LIBR 202-07
Information Retrieval
Fall 2008 Greensheet
Dr. Yan Quan Liu
E-mail
Phone: (203)392-5763
Online Office Hours: Monday 11:00-1:00, Thursday 11:00-1:00, and by appointment
| Greensheet Links Textbooks and Readings Course Requirements |
Resources Blackboard Blackboard Tutorials SLIS eBookstore |
LIBR 202 Resources Online Resource Supplemental Readings Inmagic Download |
Students must self-enroll in the Blackboard Site for this course. The access enrollment code will be sent to you through my.sjsu.
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Dr. Judy Weedman and other faculty members for their assistances and support for allowing me to "borrow" from their course materials.
Course Description
Principles of information retrieval and their application to information systems and services. Emphasizing models of user information seeking behavior, human information processing and their relationship to retrieval models in information systems.
Course Prerequisites:
- Demonstrated computer literacy.
- Complete LIBR 203: Online Social Networking: Technology and Tools
This is a mandatory 1 unit course that introduces students to the various e-learning tools used in the SLIS program, including Blackboard, Elluminate and Second Life. This course must be completed by all new SLIS students within the first 4 weeks of their first semester. If you have questions about this course, e-mail Debbie Faires or Dale David.
For more information, see http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/classes/coursedesc.htm
Course Objectives
Student Learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to design, query, and evaluate a database information retrieval system, using an appropriate user model
- Students will be able to articulate fundamental concepts of information-seeking behavior and employ them in the design and evaluation of systems
- Students will be able to define a set of terms reflecting fundamental concepts of information retrieval and use them in discussions of their projects for the class.
- Students will understand metadata, both structure and representation, and be aware of dominant standards such as the MARC record, LC Classification, Dublin Core, and NISO 39-19.
- Students will understand principles of good interface design and be able to evaluate interfaces using those principles.
LIBR 202 supports the following SLIS Core Competencies:
- design, query and evaluate information retrieval systems;
- understand the system of standards and methods used to control and create information structures and apply basic principles involved in the organization and representation of knowledge;
- describe the fundamental concepts of information-seeking behaviors.
In addition, this section supports the following SLIS Core Competencies:
- use the basic concepts and principles related to the creation, evaluation, selection, acquisition, preservation, and organization of specific items or collections of information
- demonstrate proficiency in the use of current information and communication technologies, and other related technologies, as they affect the resources and uses of libraries and other types of information providing entities
- use service concepts, principles and techniques that facilitate information access, relevance, and accuracy for individuals or groups of users.
http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/slis/competencies.htm
Textbooks and Readings
Please order the textbooks from below from any online bookstore or directly from the publishers. If you order from the School's amazon.com site, http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/courses/books/index.php, the School receives a referral fee which we use for student scholarships and events.
- Chowdhury, G.G. (2004). Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval. 2nd ed. London: Facet Publishing, 474p. ISBN: 1-85604-480-7.
- Morville, Peter. (2005). Ambient findability. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly. Media, Inc. ISBN: 0596007655 [Required].
- Supplemental Readings from our school website at http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/courses/202/index.html, and other readings either on electronic reserve or online public accessible.
You can find these books’ info on SLIS eBookstore.
Please see class schedule at the course page for reading assignment and read prior to the third week of class.
Course Requirements
Blackboard Information
In order to learn gradually, materials for each unit will open on Monday morning in the Course Documents section, and remains open until Sunday night. You can access all the units at any time throughout the semester once the unit opens. However, you are expected to complete all the units within the assigned time limits, read the assigned articles/documents/chapters and participate in class discussion. The access enrollment code will be sent to you through my.sjsu.
Assignments
The assignments are designed to provide the students to acquire and demonstrate the following skills:
- Create a user model, and based on the needs identified, design descriptive and subject metadata for a collection and create a database.
- Create a controlled vocabulary that adheres to a set of standards such as NISO Z39.19 and use it in creating records for a collection of scholarly articles.
- Search the databases created.
- Set performance criteria and, based on searches, evaluate the database.
- Evaluate one or more information retrieval interfaces.
- Describe fundamental concepts of information seeking behavior.
- Use information retrieval concepts in discussions.
Course Assignments/Evaluation
The assignments are listed below along with the skills they address. Student performance will be evaluated on the basis of the following work. Team work for the assignments is strongly encouraged.
| IR system design Exercises | ||
| 01 | Attribute elicitation exercise | 5 points (pre-1,7) |
| 02 | Vocabulary design exercise | 5 points (pre-2,7) |
| IR system Projects | ||
| 03 | Descriptive metadata | 25 points (1,2,7) |
| 04 | Vocabulary design & evaluation | 25 points (1,2,3,4,7) |
| 05 | IR system review | 25 points (1,2,6,7) |
| 06 | Final |
15 points (1,4,5,6,7) |
| Total Points | 100 points | |
Grading Scale
The standard SJSU SLIS Grading Scale is utilized for all SLIS courses:
| 97-100 | A |
| 94-96 | A- |
| 91-93 | B+ |
| 88-90 | B |
| 85-87 | B- |
| 82-84 | C+ |
| 79-81 | C |
| 76-78 | C- |
| 73-75 | D+ |
| 70-72 | D |
| 67-69 | D- |
| Below 67 | F |
In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:
- C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
- B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work;
- A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.
Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0.
Interpretation of the grades:
- A (97-100) = “Exceptional” (The ‘A’ truly does mean exceptional)
- A- (94-96) = “Excellent” (The ‘A-’ is for work that truly exceeds expectations)
- B+ (91-93) = “Very good” (The ‘B+’ is for work that exceeds expectations).
- B (88-90) = “Good” (Expected graduate-level performance was reached).\
- C+ (76-78) = "Adequate” (The assigned task was performed adequately)
- C (79-84) = “Adequate” (Assigned task was completed; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course.)
- A C- or worse does not get credit for the class, though it does get averaged into the student's GPA.
Grading Criteria
| Topic relevancy | 15% |
| Originality & creativity | 20% |
| Adequacy of information presented | 15% |
| Content organization | 20% |
| References and substantiation | 10% |
| Clarity of delineation | 10% |
| Formatting and editorial issues | 5% |
| Grammar and spelling | 5% |
Academic Integrity
Your own commitment to learning, as evidenced by your enrollment at San José State University, and the University's Academic Integrity Policy requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The policy on academic integrity can be found at http://sa.sjsu.edu/student_conduct.
Reasonable Accommodation of Disabilities
If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability,
please e-mail me as soon as possible. Presidential Directive 97-03 requires
that students with disabilities register with the Disability Resource Center
(DRC) to establish record of their disability.
No matter where students reside, they should contact the SJSU DRC to register. The DRC Web site: http://www.drc.sjsu.edu/
One Washington Square - San José, California USA, 95192-0029
Phone: 408-924-2490
Contact the webmaster
