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LIBR 510: FOUNDATIONS OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL – COURSE SYLLABUS

 

Program: Master of Library and Information Studies
Year: 2005-2006, Winter session, Term 1
Course Schedule: Tuesdays 1:30-4:30
Location: FNS 40
Instructor: Joseph T. Tennis
Office location: TEF III 338
Office phone: 604.822.2431
Office hours: by appointment
E-mail address: jtennis@interchange.ubc.ca

Course Goal: This course and those that follow from it speak particularly to the "organization ... of society's recorded information and ideas" in the SLAIS mission statement. Generally, its primary goal is to introduce students to and have them become familiar with some of the principles and techniques of bibliographic control, including current trends. Specifically, it enables students to develop the capabilities to organize information resources for effective retrieval and to understand the importance of information organization. A related and equally important goal of LIBR 510 is to encourage students to become better information professionals overall, i.e., to enable them to interpret and use bibliographic data more effectively and efficiently.

Course Objectives: The specific objectives of LIBR 510 are:

  • to provide a bridge from the student’s own initial state of knowledge and experience, and to aid in developing a personal set of principles for organizing information
    emphasize the importance of client needs as the underlying basis for the organization and representation of recorded information
  • to provide the conceptual underpinnings such that students may develop an understanding of the general role of bibliographic control in the information transfer process, and its particular role in information systems design and operation
  • to introduce a variety of methods for representing, organizing, and storing recorded information through the use, for example, of standardized cataloguing codes and controlled vocabularies
  • to acquaint students with the principles and methods of providing access to recorded information
  • to provide the opportunity for students to explore both traditional and nontraditional techniques for describing and providing access to electronic documents available remotely
  • to provide a basis for the evaluation and comparison of different methods of representing, organizing, and storing recorded information such that students can understand and articulate what makes for an effective information retrieval system
  • to acquaint students with the basic principles of bibliographic classification and subject analysis
  • to survey some of the issues or problems, including the implications of technological change, involved in the organization and representation of recorded information, and to propose possible solutions to these problems
  • to acquaint students with the current trends in bibliographic control and have them recognize those that represent genuine advances in thinking, practice, etc. as opposed to those that are merely a “flash in the pan”.

Prerequisites and/or Course Restrictions: LIBR500 and LIBR560 required as co- or prerequisite; LIBR540 preferred as co-requisite. LIBR510 is limited to SLAIS students admitted to the MLIS or Joint Degree Program, to students admitted to the MAS program and taking the First Nations Curriculum Concentration, or to education students in the MEd in teacher-librarianship program. Other students may be admitted to LIBR510 with the approval of the SLAIS Graduate Adviser.

Format of the course: One lecture/seminar session per week.

Required and Recommended Reading:

[•••• THIS LIST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE BY INSTRUCTOR ••••]

Texts to buy

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. ( Cambridge: MIT Press).
  • Wilson, P. (1968). Two kinds of power: an essay on bibliographic control ( Berkeley: University of California).
  • Custom Course Materials

Notes on Readings:

My class has three types of readings: Required, Optional, and Reference.

  • Required* – you are expected to read these before class the class session, and be able to comment on these readings
  • Optional – these readings offer additional perspectives, information, and context for weekly topics
  • Reference Material – these readings are not to be “read” but rather, to be used for assignments, practice exercises, and for future information work related to information organization

* Where you are not required to read the whole piece, I have placed a [skim] note next to the citation

Schedule of Readings

Week 1 Introduction to Information Organization

[47 pages]

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Information Organization" In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. ( Cambridge: MIT Press): 1-14.
  • Borko, H., & Bernier, C. L.  (1975).  "Characteristics and types of abstracts."  In Abstracting concepts and methods ( San Diego, CA: Academic Press):13-24.
  • Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M.  (1980).  "Metaphorical systematicity: highlighting and hiding."  In Metaphors we live by (pp. 10-13).  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.
  • Wilson, P. (1968). "Chapter II: Describing and Exploiting." in Two kinds of power: an essay on bibliographic control: 20-40.

Optional

  • Borges, J. L. "Library of Babel." In Collected fictions. Andrew Hurley (Trans.) (New York: Viking):112-118.
  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Preface." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): ix-xiv.
  • Wilson, P. (1968). "Introduction." In Two kinds of power: an essay on bibliographic control: 1-5.

Reference Material

Week 2 Documents and Works

[34 pages]

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Bibliographic Entities." In Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 31-52.
  • Wilson, P. (1968). "Chapter I: Bibliographical Universe." In Two kinds of power: an essay on bibliographic control. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press): 6-19.

Optional

  • Smiraglia, R. P. (2003). "The history of 'the work' in the modern catalog." In Cataloging and classification quarterly 35(3/4): 553-567.
  • STIC-CNRS. (2003). "Document: form, sign and medium, as reformulated for electronic documents." PDF Available:
    http://tinyurl.com/bzlek
  • Briet, S. (1951/2001) Qu'est-ce que la documentation? [What is documentation?] Trans. Ron Day and Laurent Martinet. Originally published in Éditions Documentaires Industrielles et Techniques (EDIT) in Paris. Translation available:
    http://www.lisp.wayne.edu/~ai2398/briet.htm

Reference Material

Week 3: Objectives of the Catalogue

[28 pages + Panizzi]

[skim]

  • Panizzi, A. (1848/1995). "Mr. Panizzi to the Right Hon. The Earl of Ellesmere. – British Museum, January 29, 1848." In Foundations of Cataloging: a Sourcebook. Carpenter and Svenonius (eds.). (Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited): 18-41.

[read]

  • Wilson, P. (1968). "Chapter IV. Bibliographical instruments and their specifications." In Two kinds of power: an essay on bibliographic control: 55-68.
  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Bibliographic Objectives." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 15-30.

Optional

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Bibliographic Languages." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 53-66

Week 4: Description I - Describing Documents and Works

[26 pages]

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Work Languages." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 87-106
  • Wilson, T. D. (2000). “Human Information Behavior.” In Informing Science3(2). Available:
    http://inform.nu/Articles/Vol3/v3n2p49-56.pdf

Optional

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Principles of Description." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 67-86

Week 5: Description II – Providing Access to Documents and Works

[32 pages]

  • Hagler, R. (1997). "Access Points."  In TheBibliographic Record and Information Technology.  3rd ed.  (Chicago:  ALA):  95-121.
  • Mäki, U. (2001). "Models, Metaphors, Narrative, and Rhetoric: Philosophical Aspects." In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences Smelser and Baltes eds. (Amsterdam: Elsevier):9931-9937.

Optional

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Document Languages." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 107-126

Reference Material

Week 6: Encoding

[33 pages + the tutorial]

Reference Material:

Week 7: Interpreting Documents

[54 pages]

  • Wilson, P. (1968). "Chapter V: subjects and the sense of position." In Two kinds of power: an essay in bibliographic control (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press): 69-92
  • Mai, J-E. (2001). "Semiotics and indexing: an analysis of the subject indexing process." In Journal of Documentation 57(5): 591-622.

Optional

  • Wilson, P. (1968). "Chapter VI: indexing, coupling, hunting." In Two kinds of power: an essay in bibliographic control (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press): 93-113.

Reference Material

  • British Standards Organisation. (1984). British Standard Recommendations for Examining Documents, Determining Their Subjects and Selecting Indexing Terms.  BS6529: 1984.
    Available: on reserve in Koerner
  • nternational Organization for Standardization. (1985). Documentation -- Methods for Examining Documents, Determining their Subjects and Selecting Indexing Terms.  ISO 5963-1985.
    Available: on reserve in Koerner

Week 8: Vocabulary Control

[30 pages]

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Subject Languages: Introduction, Vocabulary Selection, and Classification." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 123-146.
  • Furnas, G. W., Gomez, L. M., Landauer, T. K., Dumais, S T. (1987). "The vocabulary problem in human-system communication?" in Communications of the ACM 30(11):964-971.

Optional

  • Hjørland, B. (1998) "The classification of psychology: a case study in the classification of a knowledge field."  In Knowledge Organization, 25(4):162-201

Week 9: Information Structures I – Subject Languages

[44 pages]

  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Subject Languages: Referential and Relational Semantics." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 147-172.
  • Svenonius, E. (2001). "Subject-Language Syntax." In The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (Cambridge: MIT Press): 173-192.

Reference Material:

  • American National Standards Institute. (1993). Guidelines for the construction, format, and management of monolingual thesauri. ANSI/NISO Z39.19
    Available: http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-19.html (three parts)
  • ntroduction to the Library of Congress Subject Headings
     Available: in Lab-2 in SLAIS

Week 10: Information Structures II – Classification Theory

[37 pages]

  • Rowley, J.  (1992). "Chapter 13. The Theory of Bibliographic Classification," In Organizing Knowledge:  An Introduction to Information Retrieval. 2nd ed. (Hants, England: Ashgate): 176-199.
  • Neelameghan, A. "Classification, Theory of" In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. (New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc): 546-560.

Optional

  • Ranganathan, S. R. (1967). Prolegomena to Library Classification. 3rd ed. (Bombay: Asia Publishing House): 47-110, 395-482.
    Available: on reserve in Koerner

Reference Material:

Week 11 Metadata I - Dublin Core Records and Resource Discovery

[50 pages]

  • Wilson, P. (1968). "VIII Reliability" In Two kinds of power: an essay in bibliographic control (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press):125-131
  • Wilson, P. (1968). "IX Adequacy of Bibliographical Policy" In Two kinds of power: an essay in bibliographic control (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press):132-155.
  • Hillmann, D. (2003). Using Dublin Core. [about 6 pages]
    Available: http://www.dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/
  • Duval, E., Hodges, W., Sutton, S. A., Weibel, S. L. (2002). "Metadata principles and practicalities." In D-Lib Magazine 8(4). [about 14 pages]
    Available: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april02/weibel/04weibel.html

Reference

Week 12 Metadata II – Application Profiles and Registries

[26 pages]

Reference Materials:

Week 13 Semantic Web and Social Tagging/Folksonomies

[13 plus your choice from the Bulletin]

Choose One from this issue:

Reference Material

Course Assignments, Due dates and Weight in relation to final course mark:

 

Assignment

Due Date

Weight

Total

Midterm Response Essay

Week 6

50%

 

Final Project

Week 13

50%

 

 

 

100%

Course Schedule

Week and Date

Topic

1 – September 6

Information Organization and Representation

2 – September 13

Documents and Works

3 – September 20

Objectives of the Catalogue

4 – September 27

Description I – Describing Works

5 – October 4

Description II – Providing Access to Works

6 – October 11

Encoding Descriptions

7 – October 18

Interpreting Documents

8 – October 25

Vocabulary Control

9 – November 1

Information Structures I – Subject Languages

10 – November 8

Information Structures II – Classification Theory

11 – November 15

Dublin Core and Resource Discovery

12 – November 22

Metadata Architecture for Resource Discovery

13 – November 29

Semantic Web and Social Tagging/Folksonomies

Attendance : The calendar states: “Regular attendance is expected of students in all their classes (including lectures, laboratories, tutorials, seminars, etc.). Students who neglect their academic work and assignments may be excluded from the final examinations. Students who are unavoidably absent because of illness or disability should report to their instructors on return to classes.”

Evaluation : All assignments will be awarded letter grades using the evaluative criteria given on the SLAIS web site.

School of Library, Archival and Information Studies Grading Policy : Many faculty members assign letter grades to papers and assignments. Below is shown an explanation of what each letter grade assigned by a SLAIS instructor means. However, grades are reported to the Registrar on a percentage basis, and appear in that form on your transcript. In addition, the Registrar's computer automatically converts percentage grades to letter grades, which also appear on your transcript.

A+     90-100%
Unusually high achievement demonstrating exceptional analytical ability, creativity, and clarity of expression; a grade rarely given.

A       85-89%   
Consistently excellent work demonstrating high degree of analytical ability, creativity, and clarity of expression.

A-      80-84%   
Excellence noted in many aspects of the work, which demonstrates analytical ability, creativity and clarity of expression.

B+     76-79%   
Work demonstrating diligence and effort above basic requirements.

B       72-75%   
Solid work meeting the basic course requirements.

B-      68-71%   
Acceptable work meeting the minimum of expectations but demonstrating limited performance.

C+     64-67%   
Work which casts doubt as to the student's ability or readiness to meet course requirements.

C       60-63%   
Work barely permitting a pass in the single course.

F       00-59%   
Failure.

Written & Spoken English Requirement: Written and spoken work may receive a lower mark if it is, in the opinion of the instructor, deficient in English.

Additional course information:

Svenonius, Wilson, and the CCM (Custom Course Materials) are at the bookstore. All materials not online can be found in Koerner reserve (at the left of the main entrance).

You are expected to subscribe to the class discussion list. We will use this list for announcements and general information sharing during the course.

To sign up for class discussion list send an email message to: majordomo@interchange.ubc.ca
In the body of the message write: subscribe l-510
end

 

The instructor reserves the right to make changes to the course schedule.