LIS4011 Syllabus

University of Denver -- Library & Information Science -- Course Syllabus

LIS 4011 Information Access and Retrieval

3 Quarter Hours

Quarter:	Spring 2013; March 25 - May 27
Schedule:	Mondays 4:00 - 6:20 PM
Place:	353 Sturm Hall
Instructor:	Christopher C. Brown, Reference Technology Integration Library, / Government Documents Librarian - Anderson Academic Commons, University Libraries, University of Denver. Phone: (303) 871-3404 (work / voicemail); (303) 359-7460 (home / cell phone / voicemail) E-mail: cbrown@du.edu NOTE: All e-mail addressed to the instructor MUST have LIS4011 as the first part of the subject line. Failure to do so may result in your e-mail not being read. Web site: http://www.du.edu/~cbrown/
Class Web Page:	See Blackboard
Course Description:	Using systems for information discovery, access, and retrieval requires an understanding of characteristics of information storage media (books, videos, floppy disks, hard disks, CD-ROM, etc.), information transmission (digital and analog), and query logic. It also requires understanding the various systems for organizing types of information, including textual information, numeric, geographic, and image files. The current and existing technologies and software aiding information access and retrieval will be explored in this course. Students will experience and discuss searching systems for all types of information files stored in various media and accessed by the use of both analog and digital telecommunications systems. (Prerequisites: Understanding the Information User and Organization of Information). 3 qtr. hrs.
Course Objectives	At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to: • Conceptualize and analyze query logic, search strings and problems in digital information access and retrieval • Analyze database structure and to effectively use this knowledge in query formulation • Possess and understanding of controlled vocabulary schemes and their use in databases • Possess the ability to search any OPAC platform effectively using complex queries • Identify and evaluate databases across disciplines from a wide variety of vendors, being able compare and evaluate features • Identify and examine vendor systems for the transmission of full text in e-journals • Identify and discuss issues and problems in relation to technology and software aiding information access and retrieval
Assignments:	Each week there will be reading and/or written assignments. All assignments must be submitted using the Blackboard Digital Drop Box. Redo Policy: Each student may do a "redo" on homework assignments. You must turn the redo in electronically to the Digital Drop Box.
Final Project:	For the final project each student will work individually and will evaluate these 40 bibliographic databases posted on the Penrose Library "Database & Article" Web site: http://library.du.edu/site/about/databases.php The form to be used for each database is online here. Example is here. Sample database questions. Use them if you like, or make up your own.
Note:	This syllabus is subject to change based on the needs of the learning environment.
Grading Criteria:	Weekly assignments: 50% Students are expected to do all readings as assigned. If readings are not being done, quizzes may be given. Final project: 50%
Grading Scale:	A 93-100% A- 90-92% B+ 87-89% B 83-86% B- 80-82% C+ 77-79% C 73-76% C- 70-72% D+ 67-69% D 60-66% F <60%

Date	Topic	Assignments
Week 1 March 25	Course Intro.; History of Indexing; Information Seeking Behavior Notes
Week 2 April 1	Information Structures Notes	Read: my rough notes. Read: Skolnik, H. "Historical Development of Abstracting." Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences 19, no. 4 (Nov, 1979): 215-218. Read: Choo, C. W., B. Detlor, and D. Turnbull. "Information Seeking on the Web: An Integrated Model of Browsing and Searching." First Monday 5, no. 2 (2000), http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/respub/asis99/. Read: Novotny, E. "I Don’t Think, I Click: A Protocol Analysis Study of use of a Library Online Catalog in the Internet Age." College & Research Libraries 65, no. 6 (2004): 525–37. Read: Borko, H. "Information Science: What is it." American Documentation 19, no. 1 (1968): 3. Read: "Information retrieval", Wikipedia. Assignment 1 Due
Week 3 April 8	Information Searching Notes	Read: Bush, Vannevar. "As we may Think." The Atlantic Monthly 176, no. July (1945), http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/~duchier/pub/vbush/vbush.shtml. Read: Frants, V. I. "Boolean Search: Current State and Perspectives." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50, no. 1 (1999): 86. Read the Help sections of the following databases: EbscoHost: (focus on searching and browsing sections) CSA C19 (focus on "Search" and "Boolean, proximity and truncation searching" sections) Begin to become familiar with RefWorks. [Our group code is rwudenver]. Review the official RefWorks tutorial: http://www.refworks.com/tutorial/ and my Refworks tutorial. Assignment 2 Due
Week 4 April 15	Controlled Vocabularies Notes	Read: Svenonius, E. "Unanswered Questions in the Design of Controlled Vocabularies." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 37, no. 5 (1986): 331. Read: Bodoff, D. "Partial Coordination. I. the Best of Pre-Coordination and Post-Coordination." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 49, no. 14 (1998): 1254. Read: Beall, Jeffrey. "Metadata for Name Disambiguation and Collocation." Future Internet 2, no. 1 (2010): 1-15. Assignment 3 Due
Week 5 April 22	OPACs Notes	Read: Bates, M. J. "Subject Access in Online Catalogs: A Design Model." Journal of the American Society for Information Science 37, no. 6 (1986): 357. Assignment 4 Due
Week 6 April 29	Varieties of Databases Notes	Read: Schneider, Karen G. "How OPACs Suck, Part 1: Relevance Rank (Or the Lack of it)." ALA TechSource. http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/03/how-opacs-suck-part-1-relevance-rank-or-the-lack-of-it.html (accessed January 17, 2007). Read: ———. "How OPACs Suck, Part 2: The Checklist of Shame." http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/04/how-opacs-suck-part-2-the-checklist-of-shame.html (accessed January 17, 2007). Read: ———. "How OPACs Suck, Part 3: The Big Picture." http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/05/how-opacs-suck-part-3-the-big-picture.html (accessed January 27, 2007). Read: Mills, Elinor. "Newspapers Search for Web Headline Magic." CNET Networks, Inc. http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6155739.html (accessed 2/4, 2007). Assignment 5 Due
Week 7 May 6	Searching Techniques Citation Searching Notes	Read: Jacso, P. "As we may search–Comparison of Major Features of the Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar Citation-Based and Citation-Enhanced Databases." Current Science (Bangalore) 89, no. 9 (2005): 1537. Assignment 6 Due
Week 8 May 13	Google Scholar and Federated Searching Notes	Read: "Innovative Uses of the OpenURL." Library Technology Reports 42, no. 1 (-01-01, 2006): 35. Read: Giustini, D. and E. Barsky. "A Look at Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scirus: Comparisons and Recommendations." JCHLA/JABhttp://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_089_09_1531_1536_0.pdf Read: Vine, R. "Google Scholar." Journal of the Medical Library Association 94, no. 1 (2006): 97, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1324783. Assignment 7 Due
Week 9 May 20	OpenURLs and Reference Linking Notes	Read: Helfer, Doris. "Metasearching: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Making it Work in Your Library." Searcher (Medford, N.J.) 13, no. 2 (-02-01, 2005): 40.
Week 10 May 27	NO CLASS MEMORIAL DAY	Final Project Due

Helpful sites mentioned in class:

Domain Name Registries Around the World: http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html

The Google Pagerank Algorithm and How It Works: http://www.google.com/technology/