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

LIS 4011 Information Access and Retrieval (section 2)

3 Quarter Hours

Quarter: Winter 2009; January 6 - March 10
Schedule: Tuesdays 7:00 - 9:20 PM
Place:

115 Johnson-McFarlane Hall

Instructor: Christopher C. Brown, Penrose Library, Reference / Government Documents Librarian

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/FindIt/EResources/findit_databasesearch_results.cfm?alpha=ALL

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- 88-92%
B+ 86-87%
B 80-85%
B- 78-79%
C+ 76-77%
C 70-75%
C- 68-69%
D 60-67%
F <60%

Date Topic Assignments
Week 1
6 Jan

Course Intro.; History of Indexing; Information Seeking Behavior

Notes

 Familiarize yourself with the many databases to which Penrose Library subscribes.
Week 2
13 Jan

Information Structures

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
20 Jan

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
27 Jan

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.

Assignment 3 Due
Week 5
3 Feb

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
10 Feb

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
17 Feb

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
24 Feb

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/JABSC 26, (2005): 85-89, http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/jchla/jchla26/c05-030.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
3 Mar

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
10 Mar

Tying Things Together

Notes

Class wrap up

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/