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MLIS 7120: Syllabus
Copyright © 2005 Wallace Koehler -- All Rights Reserved
Contact
Dr. Wallace Koehler
MLIS Program
Valdosta State University
1500 N Patterson
Valdosta, GA31698-0150
Phone: 229-333-5966
Fax: 229-259-5055
E-mail:
wkoehler@valdosta.edu
Office Hours and Class Meetings
| This is a Web-based class. What does that mean? We will NOT meet in a classroom. There will be no F2F (face to face) lectures, no DE-TV lectures. Instruction will be conducted via these pages and through e-mail. There are those of us who believe that the Web-based class is here to stay. There are both positive and negative elements to this mode of instruction. On the plus side, students need not come to campus for class meetings and, for the most part, they can choose their learning time. This class follows the university calendar. Assignments are due when they are due. The course is quasi self paced. By that I mean, there are weekly assignments. You are expected to complete those assignments during the scheduled week, when during the week you choose to do them is up to you. It is my opinion that process and informational instruction can be conducted effectively using Web-based instruction. Skills based instruction is more problematic. For that reason, when we turn to the use of various electronic search and retrieval tools like GILS, LEXIS, and Dialog, we will use streaming video for demo purposes. I have set aside a three week block of time for familiarization with these services. |
Policy
The following are official statements of University policy taken from a memorandum dated August 2000. Please feel free to discuss these with me at any time. If any of these policies apply to you, please do not hestitate to bring your concerns or requirements to my attention. We will adhere to both the spirit and the letter of these policies.
Sexual Harassment Policy/Sexual Assault Policy
Racial and Ethnic Harassement Policy
Discrimination Policy - Other than Racial/Ethnic or Sexual
Religious Holidays
Reasonable Accomodation
Academic Misconduct
Text Books
Two texts are assigned for this coursePeter Hernon, Harold Relyea, Robert Dugan, and Joan Cheverie, United States Government Information Sources: Policies and Sources Libraries Unlimited, 2002 and its Supplement CD-ROM (included with test) and Peter Hernon, , Robert Dugan, and John Shuler US Government on the Web, Libraries Unlimited, 3 ed 2003.
These books are available at online booksellers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders.
You will note that these books address United States government information sources. They do a fine job of what they do. What they don't do is address state and local government or non-US governments.
You may find the course lectures a little light in the last three weeks of the course. It is, in fact, not light. We will lean heavily on the texts. For me to in effect copy what the texts do so well is at best redundent and most likely represents a waste of time for us all.
One final note on these books. As with all things, these books out date rapidly. These books may out date more rapidly than some. Web links to change, although government links are stable as links go. New resources are created. Old ones are modified or disappear. The model persists however. Governments are moving more and more to electronic media, our courses and texts need necessarily to keep pace.
Class Meetings
The VSU Academic Calendar can be found at: http://www.valdosta.edu/cgi-bin/webevent/webevent.cgi?cmd=opencal&cal=cal3Classes begin January 10 and end May 2. The week beginning March 28 through Friday April 1 is Spring Break. Mark your calendars accordingly.
| Week 1 A1 |
Week 2 A2 |
Week 3 A3 |
Week 4 |
| Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 A7 |
Week 8 |
| Week 9 A9 |
Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 |
| Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 A15 |
Week 16 FP16 |
Note: the alphanumeric Ax links to an assignment due at the end of the indicated week.
For a set of resources, indexes, and the like, go to the Resources Page
Week 1 |
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A. Course Expectations and RequirementsB. The Metamorphosis of Gov Docs.C. Document TypesDocument Formats: Print, Microfiche, CD-ROM, InternetDocument Locations: Library of Congress, GPO, Depository Libraries, On-line, General Catalogs, Bibliographies, Indexes, etc. D. What are we dealing withHistorical Documents - Legal Documents -
Procedural Documents - Statistical Documents - Reading:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler Ch 1Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 1, 7, 8, 15 |
Week 2 |
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Field Trip to a Depository Library Students are required to tour a government documents depository. No library is specified. Make an appointment with the depository librarian at the library you have selected to visit. Inform him/her of your reasons for visiting. Prepare a brief report of your visit and submit it by the end of week 3. VSU Website From print to digital Catalog of US Government Documents: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cgp/index.html Key Resources for US are: Government Documents Collection at VSU -- http://books.valdosta.edu/gov/gov.html Introduction to E-GovernmentE-Government is the latest "innovation" in the delivery of services.Readings:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 1, 10, 14, Appendeces A, B, and CHernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 3, 16 |
Week 3 |
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A. Document ClassificationSuDoc Classification UN Document Classification ECDocument Classification Depository Libraries B. What Do Governments Do and What Do They Look Like -- or Political Science 101Readings:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 2, 4, 5, 6, 7Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, pp. 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11 |
Week 4 |
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A. What Do Governments Do and What Do They Look Like -- or Political Science 101 #2Readings:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 2, 4, 5, 6, 7Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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SEARCH TOOLS |
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Week 5 |
GILS
DIALOG LEXIS-NEXIS Web Engines Z39.50 FindLaw |
A. "Traditional" Finding ToolsDiscuss lessons learned from the library tour. How do depository libraries manage their collections? B. Electronic Finding ToolsGILSReading:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 3, 9, 14Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 1, 2. An Office of Electric Government, see:
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Week 6 |
GILS
DIALOG LEXIS-NEXIS Web Engines Z39.50 FindLaw |
Electronic Finding ToolsReading: Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 3 |
Week 7 |
GILS
DIALOG LEXIS-NEXIS Web Engines Z39.50 FindLaw |
Electronic Finding ToolsReading:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 3Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 4. |
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Government Documents By Organization |
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Week 8 |
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The United States federal governmentThe US federal government is a very complex series of institutions. Simply put, it consists of the executive (President, Cabinet, Departments, etc.), the legislative branch (Congress: House of Representatives and the Senate), and the Judiciary (Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, District Courts, etc.). Each of these has a multitude of document sources, document purposes, document nomenclature, etc. Readings :Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 11 |
Week 9 |
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National Governments (other than the United States), including Tribal and Indigenous Peoples GovernmentsJust when you thought it was getting easy -- there are some 200 plus countries -- sovereign nations-- each with its own system, document stream, structures, printing, publishing, and cataloging schemes. If it were ever true that government documents librarians were not required to be aware of and pay attention to these documents, those days are over. Note for example that many US federal depository libraries are also depository libraries for the UN, the EC, state governments, and other entities. |
Week 10 |
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State and Local DocumentsStategov-LinkReadingsTulsa City Council at http://www.tulsacouncil.org/ |
Week 11 |
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Comparative and International DocumentsInternational and Regional Government DocumentsIGO-LinkRegional and Local Governments (Non-US )Gov-LinkNon Governmental OrganizationsNGO-Link |
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Government Documents By Function |
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Week 12 |
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Statistical SourcesNearly all governments and IGOs publish a statistical yearbook. All are available in paper and many are now on-line (or summaries are): see for example Greenland or Finland.The Yearbooks are abbreviated statistics. Almost every agency of every government produces statistical reports of one kind or another. We explore these at some length. Readings:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 8Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 13 |
Week 13 |
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The Technical LiteratureNTIS, National Labs, OSTI, etc.NTIS Search Readings:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 8.Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 14 |
Week 14 |
Geographic LiteratureCIA World FactbookReadings:Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 11Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 12. |
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Week 15 |
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Intellectual PropertyPatents Readings:Hernon, Relyea, Dugan, and Cheverie, Ch 12Hernon, Dugan & Shuler, Ch 12 |
NTIS