LIBR 266-10 |
Instructor: Joni Richards Bodart
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Course Outline |
GREENSHEETCourse Description: Study of collection management in all types of libraries and information centers. Includes analysis of information needs, criteria for selection, collection use evaluation, and resources for collection development. Course Objectives: At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to:
The course supports the following SLIS objectives: Upon completion of the program the student will know and be able to identify the major theories and important principles as well as demonstrate current practice in information management, including the selection, organization, storage, retrieval, dissemination, and utilization of information resources, specifically as related to the development and management of the collection. Textbook (Required) Evans, G. Edward. Developing Library and Information Center Collections. 4th ed. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 2000. Office Hours I will be holding office hours in the VC on Wednesday from 6-8pm PST each week, and anyone is invited to drop by with comments or questions if you need anything clarified. Attendance is not required. If you have group questions, I suggest everyone in the group should be in the VC if possible, to make sure we are all on the same page. I will answer email on a daily basis or as quickly as I can. I will also be posting to the FAQs section of the discussion board when questions are asked that are of interest to the whole class. If you need to speak to me by phone, I will do all I can to be available to you, but we will need to schedule that call in advance to make it convenient for both of us. Please note that I work for DPL on Mondays, Tuesdays, and alternate Saturdays, and may be less available on those days. REQUIRED FACE TO FACE CLASS MEETINGS The Blackboard Site Please check the site regularly for announcements, discussion board questions, and so on. As soon as you sign up on BB, go to the discussion board and introduce yourself, and post your expectations. Copies of the text highlights will be posted under Course Documents/Lectures. The first few are there, the others will be covered in our f2f meetings. Other information I think might be helpful to you, such as resources and links to sites you will find useful will be posted as well. Assignment due dates are also posted there, as well as below. Group sites will be available asap after your f2f class. Please use them as much or little as you want to, for your own convenience. Please let me know right away if you have problems with anything. Class Requirements 1. CLASS PARTICIPATION Read text, attend the two day f2f meetings, and participate in class discussions on discussion boards. Participate is defined as posting 3-4 times weekly, both in response to the questions I post and to others’ reactions to them. Comments should be thoughtful and insightful, adding to our mutual learning process. Questions will be posted on a weekly basis. Since I will be archiving past topics when I post new ones, you will need to post promptly. Work as a team member with the others in your group, using email, your group discussion board, and your group VC. You are welcome to meet f2f if that is possible, but it is not required outside the class f2f meetings. Your group Blackboard sites (VC, group email, discussion boards) will be set up as soon as possible after our f2f meetings, and you are welcome to begin your work immediately. I will be happy to meet with groups to work on questions/problems either during office hours or at another scheduled time. I will be a member of all the groups, and may participate in discussions from time to time, however, these group utilities are for your ease and convenience, not so I can keep an eye on you. I will not be monitoring your participation in them. It is up to the members of each group to work out interpersonal problems. I am available for advice and consultation, but it is ultimately up to the group members to figure out how to work together successfully and ensure that everyone contributes equally. You will spend a good part of your professional life as part of one group or another, and knowing how to be a good team player is essential. This semester will give you a chance to practice that. 2. READING LOG AND SYNTHESIS There are many print and online sources on collection development outside the textbook. You will need to explore those items in order to get information that will help you put together your policy manual, and to examine the current and evolving collection development theory. We are moving from a print society to one that will be partially or completely digitized in the future. In the text and in lectures, we will be examining the role of the librarian in collection development now. In addition to finding materials that will help with your policy manual, use this assignment to seek out and examine information on what may happen in this area in the future, and how it will impact your career as an information professional. Besides the required textbook, you should read the equivalent of 350 pages of professional reading, including:
Keep a log of your readings and web work, including for each item, the bibliographic citation and a summary/evaluation, including what you did or didn’t find useful about it. The information on each item should be at least half a page to a maximum of one page. Organize your log into chapters like the ones in your policy manual. At the end of the course, write a synthesis of your interpretation of the current state of collection development theory and your projection of how it might develop in the future, based on the materials in your log and in your textbook. 3. COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY MANUAL Working in groups of 2-3, based on the type of library you are interested in, develop a comprehensive collection management policy, including the following sections:
Appropriate forms and documents will be attached for each section. These can be ones developed by the group or ones from actual libraries. This assignment can be done using an actual physical library or one that the group creates. Either way, precise information about the library, its policies, staff, and collections will be required. Be aware that including tables, graphs and charts will help you convey information more concisely and in formats that can be more easily understood than straight text. Each section will contain a bibliography citing the various sources, print and online, that you used while writing that section. When the completed manual is turned in as a whole at the end of the semester, these chapter bibliographies will be as the end of the manual, rather than at the end of each chapter. (I.e., a bibliography section, with items from Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and so on.) The completed manual will be detailed enough that an actual library could use it to define, create, and implement collection development and management policies. It will be a demonstration of the depth of your knowledge of the subject, and should be added to your portfolio documenting your accomplishments as a library school student. You will turn in each section above, based on the due dates given below. Please include a cover sheet for each chapter, giving the chapter title, the name and type of the library, and the group number, location, and names of group members. They will be evaluated, and returned to you. At the end of the semester, you will be able to turn in (if your group chooses to do so) a corrected final version of your entire project. This does not mean that every section will need to be rewritten, since only those that receive less than satisfactory grades (in the group’s opinion) will need to be rewritten. Other sections can be turned in without further changes, assuming their formatting is the same as the corrected chapters. While this is not required, it will allow you to raise the grade received for the project. (See grading standards below.) All members of a group will receive the same grade. Groups will be organized during the f2f meetings. Each section of your policy manual will be submitted in document format. When you are ready to submit a chapter, use the following procedures for the drop box or for email:
If minor corrections are recommended, I don’t need to see the chapter again, until the corrections are made and the material is resubmitted at the end of the semester, as described above. Be sure to keep copies of all your work on floppy disks and/or on all group members’ computers, so if one of you has a problem or a crash, you won’t lose your work. I will be deleting your work from the dropbox and from my computer when it is graded unless I decide to keep it as an example for future classes. You may use only Microsoft Word or ClarisWorks (AppleWorks) either mac or pc versions. Your graphics should be integrated into the word processed chapter. ASSIGNMENT DUE DATES Week 3, 9/17 Chapters 1-4 Week 5, 10/1 Week 6, 10/8 Week 7, 10/22 Week 8, 10/29 Week 9, 11/12 Week 11, 11/26 Week 12, 12/10 I am willing to be flexible about due dates and will always give you extra time when you ask for it. However, any assignment that does not come in on time when no extension has been requested will be penalized one letter grade for lateness. When in doubt, ask for more time, just in case. You have a huge project before you, and my due dates are designed to keep you caught up, so you don’t have too many things overwhelming you at the end of the semester. Grading Standards 25% Reading and web work log and synthesis |