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Official Catalog Course Description:
Requisites: courses 200, 201. Provides fundamental knowledge
and skills enabling information professionals to link users with information.
Overview of structure of literature in different fields; information-seeking
behavior of user groups; communication with users; development of search
strategies using print and electronic sources.
COURSE OUTLINE AND SCHEDULE
I. Introduction to the Course (Wednesday,
October 4th)
A. Course Requirements
B. Career Fit as the Intersection of
Interests, Personality, Skills, and Values
Reference Librarian Personality (based on MBTI) at
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/documents/pumpkim
soup.pdf
Additional Readings
Toshitaka Nomi and Alexander Besher, You are Your
Blood Type: The Biochemical Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Your Personality.
New York: Pocket Books, 1988.
Margaret Newhouse, Outside the Ivory Tower: A
Guide. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Career Services, 1993
Mary Jane Scherdin. Discovering Librarians: Profiles
of a Profession.Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries,
1994.
C. Course Vision
1. Prepare the next generation of thoughtful and
reflective practitioners who will have influence and impact on the
profession.
2. My aspiration is that this course be in line with
our DIS programmatic goal, to be "current, innovative, intellectually
challenging, and future-oriented."
D. Mission and Goal
1. My mission is to provide a historical context
for the founding and subsequent development of reference services
in the United States; and
2. To address the appropriate role of the WWW, especially
Google™, in reference work; and
3. The overarching goal of this course is to enable
graduate students: 1) to make the connection between user needs, information
resources, and the relevant information technology and 2) to think
critically and thoughtfully about this field.
E. Professional Values and Beliefs
1. Issue of free access
2. Balance between privacy versus surveillance
3. Organization (i.e., structure, categorization/classification)
is desirable
4. Customer service is paramount
F. Underlying Philosophical and Personal Motivations
1. It's better to be informed than ignorant
2. Answering questions is cool
II. Space or Place: The Development of Question
Answering and Negotiation (Wednesday, October 11th)
A. Question Negotiation to Determine "Real"
Questions
Robert S. Taylor (1962, 1967, 1968) and query formulation (i.e.,
Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4) and five filters
Open versus Closed Questions at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/openclosed.htm
B. Best Practices and Standards
ALA RUSA Guidelines (1996, 2004) at http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/guidelinesbehavioral.htm
Internet Public Library at http://www.ipl.org/
The WWW Virtual Library at http://vlib.org/
Additional Readings
John Richardson, KBS (1995), chapter 1.
John Richardson, “The Current State of Research on Reference Transactions,”
In Advances in Librarianship, vol. 26, pages 175-230, edited
by Frederick C. Lynden. New York: Academic Press, 2002. This
chapter also will help you with the class wiki.
III. Reference Work, Notably Question Answering
(Wednesday, October 18th)
A. Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive Models
(including non-verbal communication)
1. "Party Girl" at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114095/,
especially chapters 3 ("Judy Lindendorff"), 14 ("Mary
Needs a Break"), and 28 ("Mary's Surprise Party").
2. "Angry Librarian" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XvAakX__cQ
B. IPOF, flowcharts and dataflow models
1. IPOF Model at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/IPOF.jpg
2. Richardson 's Flowchart at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/flowchart.pdf
C. Systems Analysis Approach
1. Requirements
2. Fit Criteria
Additional Readings
John Richardson, “Modeling the Reference Process:
A Systems Approach,” College
and Research Libraries 60 (May 1999): 211-222. (pdf
file)
IV. Guide to Reference Books and Reference Publishing
Hegemony (Wednesday, October 18th)
A. Authority
B. Trustworthiness
C. Reliability
D. Authenticity (as part of information
literacy)
E. Guide to Reference Books, 1902-1996 at
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/GRB.htm
F. Guide to Reference Books,12th ed.
at http://www.haverford.edu/library/grb/
G. “How To Study” (Sheehy, 1996) at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/how_to_study.htm
H. Knowledge over Time at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/knowledge.jpg
I. Reference Librarian Traits/Characteristics at
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/traits.jpg
J. Hegemony among Reference Publishers at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/documents/hegemony.ppt
Additional Readings
John Richardson, KBS (1995), chapter 1
V. Google Searching (October 25th)
A. Recent Changes in Question Asking
at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/image002.gif
B. Keyword Searching
C. Controlled Vocabulary Searching at
http://scout.wisc.edu/ or http://connexion.oclc.org/
Additional Readings
The Google Story by Vise and Malseed (2005)
"Ms. Dewey" at http://www.msdewey.com/
try blockbuster video or iPod, but be prepared!
VI. Types of Reference Formats (October 25th,
November 1st and November 8th)
A. Bibliographies and Catalogs
B. Biographical Sources and Directories
Evaluative
Criteria
Additional Readings
Sweetland, chapter 5, pp. 210ff
Matthew Robert Vanden Boogart, "Uncovering the Social Aspects
of Facebook on a College Campus," MA Thesis, Kansas State University,
2006 (PDF)
C. Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Evaluative
Criteria
Additional Readings
Sweetland, chapters 6 and 7.
D. Government Information; Maps and Atlases (guest lecturer
and tour at YRL, Kristine
Kasianovitz, November 1st)
Evaluative Criteria for Atlases
Additional Readings
Sweetland, chapter 9, pp. 455ff.
E. Almanacs and Yearbooks
Evaluative Criteria
Additional Readings
Sweetland, pp. 393-394
F. Indexes to Magazines and Journals
Evaluative
Criteria
Increased Risks of Plagiarism aka "insufficient citation"(guest lecturer on November
8th, Patti
S. Caravello)
Readings
Richardson, John V., Jr. and Charles E. Meier. 1998.” Scholarly
Journal Decision Making: A Graphic Representation .” Library
Quarterly 68: v -viii.
Additional Readings
Sweetland, chapter 3, pp. 103ff.
VII. Information
seeking ecologies (Intersection of Users, Information Resources, and
IT) (Wednesday, November 15th)
A. Reader's Advisory Services for Adults
a. Book
Reviewing Sources
b. NoveList/EBSCO at http://www.epnet.com
c. "Library Thing Suggester" at http://www.librarything.com/suggester
d. "What Should I Read Next?" at http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/
B. Children and Youth Services
C. Rural Library Users and Harriet G. Eddy
at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/documents/eddy.ppt
D. “Educating Authors for the Digital Age”
a. Avoiding Plagiarism aka "insufficient citation"
b. Paper Mills such as http://schoolsucks.com/
or http://cheathouse.com/
E. Fringe Users
a. Homeless Folk
b. Survivalists (Survival books 11106
Magnolia Blvd , Burbank , 818-763-0804)
c. Japanese Anime Readers
d. Political Far Left
or Far Right
F. Additional Readings
a. “Reader's Advisory
Work,” In Cassell and Hiremath, RIS (2006), chapter 14, pp.
253-264.
b. “Children and Youth
Adults,” In Cassell and Hiremath, RIS" (2006), chapter
15, pp. 265-272.
VIII. Neither
Space nor Place: It's the Relationship; Virtual Question Answering Services
(Wednesday, November 22nd) Steve
Coffman, guest lecturer
A. 24/7 at http://www.qandanj.org/
B. Question Point at http://www.questionpoint.org/
C. Tutor.com's Ask a Librarian at http://www.tutor.com/products/aal.aspx
Additional Readings
Anne G. Lipow,
" 'In Your Face' Reference Service," Library Journal
124 (August 1999): 50-52.
Steve Coffman,
Going Live: Starting & Running a Virtual Reference Service
(Chicago: American Library Association, 2003),
R. David Lankes,
Scott Nicholson, and Abby Goodrum, The Digital Reference Research
Agenda (Chicago: American Library Association, 2003), and
Jana S. Ronan, Chat Reference:
A Guide to Live Virtual Reference Services (Littleton, CO: Libraries
Unlimited, 2003).
IX. For the Future: Customer Service Standards
(Wednesday, November 29th) Dr. Dave
Harmeyer, APU,
and Lili Luo, UNC ABD,
guest lecturers
A. Outcome Measures at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/outcome.htm
B. Time in Queue and Duration of Transactions
C. Type of Questions
D. User Satisfaction
Readings
John Richardson, "Reference Assessment Programs: Evaluating Current
and Future Reference Services " at
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/Documents/VRS.ppt
X. Selected Student Presentations (Wednesday, December 6th)
A. "You can because you think you can,"
paraphrasing the Roman epic poet, Vergil (70 BC - 19 BC)
RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER COURSES
Online searching of proprietary databases, such as Thomson's
Dialog, is an important component
of successful searching. I strongly recommend that you consider
taking IS 447 "Computer-based Information Resources" before you graduate.
IS 240 "Principles of Information Systems Analysis & Design"
can be profitably applied to the reference process. IS 455 "Government
Information" is also relevant to providing outstanding reference
service.
COURSE TEXTBOOKS (RECOMMENDED; SEE ASUCLA BOOKSTORE)
You do not have to buy these texts; however, there are
no earlier editions except for Sweetland's book. For a lesson from
the so-called good old days, see “How to Open a Book” at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/how.htm
Marie Radford, The Reference Encounter: Interpersonal
Communication in the Academic Library. ACRL Publications in Librarianship,
No. 52. Chicago: American Library Association, 1999. –One of the
best published pieces of qualitative research on this subject.
John Richardson, Knowledge-based Systems
for General Reference Work: Applications, Problems, and Progress.
San Diego: Academic Press, 1995. –See the links above in the syllabus;
chapter 5 on the architectural logic of reference experts would be useful
for section VI above.
Catherine Ross, Kirsti Nilsen, and Patricia
Dewdney. Conducting the Reference Interview: A How-To-Do-It Manual
for Librarians. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2002. –A practical
approach.
Matthew Saxton and John Richardson, Understanding
Reference Transactions: Transforming an Art into a Science. New
York: Academic Press, 2002. –A highly sophisticated quantitative
(HLM) approach to the subject.
James H. Sweetland, Fundamental
Reference Sources, 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association,
2000. –A list of basic sources, but it's not clear in what sense they
are fundamental (other than informed personal opinion).
WWW RESOURCES
Obviously, one of most interesting technological
developments in reference service is the role of the Internet. To keep
current, you might want to follow one or more the following sites:
- Dig_Ref,
a digital reference discussion group
- LIBREF-L,
A Discussion of Library Reference Issues (searchable e-mail archives)
- Livereference,
a group dedicated to live reference discussion
- PACS-L,
The Public-Access Computer Systems Forum (PACS-L) is an Internet list
that deals with end-user computer systems in libraries
- Web4Lib,
Electronic Discussion: An electronic discussion for library-based World-Wide
Web managers
- UCLA's DIS 245 "Information Access" has its own listserver;
The address to send messages to is: is-245@lists.gseis.ucla.ed. To subscribe
to the list, send a message to "requests@lists.gseis.ucla.edu".
In the body of the message, type "subscribe is-245 your name"
where your name is, literally, your name (NOT an email address).
In addition, here are two websites which might save you some time searching
for other studies on virtual
reference (2002) and
general reference (2002). You can search by author (biographee) or
topic for the class wiki. These two websites are based on LISA
and LLIS (see indexes to magazines above).
To facilitate class communication re grades,
I do use My.UCLA.edu; grades are posted there, so be sure your preferred
email address is known to the Registrar.
ASSIGNMENTS AND DUE DATES
1) Answer a brief quiz in class after reading S.S.
Green's "Personal Relations" in ALJ (5% of grade)—
Due second class session--October 11th in class
2) Write your own vision, mission, goals, and objectives
statement in four or five sentences in paragraph or bullet points as
part of your own individual development plan (5% of grade)— Due
second class session--October 11th by 5PM
3) Write a 500-word book review of a work of fiction
aimed at the Sunday New
York Times Book Review—see my analysis of NYT
style as well as reference book directions at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/dis245/bookreview.htm
(15%); ultimately, you might consult Allan M. Siegal and William
G. Connolly, The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, rev.
edition (New York: Times Books, 1999);--Due November 17th at noon
4) Write an encyclopedia entries (one on a topic and
another on a person; click here for choices by wiki
entry or last
name) related to reference service on our class wiki,
called ucla245; be sure to use the class password and do the optional
login using your real name and email address (25% of final grade); before
you even think of contacting a living individual, click here.
Your class TA has some photocopies of research articles arranged by
year which you can check out from her— Due November 22nd by
5PM
5) Write either: a) a traditional research paper which
could be submitted to RSR
or RUSQ
or RL
--see "Instructions to Authors" for questions about length
and formatting issues or b), create your own push
versus pull or interactive "self assembled digital identity"
or what I like to call "Virtual Reference Desk 2.0: A Customable
Start Page for General Reference Services" of general, not specialized,
online reference sources at http://www.netvibes.com,
created by Tariq Krim or http://pageflakes.com
created by three Germans (50% of final grade); take a look at this site
for help— Due Friday, 8 December by 12 NOON
GRADING CRITERIA
Attendance and class contributions are not formally graded;
however, in borderline cases, I will consider these in determining your
final grade. As you know, all grades, including the final grade, are subjective--merely
the opinion of the instructor. When you receive a paper back in
your folder in the Student Commons, be sure to check URSA.ucla.edu or
My.UCLA.edu to be sure that they match.
For all papers, the evaluation of assignments will include:
1) content foremost; 2) appearance (e.g., conformance to a particular
journal's house style); 3) bibliographic style (remember to state explicitly
your style such as APA, CMS, or MLA); 4) clarity of presentation; and
5) avoidance of the ten common errors. All
papers are subject to a half-letter grade reduction for not heeding the
above ten points. For the book review, your grade will be based,
in large part, on following house style for formatting the review because
neither of us will have read all of the fiction books you review. For
the class wiki, I will compare your entry to the evaluative criteria (e.g.,
style and structure) for standard encyclopedic sources; see the two wiki
pages about gathering information and the front page for additional criteria
including internal and exterior links, APA style, and signing entries.
As for the Web pages (i.e., NetVibes, PageFlakes or other pages) will
be graded according to rigorous webpage design criteria,
which include content foremost; authority; appropriateness given the purpose;
completeness; ease-of-use; illustrations; level of treatment; and uniqueness.
Again, grading is necessarily subjective;
if these standards are not clear, please ask for further clarification
at any time.
PROFESSIONAL EXPECTATIONS
"Readings," so labeled above, are required;
"additional readings" are optional. In addition, keep current
with the professional literature by browsing the new periodicals inbox
in the MIT Lab. Backup your work regularly. During class,
cell phones should be off or on vibrate. As for late papers: all
papers are due on due date. Unexcused late papers will be substantially
penalized—half letter grade per session. Suspected research misconduct
(including fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism aka 'insufficient
citation' ) will result in a grade of DR and be reported
to the UCLA Dean of Students; you may wish to submit your papers to TurnItIn.com
before handing them into me or
our TA, Debbie Weissmann.
I have office hours on Tuesday afternoon in 204 GSE&IS or you can
try walkin at 1237B Murphy on Thursdays or Fridays as well. No extra credit
is given. Incompletes are not awarded in this class; plan accordingly.
Disabled students must present the appropriate form from the Office of
Student Disabilities at the beginning of the quarter, if they wish special
accommodation. You may drop the class up until the last class, according
to the UCLA Registrar. I reserve the right to change the content of this
syllabus for any reason including the accommodation of guest speakers.
PUBLISHED: 26 September 2006. LINK CHECKED: as revised;
REVISIONS: 22 December 2006.
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