Course Information Sheet
Students are responsible for knowing the contents of this syllabus and completing all assignments in accordance with the schedule herein. If it is in here, you are expected to know it.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
The student should acquire an understanding of the relationships among knowledge, users, information centers and libraries, and how those relationships determine the nature of information resources both electronic and conventional.
The student should gain an understanding of the various components involved in the production, collection, and dissemination of information media.
The student should gain an understanding of the evaluation processes used at various points in the development of information resources.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The student is expected to be familiar with the basics of acquiring information via various computer communications systems. There is a heavy emphasis on electronic information via Gopher and WWW. There are no specific platform or software requirements: just be able to get there.
Informed participation in class.
Papers: Three papers are required (guidelines attached). One paper will deal with an area of knowledge, another with a group of users, the third will be an evaluation of an information resource system, or portion thereof.
There will be a final examination. It will be comprehensive.
GRADING
The papers, taken together, count 60%. The final counts for 35%. Participation counts for 5%.
Letter grades are awarded on the following basis:
>92: A
83-92: B
73-82: C
<73: E
Grades are calculated using a spreadsheet program. There is no rounding up for computing final grades.
Work completed in a competent and timely fashion receives a grade of B. The grade of A is reserved for truly outstanding work.
COMMUNICATIONS
I will check my email several times a day. You can leave a message for me in my mailbox. If the announced office hours are inconvenient, please see me for an appointment.
A listserv is setup for the class. The name is LIS560. All students are required to subscribe to the listserv, and are encouraged to use it. All grades, changes in the schedule, and any other important information will be distributed via the listserv.
Ranganathan's Laws
Books are for use
Every reader his book
Every book its reader
Save the time of the reader
Library is a growing organism
S.R. Ranganathan was writing about libraries, but it seems to me that everything said here, given a few pronoun and noun changes, can be applied to the development of resources in any situation. After close to 30 years in the information business I'm not sure that it doesn't all come down to these five sayings in the end.
Text and Assigned Readings
The text for this course is:
G. Edward Evans, Developing Library and Information Center Collections. Libraries Unlimited, 1987.
This is the standard text on the topic and there is much useful information contained herein. It is not necessarily the overall approach we wish to take to the topic, however, so there will be considerable supplemental reading as listed below.
Tentative Schedule of Events and Readings
The only thing tentative about this is lectures. If we get on a roll, or questions get interesting in a particular area, we may take more time than scheduled. Regardless of where we are in the lecture sequence, students must keep up with the readings. We reserve the right to employ pop quizzes should it appear that reading is not being completed.
R 8/24: Introduction: The class, expectations, collection development, etc.
READING: Text, chapter 1.
Robert Broadus "The History of Collection Development" in: Charles B. Osburn and Ross Atkinson, eds. Collection Management : A new Treatise, JAI Press, 1991, 3-23.
T 8/29: Information Resource Development: A Structural Approach
R 8/31: Organization of Knowledge, I
T 9/5: Organization of Knowledge, II
READING: Perdue, R.R. "External Information Search in Marine Recreational Fishing" Leisure Sciences 15/3 (Jul-Sep., 1993) 169-187.
Hirshleifer, D. et al. "Security Analysis and Trading Patterns When Some Investors Receive Information Before Others" Journal of Finance 49/5 (Dec., 1994) 1665-1698.
R 9/7: : Q&A: Organization of Knowledge
T 9/12 The Information Industry: Traditional Formats.
R 9/14: The Information Industry: Specialized and Non-Standard Formats
READINGS: Text, chapter 6-7, 8-9,11
T 9/19: Electronic Sources: Primary Data
READING: Nathaniel Lande "Toward the Electronic Book" Publishers Weekly September 20, 1991, p. 28-30.
SA for three general approaches to the government:
http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/government/
http://lcweb.loc.gov/
http://www.fedworld.gov
Fedworld is still in beta, so may be slow, or may change by the time you read this.
R 9/21: Electronic Sources: Access Tools: Gopherland, the Web, and other non-physical tools.
See ftp.loc.gov, or scilibx.ucsc.edu for two excellent gopher based systems.
See http://www.w3.org, or http://home/mcom.com/home/welcome.html for two broadly based web servers.
R 9/28: Community Analysis
READING: Text, chapter 2
SA the Census Bureau Web server, or the data bank at the University of Missouri.
T 10/3: Community Analysis II
READING: Stewart, T.R. "Components of Judgmental Forecasting Skill: Implications for Research and the Improvement of Forecasts" Journal of Forecasting, 13/7 (Dec., 1994), 579-599.
R 10/5: Information Use and Users I
READINGS: Pellow, A., Wilson, T.D. "The Management Information Requirements of Heads of University Departments- A Critical Success Factors Approach" Journal of Information Science 19/6 (1993) 425-437.
Wozniak, G.D. "Joint Information Acquisition and New Technology Adoption: Late versus Early Adoption" Review of Economics and Statistics 75/3 (Aug., 1993) 438-445.
T 10/10: Information Use and Users: Panel discussion, members, location, time, and everything else TBA.
R 10/12: Discussion Session: Knowledge Papers
T 10/17: Organizational Patterns for Information Resource Development
Collection Development Policies
READINGS: Text, chapter 3-5
Mary J. Bostic "A Written Collection Development Policy to Have and Have Not" Collection Management 10:89-103, 1988.
Anthony W. Ferguson, et al. "The RLG Conspectus: Its Uses and Benefits" College and Research Libraries 49:197-206, May 1988.
R 10/19: Discussion Session: Use and Users Papers
T 10/24: Collection Implementation: Technical Services
R 10/26: READINGS: Text, chapters 10, 13, 14
Margo Sasse and Patricia Smith "Automated Acquisitions..." Library Acquisitions: Practice & Theory 16:135-143, 1992.
Robert F. Nardini "Approval Plans: Politics and Performance" College & Research Libraries 54:417-425, September, 1993.
John Rutledge and Luke Swindler "The selection decision: defining criteria and establishing priorities" College & Research Libraries, 48:123-131, 1987
T 10/31: Funding Issues in General.
READING: Text, chapter 12
R 11/2: Serials Pricing.
T 11/7: Electronic Materials: How do we do it, and who pays?
R 11/9: Resource Evaluation I
READING: Text, chapter 15
T 11/14: Resource Evaluation II
READING: Umanath, N.S. "Effect of IS Variables on Information Acquisition Modes: An Experimental Investigation" Information and Management 27/5 (Nov. 1994) 287-301.
R 11/16: Resource Evaluation III
READING: Charles A. Seavey "Ranking and Evaluating the ARL Library Map Collections" College and Research Libraries, vol. 53, no. 1. January-February, 1992, 31-43.
T 11/21: Resource Evaluation IV.
READING: Blue, R.I. "Questions for Selection of Information-Retrieval Systems" Online Review 3/1 (1979) 77-84
R 11/23: Thanksgiving Day. No class. You must decide on your own what this holiday is all about.
T 11/28: Barriers to Intellectual Diversity: Challenging the Hegemony, and/or (?) Censorship
R 11/30: READING Text, chapter 19:
Mary Huntwork "Why Girls Flock to Sweet Valley High" School Library Journal 36:137-140, March, 1990.
Richard Heinzkill "The literary canon and collection building" Collection Management 13(1/2):51-64, 1990
Lester Asheim "Selection and Censorship: A Reappraisal" Wilson Library Bulletin 58:180-184, November, 1983.
T 12/5: Discussion Session: Evaluation Papers.
R 12/7: Summation and Open Session
In this class we will try and summarize where we see in the future information resource development activities. We will also try to answer any questions anybody may have about any part of the course. If possible submit questions in writing a week beforehand, otherwise we might decide to go off on a tangent. Think about it.
Ross Atkinson "Old forms, new forms: the challenge of collection development" College & Research. Libraries 50:507-520, 1989
Guidelines for the Papers
Knowledge: Clearly libraries and information centers deal with various segments of the total universe of all possible knowledge. No library can possibly hold all the recorded records of all knowledge. The problem is to decided which portion of knowledge, and in which formats, to acquire.
Select a portion of knowledge. You may define this in pretty much whatever fashion you choose, as there are nearly as many theoretical divisions of knowledge as there are people thinking about it.
Investigate the current practices in information transfer in the area you have selected. How is information gathered, organized, synthesized, disseminated, and used in your area? By this we mean how do the people in your area (NOT librarians) think about how their field is organized? How does this affect what your library or information center will be collecting and organizing?
Users: Equally clearly, each library or information center serves a unique, or nearly so, population group. Individuals may be grouped according to any number of criteria: age, gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexual preference, level of education, employment, or any of a myriad of "official" categories, and that doesn't begin to get at the way people define themselves.
Select a library or information center and define that organization's service area. If it is a public library they should have an official service area. If it is a school or academic library the service area should be fairly obvious, although with academic libraries you have to think about special format users. Select a user group. Define that group according to the criteria you decide upon, or whatever official (Census Bureau, or state or local agency definitions) category you are going to use. How does your user group fit into the overall user population for your library? What characteristics of your user group affect the library collection development policy? Does your user group complicate or simplify acquisitions procedures? How do you work with the group to make sure their information needs are being met?
Resource Evaluation: There are many ways to evaluate information resources. Select a library or information center (probably the same one you used in the user paper) and evaluate in an appropriate fashion, the collection, or part of the collection that you select and define. What deficiencies do you see? What strengths? What recommendations do you make? Remember, context is everything.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
1. Late papers will be graded down. No exceptions.
2. I expect papers to be written in clear, concise, and grammatically correct English. Papers not meeting these standards will be redone until they do so, losing points along the way. Suggestions on how to write for this course are attached.
3A. Unless your word processor/computer combination supports true proportional spacing, kindly do not use full justification. I prefer a ragged right margin to funny spacing in the lines.
3B. Unless your word processor/computer combination supports true proportional spacing, kindly do not use full justification. I prefer a ragged right margin to funny spacing in the lines.
3A is correct according to the directions. 3B is incorrect. Kindly take this seriously.
4. THE FOLLOWING POLICY APPLIES TO WORK DONE FOR THIS CLASS:
Students assume full responsibility for the contend and integrity of the academic work they submit. The guiding principle of academic integrity shall be that a student's submitted work, examinations, reports or projects must be that student's own work. Actions constituting a violation of the Code shall include those outlined below. Students shall be guilty of violating the Code and be subject to proceedings if they:
a. Represent the work of others as their own.
b. Use or obtain unauthorized assistance in any academic work.
c. Give unauthorized assistance to other students.
d. Modify, without faculty approval, an examination, paper, record, or report for the purpose of obtaining additional credit.
e. Fail to meet other conditions of academic integrity as required by a faculty member for a specific course.
This is excerpted from the University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity, as printed in the University Handbook for Appointed Personnel. There are also excerpts from the Code in the SLS student organization handbook.
If you are not sure what any of this means, find out. I interpret this very strictly. Unless specific permission is granted for group, or team projects, I expect that your work will reflect only you own efforts.
Kindly observe the rules for citing material in your written work. If you do not know what they are, find out. Improper citation is a major roadblock on the information highway. Use of someone else's material without proper citation is intellectually dishonest. See the Code of Academic Integrity. Generally, I don't care what style manual you use, although I prefer those that use the author's(s) full name rather than just initials.
HOW TO WRITE FOR THIS COURSE
"Say a thing in one sentence as straight as it can be made, and then drop it."
William James
I expect that papers for a graduate level course will be written as if for publication. Not only must the basic facts of the subject be mastered, and all the relevant sources explored, but the text must be written clearly:
1. Who, what, where, when, and exactly how much must always be obvious.
Know what you wish to say, and say only that; define new terms or new uses of old ones.
2. Avoid ambiguity.
"You can't put too much water in a nuclear reactor."
3. Link sentences and paragraphs logically and intelligibly.
The reader shouldn't have to rearrange your ideas to make sense out of them.
4. Sentences should not be so long that the reader loses his or her way.
Otherwise you are likely to lose the readers attention, as so often happened with the prose of 19th century essayists such as Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was not only a doctor, professor, and novelist, but also the father of the famous Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (an intriguing character who combined the ideals of New England humanism with the prejudices the upperclass, wealthy society in which he moved)...and before you know it you will have wandered very far afield.
For practice, read lots of Jesse Shera. Or Winston Churchill.
5. Avoid irrelevant or tangential topics. Stick to the point.
(see number 4)
6. No obstacle should come between you and your reader.
When revising, imagine the reader over your shoulder and apply
the rules listed above before typing your final draft.
Resources for Collection Development
A Listserv You Might Find Interesting....
And we pretty much expect you to be signed on within two weeks.
Colldv-L@USCVM
Subscription is by the usual methods. Remember to run CLEANMAIL once a week at the $ prompt.
Periodicals dealing with the publishing industry:
Book Research Quarterly(new title: Publishing Research Quarterly)
Scholarly Publishing
Publishers Weekly
Small Press
Publishers Weekly is probably the most widely available of the group. Just as an exercise those of you who have access to it should try reading each issue for the semester. I read it regularly for a year, and picked up an amazing amount of info about the publishing industry.
Other sources containing information about publishers:
North America
Literary Marketplace
Publishers Directory
International Directory of Little Magazines and Small Presses
Publishers, Distributors, and Wholesalers of the United States
International
Publishers International ISBN Directory
International Literary Market Place
Microform Market Place Annual
Book Sellers
American Book Trade Directory
International Book Trade Directory
AB Bookman's Weekly (for the OP book trade)
What's Available (maybe)
Forthcoming Books
Publishers' Trade List Annual
Books in Print
Subject Guide to Books in Print
Paperbound Books in Print
Books Out of Print
Whitaker's Books in Print (UK)
International Books in Print (English language only, does not include Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand)
Cumulative Book Index
Small Press Record of Books in Print
National Union Catalog
OCLC or bibliographic vendor of your choice:: i.e.: WLN, RLIN, etc.
Various national bibliographies
Special Stuff
Children's Books in Print
The Complete Directory of Large Print Books and Serials
Books in Series
Medical and Health Care Books and Serials in Print
Publications Reference File (U.S. Govt. docs)
El-High Textbooks and Serials in Print
Scientific and Technical Books and Serials in Print
Words on Cassette
Bowker's Complete Video Directory
The Software Encyclopedia
Guide to Microforms in Print
National Register of Microform Masters
Vertical File Index
Libros en Venta en Hispanoamerica y Espana
Book Reviews, some sources
New York Review of Books
New York Times Book Review
The Times Literary Supplement
These three are probably the most used general review forums. Beyond that, most general newsmagazines (Time, the Economist) do some reviewing, as do the monthly journals (Atlantic, Harper's). Virtually all the discipline based journals (Journal of Western History, the Czechoslovak Journal of Science) have book review sections.
Library Specific Review Sources
Booklist
Choice
Kirkus
Library Journal
Publishers Weekly
School Library Journal
These are the main review forums covering all types of literature for libraries in general, or specific types (Choice, SLJ). All the specialty library journals (Meridian, Government Publications Review, College & Research Libraries) carry reviews of material specific to media or type of library.
Specialized Review Sources
Small Press
Small Press Book Review
New Pages
Children's and YA Reviews
Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books
Interracial Books for Children
Horn Book
VOYA
Appraisal: Children's Science Books
Christian Material
Bookstore Journal (kind of the Publishers Weekly of the Christian bookstore world)
Christian Retailing (covers more than just books, but is apparently an important source)
Contemporary Christian Music (a sort of Rolling Stone, but from more of a marketing point of view)
Gay and Lesbian Material
(I tend to use the word gay to include both genders. Some folk make a point of the distinction, but the term is generally acceptable to both men and women.)
Words to the Wise: A Writers Guide to Feminist and Lesbian Periodicals and Publishers
Putting Out: A Publishers Resource Guide for Lesbian and Gay Writers.
Feminist Books Store News (which includes a gay men's section, covers feminist and gay material issued from mainstream publishers as well as the gay press).
Book People
Inland (Book People and Inland both cover small presses and regularly have Lesbian-Gay checklists)
The Lambda Book Report (which is a review journal primarily aimed at the book trade but is available as a general sales item. Kind of a New York Review of Books)
The Advocate
Out
(The Advocate and Out are widely read journals of opinion in the gay community. The Advocate started as pretty much a gay male oriented journal, but is now trying to cover both genders. Both journals have review sections.)
Indexes to Book Reviews
Book Review Digest
Book Review Index
Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature
Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities
Technical Book Review Index
Children's Literature Review
Children's Book Review Index
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals
Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals
Index to Book Reviews in Religion
Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Social Science Citation Index
Science Citation Index
Alternative Press Index
Infotrac
Popular Periodicals Index
And any number of indexes to specialty journals, etc.
Periodicals Dealing with CD
Collection Management
Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory
Collection Building
These cover the waterfront in CD. Type of library journals, such as College & Research Libraries, or Public Libraries will deal with their areas, as will the format journals, such as Meridian, or Microforms Review.
Bibliographies of Periodicals
Union List of Serials in the Libraries of the United States and Canada
New Serial Titles
Ulrich's International Periodical Directory
Gale Directory of Publications
Standard Periodicals Directory
International Directory of Little Magazines
Newsletters in Print
Reviews of Periodicals
Magazines for Libraries, by Bill and Linda Katz. Also Magazines for Young People by the same folks.
Serials Review
and see the ever popular "Periodicals for College Libraries" in Choice
Lists of "Best" Books
H.W. Wilson Co.'s Standard Catalog series-- issued every 4 or 5 years, with annual supplements:
Public Library Catalog
Fiction Catalog
Children's Catalog
Junior High School Library Catalog
Senior High School Library Catalog
Reader's Advisor
Notable Books of 19__
National Book Awards
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Books
Nobel Prize-Winners for Literature
Newbery and Caldecott awards
"Best Books of the Year" in the December Library Journal
"Best Sci-Tech Books"; "Best Business Books" LJ, March 1
Elementary School Library Catalog
Hugo Awards
Nebula Awards
etc.
The Out of Print (OP) Market
The AB Bookman's Weekly
American Book Prices Current
AB Bookman's Yearbook
Bookman's Price Index