LIBR Libr 220-10
|
Marc Lampson, M.L.I.S., J.D. |
|
|
GREENSHEETCourse Description: This course will introduce information professionals and those aspiring to be information professionals to the basic United States and State of California legal resources that are likely to be of interest to legal professionals and the general public, particularly people visiting Public Libraries and Public Law Libraries. It is designed for information professionals with little or no familiarity with legal resources, but who have an interest in learning about these resources to be able to help people find legal information.
Course Objectives: Course Objectives grow out of the Course Goals and those goals are taken from the SJSU description for the course in Resources and Information Services in Professions and Disciplines : “Examination of the nature of resources for, and services to, professions and disciplines including methods of communication, characteristics of researchers and other users, and current methods of meeting research needs in libraries and information centers.” Consequently, the fundamental objective is for students to learn the basic resources that both lawyers and non-lawyers with a need for legal information are likely to need and use and are therefore likely to ask information professionals for assistance in finding. In pursuit of this objective, the student will: Learn the federal and state governmental units that make primary law and the type of primary law they make;
This course supports the following SLIS objectives: Teaching students the major theories, important principles, and current practice in the following areas: Information transfer [of legal information];
Required Text: Steven Elias & Susan Levinkind, Legal Research: How to Find & Understand the Law (Nolo Press)
Course Requirements: Five online quizzes worth 40 points each will be given approximately every two weeks. In addition, the student will be required to complete a “Pathfinder” paper on a specific area of interest to the student that will detail and annotate the major primary and secondary resources in print, online, and in pay-for-view databases that exist for that specific area of interest. This pathfinder will be worth 100 points. We will be using Blackboard for all communications, quizzes, chats, and anything else related to the course. You should enroll in Blackboard as soon as it is available for the course and enroll through the end of the course on August 14.
Disability Concerns If you need any special consideration due to a disability, please register with the SJSU Disability Resource Center and notify the instructor by the second week of classes.
Grading As indicated above, five quizzes worth 40 points each will equal 200 points for the course and the Pathfinder Paper will be worth 100 points. Thus the course will be worth 300 points. At the end of the course, the student earning the highest number of those 300 points will receive the highest grade = an A+. Students earning less than the highest number of points achieved, will be graded as follows: 95% - 99% of highest points earned = A
A statement on plagiarism Because the primary assessment tools will be quizzes, it is expected that you will complete these quizzes completely by yourself and that you will not provide information to others in the class regarding the quizzes. Your Pathfinder Paper must also be entirely your own work and will be unique to you. Your Pathfinder topic will be yours only and everyone is expected to develop a Pathfinder that is different from anyone else’s Pathfinder. In general, see the University policy as linked from the SLIS Faculty Handbook page on plagiarism http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/de/problems/plagiarism.htm All assignments submitted must be your own work. Sources must be properly cited in papers as specified in class. The San Jose State University regulations governing plagiarism will be enforced. Those regulations may be found at: http://info.sjsu.edu search option: Academic Dishonesty.
|