Time Schedule:
Phillip M Edwards
LIS 523
Seattle Campus
Investigation of the development, administration, and evaluation of information services for supporting the research process both within and across organizations. Prerequisite: LIS 521 or permission of instructor.
Class description
This course examines the creation, management, assessment, and evolution of information services across a variety of institutional contexts. Students will practice applying the results of information needs analysis to the design or modification of information services. Students will explore how information services—as systems of persons, resources, and interfaces—support the research process, both within and across organizations.
As an advanced course in preparing students with an interest in professional work in mediation services, this course will enable students to move from thinking about individual service encounters (cf. LIS 521) to the provision of information services to wide communities of users. Students will explore the challenges involved in delivering personalizable information services while attempting to reach large user groups. As an advanced course in preparing students with an interest in professional work in mediation services, this course will enable students to move from thinking about individual service encounters to the provision of information services to wide communities of users. Students will explore the challenges involved in delivering individually tailored information services while attempting to reach large user groups.
By the end of the course, it is expected that students will:
* Have read recent literature in information services, from a variety of perspectives and in a variety of settings, and understand major questions, issues and forces at work;
* Understand the diversity of practices associated with the provision of information services in libraries and information centers;
* Recognize the important issues involved in the design or modification of an information service for a particular community or organization and be able to produce a professional design/action research proposal;
* Develop a plan for evaluation of an information service for the purpose of choosing among service options.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
This course is primarily centered around short lectures, small-group discussion, peer review, and hands-on work.
This course is fundamentally structured as a studio environment; frequent and meaningful interactions with classmates, within small groups, and with the instructor are emphasized. Required lectures and readings are used to support this process and the associated intellectual work.
Recommended preparation
Students should be prepared to work independently and in small groups to apply concepts learned in 52x courses in a service design/evaluation context.
Class assignments and grading
Assignments consist of a service design/evaluation proposal (created individually but in conjunction with small group work) and peer review activities.
Written work will be graded based on its clarity, organization, balance, amount of pertinent detail included, depth and clarity of evaluative and analytical comments, and preparation. It will also be graded on the extent to which a good understanding of the material presented in the course is shown and on the extent to which directions are followed. If evaluative or analytical comments are required, they should be supported by factual evidence, either from readings or other documents. Other aspects of individual assignments may also be included in the grading.
Written work that shows a lack of understanding of subject matter, is unclear or poorly organized, contains few or irrelevant details, does not follow directions, contains little or unsubstantiated evaluative commentary, or is poorly written, prepared (e.g. typos, grammatical errors), or documented will receive low grades.
