Catholic University of America

School of Library and Information Science

LSC 551.3

Organization of Information

Fall 2008

Instructor: Judy Bateman, Ph.D.

Course is primarly on Blackboard with 2 required meetings. Course begins on Blackboard: August 26, 2008, if you have not recieved an email regarding the course please contact the instructor: Bateman@cua.edu or judith.ann.bateman@gmail.com

In person meetings (required): 1:30 to 4:00 pm. CUA campus, room not yet assigned August 11, 2008

Sept 6 : Introduction to the course

Dec 6 : Organization project due, Presentation of organization projects

E-mail: bateman@cua.edu

Judith.ann.bateman@gmail.com

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

Bibliography (coming soon)
Course schedule (coming soon)
Using blackboard

Section Headings

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 and retrieval. Traditional and more recent computer techniques, tools, and theories will be studied.

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Course Goals

The course is designed to:

introduce concepts and problems of information organization and their relationship to information retrieval and access
encourage analytical thinking and problem solving skills related to information organization.
prepare students for work in libraries, information centers, or other organizations that organize large bodies of information.

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Course Objectives

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

Fundamental concepts of information organization and models of information transfer involving humans and systems.
Basic principles of bibliographic control and access.
Basic principles of computer based control and retrieval of information.
Different types and uses of information representations or surrogates.
Relationships between methods and structures of file organization and techniques of accessing information.
Characteristics of user information seeking behavior and how these characteristics affect and are affected by systems for organizing and representing information.
Emerging encoding and metadata standards for information description and access.
The relationship of XML to HTML and the importance of XML in organizing web based information resources.

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Academic Honesty Policy

Please read the policy on “Academic Graduate and Undergraduate Student Academic Dishonesty. http://policies.cua.edu/academicundergrad//integrityfull.cfm#i

The definitiions that follow are from this policy:

"A. Plagiarism is the act of presenting the work of another as if it were one's own. It includes quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, or utilizing the published work of others without proper acknowledgment, or, where appropriate, quotation marks. Most frequently, it involves the unacknowledged use of published books or articles in periodicals, magazines, newspapers and electronic media. However, any unacknowledged use of another's ideas constitutes plagiarism, including the use of papers written by other students, interviews, radio or TV broadcasts, and any published or unpublished materials (including web-based materials, letters, pamphlets, leaflets, notes or other electronic or print documents).

B. Improper use of one's own work is the unauthorized act of submitting work for a course that includes work done for previous courses and/or projects as though the work in question were newly done for the present course/project.

C. Fabrication is the act of artificially contriving or making up material, data or other information and submitting this as fact.

D. Cheating is the act of deceiving, which includes such acts as receiving or communicating or receiving information from another during an examination, looking at another's examination, (during the exam), using notes when prohibited during examinations, using electronic equipment to receive or communicate information during examinations, using any unauthorized electronic equipment during examinations, obtaining information about the questions or answers for an examination prior to the administering of the examination, or whatever else is deemed contrary to the rules of fairness, including special rules designated by the professor in the course."

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 policy or discuss the problem with your instructor if you have questions about plagiarism.

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 Information

The course will be primarily web based and will use Blackboard, online course management software. The Blackboard site and server are maintained by The Catholic University Computing Center. Students will need access to a computer with an Internet connection and a current version of a web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari etc.). Students are expected to access the course several times a week. Students will be given login names and passwords by the instructor. Directions to logon to Blackboard are on the instructor's web site.

Lectures will be provided on the course with PowerPoint slides and an outline with extensive notes that can be printed for reading offline. The course also has a copy of this syllabus in its most recent version (it can and will change), a glossary, a section with models of different organization tools, readings, email, discussions and assignments.

Students are required to contribute to course discussions. Some discussions will be with all members of the course. Other discussions will be in smaller groups. Students should be clear and brief in discussions and considerate of other students and their opinions. Some discussions will be based on course projects or readings, others will be discussions of current issues and challenges in organizing and retrieving information. Early in the course there will be more discussion than later in the course when students will be given more time for projects. While the instructor can and will monitor discussion participation, every student does not have to contribute to every discussion (every student is expected to read every discussion). However, some of the course grade will be based on participation in discussion. If any student is uncomfortable with the online discussion format, they should contact the instructor immediately.

The course will have a number of group and individual projects and case studies that will be graded pass/fail. The purpose of most of these projects will be to illustrate a concept or the practical use of organization concepts. These projects will be posted on Blackboard. The thesaurus project and the organization project will be graded and are discussed later in this syllabus.

Link to blackboard

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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 located in suite 207 in the Pryzbyla Center.

The email for disability services is: cua-disabilityservices@cua.edu. Their phone number is 202-319-5211 and their fax number is 202-319-5126. and their web site is

http://disabilityservices.cua.edu/

A Guide for services and accommodations for students with disabilities can be found at:

http://counsel.cua.edu/ADA/publications/disbro/contents.cfm

Some basic guidelines and links to other information may be found at:

http://counsel.cua.edu/ADA/clicks/

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Course expectations

Expectations for students

Each week you should complete the assigned readings and lecture for the course. Discussions will depend on the completion of this material in a timely manner. You should set aside a regular block of time each week to complete this material. Major projects in this course will come at the end of the course so it is important to keep up on the readings early in the course.

The course will be mostly asynchronous with no set time for you to be on the course and you can do course work at any time you wish. I do expect you to check the course most days and I can and will check to see if you are logging on to the course.

You may use regular email, the phone and in person meetings to contact the instructor or other class members. Just because the course is online does not mean you will have to use the web as your exclusive means of communication.

If you are going to need to be away from Blackboard for several days contact the instructor and any members of your discussion group.

Check the course update discussion forum and the announcements on Blackboard regularly for any changes in due dates, course projects etc.

Discussion postings should be well thought out and considerate of others. Some discussions may include controversial issues and thoughtful discussion on all sides of an issue is encouraged.

The social area discussion forum has been set up so we can get to know each other and this topic may be used for announcements you wish to make, questions on topics outside of this course and to socialize.

Student may also start their own discussion topics if they wish

I will not tolerate negative discussion of other students or faculty on the discussion forums. If you have an issue with another student please email me.

What you can expect from the instructor

Prompt responses to your questions. I will try to get back to you in a day, sometimes it may be two days. If I am ill or will be away from the course for several days I will let you know.

Reasonably prompt feedback on course projects and assignments.

Hopefully an interesting and informative course, if you see ways that I can improve the course please let me know

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Article Review

You will review 2 articles (if you wish you can use more than 2 articles, but no less than 2). The articles should be from professional or peer reviewed journals and should be substantive, about 8 to 10 pages in length. For some topics several shorter articles may be appropriate, if you think your topic requires this approach please let me know. You can include web sites in your discussion, but you must have 2 journal articles. The articles reviewed should not be course readings, however, you can include course readings in your discussion. You can look for 2 articles that present an overview of an organization of information topic, such as Dublin Core or TEI or you can choose 2 articles that present an argument (is the MARC record dead?) or a specific problem (bias in the Library of Congress subject headings). You should summarize what each article discusses and relate the articles to each other and to class lecture, readings and discussions.

The paper should be a minimum of 3 pages, double spaced, arial or tahoma font 12 point. You will not be penalized if your paper is longer than 3 pages. Include a separate page that is a reference list/bibliography citing the articles and any other sources.

We will discuss the Turabian style manual and citations during the course, but you may use any standard style manual for your citations. For example: APA (American Psychological Association) or MLA (Modern Language Association) The following book is the "Turabian style manual" which is often used by high school and undergraduate students and is a abbreviated version of The Chicago Manual of Style. One problem with Turabian is the publication date and the lack of any guidance for electronic documents.

Turabian, Kate L. Revised By Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, And University Of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. 2007. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style For Students And Researchers. 7th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Organization Project

Assignment

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 the organization method should aid users in retrieving items and discerning characteristics of items.
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.

Project Questions

Read through all questions before beginning the project.

In your paper you should discuss each question as much as you feel is 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.
If you have problems you do not have to correct them, just explain what the problem was and how you would correct it in the future.
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 the element.
The following questions should be covered in your paper:

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?

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? Will items be removed from the collection? 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?

Organization method. Review the various methods of organizing information and determine which ones are most appropriate for your collection and your users. Discuss the method or methods you will use to organize the items. Since your collection may include many different formats you may select several different methods to organize the items, depending on their format. Answer the following questions for each method:

Method. Give a short summary of your overall method. Will your organization method be paper based or computer based? If it is computer based what database will you use?

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.

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? How will relationships between items be indicated?

Name authority control. Determine which elements need name authority control. Why do these elements require name authority control? What will be the source of name authority records?

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.

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? Will you develop a taxonomy for the collection?

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? How will your collection and organization method evolve? What will be some guidelines for maintaining and updating your records?

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 35%
Article review 25%
Exercises and activities 25%
Online and class discussions and participation 15%

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Exams

If I decide to have a final exam it will be take home and posted on Blackboard

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Textbooks

The required textbook is:

The Organization of Information. 2nd ed. 2003, by Arlene Taylor. Additional readings are listed in the bibliography section of this syllabus.

The textbook is available at the CUA bookstore

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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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