SI 523/529/530: Core Knowledge

Introduction

This document is the Homepage for the first of the evolving core courses at the School of Information/Library and Information Services specialization at the University of Michigan. This course is partially funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and is a part of the evolution of a new core curriculum for the information professional. Information about the Kellogg-sponsored CRISTALED (Kellogg Coalition on Reinventing Information Science, Technology and Library Education) program objectives and links to many of the activities of this grant are available on the Web. It is organized in several key sections:

Course Description

This course deals with three themes: the life cycle of information from creating through editing and publication, collection, organization, representation, retrieval, reading, and back into creating through use integration of all of these, with particular emphasis on organization, retrieval, use and decision-making on the part of professionals, and the importance of context in understanding why certain formats, sources, and organizational structures arose.

Suggested Objectives

  1. Understand the principles that underlie information storage and retrieval systems and appreciate the interrelationships between effective information searching and the organization and description of information, interfaces, and command structures.
  2. Develop the ability to think critically about why and how we provide intellectual and physical access to information.
  3. Gain familiarity with some established tools and models for organizing information; develop familiarity with, and ability to search in, a basic core of general, print and electronic-based sources of information
  4. Develop skills in the evaluation, selection, and use of sources including formulating effective search strategies
  5. Consider the changing nature of information resources and the process by which such sources are/will be published, organized, represented, retrieved, used and archived.
  6. Learn about the impact of information policies on access, intellectual freedom and censorship, equality of access, and freedom of information, and to consider the ethics and responsibilities of information professionals.

Conduct of the Course

This course is the product of a great deal of discussion and thinking not only about the particular topics we will discuss and the way this course will be taught, but also about the future of the information professions and how to prepare people to be part of an exciting but uncertain future. In deciding to merge three existing courses into one, we are recognizing the important interconnections between the individual themes and the unique aspects of their combination.

Logistically, here's what all this means. You have registered for three courses, each of which bears 2 credits. We have designed a single, integrated course for which the two instructors take equal responsibility. You will receive the same grade for each of the three courses, so effectively this is one six-credit course.

Questions about course material may be directed to either of us or to our TA. As we move through the course, you will discover our areas of experience and interest, and that may help you decide who to ask about a particular topic. Questions about grading, policy and administration of the course may also be directed to either of us.

Our hope is that this will be an enlightening and exciting experience for everyone involved, and we will ask you for feedback at various points through the course. You should always, though, feel free to share your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and question with us, anonymously or not, through whatever means you prefer. You are our best source of information about how things are going and what we can do to improve.

Instructors

Required Texts

DIALOG Lab Workbook: Online searching for the information professional. Mountain View, CA: Knight-Ridder Information, Inc., 1995.

Bopp, Richard E. and Linda C. Smith. Reference and information services: an introduction. 2nd ed. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1995.

Rowley, Jennifer. Organizing knowledge: an introduction to information retrieval. Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 1992.

Walker, Geraldene and Joseph Janes. Online retrieval: a dialogue of theory and practice. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1993.

Helpful Reference Sources

Syllabus

9/3

9/9-10 Timeline

9/16-17 Timeline

9/23-24 Lifecycle: Creation & Organization

9/30 and 10/1 Lifecycle: Organization and Retrieval

10/7-8 Lifecycle: Organization and Retrieval

10/14-15 Life Cycle: Organization and Retrieval

10/21-22 Life Cycle: Retrieval

10/28-29 Life Cycle: Retrieval

11/4-5 Life Cycle: Access and Preservation

11/11-12 Life Cycle: Access

11/18-19 Life Cycle: Access

11/25-26 Life Cycle: Policies and Meta-Issues

12/2-3 Life Cycle: The Future...and the Past as Prologue
12/9

Academic Integrity

The essence of academic life revolves around respect not only for the ideas of others but also their rights to those ideas and their promulgation. It is therefore essential that all of us engaged in the life of the mind take the utmost care that the ideas and expressions of ideas of other people always be appropriately handled, and, where necessary, cited.

Many of the assignments you will be working on will require you to work in pairs or small groups. We emphasize this because we feel it important to be able to work in such groups and learn from each other. We also recognize that this doesn't always work perfects. We expect that you will work honestly and equitably and be respectful of each other's work.

In working on individual assignments for this course, you may feel free to work together with other students in looking over the assignments, discussing possible approaches, and so on. However, when actually doing the work or writing up the results for submission for a grade, you are to do them alone.

In assignments which require writing, when ideas or materials of others are used, they must be cited. The format is not that important--as long as we can locate the course material and verify the citation AND you use a consistent format, it's OK. What is most important is that the material be cited.

In any other situations, if you have a question, please ask. Such attention to ideas and acknowledgement of their sources is central not only to academic life, but life in general.

Assignments and Evaluation

Lab Exercises

  • Organization (20%) Assignments will be made during September/October; see syllabus for schedule.

  • Retrieval(20%) Assignments will be made during the term; see syllabus for schedule.

  • Information Sources (20%)
    • Description: Review the assigned sources, examining them as per discussion in class. Create a single question/answer for each source per Final Product and Example.
    • Evaluation: The appropriateness of the question to the fit the source, the explanation of why and how the source was used, and the correct citation of that source will be examined and graded.
    • Reason: The ability to think critically about what the question really is and to match its need to a reasonable source to generate an answer is imperative in the reference process. This assignment focuses of representative, basic sources which every student should know well.
    • Final Product: Weekly as scheduled, produce a set of questions which can be answered from each of the 68 sources assigned on the Source List. Report each source as a question per the following example with Question, Answer, Source (including specific page/file name with date of update occess), Reasoned Answer and Information Path.
    • Hypothetical Example:
      • Question: Where have there been major nuclear accidents?
      • Answer:
        • 1952 - Chalk River, Canada
        • 1957 - Windscale Pile No. 1, north of Liverpool, England
        • 1957 - South Ural Mountains, 12 miles from Kyshtym in the former USSR
        • 1976 - near Greifswald East Germany
        • 1979 - Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, PA
        • 1986 - Chernobyl, near Kiev in the former USSR
      • Source: Information Please Almanac: Atlas & Yearbook 1995. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1995. (p. 407)
      • RA: The need for a simple list of nuclear accident locations, rather than an extensive discussion of the accidents and their implications, suggests the use of an almanac would be acceptable. The Information Please Almanac provides a wide range of miscellaneous information with a general topical arrangement. Among the topic areas covered is historical information on the United States as well as a chronology of particularly important or significant events. The general subject index is fairly comprehensive and leads directly to nuclear power plants with a subheading for accidents. (Note: this reasoning will actually precede your developing a question. You will be considering what the basic organization and reference approach of each source is.)
      • Information Path: Almanac/Comprehensive Index/Nuclear power plants/Accidents

    Final Project: The Encyclopedia Reticulata (40%)

  • Description: The Final Project for this course will consider the design and structure of an encyclopedia native to the distributed networked environment. The history and development of encyclopedias in the print domain have involved most of the most important issues about the organization and retrieval of information. Thus, as more information is created in digital form, and as such digital information is widely shared, it makes sense to comtemplate what an 'encyclopedia' would be like in this world.

    Students will work in groups of 4-6 on this project. After some initial examination of encyclopedias and the World Wide Web, groups will select a topic area and a target audience, and describe of the scope for their work. The work can make many forms, but the following questions must be addressed:

    • How will your encyclopedia take advantage of content already on the Net, if at all?
    • How will your encyclopedia add value to this content?
    • How will it be maintained and kept current?
    • How will it be organized?
    • How will people access the content? (interface issues)
    • How will it be implemented? (technological issues)
    • How will it be marketed, funded, promulgated?
    • How will issues of intellectual property and copyright be addressed?
    • How will user feedback be accounted for?
    • How will graphics, maps, sound, video be incorporated?
    • How will you assure quality, authority, comprehensiveness?

    We do not expect that you will produce a functional encyclopedia by the end of the course. Rather, we expect that you will think through the issues above (and other ones, probably) and produce a design document which reflects your best ideas. This document will be Web-accessible and will outline specifications and design details for your version of the encyclopedia.

  • Due:

    Sept. 19: analysis of print encyclopedias due: what are the important features of print encyclopedias? What makes a resource "encyclopedic"?

    Sept. 24: exploration of World Wide Web due: what are the important characteristics of this environment for this project? Are there resources currently available which look like or share characteristics with what we think of as encyclopedias?

    Oct. 1: selection of scope, topic, audience due: identification of a general topic area (along with broader and narrower alternatives), scope (how broadly you will cover), and audience (academic/research, K-12, general, specialized, etc.) Here's an 'encyclopedia' to check out now: The Free Internet Encyclopedia

    Nov. 12: Draft: A preliminary version of the design document, containing at least an outline of your design for the encyclopedia. This draft will be evaluated by two other groups in the class (as well as by the instructors) to give you feedback for your further work.

    Dec. 3: Critiques of other groups' work due

    Dec. 9: Final version due, 12 noon

  • Examples from Fall 1995

    EoTS/A2 6
    Fairy Tales/Group Therapy
    Alternative Health/S
    University of Michigan/4-L Quads

  • Final Evaluation: Both instructors will examine the work presented, taking into account the degree to which the project addresses the questions posed, the quality of the ideas presented and the originality and thoroughness of the design presented.

    Final Note: Attendance in this class is assumed. Assignments are due as schedule; -5% of grade for late assignments
    mholland@umich.edu (9/30/96)