IS 520 Organization and Representation of InformationFall 2005

Instructor: Bharat MehraPlace & Time: Hodges Library, Room 129, 9.40am-12.25pmOffice & Hours: Communications 445; Tuesday & Thursday, 1 - 4 p.m.

Or by appointmentContact: voice: (865) 974-5917; email: bmehra@utk.edu

Current Catalog DescriptionThe structure and organization of intellectual content regardless of format. Emphasis on how content is created, exchanged, and stored so it can be found. Includes standards and best practice for describing and characterizing intellectual content. Required Course.

Goals/Objectives

This course is part of the core curriculum, determined by the School to cover basic knowledge about organization and representation of information. Upon satisfactory completion of the course, the student will

understand the principles of representing information from the perspective of information access and retrieval based upon user’s needs and expectations

be able to describe and critique various metadata schemes and techniques currently used to represent and organize information in different environments

be able to apply appropriate principles of information representation and organization to real-world situations

be familiar with current standards in place be aware of emerging standards be able to evaluate and compare different methods for organizing and representing

information objects be able to develop user-centered activities that apply all the above

Methods of Teaching/Learning

Interactive teaching, active learning, and critical and creative thinking are vital to the success of this course. The design of the course incorporates these components into the processes of teaching and learning. The sessions of the course consist of lectures, demonstrations, discussions, tours, guest speeches, hands-on exercises, tests, and a team project with presentations. The class time will be divided into lecture followed by hands-on activity that will be user-centered. Your role is to put yourself in the shoes of a user

and understand the systems of information organization and representation from that perspective.

Your UTK email address will be used as default for all communications in this course (you are signed up to the course listserv list SIS520@LISTSERV.UTK.EDU for the semester). If you are a new student, visit Computing @UT http://www.utk.edu/computing/ to get familiar with the resources and support. Both the Innovative Technology Center and Hodges Library offer free workshops on basic and advanced computing and information skills (http://itc.utk.edu/workshops/; http://gila.lib.utk.edu/). If you prefer to use your personal email, you should configure forwarding messages from UTK email to your preferred email. Your UTK NetID and password are required to access online library materials.

Other Useful Web sites:

ANSI/NISO http://www.niso.orgCataloger's Reference Shelf: http://www.tlcdelivers.com/tlc/crs/CRS0000.htmCataloging & Metadata Resources a

Website by Ingrid Hsieh-Yee: http://slis.cua.edu/ihy/catmeta.htmCataloging Discussion Group: http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/archives/autocat.htmlUDC http://www.udcc.org/about.htmDublin Core MatadataDC generator

http://dublincore.orghttp://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcdot/http://www.lub.lu.se/cgi-bin/nmdc.pl

IFLA Section on Cataloging: http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/sc.htmLibrary of Congress: both catalog and authority records http://lcweb.loc.govOrganization for Advancement of Structured Info Standards (OASIS)

http://www.oasis-open.org/

OCLC http://www.oclc.orgRLIN http://www.rlg.org/rlin.htmlThe Open Archives Initiative (OAI) http://www.openarchives.org/World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org

Course Materials

Required texts:

1. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: Final Report. By IFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. Approved by the Standing Committee of the IFLA Section on Cataloguing September 1997. Available at http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr.htm

2. NISO. Understanding Metadata, an introduction to metadata, 2004. Available free at http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf

3. Furrie, Betty. Understanding MARC, current ed. Washington, DC: Library of Congress. Available free at http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/umb OR MARC 21 Formats: Contents. Read general introduction and MARC 21 Format for Bibliographic Data. Available at http://www.itsmarc.com/crs/bib0001.htm

4. Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. ISBN 0-226-81627-3 http://www.press.uchicago.edu [Note: this is the official style manual for the School.]

Recommended texts:

5. Chu, Heting. Information Representation and Retrieval in the Digital Age, Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2003. ISBN: 1-57387-172-9

6. Arms, William Y. Digital Libraries. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000. ISBN: 0-262-01180-8. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/wya/DigLib/

7. Svenonius, Elaine. The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000. ISBN: 0-262-19433-3.

8. Taylor, Arlene G. The Organization of Information, 2nd Edition. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2003. ISBN: 1-56308-969-6 (pbk.)

Course reserve online or in Hodges library:

1. Materials on reserve in PDF format at the Hodges Library may also be helpful for your understanding of difficult concepts and conducting projects. (The reading list is attached to this syllabus). You need to enter NetID and password; your computer must have Adobe Acrobat reader installed.

Assignments and Evaluation Criteria

Format

Omit cover page for all exercises and journals (to save papers and the environment). All assignments including journals should be typed using a word processor. Use a 12-point font and double space (or 1.5 space), paginate and staple the pages, plus a running header similar to this syllabus including course No., your name, mailbox #, Ex. No. for all pages. Submissions without identity cannot be credited.

Class Participation (5%)

Attendance and participation in discussion are important to learning. If you have to miss a class for whatever reasons, you are still responsible for the material covered. Missing classes is subject to discretional point deduction. Complete readings, contribute to weekly discussions, participation in user-centered activities.

Exercises (40%)

There are four exercises. Each exercise is given at least two weeks for completion. It is to your advantage if you start immediately as it is assigned, so you will have chances to ask questions before submission. Works completed in last minute often lack quality. Always prepare for possible problems that are out of your control when assignments involve using computers and online resources.

Late submission is subject to point deduction (1 point per day) and will not be credited if the graded assignments have been distributed. Mark your calendars for due dates.

Critical Reflective Writings on User-Centered Activities (20%)

Using the Journal LX tool via your Black Board web space, you will deposit a write up that shares your critical reflections (at least 500-1000 words) on each user-centered activity conducted in class. The critical reflection piece may include relationship of the activity to class readings and/or topic of the day, share issues pertinent to developing user-centered design, what you found helpful/lacking in participating in that activity, etc. Some of these critical writings (as indicated in class) will be shared in the form of public blogs and you may respond to each other’s critical reflections for these assignments. You will be expected to lead discussion about major points addressed in your critical reflection piece during class the following week. Each critical write-up must be deposited before the class next week. Late submission is subject to point deduction (1 point per day).

Project (30%)

In teams of 3-4 students, select a final project topic from those listed below or develop your own project for the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Regional Network (KORRnet) (to be approved by the instructor). Each team will present final results to the class during a public forum and produce a document of the project. The document will be presented in the form of an Information Organization and Representation Portfolio (IORP) for KORRnet/DiscoverET.org that will include analysis and/or commentary related to all the topics covered in class lectures as appropriate for the specific projects (intellectual works

and their manifestations, metadata standards in various environments, cataloging and authority control, metadata coding and crosswalks, digital library development, subject access and vocabulary control, concept mapping, indexing and abstracting, classification systems, cognitive category analysis, system design). The IORP will be created using the Backpack LX tool via the Black Board web space. David D. Massey, Executive Director of KORRnet will be part of the evaluation team for the final projects along with the class instructor. The final project will be evaluated based upon:

Creativity of project outcomes (recommendations/ solutions proposed) Relevance and practicality of implementation Thoroughness and examination of details

The following section presents a brief description of various projects. More detailed description of the project will be given in class. You must sign up for the project and work in a team.

1. For the existing KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website, develop an IORP for

presenting community-based information that provides a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of the existing informational organization and representation and suggest recommendations for improvements and alternative design solutions. Do a case-analysis of existing content and representation scheme(s) for another selected community network and provide comparison-contrast analysis. Your IORP should include study of existing collection of website listings on various subjects and analysis of classification scheme(s) used for representation of information, amongst other aspects. Also, identify existing elements in the IR system that is used and include existing metadata schemes, menu options, and searching capabilities in your analysis.

2. On the existing KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website, develop an IORP for presenting community-based information for a selected subject category like health, social services, or tourism. Do a case-analysis of existing content and representation scheme(s) on the website and provide alternative design solutions. Your IORP should include a comprehensive collection of website listings on that subject, a classification scheme for representation of information, and various design solutions for the presentation of content, amongst other aspects. Also, identify elements in an organizational plan for an IR system that includes metadata schemes, menu options, and searching capabilities.

3. For the existing KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website, develop an IORP for presenting community-based information for a new subject category like Youth Resources or Diversity Resources. Your IORP should include a comprehensive collection of website listings on that subject, a classification scheme for representation of information, and various design solutions for the presentation of content, amongst other aspects. Also, identify elements in an organizational plan for an IR system that includes metadata schemes, menu options, and searching capabilities. Do a case-analysis and critique of existing content and representation

scheme(s) on selected websites/web portals on the subject site and provide alternative design solutions.

4. For the existing KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website, develop an IORP for presenting community-based information for a new subject category on International Issues. In addition to the general requirements, your IORP should include the following: 1) a comprehensive collection of website listings that incorporate an international dimension under different subjects, for example, local companies and businesses that have an international flavor; 2) Training manual materials for developing sensitivity and awareness of international/cross-cultural issues in business, government, education, etc. 3) International demographics in various counties/businesses in Tennessee; 4) Local resources and information support systems for international constituents and to address international issues. Discuss various classification schemes for representation of information, and design solutions for the presentation of content, amongst other aspects. Also, identify elements in an organizational plan for an IR system that includes metadata schemes, menu options, and searching capabilities.

5. Select one county in Tennessee and develop an IORP for presenting community-based information for the county. Your IORP should include a comprehensive collection of website listings for that county, a classification scheme for representation of information, and various design solutions for the presentation of content, amongst other aspects. Also, identify elements in an organizational plan for an IR system that includes metadata schemes, menu options, and searching capabilities. Provide a case-study for one selected county from the adjoining states or select from the following website: URL: http://www.discoveret.org/index.php?p=DirCountySearch

6. Based on a study of the use of different kinds of existing and emerging community-based interactive communication and information-sharing tools (personal websites, e-mail, newsgroups, listserves, wikis, blogs, interactive calendars, etc.) develop an IORP for presenting community-based interactive communication and information-sharing interactive tools on the KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website. Do a case-study of the existing interactive communication and information-sharing tools used on the KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website and suggest forms of emerging tools that should be incorporated in the future. Provide examples of websites using the various community-based interactive communication and information-sharing tools and evaluate the forms of interaction taking place via the different tools in the different settings. Present the pro and cons based upon your analysis while you make recommendations for the KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website. Present summary reports for each community-based interactive communication and information-sharing tools that includes design options and implementation plan for application of the different tools.

7. For the existing KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website, develop an IORP for presenting community-based information for an Air Quality Forum. In addition to the general requirements, your IORP should include the following: 1) A case study of other air quality forums and what kinds of information, communication, and organization schemes they incorporate; 2) Provide examples of websites using various community-based air quality forums and evaluate the forms of interaction taking place in the different settings. 3) Build a collection of reports/documents representing various voices and commentaries related to air quality (TVA authorities, industry, local county Chamber of Commerce, EPA guidelines, Howard Baker Center); 4) Gather feedback from various local stakeholders (TVA authorities, industry, local county Chamber of Commerce, EPA guidelines); 5) Provide a summary of your study on existing forums on the topic, best practices, design options. Discuss various classification schemes for representation of information, and design solutions for the presentation of content, amongst other aspects.

8. For the existing KORRnet or DiscoverET.org website, develop an IORP for presenting community-based information that includes design templates incorporating Spanish language translation of existing content and functionality to reach out to growing Hispanic populations. Your IORP should include a comprehensive collection of additional website listings in Spanish, case-studies of other community networks having Spanish interfaces, a classification scheme for representation of information in the proposed design solution(s), and pros and cons for the various design solutions proposed. Also, identify elements in an organizational plan for an IR system for Spanish materials on the website that includes metadata schemes, menu options, and searching capabilities.

Journals (5%)

Using Journal LX tool via your Black Board web space, keep journals of thoughts and experiences during the entire semester as often as possible. Your journals are due three times during the semester (see Schedule for due dates). Journals are not graded, but will be credited as a whole not individually.

What to write? Here are some suggestions: (1) after reading assigned material, you summarize the major concepts in a short essay; or refute statements or points made by the author; (2) you develop questions that are addressed by the material, in other words, reference where the answers to the questions can be found in the assigned reading; (3) you make suggestions on how the concepts or knowledge may be applied in real world situations (any situation; not limited to organization of documents); (4) you reflect on a phenomenon (not limited to organization of documents) where changes can be made to improve access to information by better organizational methods or principles based on your observation and learning in this course; (5) reflect on lectures, assignments, tests, and class activities; (6) the projects and project presentations. In short, be creative and diligent. You should date journal entries. I recommend you to write on a weekly basis.

All the exercises identified above will form part of an online portfolio that students will create using the Backpack LX tool via the Black Board web space.

On Evaluation and Grading

Evaluation of your work is based on quality not quantity. Thus, all assignments, essays, and reports should be concise, specific, well organized, and follow the instructions; they must be turned in by the deadline.

Grading by its very nature is a subjective process, and it is virtually impossible to design exercises that can be objectively quantified with precise numeric scores. Sometimes, mathematical and administrative errors in grading occur; you are entitled to request for a review. Please make your request immediately after the distribution of the assignments, preferably in type-written form to me; after one week, the grades reported to you are final.

A 4.0 >92 Excellent B+ 3.5 86-92 Very good

B 3.0 80-85 Good C+ 2.5 75-79 Satisfactory

C 2.0 70-74 Below Standard D 1.0 <70 Unsatisfactory

Academic Integrity

“The responsibility for learning is an individual matter. Study, preparation and presentation should involve at all times the student’s own work, unless it has been clearly specified that work is to be a team effort. Academic honesty requires that all work presented be the student’s own work, not only on tests, but in themes, papers, homework, and class presentation. …” (Hilltopics 2004-2005 Student Handbook, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, p. 40). Cheating, plagiarism, providing unauthorized help and other acts of dishonesty violate the rule of academic honesty; the offender will be subject to penalties as set forth in Hilltopics.

Special NeedsIf you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a documented

disability or if you have emergency information to share, please contact the Office of Disability Service at 191 Hoskins Library or at (865) 974-6087. This will ensure that you are properly registered for services.

Policy on Inclement Weather & Unforeseen Circumstances

If the university is officially closed, classes will be canceled. I may revise the schedule after the missed session. Any type of arrangements will be discussed with you in advance and announced in class or via e-mail.

Schedule (subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances)

I encourage you to give me feedback and comments on the course at any time so that I may adjust my teaching plan accordingly.

30 August Welcome and Syllabus

6 September GUEST SPEAKERS (11.00am-12.00noon): David Massey (Executive Director) and Curtis E. Dorrie III (Director of Member Services), Knoxville-Oak Ridge Regional Network

Intellectual works and their manifestations

Representation of information objects: What is FRBR?

http://www.loc.gov/cds/FRBR.html

IFLA Chapter 3

http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/frbr.htm

13 September Metadata standards in various environments

Start: Exercise 1

NISO: Understanding metadata:

http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf

20 September Cataloging content standard: AACR2r

Chan, Lois Mai. Cataloging And Classification: An Introduction (2nd Ed.). Chapter 1. Pages: 3-28.

27 September Cataloging and authority control

DUE: Exercise 1

Burger: Authority work; pp3-20.

Berman: Joy of cataloging; pp xi-xii, 3-6, 35-36

4 October Metadata Encoding & Crosswalks

DUE: Journal I

Start: Exercise 2

Furrie, Betty. Understanding MARC(Machine Readable Cataloging). Current ed. Available free at http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/umb

11 October Digital Libraries

Projects sign-up

Griffiths: Why the web is not a library.

Arms, William Y. Digital Libraries. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000. Chapters 9. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/wya/DigLib/new/Chapter9.html (accessed on January 7, 2005)

ANSI/NISO Z39.85 - 2001 Dublin Core metadata element Available at http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-85.pdf (accessed on August 14, 2004)

18 October Subject Access and Vocabulary Control

DUE: Exercise 2

Taylor: Chapter 9

Keister, Lucinda H. “User Types and Queries: Impact on Image Access Systems.” In Challenges in Indexing Electronic Text and Image, eds. Raya Fidel, Trudi Bellardo Hahn, Edie M. Rasmussen, and Philip J. Smith, ASIS Monograph Series, 7-22, Medford, NJ: Learned Information, 1994.

25 October Overview; Concept mapping

Chu, Chapters 1 – 4

Subject access: Indexing and Abstracting

Start: Exercise 3

Lancaster, F.W. Indexing and Abstracting in Theory and Practice. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois, (1991). Chapters 1 – 3.

American National Standards Institute. Guidelines for Abstracts. ANSI/NISO Z39.14-1997. Bethesda, MD: NISO Press, 1997.

1 November Indexing of non-textual material; Citation index

DUE: Journal II; project conference

Layne, Sara Shatford. “Some Issues in the Indexing of Images.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science 45, no. 8, 1994: 583-588.

Garfield, Eugene. Citation Indexing--Its Theory and Application in Science, Technology, and Humanities. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979. Chapter 3. Pages: 19-36.

8 November Classification Systems

DUE: Exercise 3

Start: Exercise 4

Chan, Lois Mai. Cataloging and Classification: An Introduction (2nd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994. Chapters 7 & 11. Pages: 155-169; 259-267.

15 November Introduction to Cognitive Categories

Iyer, Hemalata. Classificatory Structures: Concepts, Relations and Representation. Frankfort: INDEKS Verlag, 1995. Chapter 3. Pages 40-57.

Lakoff, George. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Chapters 1 & 2. Pages: 5-11; 12-57.

22 November System Design and Overview

DUE: Exercise 4

Reading:

Peruse all materials with a focus on key concepts and conceptual relationships

29 November Project presentation

6 December Project presentation

8 December DUE: Project Document; Journals-III

Due dates

Exercises Journals ProjectExercise 1:

27 September Journal I:4 October

IORP Project sign-up:11 October

Exercise 2: 18 October

Journal II:1 November

IORP Project conference:1 November

Exercise 3: November 8

Journal III:8 December

IORP Project presentation:

29 November & 6 December

Exercise 4:November 22

IORP Project documentation:

8 December

IS520 Readings on Reserve at Hodges Library

American National Standards Institute. 1997. Guidelines For Abstracts. ANSI/NISO Z39.14-1997. Bethesda, MD: NISO Press.

American National Standards Institute. ANSI/NISO Z39.85 - 2001 Dublin Core Metadata Element. Bethesda, MD: NISO Press. Available at http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-85.pdf (accessed on May 8, 2003)

Anglo-American cataloging rules 2nd; 1998 Revision. Chicago: American Library Association. General Introduction; Part I. Description, Introduction; Chapter 1 General Rules for Description; Part II. Headings, Uniform Titles, and References, Introduction; Chapter 21 Choice of Access Points. Pages: 1-59; 305-32; 354-358.

Berman, Sanford. 1981. The Joy of cataloging: essays, letters, reviews, and other explosions. Phoenix: Oryx Press. Introduction; From Sea to Shining Sea; The Cataloging Shtik. Pages: xi-xii; 3-6; 35-36. [also read the 1999 stories about him at Library Juice 2:9 - March 3, 1999 http://www.libr.org/Juice/issues/vol2/LJ_2.9.html]

Burger, Robert H. 1985. Authority work: The creation, use, maintenance, and evaluation of authority records and files. Littleton, Co: Libraries Unlimited.Read: 1 - Authority control: general principles; 2- Creating authority records..., Type of authority data. Pages: 3-11; 14-20.

Chan, Lois Mai. 1994. Cataloging and classification: An introduction (2nd Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Chapters 1, 7 & 11. Pages: 3-28; 155-169; 259-267.

Iyer, Hemalata. 1995. Classificatory structures: Concepts, relations and representation. Frankfurt: INDEKS Verlag. Chapter 3. Cognition and categories. Pages: 40-57.

Jul, Erik. 1997. Cataloging Internet resources: Survey and prospectus. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science 42, no.1: 6-9.

Keister, Lucinda H. 1994. User types and queries: Impact on image access systems. In Challenges in indexing electronic text and images, eds. Raya Fidel and others, 7-22. Medford, NJ: Learned Information, Inc.

Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapter 1: The importance of Categorization; Chapter 2: From Wittgenstein to Rosch. Pages: 5-11; 12-57.

Lancaster, F.W. Indexing and abstracting in theory and practice. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois, (1991). Chapters 1 – 3. Pages: 1 - 40.

Layne, Sara Shatford. 1994. Some issues in the indexing of images. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 45, no. 8: 583-8.

Lynch, Clifford A. 1995. Networked information resource discovery: An overview of current issues. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications 13, no. 8: 1505-22.

Perry, Stephen and Lutishoor Salisbury. 1996. The ten most effective ways to search WorldCat on FirstSearch: A practical guide for scholars and practitioners. RQ 35, no. 4: 505-18.

Hsieh-Yee, Ingrid. , 2000. Organizing audiovisual and electronic resources for access: A cataloguing guide, Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. Chapter 8. Pages: 255-276.

Svenonius, Elaine. 2000. The intellectual foundation of information organization. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 255p. Chapter 1.

Weibel, Stuart. 1997. The Dublin Core: A simple content description model for electronic resources. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science 24, no. 1: 9-11.

Woodward, Jeannette. 1996. Cataloging and classifying information resources on the Internet. In Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST), Vol. 31, edited by Martha E. Williams, 189-220. Medford, NJ: Information Today.

IS 520 PROJECT DESCRIPTION GENERAL GUIDELINES

The purpose of the project is to apply the knowledge to real life situations and to gain hands-on experiences. Students will work in a team and present results in class.

I. Sign up

The description of the project will be given in class with details. You must sign up for the project and work in a team.

II. Conference with the instructor

Each group must schedule a meeting with the instructor to discuss the project no later than the due date indicated in schedule.

III. Project Documentation

Each group must document the process and activities. Turn in your project documentation including the following parts:

1. Introduction: Topic description and project goals; members

2. Specific tasks that are distributed among members

3. The final product plus description and examples (this is the main part of the document)

4. Conclusions and experiences (summarize what you have learned and your thoughts; you may add what you would do if you would do it again)

5. Presentation materials

6. Appendix: Minutes taken at your project meetings (including presences and absences of members and activities and decisions)

Note: This is also a learning experience on collaboration. Each member must take an active part in the whole process. At least one leader (volunteer or elected) should coordinate the project. I will attend the planning stage of the project to help you start.

IV. Presentation and Participation

The purpose of this session is to share your project results and experiences with your classmates: what you have done and what the outcomes are. Project presentation is a good opportunity to get feedback from your peers. Each group will have an allotted slot for the presentation and discussion. The group must work together to deliver this session effectively. I recommend that you have a coordinator, use visual aids and handouts to help your audience to follow you better. Your attendance to your own project presentation and presentations of other projects will be counted towards your project grade.