COURSES TAUGHT

INLS 515 - Consumer Health Information
This course examines the growing need for access to health information for the public in the context of federal and state policy initiatives such as Healthy People 2010. The World Health Organization defines health as a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being and not simply the absence of disease. The course examines concepts of health and illness from various cultural and social perspectives as a basis for designing print and digital health information collections and services for diverse user groups. Through the major assignment, students have an opportunity to focus on a particular health topic of interest. The course will challenge students to think creatively about how to improve health status at the individual, community and global levels though the provision of information services.

INLS 890 - Library Effectiveness
Increasingly librarians are being called upon to evaluate the services they provide by measuring not only inputs and outputs but also outcomes and the overall impact of the library on the community. This course examines the program evaluation model, the program logic model, and other techniques that have been used to determine the effectiveness, value and impact of library services. Students have the opportunity to participate in a library evaluation project that takes a mixed methods approach using both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques. The Lifelong Access Libraries initiative of the Americans for Libraries Council will serve as the focal project.

This course complements a previously offered special topics course, Evidence-Based Information Practice. The tutorial used in the EBIP course has been made available on the Blackboard site for the Library Effectiveness course so that students may become familiar with searching and evaluating the LIS literature. The goal of evidence based practice it to select and use the best available evidence to inform library and information management.

INLS 890 - Evidence-based Library and Information Practice
Evidence-based practice (EBP) is being adopted by a variety of professions as a way of identifying and using the best available research evidence for decision making. As such, EBP can be seen as a tool for linking research to practice and promoting innovation. This course will explore the origins of evidence-based practice in general and its current application in library and information science. Students will have an opportunity to explore the state of EBP in a number of fields and to discuss the applicability of the concept to LIS. Based on this exploration, the class participants will critically examine and refine the current framework of evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP).

INLS 748 - Health Sciences Environment
Trends in health care policy, biomedical research, health sciences education and health services with an emphasis on the impact and use of information. This course provides a useful background for those interested in health informatics, health sciences libraries and information services and other applications of LIS skills in the health domain. We will look at the health sciences environment at the state, national and international levels through the lenses of health care policy, evidence-based practice and information access and use. We will use a seminar style in which students and the instructor will take turns presenting and leading discussions using key readings and other resources.

INLS 554 - Cultural Institutions
This course examines the past, present and future of cultural institutions with particular attention to the role that information and library science can play in preserving and enhancing these institutions. We will begin by considering culture as a concept in human society as well as the history and development of cultural institutions. This will be followed by an examination of the state of cultural institutions in the present and the challenges and opportunities that these institutions are likely to face in the future. Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to visit cultural institutions of their own choosing and to share what they have learned with others in the class.

INLS 890/HPM 768 - Informed Decision Making in Cancer Care
Cancer care quality depends on providers, patients, and families having the right information at the right time-and then using that information to make informed cancer care decisions. This course will equip participants with knowledge about (a) the determinants of informed decision-making in cancer care, and (b) the potential and the limitations of the tools that are currently available for improving the quality of decision-making. This course will examine clinical decision-making in cancer care from the perspectives of providers, patients, and families. The course is predicated on the notion that cancer care quality depends on productive interactions between prepared, proactive practice teams and informed, activated patients and families (cf. Chronic Care Model). Knowledge competencies will be assessed through a written plan in which program participants describe an intervention to improve cancer care quality through informed decision-making. In the plan, class participants must describe the target population, the need for the intervention, propose an intervention, review the evidence supporting the intervention, and describe how they would evaluate the intervention's effectiveness.