Course
description
Exploration
of the theoretical and practical issues involved in the selection,
evaluation and representation of online resources. Emphasis on both
evaluation criteria of online information and tools associated with its
organization and discovery. The impacts of networked technology on
knowledge production and dissemination will be also discussed.
Specifically, students will acquire a basic understanding of
1. The production and marketing of information goods
2. The nature of digital document and documentation
3. The impact of digitalizaiton on information organization and access
4. A framework to evaluate the value and usability of various emerging knowledge discovery tools from users' perspective
Course Schedule
| Week | Topics | Readings and assignments |
| 1. 02/24 | Orientation/ introduction | |
| 2. 03/03 | sign up delicious; anobii and open worldcat | Information rules: Ch. 1 The information Economy |
| 3. 03/10 | Information economy and marketing of information goods; | Information
rules: Ch.3 |
| 4. 03/17 * away |
Meet in Lab; HTML
editor; Kompozer and Wikipedia Demo; The Internet Archive ;Alexa; |
The Long Tail Ch. 1, 2 |
| 5. 03/24 | The implications of digitalization on information organization |
Weinberger2008, Ch. 1, The New Order of Order; "Information science fiction" Howard White |
| 6. 03/31 | Meet in Lab; Mark-up languages; sign up RSS_NTU_Library Podcast RSS/XML Tutorial ; XML tutorial |
Digital Archive System Developer's Guide to XML: The Primer. Ch. 1-4 |
| 7. 04/07 | Social media collective
filtering system |
The
Long Tail Ch. 3, 4 |
| 8. 04/14 | The implications of the Internet on cultural production :Web 2.0 and collective wisdom on the Web; cognitive surplus | The Long Tail Ch. 5 |
| 9. 04/21 |
Meet in Lab Podcast DIY; Audacity demo Postcast demo |
Informaiton servcie evaluation due; I Tunes RSS specifications More podcast/audacity tutorials Safari at Open University |
| 10. 04/28 | The impact of the Internet on information literacy ; scholarly vs. mass communication; information resources in the context of knowledge creation | Cognitive authority, Ch. 2, p. 13- 35 |
| 11. 05/05 | Meet in Lab Online Retrieval; information needs and search strategies |
How search engines rank web pages Topic analysis worksheet and Google search syntax *sytaxes exercise |
| 12. 05/12 | Invisible web; federal
search ;Google scholar and doi framework/Open URL and Crossref |
Visit the following website and prepare a short presentation next week Lulu.com; jpgmag.com; scribd.com, LibraryThing, ChaCha.com; askalibrarian; Project Gutenberg; World E-Book Library; SPARC |
| 13. 05/19 |
Short presentation of online informaiton services | Postcast topic due Self-archiving initiative by Stevan Harnad |
| 14. 05/26 | The impact of digitalization on publication: open access movement in scholarly publication; institutional repository; creative common; | Google Sytaxes exercise due; Wiki topic due The e-book, the e-reader, and the future of reaing. Shaer, M. 2009 Books gone wild: the digital age reshapes literature; |
| 15. 06/02 |
Meet in Lab: lab sessions for your final project |
The
Long Tail Ch. 7-8; sign up and try GroupLen |
| 16. 06/09 | Student presentation | Wiki and podcast project due |
| 17. 06/16 | The impacts of the Internet on human cognition |
Reading this will change your brain (Newsweek) Does the Internet make you dumber? (The Wall Street Journal) |
| 18. 06/23 | Final Exam |
1. Class participation 10%
2. Final exam 30%
3. Homeworks 20%
a. Information services evaluation
b. (Google syntax assignment)
4. Group projects 40%
There will be two group projects, see detailed instructions below.
On top of your group report, each member will turn in a half-page
personal report that explain what you have learned and contributed in
each group project.
4.1 Wikimedia group project 10%
For the wiki project, students
will form into group of 2 to 4 to create and edit an wiki entry for a
core concept or theory on the class wikimedia site.
This assignment will include the following components:
1. Creating an wiki entry on the class wikimedia site. Make sure you cite credible souces and provide extra links for users who want to know more on the topic.
First post your topic on the class discussion forum to claim your
topic, then
write a 2 - 4 pages explanatory texts that explain the defination,
origin, and history of the concept. All the information you include in
the entry has to be attributable to reliable
sources.
You MUST make rerference to as least one authoritative source such as
"The
Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology," or "Encyclopedia
of Library and Information Science". Also make sure you
make proper citations to your source, see How
to cite sources.
2. One page summary of your search strategies
3. Give a short (less than 5 mintues) talk on your entry. In your talk, focus less on the content than on the search strategies and references used in preparing the entry.
4.2 Podcasting group project 30% ( more example)
For the podcasting project, students will form into groups of 2 or 4 to
conduct a team project that involves creating a podcasting
service for a topic of your choice.
This assignment will include the following components:
1. A web page that includes:
a. An introduction (one to two paragraphs) that clearly states the aim
and scope of the site.
b. At least two episodes of podcasts available to download, each about
5-10 minutes in length.
2. A written report that includes
a. 1-3 pages that explains the web site's
intended user communities and their information needs.
b . The XML codes for your RSS.
3. A presentation
of the project to the class.
a . Demonstrate that a user will be able to subscribe to your podcast
using one of the aggregators/RSS readers.
b. Play the MP3 files of your production.
References
(Kroski, 2008). Web 2.0 for librarians and information professionals. Neal-Schuman.