Information Resources in Social Sciences
Instructor: Muh-Chyun Tang  
muhchyun.tang@gmail.com  (TEL) 33662967, office hours: 13:30-14:20
Dept. of Library and Information Science.
National Taiwan University
Discussion forum

Course Description 
Study of print and electronic reference and research resources and their users in the social sciences, with a special attention to the scholarly cultures that shape the knowledge infrastructures in different fields.  
 
Course Objectives 

Course schedule

Assignments and Grading

Group projects: (students will form into groups of 2-? to work together for four projects). Each member should prepare a less than one page personal report explaining your contributions and what you have learned from the assignments

1.  1.  Identify a "boundary crossing" theory or concept (10%)
       a.  Choose a theory or concept that has been adopted in multiple disciplines. 
       b.  Find its definition and trace its origin using authoritative sources such as disciplinary   
            encyclopedias. 
       c.   Using citation indexing databases such of Scopus of Web of Science to trace, in the past 10 years,             how the conecpt has been received in different disciplines (i.e. number of articles on this topic               across years, disciplines and journals).
       d.  Find at least two research articles from separate disciplines; compare how the 
            concept has been interpreted in each article. 
       e.  Turn in a 2-4 page report and give a short oral report (10 minute) in class.  

2. Simulated literature search (20%)

Each group will conduct interviews with a researcher (e.g. a graduate student or a faculty member) in one of the social sciences (preferably the same discipline with which you conduct your domain analysis) and volunteer a literature search for her.

1. Describe the disciplinary culture and the major paradigms (or major theoretical frameworks) in her area of research. How do they influence her information seeking behaviors?   
2. Describe the information environment the researcher is situated in.  For example, how s/he usually conducts information search, what information resources she usually use, what the major journals and conferences in her field are etc. 
3. Interview the researcher and try to characterize her information needs using attributes such as "topic familiarity", "uncertainty", "complexity" or "stage in the ISP".  
4. Conduct a literature search for the researcher on the topic of her choosing. Report the purpose, search statement, relevant criteria, and possible search terms for the search.This should be an interactive process, get feedbacks from your initial search, and refine your queries based on the feedbacks. Pay attention to how the researcher makes relevance judgment on the search results. 
5. Retrieve 10 to 15 references for your interviewee. Create an online reference manager account (citeUlike or connotea) for the interviewee to manage the citations you found. Also give a short demo to her/him so that s/he might be able to adopt the servcie in the futuer. Based on your understanding of her information need, see if you could suggest resources the researcher has not been aware of but might be interested in using in the future. 
6. Keep a search log/diary 
7. Turn in a 5 page written report that describes the interviews and search process, along with the search queries. 
8. Give a 20-25 minute power-point presentation of your findings, plus a 5 to 10 minute question-answering section.   

This project will consist of three components: a 6 page written report, a customized search engine and a presentation.

a.  For the written report, first give a 2 ~ 3 page long introduction of the discipline. Make references to the reference books such as (Herron, 2002), or (Li, 2000), for Chinese reference, see 魏鏞, 1993, Ch. 4. 

b.  First identify the top 10 journal titles with highest impact factors in the discipline. 

c.  Next review 3 information resources (at least two of which are in foreign languages, and include at least one reference book such as dictionary or subject-based encyclopedia) in the domain you are analyzing. An information resource can be an online portal, an institutional depository, a journal title, an index and abstract service, a full-text database, a data center or other references resources.

d.  (Optional) find a controlled vocabulary or classification scheme used in the domain. 

e.  For each information resource reviewed, write a 1 page summary explaining its aim, scope and intended audience. Also comment on the coverage, quality and design features of the resource.

f.  Create a customized search engine for the domain using http://www.google.com/coop
For this project, each group will create a Web-based information retrieval system using Google co-op (
visit Google Co-op develop guide at http://www.google.com/coop/docs/guide_topics.html

g.  Give an oral presentation of your findings. Demonstrate how to search or browse the resources. Identify special search or indexing features, see if you can relate the design feature to the research practice of the user community.  

     h.  Each presentation will take about 15 to 20 minutes, plus a 5 to 10 minutes         
          question-answering section. 

You will conduct a research on a social or policy issue that interests you using secondary sources and write a 8 page report (including figures, charts, tables or any visual aid applicable) and prepare a 10-15 minutes presentation for it. The purpose of the assignment is for you to practice information gathering, integration and representation. You are expected to weave information gathered from various sources to create a coherent, easy-to-digest narrative. Interviews with experts or other first-hand sources is encouraged but not required, your report will be judged mainly on how well you summarize and synthesize the information you collect. You are free to use figures, charts or other visual aids to present the information. Make clear references to the sources you cite. 

Possible formats for such a report:

1. Clarify a controversies: present conflicting perspectives on a controversial issue or a policy dilemma. Discuss rationales behind their arguments.

2. Report current state of affair: a routine update or summary of what is known or said about a topic

3. Trend spotting: identify trends or phenomena (social, political, economic…etc.) that have not been widely recognized 

4. Decision-making: collect information that helps make a policy or business (e.g. marketing) decision.
   
   Please note that this is by no means an exhaustive list, I’m making these examples just to help you explore possible topics. Talk to me if you are not sure whether your topic is appropriate.      
   

       Attendance to all class sessions is mandatory. Your grade will be judged based on you attendance as well as questions and comments you bring up in class or online forum.

References 
       Bates, M. J. (2002). Speculations on browsing, directed searching, and linking in relation to the Bradford distribution. In Bruce, H., R. Fidel, P. Ingwersen, & P. Vakkari (Eds.) Emerging Frameworks and Methods: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS 4), July 21-25, Seattle, WA. Libraries Unlimited, Greenwood Village, 137-149. Available Online

Ellis, D. (1989) A behavioural approach to information retrieval system design. Journal of Documentation 45,(3), 171-212

Fry, J. and Talja, S. (2004) The cultural shaping of scholarly communication: explaining e-journaluse within and across academic fields. In: Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology Annual Meeting on Managing and Enhancing Information:
Cultures and Conflicts (Providence, Rhode Island, 13th-18th November. pp. 20-30).        

Kuhn, Thomas (1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago. Ch. 2: The Route to Normal Science

      Herron, N. L. (2002).The social sciences: a cross-disciplinary guide to
selected sources. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited.        

      Li, Tze-chung, (2000). Social science reference sources: a practical guide Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. 

      Hart, Chris (2001). Doing a literature search: a comprehensive guide for the
social sciences. Newbury Park: Sage Publications.

       社會科學的性質及發展趨勢 / 魏鏞著 She hui k'o hsüeh te hsing chih chi fa chan ch'ü shih 出版項 臺北市 : 臺灣商務, 民82[1993]

        次級資料硏究法 / David W. Stewart, Michael A. Kamins著; 董旭英,黃儀娟譯; 齊力校閱 出版項 臺北市 : 弘智文化, 2000[民89]

        硏究文獻之回顧與整合 / Harris M. Cooper 著; 高美英譯 出版項 台北市 : 弘智文化, 1999[民88]