L623 Information in the Humanities
Fall 2005 Wednesdays, 9:30-12:15
LI 001

Angela Courtney
ancourtn@indiana.edu
E1060 Herman B Wells Library

This syllabus is subject to change.

Grades and Assignments

Journal Article Presentation

In groups of four, you will lead class discussion on a journal article that is related to libraries and the weeks subject. You will be responsible for choosing an article and for letting me know what it is. It should be a scholarly article published in the 21st Centuryfrom library literature. If your group wants to take a different approach, i.e. a series of short articles on a current issue, please clear it with me first.

The reasoning behind this assignment is multi-fold...

You are entering into a career that is filled with committee and collaborative work. You will have to learn to work in groups in one way or another. In this assignment you will have to use your best communication, cooperation, and collaboration skills in order to be successful. This is a good practice for the working world, so use this as a career training experience.

You need to keep up with the journal literaturecurrent trends, controversies, new buzz-words, etc.

This exercise is similar to the work that goes into panel discussions at conferences.

You will need to give me the articles 1-2 weeks before you are to lead the discussion in order for me to approve your selections and to put them on reserve.

On days when you are not presenting, you will have read the materials and will participate in the discussion. Treat the group presenting with the same respect and interest you hope to receive.

Remember, the presenters always look better and possess greater confidence when they are speaking to an attentive and eager class. Help each other out.

The group will receive one grade, so you will need to work together. Do not let one group member do all the work, and make sure that everyone participates. Everyone will speak during the presentation.

Database/Index Presentation

Working in groups of 2, you will give the class an introduction to a humanities database. The presentation should be 15 minutes, and can be absolutely no longer than 20 minutes. You will also turn in a guide to the database, no longer than 1double-sided page, and bring copies for your classmates.

Treat the presentation like a bibliographic instruction session. The rest of the class will play the role of a class needing an introduction to your assigned database.

In your guide, do not quote the information the database provides for you in the help screens. You can read this information, but do not quote it in the handout.

Please also explore whether or not the database is available through OneSearch@IU. Can you make it work like it does through its native interface?

Points to consider for the project

1—What do you want the audience to know after your presentation?

2—Be sure to explain the types of searches (Boolean, proximity, etc.) you can do and the type of information you should expect to retrieve.

3—Explain to the class why they would consider using this database.

4—Discuss features of the sourcenumber and type of publications covered or not covered, depth or type of indexing, currency, authority, publisher, accuracy, ease of use, similar source, uniqueness, viewing results, printing, help screens, among others.

***NoteThese Handouts can be quite useful later, so I would not only suggest to save your classmates guides but also to develop useful and pragmatic guides.

Online Journal Essays

You will write 5 journal entries, in essence short essays (2-3 pages), double spaced, on a topic I assign. We will also discuss the topics in class, incorporating the essays into the discussion. Spelling and grammar are very important in these essays.

Since 2-3 pages is not a lot of space, I want you to think about the topic and distill your ruminations into important and insightful commentary. While there is no outside research needed for these essays, you are in graduate school and better work will be accompanied by a little research. Include a bibliography of the works you used, but keep in mind that I do not want a research paper. These essays should reflect your thoughts and ideas.

There is no right and wrong in these essays; however, you will need to make clear and hopefully convincing arguments.

You will post your essays on Oncourse by Sunday evening the week of class discussion on the assigned topic.

Research Guide/Pathfinder

A pathfinder or research guide is a tool created by librarians to help their patrons, and colleagues, find information on a specific topic (Dadaism, shape-note singing, etc.) or find certain types of information (book reviews, film reviews, biographies, etc).

You will create a research guide on a topic that you choose. Think carefully about this choice. Talk to me about your topic if you are having trouble making a decision. You must secure my approval of your topic.

In addition to the pathfinder, you will turn in to me an introduction to the topicno more than 2 double-spaced pages. Explain the scope of your topic and the target audience. Include with this a bibliography of the sources you consulted. Remember that not all sources you considered need to be included in the final pathfinder.

Since we are moving increasingly to an electronic environment, I want you to create the research guide as a web page. There is no mandated length, but I would suggest less than the equivalent of two double spaced pages would not cover most topics.

Suggestions for creating the research guide

1—Choose a topic. I can provide suggestions if you need. You would do well to choose a topic that is not too broad or too narrow. If the size of your topic looks like it is going to be a problem, I will be able to help you expand it or narrow it down.

2—Compile a working bibliography from which your final bibliography will develop. Take notes as you examine resources you might want to use. Do not limit yourself to electronic resources. Especially in the humanities, print resources still offer some of the best information. Also remember that there are many general resources that will be of use for your guides.

3—When choosing items from your bibliography for the guide, keep your target audience in mind. Ideally your target audience will be the academic community.

4—Take advantage of my offer to look at your drafts.

5—Look at sample guides either at libraries on campus or online.
http://www.indiana.edu/~libsalc/history/bookreview/bookrev.html
http://library2.fairfield.edu/subjects/theatre.html
http://library2.fairfield.edu/text/textguides/american.pdf
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=3465 (this one was actually created for this assignment)
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/english (several are listed on the left of the page)

6—Be careful to include complete bibliographic citations for all of your sources.

7—In the introduction, briefly discuss the topic and the scope of your guide. Also, explain how you chose and evaluated your sources. To find the sources, did you use IUCAT, Guide to Reference Sources, WorldCat, ect.? What types of criteria did you useease of use, date published, etc.?

8—Remember that you are creating a guide, not a bibliography. A guide should include explanations on locating and using the sources.