Evaluation

The course grade will be based on class participation and two assignments:

35% Shared topics:

After the initial context discussions conclude, we will step off into topics of your choice. Each of you will select preparatory readings and make them available online. You will plan to start the session with a presentation (it can be as structured, or as unstructured, as you prefer), followed by a guided discussion.

20% Considerations:

You will have readings for each session, starting with the third session. The readings will be made available online and you will find links to them on the seminar blog.

Read the linked file and write a more-or-less single-page, double-spaced consideration of what you have read. There is no set format to what you write; it should just reflect your thoughts on the topic.

Post your consideration on the class blog at any time before noon on the day of the following session (so the presenter may have the opportunity to read them prior to the session). Then plan to engage in a free-ranging discussion of the topic during the session.

10% Conversations:

After having done the readings and written a consideration of what you have read, plan to discuss what others have written by participating in seminar discussion or by commenting on the considerations postings made by your peers. There is no set format to what you write; it should just reflect your thoughts on the topic.

35% Final project:

Your major product for this seminar will be a fuller exploration of your special interest topic. We will, as a group, develop an annotated bibliography of significant sources of information on public libraries. Our model will be American Library History: A Bibliography by Michael H. Harris and Donald G. Davis, Jr. (which includes a foreword by Edward G. Holley), published in 1978 by the University of Texas Press. Each of you will contribute a section to the bibliography, expanding on your special interest topic. We will seek to have the bibliography published as a SILS Technical Report and use it to update it inputs from previous public library seminars.

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