INLS 501: Information Resources and Services

Fall 2007

Class: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00 – 3:15

208 Manning Hall

Lab: Thursday 3:30 – 4:45

117 Manning Hall

Instructor: Jeffrey Pomerantz (my personal homepage)

Office: 306 Manning Hall

Phone: 919-962-8064

Fax: 919-962-8071

Email: pomerantz@unc.edu

Office Hours: Tuesday & Thursday, 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm

Syllabus

Course Description

This course will address sources, services, and systems for providing reference and information service in libraries and information centers. We will examine a variety of formats of reference sources, including print, CD-ROM, and online. You will gain experience with using and providing reference in a variety of media. The course is divided roughly into the following areas: overview of the reference function and the role of libraries; the history and future of reference service; major categories of information tools; structure, access, and evaluation of information tools; reference collection development; question negotiation; search strategy; and evaluation of reference services. The lab segment of the course will be devoted to online database searching.

INLS 501 is an introduction to information retrieval strategies and "ready-reference" type materials. If you are interested in reference work in specific environments, SILS offers a variety of courses: INLS 703, 704, & 705, among others.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students will:

1. Be able to identify appropriate information sources and search tools for various types of information needs, and

   1. Be able to use these sources and tools effectively,

   2. Be familiar with the functions and organization of several major genres of reference sources,

   3. Evaluate information sources and search tools for quality,

   4. Evaluate information sources and search tools for relevance to their own information needs,

2. Understand the steps of the reference transaction, including question negotiation and search strategy development,

3. Be able to create documents for indirect reference.

Textbook and Readings

There is one required text for this course:

Bopp, Richard E. and Linda C. Smith. (2001). Reference and Information Services: An Introduction, 3rd ed. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Available in bookstore and on reserve in the SILS library. [Z711 .R443 2001].

Additional texts on reserve (not to be purchased, unless you want to) are:

Katz, William A. (2002). Introduction to Reference Work, Volume I: Basic Information Sources. 8th Ed. New York: McGraw‑Hill. [Z711 .K32 1997 v.1].

Katz, William A. (2002). Introduction to Reference Work, Volume II: Reference Services and Reference Processes. 8th Ed. New York: McGraw‑Hill. [Z711 .K32 1997 v.2].

Additional readings assigned on the class schedule will be available on the Web or on print or electronic reserve via the Library's e-reserves.

Additionally, there will be several labs in which we will use the Dialog Graduate Education Program Lab Workbook.

Journals you should browse regularly (in the SILS Library):

• Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSA's journal, formerly titled RQ (Reference Quarterly))

• Reference Services Review

• College and Research Libraries

• The Reference Librarian (The SILS Library binds each issue of this serial separately and places a full set in the monographic collection at the call number: Z711 .R43)

You should also browse Advances in Librarianship [Ref. Z674 .A4] and The Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) [Ref. Z699.A1A65] for state-of-the-art reviews on a wide variety of topics. The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science [Ref. Z1006.E57] has many relevant entries for this class that will provide introductory and background material.

CD-ROM databases have been almost completely replaced by online databases. The Reference area in Davis Library, however, has a sizable collection of CD-ROMs in their Electronic Reference section in the following areas:

• Business/Economics/Demographics

• History

• Interactive Hyperfiction

• Literature

• Newspaper & Magazine

• Reference Tools

• Religion/Philosophy

• Social Sciences

• Textual Analysis & Electronic Texts

We will examine some library-related products in some detail this semester, but you should explore the tools available in Davis, examining them from both professional and user perspectives, even if we don't cover them in class.

To browse the library's holdings of online databases, on the UNC Library's website, follow the E-Research Tools link. The list of available databases changes frequently (mostly being added to, but sometimes, sadly, removed from). To browse the library's holdings of electronic journals, follow the E-Journal Finder link.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used extensively in this course. All course materials will be made available through Blackboard.

A drop box will be created for most of the assignments for this course, except for the assignments that you either present in class or must post to the discussion boards.

Discussion board fora will be created for many of the topics we will be covering this semester. Participation in these discussions is a component of attendance: the rationale here is that attendance is not merely your body occupying a chair during class sessions, but your mind being engaged in the course material, both within and without the classroom. Please note, however, that on the discussion board fora quality counts for more than quantity. I do not want you to post messages that say, in effect, "yeah, what she said." Rather, I am looking for substantive postings that move the discussion forward, or redirect the discussion along new paths. Be creative, be constructive, be thought-provoking. Also be concise. And polite.

Library and Lab Resources

You will be using resources in the SILS library and lab, and the Davis library during the course of the semester. Please remember that many of your fellow students also need to use the same material. Please follow the proper checkout and re-shelving procedures and return materials promptly.

Honor Code

The Honor Code, which prohibits giving or receiving unauthorized aid in the completion of assignments, is in effect in this class. It should be noted, however, that students are expected to provide and receive some assistance to and from their classmates, and will work in groups on some projects. Students should NOT receive (or provide) major creative assistance or continuous minor support.

The Honor Code can be read in full at: http://instrument.unc.edu/

Grading

Assignments and Percentage of final grade:

Evaluation criteria for each assignment can be found in the assignment descriptions, in the Assignments section of the Blackboard site.

Grading Rubric:

The purpose of grades is to identify degrees of mastery of subject matter. As you know, SILS does not use standard letter grades (A-F) in evaluating Masters students, but instead uses H, P, & F. However, the UNC-CH faculty has adopted descriptions of the meanings of standard letter grades. In order to be consistent with this official grading policy, I compute H, P, & F relative to the standard A-F grade scale. Semester grades will be computed as follows:

H = A = 97-100%

H− = A− = 90-96%

P+ = B+ = 87-89%

P = B/B− = 80-86%

P− = C/D = 60-79%

F = anything below 59%

Note: The Lab section of 501 is Pass/Fail.

Policies on submitting assignments & late assignments:

• Assignments must be submitted by the beginning of the class session in which they are due.

• Assignments must be submitted via the assignment drop boxes in Blackboard. Note: the Assignment drop boxes in Blackboard are set up to close at the beginning of the class session in which the assignment is due, thus preventing late submissions. Be warned.

• Do not come to me with questions about assignments within 24 hours of the due date. You should start working on assignments well in advance, and think through the issues and questions that may come up for you in working on an assignment well in advance. I have little tolerance for cramming and rushed work. Besides, what if I was out of town during that last 24 hours before a due date, & couldn't get back to you right away?

• Any assignment submitted late will be scaled down so that the highest grade that a student can receive on the late assignment is the lowest grade that any student got who submitted the assignment in on time.

• No assignment submitted more than one week after the due date will be accepted, period.

• Assignments must be word-processed. Use the spell check and grammar check features of your word processor. Errors in spelling and grammar are cause for your assignment to be graded down. Let's face it, there's really no excuse for spelling and grammar errors when spell check and grammar check functionality is built into word processor software.

• These penalties will not apply to students who know in advance that they will be submitting an assignment late, and let me know in advance. "In advance" means up until 24 hours before the class session in which the assignment is due.

And one more:

• Please do not create any filename that includes any of the shifted characters above the numbers (!, @, #, etc.). Blackboard won't open any file that has these characters in the filename. If I can't open your file, I can't grade it.

Policies on participation in the course:

• You must attend every class and arrive at each class promptly. While I do not take attendance, I pay attention to attendance. You cannot participate in class if you're not in class.

• You must participate in class discussions, including discussions on the Blackboard discussion boards.

• Reading assignments must be done before class so that you can ask questions and participate in discussions in class.

• If there is something you don't understand, ask a question! If you don't want to ask during class, post it to the Blackboard discussion boards, talk to me before or after class, come to my office hours, or contact me by email. Participation counts for a percentage of your final grade, but there are many ways to participate.

• If you know in advance that you must miss a class, let me know in advance. "In advance" means up until 24 hours before the class session.

• If you miss a class session unexpectedly, get in contact with me ASAP.