LIBR 287
Social Studies of Science and Technology
Spring 2004

Dr. Judy Weedman
jweedman@slis.sjsu.edu
office hours: by appointment – chatroom, phone, or f2f
(714) 278-2295
fax: (714) 278-5841

mailing address:
Professor Judy Weedman
San Jose State University - SLIS
800 No. State College
P.O. Box 4150
Fullerton, California 92834-4150

GREENSHEET

Description:

This seminar explores technology and science as social phenomena – how they arise out of specific social and cultural situations, why they are or are not influential, how they change society and are themselves shaped by the specific social conditions under which they develop. Information professionals work in communities of practice in which technology has great importance, and understanding it as a social phenomenon enriches our understanding of our jobs. Similarly, our society is heavily influenced by science, and a better of understanding of what science is and how it comes to be that way is important. Each student will be able to approach the readings and assignments with either a theoretical or a practical, daily-work-life orientation.

Goals and Objectives:

To introduce the student to:

• Social science approaches to understanding technology and science
• Important concepts in the field
• The relevance of these concepts to our work as information professionals

This course supports the following SLIS objectives:

• To teach students the major theories, important principles, and current practice in:
  • The foundations of information services
  • The application of diverse technologies to information management.
  • A specialized aspect of information management
  • Other relevant disciplines
• To foster research by:
  • Requiring students to evaluate and utilize relevant research studies from a variety of disciplines in their coursework.

Technology components

To be successful in this course, you need to be able to send and receive email and attachments, access the School’s website for course handouts and readings, use the King Library electronic databases effectively, and use common web search engines. You may be required to send and receive email attachments of a moderately large size (1MB - 8MB). If your current email service provider places restrictions on the size of attachments that you can send or receive, then you will need to obtain an email account without such restrictions. All students are eligible for free accounts on the SLIS email server (slis.sjsu.edu), and there are no attachment or storage restrictions for those accounts.

Texts

No single text book; readings will be assigned from a variety of books and journals.

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