There are four graded components in this seminar

Lead a seminar Reflections Conversations Final Product
After the initial context discussions conclude, we will step off into topics of your choice.

Task - Leading a seminar

Lead the seminar on a topic of your choosing

worth 35% of your seminar grade

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.

Some guidelines:

  • first come, first served, on topics and on dates
  • plan to spend the first half of your time leading a discussion on your topic
  • if you wish, you can spend the second half of your time in a discussion with someone you invite to speak with us

We will try to have a pattern of discussion among us followed by discussion with someone we invite to the seminar.

Condition

Post links to the readings for the seminar in Sakai at least three days prior to your scheduled session. For example, if you are scheduled to manage a seminar on a Wednesday, have the readings posted by noon on the previous Sunday.

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. Numerical grades will translate into the Pass/Fail grading scheme for the Registrar within Sakai.

Passing means:

Clear excellence in your preparations for the sessions (to include selection of readings) and your management of your seminar (to include a willingness to listen to others at the same time managing to make the points you wished to make). Additional credit for drawing others into the discussion.

It also means entirely satisfactory in your preparations for the sessions and your management of your seminar.

Though we do not expect it, a marginal performance reflecting inadequate preparations and poor handling of the seminar session would also mean a pass

If you try to do the task, you will not fail.
LEAD A SEMINAR Reflections Conversations Final Product

Task - Reflections

Think about your readings and apply your own opinion to the ideas in the readings.

worth 20% of your seminar grade

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.

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.

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 description.

Passing means:

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

A totally acceptable performance that reflected that one had read and thought about the topics in the weekly readings

Though we do not expect it, A marginal performance that indicated that one had read the assigned readings, but not thought much about it, would also mean a pass

Lack of a reflection will constitute a fail.
LEAD A SEMINAR REFLECTIONS Conversations Final Product

Task - Conversations

Engage in discussion about the weekly topic

worth 10% of your seminar grade

After having done the readings and written a reflection of what you have read, plan to discuss what others have written by participating in seminar discussions.

I know not everyone is chatty by nature, so you can fulfil this component by commenting on the postings made by your peers. There is no set format to what you write; it should just reflect your thoughts on the topic.

Condition

Be engaged, either in the seminar or in your Sakai forum comments.

These are also informal postings. Feel free to add images, links, and any other thing you feel you want to bring to the conversation.

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 description.

Passing means:

A strong performance that showed interest in the topic and a willingness to share that interest with the group by offering additional information or insights (or that your consideration posting had attracted similar commentary from other students)

A totally acceptable performance that reflected that one had thought about the topic (or that your consideration posting had attracted similar commentary from other students)

Though we do not expect it, a marginal performance that indicated that one didn't have much to say about the topic, would also mean a pass

Total lack of participation will constitute a fail.
LEAD A SEMINAR Reflections CONVERSATIONS Final Product

Task - Final produce

This is a fuller explanation about we will be doing for our final project, the annotated bibliography.
worth 35% of your seminar grade

You will create a document that will be a useful tool for future generations of students who want to know more about public library topics. Your work may be published as a SILS Technical Paper, a resource that we plan to continually update by having subsequent INLS843 classes add more to it. Each of you will have chosen a topic of special interest, a topic you will be leading a discussion on. This is the topic you will use to create your annotated bibliography. We would expect at least 15-20 bibliographic entries per topic. (You don't have to stop at 20, but do try to reach 20).

If two or more of you all are sharing a topic, try to stretch yourselves to include at least 15 entries apiece. They don't all have to be books or articles. You might well want to critically annotate some online resources. You might find the Internet Public Library's own annotated bibliographies a good jumping off point. The final project will be part of the process of SILS putting some useful tools and resources online.

Condition

To start, what are we talking about? Googling the term gives us a good range of clues.

Cornell University Library asks the question: WHAT IS AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY?

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.

I think Cornell's 150 word characterization of an annotation is a tad long, but I wouldn't think an annotation should exceed that length

An example of an annotated bibliography on information technology, for example, is Current Cites. If one uses Current Cites to create a bibliography on demand for the topic "libraries" (by typing the word "libraries" into the search box), one gets a pretty good dynamic product. However, for us, a topical arrangement (with an author name sort within the topic) would be a better model.

Other explanations and descriptions

Tools that might be useful

Plan to submit your annotated bibliography as an attachment to the assignment in Sakai). You may use any document generating program you wish, but be sure that the paper meets these specs:

  • one inch margins top and bottom, .75 inch margins left and right
  • font size no larger than 12 points
  • double spaced
  • place your name and the page number in the header or footer of each page

Standard

We will use the American Psychological Association (APA) format for this paper. APA is the citation format most commonly used in the social sciences. If you are not familiar with this format, you should locate a style guide. The following links may be helpful with this format

Again, UNC Libraries has a good tool to assist in the use of APA Style.

Due by

It is due at the same time you would have had to take a final exam for this class, were there a final exam. That means it is due on Friday, 29 April 2022 at 1100.

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 description.

Passing means:

Clear excellence of thoughtful and well-researched resources, combined with insightful, illustrative, and reflective commentary on the resources - an effort that will make the resultant annotated bibliography a strong research tool for subsequent users

Entirely satisfactory selection of resources and evaluation of them

Though we do not expect it, a marginal performance reflecting inadequate research and unimaginative evaluation of the selected resources, would also mean a pass

If you try to do the task, you will not see a fail.
LEAD A SEMINAR Reflections Conversations FINAL PRODUCT