LIBR 221-03
Government Information Sources
Spring 2007 Greensheet
Tim Dennis
E-mail
Office Location: Online
Address: 218 Doe Library, UC Berkeley
Phone (cell): (510)282-4204
Office Hours: Virtually via email, IM or by appointment (in Berkeley).
Blog: http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/govblog/ (tim)
IM Accounts: Yahoo!, AIM, Google Talk: libr221; Via meebome widget
| Greensheet Links Course Materials Course Requirements |
Resources Blackboard Blackboard Tutorials SLIS e-Bookstore |
Students will be able to self-enroll in the Blackboard course site beginning January 22, 2007. You will need an access code which will be sent to all registered students on January 17, 2007 via MySJSU.
Course Description
The US Government Printing Office (GPO) is the largest publisher in the world and publishes documents on every imaginable topic. Add to this the publishing output of foreign governments, international governments, and local and state entities, and it is not hard to see why one the most challenging tasks for many reference librarians (or citizens for that matter) is in making sense of this huge class of information & materials when prompted with questions by our users/patrons/students. The goal of this class is to introduce the student to the broad range of government documents and government information sources. We will use existing tools to understand the purpose of this information and the methods in which we can access it. We will also endeavor to understand the importance of this information for the health of our democracy. At the end of this course you should be able to find basic legislative information (bills, resolutions, etc.), handle basic statistics (census, budgets), along with finding executive, regulatory and legal information.
Course Objectives
Student Learning Outcomes
- Delineate the significance and value of government information sources.
- Working knowledge of the structure, processes, and documents of the US Government with a general knowledge of international, state, and local government information.
- How to evaluate, analyze, and answer government information requests.
- Includes finding the most appropriate sources (print or electronic) to answer specific and real reference questions.
- Includes finding the most appropriate sources (print or electronic) to answer specific and real reference questions.
- Identifying the appropriate context of use of government documents and sources.
- Develop best practices and methods on discovering government information regardless of topic.
- Knowledge of when and where to refer questions you cannot answer.
- Understanding the dynamic landscape surrounding digital government information and e-Government:
- consequences of online access to government information for depository libraries and the GPO
- preservation/digitization
- persistence identification/access
- mass digitization projects
- discovery tools
- open access/content/architecture
LIBR 221 supports the following SLIS Core Competencies:
- compare the environments and organizational settings in which library and information professionals practice;
- recognize the social, cultural and economic dimensions of information use.
In addition, this section supports the following SLIS Core Competencies:
- 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;
Textbooks and Readings
Required Textbook
- Robinson, Judith S. Tapping the Government Grapevine : the User Friendly Guide to U.S. Government Information Sources . 3rd ed. Phoenix, Ariz : Oryx Press, 1998.
The electronic version of this textbook is available through the SJLibrary catalog
<http://mill1.sjlibrary.org/search/ >.
Go to SLIS e-Bookstore.
Required Readings
Other required readings will be provided in both in Blackboard and via the Connotea social bookmarking tool tagged by the week of the course.
Additional Textbooks (not required)
- Morehead, Joe. Introduction to United States Government Information Sources. 6th ed. Libraries Unlimited, 1999.
- Sears, Jean L. and Moody, Marilyn K. Using Government Information Sources: Electronic and Print. 3rd ed. Oryx, 2001.
The primary mail list that government documents librarians use to communicate is GOVDOC-L (http://govdoc-l.org/). Students should join this list for the duration of the course.
Course Requirements
Contacting the Instructor
I will not have any specific office hours but will be available to answer questions via IM and email. I will respond to student question within 48 hours of receipt. I'm also available for face-to-face meetings by appointment to those students who live (or are visiting) the bay area.
Instructor Expectations
- Read email, blackboard, and Connotea daily for announcements and course correspondence.
- Follow instructions and submit assignments by specified due date in Blackboard. Inform instructor of any upcoming absences or problems that will affect your coursework in advance if possible. Any assignment that is turned in late will be penalized 1% per day for 5 days after due date. Assignments will not be accepted after 5 days.
- Read all of the assigned readings and watch all of the assigned videos during the week assigned.
- Active participation in discussion list and social software applications used in the class.
This course will utilize a number of social software and Web2.0 technologies. You should not take this class if you do not have at least a DSL level connection (free cafe wifi is good too!). I will not require it, but I encourage you to use google documents as your word processor for the writing assignments. The benefit of this will be that you can "invite" me to collaborate on your document and I can give you in-line feedback on your work. If you would rather not use google docs, you can upload a word doc to Blackboard instead.
Course Calendar
Course calendar and assignments subject to change with fair notice.
| Semester Week | Topic |
| Week One (Jan. 24) | Course Overview & Civics Intro |
| Week Two (Jan. 31) | Govt. Printing Office (GPO) & Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) |
| Week Three (Feb. 7) | GPO & FDLP Cont. - Digital Government Information & E-Government |
| Week Four (Feb. 14) | Finding Aids & Ref Sources |
| Week Five (Feb. 21) | Legislative Branch |
| Week Six (Feb. 28) | Legislative Branch II |
| Week Seven (Mar. 7) | Executive Branch |
| Week Eight (Mar. 14) | Exec. Branch Cont., Start Statistics |
| Week Nine (Mar. 21) | Statistics II |
| Week Ten (Mar. 28) | Regulations |
| Week Eleven (Apr. 4) | Spring Break |
| Week Twelve (Apr. 11) | Intellectual Property |
| Week Thirteen (Apr. 18) | Judicial Branch |
| Week Fourteen (Apr. 25) | Foreign & Intl |
| Week Fifteen (May 2) | State & Local |
| Week Sixteen (May 9) | Wrap-up |
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 |
Grading
Percentage weight assigned to class assignments
| Course Assignments | Number | Points |
Total Points | Percentage of Grade |
| Learning Environment Setup | 1 |
10 |
10 |
5% |
| Social Bookmarking | 30 |
2 |
60 |
30% |
| Library Research Worksheets | 3 |
20 |
60 |
30% |
| Short Paper Assignment | 1 |
20 |
20 |
10% |
| Final Paper + Annotate Bib | 1 |
50 |
50 |
25% |
| Total | 200 |
100% |
||
| Extra Credit |
||||
| Social Bookmarking extra credit | 1-40 |
0.5 |
20 |
|
| Fantasy Congress Report | 1 |
10 |
10 |
|
| Total Possible (with extra credit) | 30 |
Assignment specifics along with due dates can be found on Blackboard.
Citation Style
Please use MLA (Modern Language Association) Style for all assignments. For using MLA style with government publications, use the University of Nevada Reno's helpful guide.
Assignments
The assignments and other information may be found on the course Blackboard site, which will become available on Wednesday, 24 January 2007.
- Learning Environment Setup
A step-by-step assignment to ensure students have all the third party tools required in this course set up and working.
- Social Bookmarking
Over the course of the semester, students will find a minimum of 30 government documents and tag with a social bookmarking tool called Connotea. For approximately 5 weeks of the semester students will be required to locate and tag government documents and information that are discovered through a newspaper or website. For these 5 documents, students will provide the steps undertook to find the document. For the remaining documents, students will tag and annotate government documents and resources that are encountered in their daily information consumption behavior or through a topic of interest to them personally. - Library Research Worksheets
Students will be given a list of factual and research questions and must find the answers with the given government information sources. - Short Paper Assignment
This paper, written in 'memo style', should demonstrate your arguments and conclusions on a topic or issue from the course. This memo will be no more than 4 pages in length, double spaced, (not counting footnotes and appendices) and includes an executive summary and conclusion. - Final Paper plus Annotated Bibliography
An 8-10 page paper with a annotated bibliography (with a min. 15 government sources) on a topic of the student's choice.
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/
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Phone: 408-924-2490
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