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Last revised August 3 , 2006

Course Syllabus for Children In Public Libraries


COURSE NAME, NUMBER, AND PREREQUISITES

Information Resources Development

IRLS 460/560

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

University of Arizona Graduate Catalog : “Principles of identifying, selecting, acquiring, managing, and evaluating information resources for particular demographic areas.”

This course covers the principles and methods of evaluating, selecting and acquiring different kinds of information resources in various media for a variety of library settings, including Academic, Public, School and Special Libraries. Development and maintenance of library collections. Bibliographic tools and on-line databases. Publishers and publishing; censorship issues; acquisition processes.

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COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course is designed to familiarize students with the theory, practice, and issues of collection development in various types of libraries. Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:

 

 

Specific topics covered include selection and acquisition of materials in various formats, collection development policies, collection evaluation, intellectual freedom, and weeding. Learning will be through lecture, group presentations, and evaluation of collection aids, guest speakers, and completion of a final project proposing an opening day or core library collection in some detail. Three credit hours. 

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REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS

Text : Evans, G. Edward and Margaret Zarnosky Sapronaro. Developing Library and Information Center Collections . 5 th edition. Englewood , CO : Libraries Unlimited, 2005.

 

Web Resources :

AcqWeb's Library & Information Science Resources: Collection Development Sites

http://acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/acqweb/lis_cd.html

Collection Development Training for Arizona Public Libraries: http://www.dlapr.lib.az.us/cdt/index.htm

 

Readings : To be assigned in class.

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Assignments :

All students are required to:

1. Complete five written responses to discussion questions presented in class . (1-2 pages each) The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to think about and articulate your feelings about the usefulness of various tools used in collection development.

Response 1: Due September 5

Response 2: Due September 26

Response 3: Due October 3

Response 4: Due October 10

Response 5: Due October 17

Value 20%

 

2. Collection Development Policy Assignment . This is a group project. You will be graded as a group, but will have the opportunity to evaluate each member of the group in terms of participation and collegiality. This evaluation will be in the form of an e-mail sent to the instructor after the group presentations. This project will have two parts:

Evaluation of 3 collection development policies (Value 20%)

The purpose of this assignment is to learn about collection development policies by close examination and critical comparison. You will examine three collection development policies (from actual library collections or from AcqWeb's Directory of Collection Development Policies ) with an eye toward critical comparison.Be sure to highlight "the good, the bad, and the ugly" and to compare and contrast clarity, content, flexibility, and overall usefulness. Your completed paper should be 5-7 pages in length., double spaced, and should be the collective thought of the group.

Write a collection development policy (all parts of it) for your designated library type. (Value 20%)

This policy is to be a collaborative, consensual endeavor. You may use what is BEST from each of the policy statements reviewed (including legal and intellectual policy statements, etc.), and add suggestions from readings and discussions that you as a group deem appropriate. The policy should be in a form that is friendly and usable. An index to specific areas of the policy should be included. You will present this policy statement to the class as a final part of the assignment, with a copy of the entire work to be given to the instructor at that time. How you present this policy is up to you and your group, but you will be accountable for its presentation and understanding.

Value 40%

Due: November 3

 

3. Collection Development Project . Select, evaluate, organize and present a set of resources on a particular subject area for a particular library environment for an opening day part of a collection.

The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with an opportunity to conduct a simulated selection exercise. The exercise requires you to utilize appropriate selection tools for a library setting and subject area while simultaneously considering variables such as user needs, collection needs, and costs. The library where you work has decided to begin collecting in a new nonfiction subject area or to enhance an existing collection, and you have been assigned the collection development responsibility. The library must

be a real library with a real collection development policy but not one of the ones listed on AcqWeb . Your budget is $750 and you must select fifteen items in this subject area, ten current and five retrospective. More detail is given below. You may select a discipline or a sub-discipline. Be careful about choosing too small a collecting area; you may have difficulty with part of the assignment. Try to relate your decisions to issues raised in class and in the readings. If you have questions about the suitability of your subject area please see me. If you wish, you may appeal to the Collection Development Officer (your instructor) for an increase in your budget allocation.

Your report should include the following information in this order:

Information about the library - What are the overall collection development objectives? What are the specific objectives for collecting in your subject area? How strong or weak is the collection in your subject area? Who selects the materials? (approximately 1 page)

Information about the users of your library and their needs - Who are your library's users? What are their interests in your subject area? (You may need to imagine some of these needs.) For example, if you are in an academic institution, what academic programs are you supporting? Are you supporting instruction and research? Instruction only? If you are in a special library, what research or other interests are you supporting? (approximately 1 page)

Information on your process of selecting current materials - We will define current materials as those published or released (in the case of video recordings) in 1999-2006. How do you select both basic and specialized materials? What selection aids do you use to select various formats? Why are these aids helpful? Be as specific as possible, citing actual selection tools, suggested portions of the books, journals, audiovisual, and so on. If you think certain audiovisual formats are more appropriate that others specify the format and provide a rationale. Include aids such as general and specialized review sources, comprehensive current bibliographies, Internet sites and subject journals. Decide on a minimum of ten current selection aids that you consider important. Discuss why these are the "best" for your purposes, comparing them to a few other potentially useful aids. (approximately 5 pages)

Choosing materials for your library - Based on your perusal of selection aids, your examination of actual materials in your subject area, and your knowledge of the needs of your collection, select ten items you will add to the collection . All items should be current, 1999-2006, materials including current books, audiovisual materials, electronic products, microforms, pamphlets, government documents, technical reports, etc. You may also consider periodicals and/or other serials that are still being published, though they may have begun publication prior to 1999. Please select a variety of formats. You must include at least three print books, and you must include at least one or more free items available on the Internet for your library's World Wide Web site. You should also include at least one non-print, non-web item. Each item chosen must be selected from one or more of the selection aids that you chose as the most useful tools for your library in your subject area. Justify your ten selections by noting specific reasons why they are valuable additions to the collection, for example, user demand and/or need, critical reviews (include citations), and the importance of the author/filmmaker, collection levels, etc. Be sure to include a brief discussion of the major publishers relevant to your topic. List the most important publishers and explain why you believe they are important. (approximately 4 pages)

Information on your process for selecting retrospective materials - Defined as anything published or released before 1999. How will you select these print and audiovisual materials? What selection aids will you use? What characteristics of the collection and its use may influence how and what retrospective materials you choose? Decide on three selection aids that you consider most useful for selecting older materials in your library and subject area. At least one source must be for audiovisual materials only. Support your choices with specific reasons why these three aids are better than other aids that are available. From the three selection aids, choose five items you will add to the collection, giving reasons why these are the "best" items to add at this time. One item may be a monograph and the other must be some other format. (approximately 2 pages)

What did you learn from this assignment? Conclude with a brief statement concerning what you learned about the selection process by going through this exercise. Any special problems you encounter should be described here. (approximately 1 page)

For each selection tool and item chosen, be sure to include a complete citation using any format (APA, Turabian, etc.) you choose--just be consistent. Also, include a price for each item you selected and a source for that price.

Your collection development report should be typed or word-processed, double spaced (except for citations),and not more than 15 pages in length (not including your citations).

Two more things : 1) You are required to meet with me to discuss your work in progress during class on October 24. This is ungraded but required. If you will not be in class that day, please let me know in advance so that we can make other arrangements. I strongly encourage you to have a good working draft in order; and 2) One the last day of class you will also give a brief (no more than eight minutes long) class presentation of your project. Your presentation may consist of an overview of the entire project, -may focus on one or two aspects of the project, -may be in the form of an oral request for funds, -may take some other form. You have considerable flexibility in this presentation, which counts for 5 out of the 35 total points allocated to this assignment.

Value 35%

Due December 5

 

4. Class Participation :

Both class discussion/attitude presented in class as well as class attendance will be assessed.

Value 5%

 

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COURSE POLICIES

Academic Code of Integrity

Students are expected to abide by The University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity (one theme of which is that The guiding principle of academic integrity is that a student's submitted work must be the student's own.). If you have any questions regarding what is acceptable practice under this Code, please ask an Instructor.

Accommodating Disabilities

The University has a Disability Resource Center . If you anticipate the need for reasonable accommodations to meet the requirements of this course, you must register with the Disability Resource Center and request that the DRC send me, the Instructor, official notification of your accommodation needs as soon as possible. Please plan to meet with me by appointment or during office hours to discuss accommodations and how my course requirements and activities may impact your ability to fully participate.

Assignment Policies

Incompletes

The 1997-8 University of Arizona General Academic Manual, p.23 reads

The grade of I may be awarded only at the end of a semester, when all but a minor portion of the course work has been satisfactorily completed. The grade of I is not to be awarded when the student is expected to repeat the course; in such a case the grade of E must be assigned. Students should make arrangements with the instructor to receive an incompete grade before the end of the semester ...

If the incomplete is not removed by the instructor within one year the I grade will revert to a failing grade.

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GRADING

Grading

Grading Criteria :

A=90-100 The grade 'A' means excellence and reflects the fact that you not only understand the material but also that you have a demonstrated critical thinking skills and the ability to draw your own conclusions. A score of 90-92 indicates that your work is very good, but is perhaps lacking in one of the above-mentioned areas. .

B=80-89 This grade indicates that you have a good grasp of the material and show some thoughtfulness in approaching the assignments, but that your knowledge or ability is lacking something in both areas. This grade represents a decent standard of academic achievement, but indicates that you have not 'gone the extra mile' in terms of meeting the requirements of the assignments. A score of 80-82 indicates that your performance was felt to be slightly below average in terms of either the knowledge or understanding of the facts and of relevant information, and your ability to apply what you have learned to specific questions or problems, .

C=70-79 This grade indicates that performance was below average in both knowledge and understanding or interpretation of relevant information.

D=60-69 The D range of grade is reserved for those who do the assignments, but perhaps should not have bothered. A 'D' means your work was sufficiently related to the question so as to deserve a grade, but that you were for the most part unprepared.

F=59 and below An 'F' normally indicates that the work was not done at all, or if it was done, was not relevant to the subject assigned.

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CONTACTING ME

Office Hours: 6:00-6:30 Tuesdays (in classroom), other hours by appointment

E-mail/phone: twadham@email.arizona.edu /602-652-3045

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