University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

School of Information and Library Science

INLS 180-001: Human Information Interaction

Spring 2006

Syllabus

Time and Place Instructor: Gary Marchionini

12:30-3:15 Mondays 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 e-reserve or online or will be made available in class.

Assignments and Evaluation

Activities include a set of readings, an online discussion (blog), and two short assignments. The assignments together will be worth 20% of the final grade. A final term project will determine 50% 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 strongly 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 blog and lead a discussion on one or more of the readings. The remaining 30% of the grade will be based on class participation, blog postings, and reading discussion leadership.

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

Monday January 23: Course Introduction and Overview

Day 1 Notes

Overview of course

Assignments and term project

Discussions in class and online

Introduce 1-min paper and blog (hii-spring06.blogspot.com)

Discussion on Questions and Answers: Two sides of the same coin?

Learning and teaching

Research and investigations

Evaluation and persuasion

Assignments:

1. Log onto blog, post questions on readings

2. Asking Questions assignment (due Feb 13)

Read for next meeting:

Pierce, J. (1972) Communication. Scientific American, 227(3), 31-41 [consider the lens of 30 years]

Pool, I. D. S. (1973). Communication systems. In Ithiel Pool, Wilbur Schramm, Nathan Maccoby & Edwin Parker, (Eds.), Handbook of communication. Chicago: Rand McNally. pp 3-36.

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]

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

Monday January 30. Fundamentals of Information and Communication

Day 2 Notes

Discussion on Information and Communication,

Biological communication and interaction models (see HHMI lectures in Open Video)

Discuss readings:

Pierce:

Pool:

Read for next meeting:

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

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

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

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

Monday February 6. Interaction Contexts and Information Flow

Day 3 Notes

Oral presentation of project ideas

Discussion on Diffusion (Rogers)

Discussion on Speech Acts in Professional Work (Winograd & Flores)

Discuss readings on Context

Tannen:

Chatman:

Assignment: Interaction on the Web (due March 3)

Read for next meeting:

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

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

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

Monday February 13. Analysis of Information Needs

Day 4 Notes

Discussion on Defining and assessing information needs: The Library of Congress DL Case

Discuss readings:

Belkin:

Taylor:

Read for next meeting:

Marchionini, G. (1995). Information Seeking in Electronic Environments. pp 27-60. (Note: The book is located behind the reference desk.).

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

Optional: Ingwersen (1992) Chapter 2

Monday February 20. Information Seeking and Information Retrieval

Day 5 Notes

Human-centered information seeking perspective: HCIR

Implications for design

Discuss readings:

Marchionini:

Read for next meeting:

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. (SILS reserve)

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).

Monday February 27. Assessing Information Value: Relevance

Day 6 Notes

Interaction Exercise due March 20

Written Project Commitments

Relevance, authority, and value

Discuss readings:

Harter:

Schambler et al:

Amento et al:

Read for next meeting:

Fogg, BJ.(1999). Persuasive technologies. CACM (ACM DL)

McInerney, C. (2002). Knowledge management and the dynamic nature of knowledge. JASIST. 53(12), 1009-1018.

View and take notes on: EPIC 2014. http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/

Optional: Barreau (LISR)

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.)

Monday March 6. Information Use and Knowledge Management

Day 7 Notes

Using information and applying knowledge of how people use information

Knowledge management

How people use information; how systems use information

Discuss EPIC 2014

Discuss readings

Fogg:

McInerney:

Read for next meeting:

Rosenfeld, L. Information architecture: Looking ahead. JASIST, 53(10), 874-876. (online)

Lippincott, J. Net generation students and libraries (online)

Monday March 13. [Spring Break, no class]

Monday March 20. Information Architecture and Digital Libraries

Day 8 Notes

IA discussion

Discuss readings

Rosenfeld:

Lippincott:

Read for next meeting:

Janes, J. (2002). Digital Reference: Reference librarian’s experiences and attitudes. JASIST, 53(7), 549-566. (online)

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

Monday March 27. The Roles of Intermediaries

Day 9 Notes

Discuss intermediation: face-to-face reference interview; online chat/VRD; customer service systems

Discuss readings:

Janes:

Dewdney & Sheldrick Ross:

Read for next meeting:

Smith, L. C. (1981). Citation analysis. Library Trends, 30(1), Summer 1981. 83-106. (SILS reserve)

Lawrence, S. (2001). Online or invisible, Nature (online)

Optional: Garvey, W. D. (1979). The role of scientific communication in the conduct of research and the creation of scientific knowledge.

Optional: Harnad, S. (1990). Scholarly skywriting and the prepublication continuum of scientific inquiry.

Monday April 3. Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics/Informetrics

Day 10 Notes

Citation, co-citation, research fronts, and recommender systems

Impact factors: scholarship, mentorship, expertise??

Discuss readings:

Smith:

Lawrence:

Read for next meeting:

Moorhead, G., Ference, R., & Neck, C. P. (1991). Group decision fiascoes continue: Space Shuttle Challenger and a groupthink framework. Human Relations, 44(6). 539-550. (SILS reserve)

Optional: Sonnenwald, D. (1996). Communication roles that support collaboration during the design process.

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

Examine/read for next meeting:

The Cochrane Collaboration. http://www.cochrane.org/index0.htm

The Open Directory. http://dmoz.org/

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com/

Optional: 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.

Finholt, T. Collaboratories (online)

Monday April 10. Collaboration and Computer-Mediated Communication

Day 11 Notes

Discussion: pros and cons of group work

Demo ISEE

Discuss: email, MUDs and MOOs, chat, e-forums, blogs, wikis, podcasts

Discuss readings:

Moorehead et al:

Discuss collaborative web resources:

Read for next meeting:

Samuelson, P. (2003). Digital rights management and fair use by design: DRM {and or vs} the law CACM, ACM DL online

ALA. Key Principles on government information. http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/governmentinfo/keyprins.htm