughtful, polite responses to your peers, instructor, and their posts.
Adhere to the UA codes of student conduct and academic integrity.
Practical knowledge is an important part of professional learning.
You will have the opportunity to work with plenty of practical tools from the KS Toolbox. Discussions, exercise, and final project papers will require you to select and use some of these tools. Start browsing, reading, and interacting with the resources assembled here.

SCHEDULE

Important Note: This is a schedule of readings from the text only.

Week 1, Aug. 27 - What's Your Learning Style? | Familiarize yourself with syllabus
Week 2, Sept. 3 - Organization of Recorded Information & Retrieval Tools
Read Taylor, Chapter 1, 2
Week 3, Sept. 10 - Development of the Organization of Recorded Information in Western Civilization
Read Taylor, Chapter 3
Week 4, Sept. 17 - Encoding Standards, & Systems and System Design
Read Taylor, Chapter 4, 5
Week 5, Sept. 24 - Metadata, Metadata: Description, Metadata: Access & Authority Control
Read Taylor, Chapter 6, 7, 8
Week 6, Oct. 1 - Catch-up
Review chapter 1-8 and post in Discussions
Week 7, Oct. 8 - Subject Analysis
Read Taylor, Chapter 9
Week 8, Oct. 15 - Systems for Vocabulary Control
Read Taylor, Chapter 10
Week 9, Oct. 22 - Systems for Categorization
Read Taylor, Chapter 11
Week 10, Oct. 29 - Systems for Categorization (contd.)
Read Taylor, Chapter 11 (review)
Week 11, Nov. 5 - The Making of Retrieval Tools
Read TBD
Week 12, Nov. 12 - Arrangement & Display
Read Taylor, Chapter 12
Week 13, Nov. 19 - Review II
Read Taylor, your choice
Week 14, Nov. 26 - Break
Happy Thanksgiving!
Week 15, Dec. 3 - Final Review: What Have We Learned?
Review, Practice, Discuss Recent Advances & Trends.
Week 16, Dec. 10 - Present Major Project to class
Week 17, Dec. 17 - Finals week (last day of class)

MILESTONES/IMPORTANT DATES

Oct. 22 - Assignment 1 completed and submitted

Oct. 29 - Start working on final Major Project

Dec. 15 - Assignment 2 completed and submitted

EVALUATION

General guidelines for evaluation include:

All work must be turned in on the dates due by 5:00 pm Arizona time (unless other times are allowed by the WebCT submission facility). WebCT will NOT allow submissions past the DUE Date/Time if I have set it up to be so. Therefore, read your Assignments page and instructions carefully. Availability times are very clearly marked under the Assignments link in WebCT and in case of doubt, email the Course GAT.
All work must be turned in using the submit/email facility within WebCT. This means that you DON'T email/send me the work outside WebCT.
HTML format must be used for all work turned in for grading (except discussions).

Grade Breakdown (501 students):

Exercise 1: 40%
Participation through Discussion/Summaries: 10%
Major Project: 50%
Total: 100%

Grade Breakdown (401 students):

Exercise 1: 40%
Participation through Discussion/Summaries: 10%
Major Project [scaled down version]: 50%
Total: 100%

Assignment of Course Grades:

401/501 Course grades will be assigned as follows:
A=90+ (Superior Work)
B=80-89 (Very Good)
C=70-79 (Marginally Satisfactory)
F=0-69 (Failed to meet requirements)

Coleman Home | Old KS Toolbox | Learning Showcase | New KS Toolbox
First Created: 06/26/04
Created By: Anita S. Coleman