LIBR 569L Information Policy – Course Syllabus

 

Program: Masterof Library and Information Studies
Instructor: Martin Dowding
Location: Koerner Library Rm 216
Course Schedule: Weekly meetings, Thursday 1:30 to 4:00 pm
Office: SLAIS, 336 TEF, 6190 Agronomy Rd.
Phone: 604-822-2704
Office Hours: By appointment, or drop-in
E-mail: dowdingm@interchange.ubc.ca

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Course Objectives:

Upon completing this course students will be able to:

• understand and describe public policy
• describe the relationship between public policy and information
• describe the purpose of information policy
• discuss the origins and development of information policy as a unique discipline
• explain the political, social, economic, and technological changes that have caused governments to revise information legislation and regulation
• create a taxonomy of Canadian national information infrastructure (NII) issues
• describe how NII issues relate to Global Information Infrastructure (GII) issues.
• explain how information policy pertains to LIS, locally, nationally and internationally
• describe and compare recent and current NII policy initiatives in other countries
• create an information policy document in response to a public policy issue such as intellectual freedom, freedom of information, the economics of information access and distribution, copyright, joint library use, gifts, de‑accessioning, etc.
• identify the structure and salient characteristics of information policy literature, including electronic and hard copy materials

Course Topics:

• 1) an overview of the process of creating information policy
• 2) the study and application of public and organizational policy procedure
• 3) a survey of the current issues and themes in information policy, regulation and legislation

Prerequisites: LIBR 500, LIBR 510, LIBR 540, LIBR 560

Required Readings :

• Adams, Karen and William Birdsall (eds.) (2004) Access to Information in a Digital World Canadian Library Association: Ottawa
• Course Custom Materials Package (for purchase) and topical media articles distributed throughout the course.
• Readings distributed in class from time to time as required by visiting speakers.

Course Assignments

	Date Due	Weight
Assignment #1: Analysis of Public Policy Theory (10 pp.)	Feb. 9	30%
Assignment #2: Analysis of Information Policy Issue (10 pp.)	March 9	30%
Assignment #3: Topical Policy Issue Paper (10 pp.)	April	30%
Class Participation		10%

Course Schedule: Week by Week

Week	Date	Topic	Readings
1	Jan. 5	Welcome & Introduction Discussion: Introducing LIBR 569L Film: “Library in Crisis”	Intro to course text: Adams/Birdsall
2	Jan. 12	What is the Information Society?	1) Schement/Curtis 2) K. Coyle 3) Industry Canada
3	Jan. 19	Information: Commodity? Thing? Knowledge? Or What?	1) Buckland 2) Day
4	Jan. 26	Public Policy: Does it relate to Information? Guest Speaker: TBA	1) Howlett/Ramesh 2) Parsons
5	Feb. 2	Information Policy: What is it? Public Policy? Organization Policy? Social Policy? Economic Policy?	1) Browne 2) Rowlands 3)Oppenheim/ MacMorrow 4) Braman
6	Feb. 9	Global Information Infrastructure Policy (GII)	1) McBride 2) Bangemann
7	Feb. 16	NO CLASS – Midterm Break
8	Feb. 23	National Information Infrastructure Policy (NII)	NIIAC/IHAC, Today
9	Mar. 2	Library Policy Professional Organizations Guest Speaker: TBA	IFLA , ALA , CLA, BCLA Reading : TBA
10	Mar. 9	Universal Access/Universal Service Introduction to Weeks 11-13	1) Clement/Shade 2) Hammond 3) Cherry/Wildman
11	Mar. 16	Copyright: Guest Speaker: TBA	TBA
12	Mar. 23	Ethics/Intellectual Freedom TBA	TBA (Distribution of following week’s article)
13	Mar. 30	Secrecy/Privacy, Freedom of Information (FOI) The Right to Know	Article: “Terrorism, Trade, and Internet Privacy” (distributed previous week)
14	April 6	Review and Film: “Save and Burn

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.

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.