LBSC 671 - Creating Information Infrastructures
Spring 2013 - Section 0101
Course Description

Official Catalog Description

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate mastery of concepts, models and information structures for life-cycle management of information assets by libraries, archives, and schools.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of current methods for acquisition, preservation, management, discovery and delivery of information in physical and digital form.
• Demonstrate proficiency in creating and applying models, schema, representations and encodings for organizing information.
• Demonstrate proficiency in designing and implementing information services that leverage current technologies.
• Demonstrate familiarity with the effects of current trends in information creation, information technology, and information use on methods for acquisition, preservation, organization, management, discovery, and delivery of information.

Approach

• Get it: What kinds of resources do information institutions manage, and how do they come to have them?
• Find it: How do information institutions manage these resources?
• Serve it: How do information institutions provide access to their resources?

Instructional Staff

Schedule

We will meet once a week in HBK 0103. A schedule that summarizes what we will cover each week and gives a preview of the homework assignments and a reading list showing the reading for each week can be found on the class Web page. Most sessions will be recorded using panopto (audio, video, and slide capture); links will be made available from the schedule after class. Students in section 0101 may make advance arrangements with the section SG01 instructor to attend that section on a day when they are covering similar topics if unable to make it to one of our sessions on our regular night. This takes some advance planning, however, because section SG01 will be a week ahead of us until the Thanksgiving break (because Thursday classes start a week earlier than Monday classes this semester). If you choose to do this, you remain responsible for the material as presented in section 0101, of course.

I will usually be in my office before class if you would like to stop by to discuss anything, and I am also happy to meet with students after class or at any other mutually convenient time by appointment. If meeting in person is inconvenient for you, we can also set up a time to talk by phone. Email by far is the best way to reach me to set up an appointment or a phone call, and it is also a good way to get a quick answer to a simple question.

Course Materials

The two required textbooks are:

• Arlene G. Taylor and Daniel N. Joudrey The Organization of Information, 3rd ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59158-700-2. (about $50 on Amazon.com)
• Brian Kernighan, D is for Digital: What a well informed person should know about computers and communications, CreateSpace, 2011. (about $15 on Amazon.com)

All students registered as of August 25, 2013 will be automatically signed up for the course mailing list using the email address that is on record for them with the university. If you do not receive email on that list by August 27, please contact the instructor to confirm which email address you wish to have on that list. Students are encouraged to post to the list (you'll get the address the first time you receive an email) when you have something that you believe that your classmates might wish to see. Questions sent to the professor by email may be answered using the mailing list when the answers might be of general interest (unless you specifically request otherwise).

You should plan to bring a laptop with you to class each week. I teach using a PC, but you can use a Mac if you know how to use it (note the caveat!). If you don't have a laptop, let me know when you come to the first class and we will have a few loaners available that week. Cheap laptops cost about $200, and if you don't have one you may want to buy one. You will also need a TerpConnect account, which should have been activated for you when you first matriculated as a graduate student. Every semester we find a few that weren't, however, so check this immediately after the first class (when I will show you how). You will most likely also want a USB thumb drive (i.e., a "memory stick") since that's often the easiest way of moving files between computers. If you want to print on campus (which is not required if you have a printer at home), you will need a "Personal Print Account" (which requires an initial deposit).

Grading

There will be one take-home quiz, one take-home midterm exam, and one in-class final exam. Quiz grading is described below; the principal purpose of the quiz is to support self-assessment and demystify the midterm exam.

Homework is due before the start of class. There will be 11 assignments. Credit for partial work will be given. Late assignments will not receive credit. The lowest two homework or quiz grades will be dropped, so only the best 10 of those 12 grades will be used to compute the average. All material included in the homework is testable, however, so skipping an assignment is a bad idea. Questions about exam and homework grading should be discussed with the professor.

Students may work together on the homework assignments, but all of the material that is turned in for grading must be produced individually. For example, students may form study groups and work out solutions together on a whiteboard, but it would not be permissible for one student to create a computer file containing the answers and then for other students to copy that file and submit it as their own work. The goal of this policy is to encourage the use of homework as a learning aid. A concentration on grades to the exclusion of learning when working on the homework can be counterproductive, since each exam is worth at least as much as all of the homework assignments together.

For the quiz and the two examinations, students may not receive assistance from any other person. For the take-home quiz and the take-home midterm examination, students must complete the exam in the allotted time, and must truthfully record their start and stop times. The University of Maryland has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student, you are responsible for upholding these standards. More information is available at http://www.shc.umd.edu/.

Important Notes

Students are expected to demonstrate mastery of the following prerequisite knowledge throughout the course. These skills are not taught as a part of this course. Students concerned about their mastery of specific skills on this list should discuss the matter with the professor prior to the second class of the semester.

• Create a document using a word processing program such as Word
• Send and receive email
• Find Web pages using a search engine
• Create a simple spreadsheet that includes calculated results
• Transfer files between computers using a USB thumb drive
• Print documents, Web pages, and spreadsheets

It is required that students arrange for regular access to a computer with an Internet connection, either at home or at work, unless they will be on campus daily. There is a tremendous amount of detail to be mastered in this course, and experience suggests that there is no way to learn it all if you only have access to computing facilities only one or two days a week. For this reason, you should plan to use a computer in an intellectually meaningful way at least five days a week. Furthermore, since much of the information in the course will be distributed only online, access to a computer throughout the week will be important to ensure that you have timely access to this information. Any type of computer and any speed network connection will do. New computers that will do everything you need are available for under $300. If you have a broadband Internet connection at home (cable modem or a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connection) then you should be able to reach the University's computers through that connection. Help getting connected is available from the OIT Help Desk at (301)405-1500.

When not scheduled for use as a classroom, The iSchool computer lab (HBK 2108) can be used by students during the posted hours (which may vary). Computers are also available on campus in several Open Workstation Labs.

Students with disabilities who require academic accommodations must inform the instructor of their needs and provide written documentation about the appropriate academic accommodations from Disability Support Services (http://www.counseling.umd.edu/DSS) at the beginning of the semester.