INLS843 Seminar in Public Libraries
We will spend most of our time discussing topics related to the subject. Our first few weeks will be spent thinking about why the public library exists, what its milieu is, and how the librarianship profession has related to it. Our goal will be to develop a nuanced understanding of the public library as an institution, a big picture appreciation of the concept, which will lead into a more fine-grained introduction to issues of concern to public libraries today.
There are four graded components in this seminar
20% Reflections:
Think about your readings and apply your own opinion to the ideas in the readings.
You will have readings for each session, starting with the second session. The readings will be made available online and you will find links to them in Sakai.
Read the linked file and write a more-or-less single-page, double-spaced reflection 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 reflection on a Sakai forum at any time before noon on the day before 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.
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Condition
Post the note on the Sakai forum by noon of the day prior to the session for which the reflection is relevant.
This is an informal forum posting, but you should aim for it to be the equivalent of a grammatical, coherent, more or less one to two page paper. Feel free to add images, links, and any other thing you feel you want to share to the posting.
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Standard
For these tasks, the following grading standard will be applied. You may infer from the grade you receive that I felt the product could be described in the terms in this table.
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| Points | HPLF grade/PF grade | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 95-100 | H/Pass | An excellent performance that showed real insight into the issue under consideration and a willingness to explore the concept beyond the bounds of the reading |
| 80-94 | P/Pass | A totally acceptable performance that reflected that one had read and thought about the topics in the weekly readings |
| 60-79 | L/Pass | A marginal performance that indicated that one had read the assigned readings, but not thought much about it |
| below 60 | F/Fail | Lack of a reflection |