School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

INLS 500, Human Information Interactions
Fall 2013

Syllabus

Schedule | Assignments | Additional readings | Sakai site for class

	Instructor: Kaitlin L. Costello	Email: kaitcost@email.unc.edu
	Office hours: By appointment	Phone: (919) 627-1741 (home) (Please call between 10 AM and 10 PM; text anytime).
	Class meetings: Monday and Wednesday, 3:30 - 4:45; 208 Manning Hall

Course Description

This course, INLS 500 - Human Information Interactions, is concerned with the behavioral and cognitive activities of people who interact with information. The role of information mediators - such as other people, books, or computers - is emphasized. The course provides an overview of the literature on information needs, seeking, and use of information; the role of context in information interactions; and how information professionals support information interactions.

Course Objectives

Be familiar with the empirical and theoretical literature related to information seeking, including the recognition of information needs, actions taken to resolve those needs, the roles of intermediaries (both human and machine), and the retrieval and use of information.
Understand key concepts related to the ways in which information is created, structured, disseminated, and used, with particular emphasis on scholarly information behaviors.
Be able to investigate the ways in which the context of an information interaction can affect the process and outcomes of that interaction.
Be able to investigate the impact of technology on human information interactions.
Critically apply theories and empirical findings to the definition and solution of problems related to human information interactions.

Resources

There is one excellent book available for purchase from the UNC Student Stores in the Daniels Building (two buildings south of Manning). It is not a required textbook, but it is a great general introduction to human information behaviors. This book will likely serve you well throughout your career, but again - it is not a required text.

Case, D. O. (2012). Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs and Behavior (3rd ed.). Emerald Group Publishing.

In this class, we will be reading many journal articles and book chapters. These are available through the UNC Library electronic journals, or, in some cases, through Sakai resources. Links to these readings are available on the Sakai site under the "Resources" tab.

Assignments and Evaluation

Unless otherwise specified, all assignments are due at noon through the Sakai Dropbox.

The assignments for this course aim to develop your understanding of human information interactions. Your final grade will be based on four graded homework assignments (including one team project) and class participation.

Evidence review memo (35%). Each student will identify, analyze, and synthesize the findings of a well-bounded body of literature related to a problem/question in information and library science practice. The findings and recommendations based on them will be presented in the form of a memo. The purpose of this assignment is to assist you in identifying human informaton interaction problems, and to develop your critical application of theories and empirical findings to those problems. To be completed September 16 - November 13, with several intermediate deliverables due during that period.
Diary and analysis of an information-seeking event (20%). In this assignment, you will keep a diary of a personal information-seeking event and analyze that event in terms of the concepts and ideas discussed in the course. The purpose of this assignment is to interact with and critically analyze a real-world information problem. To be completed September 25 - October 16.
In-depth examination of an example of scholarly communication (20%). Students will work in small groups (3-4 people) to select a set of articles/works from the "additional readings" page of the course website or elsewhere. Each team will analyze the structure and content of the papers selected, as well as the way they have been used by other scholars (i.e., through an analysis of citations from, to and among the papers). The purpose of this assignment is to understand how information is created, structured, disseminated, and used in scholarly communication. To be completed November 18 - December 14, with one intermediate deliverable due on November 25. All members of the team will received the same grade for the project.
Evidence summary (15%) Each student will select an article from the literature and write a summary of the evidence it presents, using the style published in Evidence-Based Library & Information Practice. The student will also share a brief summary of the article in class and on the online discussion forum. The purpose of this assignment is to build presentation skills and to engage critically with information science research. The due date will vary, based on the topic of the article selected. Topics will be selected/scheduled in class on August 26.
Class participation (10%). You are expected to be an active participant in this class by engaging with the course material, raising questions, and making positive contributions to classroom discussions. In order to fully engage with the course topics as a class, you are expected to complete all of the reading prior to each class meeting.

In addition, your written work should be of high quality. Please visit the Writing Center on campus (in the Phillips Annex, two buildings East of Peabody) if you have any concerns about your writing. They are an extremely valuable resource.

Honor Code

The Honor Code, which prohibits giving or receiving unauthorized aid in the completion of assignments, is in effect in this class. Please familiarize yourself with the UNC-CH Instrument of Student Governance. The Honor System Module created by the Office of Student Conduct might be helpful to complete.

In all of your assignments, you must attribute your sources and avoid excessive use of quotes. Be aware of the University of North Carolina policy on plagiarism. All cases of plagiarism (unattributed quotation or paraphrasing) of anyone else's work, whether from someone else's answers to homework or from published materials, will be reported and handled according to UNC policies (Instrument of Student Judicial Governance, Section II.B.1. and III.D.2, http://instrument.unc.edu/).

Additional policies

Assignments are due at the beginning of the class period on the specified due date. With the instructor's permission, late assignments will be accepted with a penalty.

Laptops are welcome in class, but should be used only for legitimate purposes related to this course.

Please set your ringer to "silent" and do not use your mobile phone in class.

You will be using SILS library and lab resources during the course of the semester. Please remember that many of your fellow students also need to use the same equipment and materials. Follow the proper checkout procedures and return materials promptly to be a good SILS citizen.

Email is the best way to communicate with me outside of class. Normally, you should expect a response within 24 hours. I am also happy to schedule a meeting with you; office hours are by appointment.