University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

School of Information and Library Science

 

INLS 180: Human Information Interaction

Fall 2002

Syllabus

 

Time and Place                                                     Instructor: Gary Marchionini            

9 :30-10 :45 Mon & Weds.                  Email: march@ils.unc.edu                  

Room 307 Manning Hall                                     Office 203 Manning Hall

Phone (919) 966-3611

 

Brief Course Description

This course is concerned with the behavioral, cognitive and affective activities of people as they interact with information, with emphasis on the roles of the information professionals who may mediate that interaction. It will provide an overview of the literature on peoples' recognition of their information needs, the actions they may take in resolving those needs, the roles of information professionals in supporting those actions, the use of information, the further dissemination of information, and the context of information interaction.

 

Course Materials

No textbook is required.  Readings are on reserve in the SILS Library or online.

 

Assignments and Evaluation

Activities include a set of readings, an online discussion, and a set of media analyses culminating in a mid-term project.  The media assignments will be graded and in combination worth 30% of the final grade.  A final term project will determine 40% of the grade.  The term project will be an original design of an information product or service (infoware), or a critical assessment of a product, service, or idea.  All projects must be approved by the instructor.  Small group (two or three collaborators) projects are encouraged.  A brief summary of the project will be presented in the final week of class.  In addition, every student will be expected to make postings to the class electronic list and lead a discussion on one or more of the readings.  The remaining 30% of the grade will be based on class participation, reading discussion leadership, and special activities which contribute to the learning experience of other students (e.g., forums, MOOs, out-of-class meetings, etc).

Midterm Project

Term Project

Reading List

 

Scholarly Policies and Honor Code

The UNC Honor Code prohibits giving or receiving unauthorized aid in the completion of assignments.  Students are strongly encouraged to cooperate and assist one another and share insights and respective expertise in this course.  I expect that you will acknowledge the support you receive from your colleagues (this may be done in acknowledgements at the end of assignments or projects).  It is crucial, however, that  in every case where you use the actual written words of others, that these be properly quoted and cited.  When you build arguments upon the ideas of others, the originators of those ideas should also be cited.  You should adopt a style guide (e.g., American Psychological Association, Council of Biology Editors, Modern Language Association, Chicago, Turabian, etc.) and use it for your written work.  Any style guide is acceptable, as long as you use one and follow it consistently.   As you use the 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 material.  Be considerate of others and follow the proper checkout procedures, return materials promptly, and share workstation time if necessary.  Please also conserve resources by consciously managing your printing in the labs.

 


 

Tentative Schedule

 

Note: General pattern is lecture/discussion on Mondays with readings discussed on Wednesdays.

 

Wed.  Aug. 21 : Course Introduction and Overview

Overview of course

Assignments and labs

Introduce 1-min paper

 

Assignments:

Subscribe to list, send favorite definitions (communication, information, interaction)

Term Projects

                Media structures (Mid-term project)

                Final Project

Read for Monday

Pierce, J. (1972) Communication.  Scientific American, 227(3), 31-41

 

Read for next Wed:

Schramm, W. (1973). Channels and audiences.  In Ithiel Pool, Wilbur Schramm, Nathan Maccoby & Edwin Parker, (Eds.), Handbook of communication.  Chicago: Rand McNally.  116-129 only  (optional to read 130-140).

Tannen, D. (1995). The power of talk: Who gets heard and why.

Arkin, E. (1999). Cancer risk communication—What we know (online in UNC ejournals)

Maibach, E. (1999). Cancer risk communication—What we need to learn (online in UNC ejournals)

Optional:  Weaver, W. (1949). Recent contributions to the mathematical theory of communication.  In, The mathematical theory of communication.  Urbana, IL: U. of Illinois Press. [Read Chapter 1]

 

Day 1 Notes

Mon. Aug 26:

Discuss Pierce

Communication perspectives

            Interpersonal communication and tools

                Mass communication and media

                Scholarly communication and information flow

                Design as communication

 

Read for next week:

Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations. pp 1-37. (Note: this item is on reserve in the SILS library.)

Pool, I. D. S. (1973). Communication systems. pp 3-36.

Optional: Solomon, 1977  Conversation in information-seeking contexts: A test of an analytical framework (LISR, 19(3), 217-248

 

Day 2 Notes

Wed. Aug. 28:

Examples: Mass, interpersonal, and scholarly communication

Discuss

Schramm, W. (1973). [Wilbur]

Tannen, D. (1995). [White]

Arkin, E. (1999). [Ward]

Maibach, E. (1999). [Spiller]

 

Day 3 Notes

Mon.  Sept. 2: Labor Day (no class)

 

Wed. Sept . 4. 

Discuss

                Rogers [Speck]

                Pool [Roberts]

 

 

Day 4 Notes

Mon. Sept. 9.  Module 1: Fundamentals of Interaction

Interaction, Communication, and Information definitions and perspectives

Information seeking as problem solving

 

ISEE demo

 

Read for next week:

Belkin, N. J. (1980). Anomalous states of knowledge as a basis for information retrieval.

Chatman, Elfreda. (1996). The impoverished life-world of outsiders.  (JASIST online)

Taylor, R. S. (1968). Question-negotiation and information seeking in libraries.

 

Wed. Sept. 11. 

Project Ideas

 

Day 6 Notes

Mon. Sept. 16. Module 2: Interaction Contexts and Information Flow

No class (ECDL)

 

Read for next week:

Dervin, B., & Nilan, M. (1986). Information needs and uses.

 

Wed. Sept. 18

Discuss readings:  (Virtual)

                Belkin [Reuning S.]

                Chatman [Reuning J.]

                Taylor [Pope]

 

Mon. Sept. 23  Module 3: Analysis of Information needs

ECDL debriefing

Examples from Library of Congress, Bureau of Labor Statistics

 

Read for next week:

Marchionini, G. (1995). Information Seeking in Electronic Environments. pp 27-60. (Note: this item is not in the reading packet, and may instead be found on reserve in the SILS library. The book is located behind the reference desk.)

Smith, Linda (1981). Citation analysis.   Library Trends, Summer 1981, 30(1), 83-106.

Shaw, Debora (2001). Playing the links: Interactivity and stickiness in .Com and “not.ccom” web sites.  First Monday, 6(3), March 2001.  http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_3/shaw/index.html

 

 

Day 9 Notes

Wed. Sept. 25.

Discuss readings:

                Dervin & Nilan [Phillips]

 

Day 10 Notes

Mon. Sept. 30. Module 4: Information Seeking

Discuss readings:

                Marchionini

 

Read for next week:

Harter, S. P. (1992). Psychological relevance and information science.  (JASIST online)

Schamber, L., Eisenberg, M. B., & Nilan, M. S. (1990). A re-examination of relevance: Toward a dynamic, situational definition.

Amento, B., Terveen, L., & Hill, W. (2000). Does ‘authority’ mean quality? Predicting expert quality ratings of web documents.  Proceedings of ACM SIGIR (Athens, July 24-28).  296-303. ( ACM Digital Library).

 

Day 11 Notes

Wed. Oct. 2. Module 5: Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics

Discuss readings:

                Smith [Petersen]

                Shaw [Ovitt]

 

Day 12 Notes

Mon. Oct. 7. Module 5: Assessing Information Value

Project commitments

 

Read for next week:

Reeves, B. & Nass, C. (1996). The media equation: How people treat computers, television, and the new media like real people and places.  NY: Cambridge University Press. (Preface ix-xiii, Chapter 1 p 3-15, and Chapter 23 p251-256.)

Optional: Barreau (LISR)

 

Day 13 Notes

Wed. Oct. 9

Discuss readings

                Harter [Leach]

                Schamber et al. [Lazorchak]

                Amento et al. [[Kemp]

 

Day 14 Notes

Mon. Oct. 14.  Module 6: Information Use

 

Read for next week:

Travis interviews with Bliss, Curtis, Gordon, Ritchey, & Rosenfeld (ASIST Bulletin, Aug/Sept, 2000 online)

Denn & Maglaughlin (ASIST Bulletin, June/July 2000 online)

 

Day 15 Notes

Wed. Oct 16.

Discuss readings

Reeves & Nass [Jenks-Brown]

 

Day 16 Notes

Mon. Oct. 21 Module 7: Information Design

Rosenfeld and Morrville (new edition)

Report on ‘Understanding Video” Symposium

 

Read for next week:

Tibbo, H. (1995). Interviewing techniques for remote reference: Electronic versus traditional environments.

Roloff, M. E. (1981). Interpersonal Communication: The Social Exchange Approach. Chapter 1, Social Exchange: Key Concepts, p13-31.

Dewdney & Sheldrick Ross (1994).  Flying a light aircraft: Reference service evaluation from a user’s viewpoint. RQ 34(2), 217-30.

 

Day 17 Notes

Wed. Oct. 23

Discuss readings:

                Bliss et al interviews [Gruss]

                Denn & Maglaughlin [Gouge]

 

Day 18 Notes

Mon. Oct. 28 Module 8: The Roles of Intermediaries I

Intermediation and disintermediation

 

Read for next week:

Ackerman, M. & Malone. T. Answer Garden: A tool for growing organizational memory.  Proceedings of ACM COIS (Cambridge, MA April, 1990).  P 31-39.   http://www.ics.uci.edu/~ackerman/pub/90b03/cois90.final.pdf

Moorhead, G., Ference, R., & Neck, C. P. (1991). Group decision fiascoes continue: Space Shuttle Challenger and a groupthink framework.

Optional: Constant, D., Kiesler, S., & Sproull, L. (1994). What's mine is ours, or is it? A study of attitudes about information sharing.

 

Day 19 Notes

Wed. Oct. 30

Discuss readings:

                Tibbo [Goll]

                Roloff [Funderburk]

                Dewdney & Sheldrick-Ross [Fiore]

 

 

Day 20 Notes

Mon Nov. 4 Module 9: Collaboration and Computer-Mediated Interaction

Read for next meeting:

Dibbell, J. (1996). A rape in cyberspace: How an evil clown, a Haitian trikster spirit, two wizards, and a cast of dozens turned a database into a society.  In Mark Stefik (Ed.) Internet dreams: Archetypes, myths, and metaphors.  Cambridge, MIT Press.

 

Day 21 Notes

Wed. Nov. 6

Discuss readings:

                Ackerman & Malone [Ferguson]

                Moorhead et al. [Crystal]

 

Day 22 Notes

Mon. Nov 11.  CMI continued

Class in Lab (MOO)

 

Read for next meeting:

Gasaway, L. (1998). Copyright, the Internet and other legal issues (JASIST online)

Samuelson, P. (2001). Toward a new politics of intellectual property (ACM DL)

Anderson, R., Bikson, T., Law, S., & Mitchell, B. (1995). Universal access to e-mail: Feasibility and societal implications.  Santa Monica, CA: RAND  [Read: Summary xiii-xxiii AND Chapter One: Introduction p. 1-12.]

 

Wed. Nov 13

Debrief on Moo

Discuss

                Dibbell [Cronquist]

 

Day 24 Notes

Mon. Nov. 18.  no class (ASIST)

Work on projects

 

Wed. Nov 20  (no class)

 

Mon. Nov. 25 Module 11: Policy Issues

Equity, privacy, intellectual property

 

Day 27 Notes

Wed. Nov 27.

Discuss readings:

                Gasaway [Bielawski]

                Samuelson [Allison]

                Anderson et al.

 

Mon. Dec. 2

Project Presentations

 

Wed. Dec. 4

Project Presentations