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Catholic University of America

School of Library and Information Science

LSC 551.01


Organization of Information

Spring 2004

Instructor: Judy Bateman, Ph.D.

Time: Wednesday, 4:10 pm to 6:40 pm

Classroom: Marist Hall 208, Catholic University of America

Office Location: 243 Marist Hall, Catholic University of America

Office Hours:     

2:00 - 4:00 pm Tuesday

12:00 to 3:00 pm Wednesday

Other hours by appointment

Phone: 202-319-6277

E-mail: bateman@cua.edu

Home Page:  http://faculty.cua.edu/bateman/

Course Description

This course introduces students to the basic principles of organizing information for facilitating access. It covers the nature, forms, and media of information and knowledge; the nature of user information needs and implications for information organization; terms and concepts related to information organization; principles of information representation, encoding, authority control, and subject analysis; methods of information organization; classification principles, structures, and applications; the use of controlled vocabulary and natural language for subject analysis, standards, and filing systems; and the relationship of information organization to access mechanisms. Traditional and more recent computer techniques, tools, and theories will be studied.

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Course Goals

The course is designed to: To Headings
 

 Course Objectives

    At the end of the course students should be able to evaluate and apply an understanding of: To Headings
 

 Academic Honesty Policy

Please read the policy on “Academic Honesty" and the policy on "Academic/ Dishonesty” in the University's  Online Student Handbook .   to access these policies Click on " University Academic Policies & Procedures affecting Students.”  and then on Academic dishonesty  and Academic honesty.

Academic dishonesty is defined in the Handbook as “failure to observe rules of fairness in taking exams or writing papers, plagiarism, fabrication, and  cheating”.  Any incidence of plagiarism  will result in a grade of F (0 points) on the project or exam in question, and will be reported to the Dean of the School of Library and Information Science  for possible further action (including failure in the course).  See the Handbook or discuss the problem with your instructor if you have questions about plagiarism. 

 Plagiarism will not be tolerated.  Catholic University of America defines plagiarism to include::
  1.  "Intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise"
  2.  "Failure to attribute any of the following: quotations, paraphrases, or borrowed information from print sources or web sites"
  3. "Buying completed papers from other to use as one’s own work”,
For more on what constitutes  plagiarism and how to avoid it, see the guide on the Purdue Online Writing Lab web site.

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Course Calendar and Readings


Course Information

This class will be conducted  as a lecture based course.  However, lecture notes, assignments and models will be posted on WebCT.  Some discussions and group projects will also be conducted on WebCT.  Instructions on using WebCT will be posted soon on this syllabus and on the WebCT site.  The URL for CUA WebCT sites is:

http://courses.cua.edu/

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ADA Accommodation

Any student with a disability that will require accommodation under the terms of federal regulations should present a written accommodation request to the instructor by the second class meeting.  The law includes accommodation for learning disabilities, Attention Deficient Disorder and anxiety disorders.   It is also recommended that the student contact the Office of Disability Support Services.  They are located in suite 207 in the Pryzbyla Center . Their  email is: cua-disabilityservices@cua.edu.  Their phone number is 202-319-5618 or 202-319-5211 and their fax number is 202-319-5126. and their web site is Some of the on campus resources and phone numbers can be found at
A Guide for services and accommodations for students with disabilities can be found at:
 Some basic guidelines and links to other information may be found at:
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Course Requirements

Activities and Case Studies

Assignments will include exercises to familiarize students with problems and practices in the organization of information and database development.  The required activities, instructions and due dates will also be listed on the WebCT site. Case studies will be assigned that  present a "real life" organization problem.   Most activities and case studies will be graded pass/fail.  Some examples of activities include:
  • Case studies (individual and group)
  • Compiling a bibliography (individual)
  • Thesaurus construction (group)
  • Abstracting exercise (individual)
  • XML exercise (individual)

    • Term Paper

    This paper will be about a problem in the organization of information and possible solutions to this problem. You should explore and summarize literature on a topic of your choice and write a short paper (5 - 7 pages) about your findings.

    Turabian, Kate L. 1996. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations. 6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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    Organization Project

    1.  Assignment

      2. The emphasis of this assignment is on the planning, development, and intellectual preparation for organizing a collection.  You may use a collection from your workplace or home or you can organize a collection as a volunteer or for a friend.  The collection can be very traditional (books, magazines, printed documents) or non-traditional (a pottery collection, or a collection of digital photographs). The collection should have items that have several different characteristics and organizing it should require some type of classification and categorization, subject analysis and a record that represents the item.  The purpose of organizing the collection should be clear and it should aid users in retrieving or discerning characteristics of items in the collection.  For most organization projects 20 to 30 items will be adequate.  If your collection contains more items select a group of items that is representative of the characteristics of the collection.

      Please let me know what you plan to organize by the due date on the course calendar.    If you have a problem or project where you work that would lend itself to  this assignment you are encouraged to use it.

      You will be responsible for completing a paper that outlines a plan for organizing the items and that answers the questions presented below.  Most papers will be about 5 pages long. You will also be responsible for a 5 minute presentation on your project.
       

    2. Project Questions

      3. Read through all questions before beginning. Discuss each question as much as necessary. Concise answers to these questions are encouraged.  Any effective system for organizing information requires careful planning.  Your project will be evaluated on how well you have planned your system. These questions are to help guide you to create a system that will enable your user population to access information items or a description of these items. You are to adapt these questions to your project, for example if your project does not require a classification system, you do not have to include that element. However, you need to discuss the reasons for excluding this element.
       
      1. Users.  The characteristics of your users will guide you in how you structure your system and the method or methods you use to organize it.  Who are/will be users of this collection?  What is their discipline?  Does the end user population consist of scholars? professionals? students? the general public?  Briefly describe the characteristics of the end user population. Will end users retrieve items or information about items? Will intermediaries help these end users? Will end users be free to browse the collection? Are your end users comfortable using computers?
      2. Characteristics of the collection.  The formats that are included in the collection have been described.  You will need to address the following questions:  How old are the items?  What is the subject of the collection? Is it broad or specialized?  Will you need to acquire additional items?  Who will select items for the collection? What are the criteria for selecting these items?  Will the collection grow and how fast will it grow?
      3. Organization method.  Review the various methods of organizing information and determine which ones are most appropriate for your system and your users.  Discuss the method or methods you will use to organize the items. Since this collection includes many different formats you may select several different methods to organize the items, depending on their format.  Answer the following questions for each method.
        1. Method.  Will your organization method be paper based or computer based?  If it is computer based what database will you use?
        2. Physical organization.  What is/will be the approach to the physical organization of this collection? Are there any special considerations in the physical organization of this collection (items that need special housing or handling etc.)? You may use standard library tools (AACRII, LCSH, Sears, Dewey, existing thesauri, etc.) in creating your system, if you think they would provide the best rules or guidelines for the description, subject headings and classification for your items. You may choose to use MARC as a record format.  If you choose MARC discuss some of the advantages of using MARC in your system.
        3. Description.  Your decisions about the description of the items will determine the structure of the record or surrogate for each item. How will you describe the materials?  What elements will be included in the description of these items?  Which elements in the description will be access points? If you have selected more than one method to organize the materials will each method have different descriptions and records?
        4. Authority control.  Determine which elements need authority control. Why do these elements require authority control? What will be the source of authority records?
        5. Classification scheme.  Will you use a classification scheme? Research the standard library resources: LCC, DDC. Which of these resources would be best for a classification scheme for your collection? Does your collection require a specialized or different classification scheme? Explain your reasons for these choices.
        6. Subject control.  Will you have a controlled vocabulary for your collection?  If not, why and how will end users locate materials on a particular topic?  What will you use for your subject authority: LCSH, Sears, a specialized thesaurus, or will you develop your own thesaurus?
        7. Evaluation, updating, and maintenance.  What aspects of your system will need to be evaluated? What method(s) will you use in this evaluation? How will information from evaluations be used to make changes in the system? How will your system evolve? What will be some guidelines for maintaining and updating your database/system?
        8. Summary.  Summarize and analyze the main problems with the organization of this collection. Describe what you might have done differently or might do differently in the future. What were the most difficult tasks in completing this project?
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    Grading

  • Organization project 25%
  • Term paper 25%
  • Exercises and activities 25%
  • Online and class discussions and participation 10%
  • Exams 15%
    • Participation  will be discussed in detail on the WebCT site and in the orientation meeting.  Students may work on course material at any time and from any location with an internet connection and a Web browser.  Guidelines for course work and discussion will be posted in WebCT.  It is assumed that students will login in to the course once every day or two. Discussion groups and the instructor may set times for students to be logged in to the course.  If a student has an illness or emergency situation where they will not be able to login to the course on a regular basis, they should contact me as soon as possible.

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    Exams

    There will be no mid term and the final will be done as a take home and posted to the web based course.

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    Textbooks

    The required textbooks are: To headings

    Bibliography

    The URLs for all readings on the web have been checked.  You are responsible for going to the web site and reading or printing readings available on the Internet.  Most other readings will be provided in WebCT .
     

    Buckland, Michael K. 1997. What is a "document"? Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 48, no. 9:804-809. preprint: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~buckland/whatdoc.html

    Cathro, Warwick. 1997. Metadata: An Overview. http://www.nla.gov.au/nla/staffpaper/cathro3.html

    Cleveland, Donald and Ana Cleveland. 2000.  Introduction to Indexing and Abstracting, 3rd. edition. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. [Chapters 6 and 7]

    Cleveland, Gary.  1998.  SGML: An Overview and Criteria for Use.  International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, UDT Occasional Paper # 9.
    http://www.ifla.org/VI/5/op/udtop9/udtop9.htm

    Furrie, Betty. 1998. Understanding MARC-Bibliographic, 5th edition. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, Cataloging Distribution Service. http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/umb/

    Gorman, Michael and Paul W. Winkler, eds. 1998. Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition, 1998 revision. Chicago: American Library Association.  [Preface, xxv-xxxi; General introduction, 1-4; 305-311; General Rules for Description (table of contents), 11-12; Headings for Persons (table of contents, 379-380.]

    Houston, James, ed. 1991. Thesaurus construction and format. In Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors, 13th edition, xxi-xxv. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx.

    Interview with the Search Engine. SatireWire, 2000.  http://www.SatireWire.com/features/satire-jeevesinterview.html

    Kuhlthau, Carol Collier. 1993. Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. [Chapter 3, The information search process].

    Levy, David M. 1995. Cataloging in the digital order. In Digital Libraries '95, The Second Annual Conference on the Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries, June 11-13, 1995, Austin, Texas. http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/DL95/papers/levy/levy.html

    Metadata, Dublin Core and USMARC: a review of current efforts: Discussion paper no 99,
    Library of Congress, January, 1997.
    http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/marbi/dp/dp99.html

    Milstead, Jessica and Susan Feldman.  1999a.  Metadata: Cataloging by any other name ...  Online. Jan/Feb, 25- 31.
    http://www.onlinemag.net/OL1999/milstead1.html

    Milstead, Jessica and Susan Feldman.  1999b.  Metadata projects and standards.   Online. Jan/Feb, 32-40.
    http://www.onlinemag.net/OL1999/milstead1.html#projects

    Palais, E. S. 1988.  Abstracting for reference librarians.  Reference Librarian, no. 22:297-308.

    Parsons, Ann Marie.  2000. Accessing the invisible digital collection:  A library school student's perspective. DFL Newsletter,  1: 1.  http://www.clir.org/diglib/pubs/news01/features.htm

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    Disclaimer

    This syllabus should not be construed as a contract between the student and the instructor. It may be changed at any time as needed in order to meet the instructional goals and needs of the class, including changes in the grading policy that is described above.

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