IS 520 Information Representation and Organization

Spring 2006

Bharat Mehra

School of Information Sciences

University of Tennessee

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Agendao My Background: Teaching and Researcho Your Introductionso Current Catalog Descriptiono Course Goals and Objectiveso Approach to Teaching and Learningo Course Materialso Assignments and Evaluationso Final Projectso Final Project General Guidelineso Final Project Exampleso Contact Informationo Questions

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My Background: Teaching and Research

Social justice in the information professions; Diversity and intercultural issues in LIS; Information needs and information-seeking behaviors of minority and disenfranchised populations; Community informatics; Internationalizing efforts in American academia

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User-centered issues in information organization and representation; Human factors in socio-technical research; Psychosocial, cultural, and behavioral aspects in LIS; Human-computer interactions; Information seeking and use; Use and users of information

Your Introductions Prior discipline/background Skills and Interests

What do you hope to learn from this course?

What are some of your concerns about this course?

What does “information” mean to you?

What do you know about the information sciences profession?

Activities: Identify 3-5 or more web-based resources that contain some specific information that you would like others to know about?

Overall assessment Personal Opinion Usefulness of content Cultural appropriatenessOrganization/structure of information

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Current Catalog Description

(3) Principles of distinguishing, describing, and indexing intellectual works; current approaches: citation systems, descriptive cataloging, non-subject indexing, pre- and post-coordinate subject indexing, classification and categorization; authority control of index terms; standards. Required Course.

(To-Be Catalog Description) The nature of intellectual works in various manifestations. Both intellectual and physical access to information objects. Metadata standards and organizational principles of information retrieval systems (Description adopted by the faculty on November 19, 2004).

Current: (3) The 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.

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Course Goals/Objectives To understand the principles of representing information from the

perspective of information access and retrieval based upon user’s needs and expectations

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

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

To become familiar with current standards in place and become aware of emerging standards

To be able to evaluate and compare different methods for organizing and representing information objects

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

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Approach to Teaching and Learning Participative and interactive engagement

Critical, reflective and creative thinking

Mixture of lectures, demonstrations, discussions, guest speeches, hands-on exercises, user-centered activities, and a team project with presentations

‘Learning community’: a community of learners ‘Learning communities’ are social spaces (physical

and/or virtual) within which “users are invited to engage in a shared learning process, while respecting the diversity of their knowledge base” (Page & Scott, 2001, pp. 532-533)

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Course MaterialsRequired texts The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: Final Report. (1997).

National Information Standards Organization. Understanding Metadata, an Introduction to Metadata, (2004).

Furrie, Betty. Understanding MARC, current ed. Washington, DC: Library of Congress.

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th ed. (1996).

Recommended texts Chu, Heting. Information Representation and Retrieval in the Digital Age.

(2003).

Arms, William Y. Digital Libraries. (2000).

Svenonius, Elaine. The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization. (2000).

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

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Assignments and Evaluation

Class Participation (5%)

Exercises (40%)

Critical Reflective Writings on User-Centered Activities (25%)

Final Project: Information Organization and Representation Portfolio (30%)

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Final Projectso Teams of 2 students work on projects for the DiscoverET.org or develop their

own

o Each team will present final results to the class during a public forum and produce a document of the project

o Information Organization and Representation Portfolio (IORP) Includes analysis and/or commentary related to class topics

o 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

o Evaluation based on : Creativity of project outcomes (recommendations/ solutions proposed), Relevance and practicality of implementation, Thoroughness and examination of details

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Final Project General Guidelineso Purpose is to apply knowledge to real life situations and to gain hands-on experiences.

o I. You must sign up for the project and work in a team.

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

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

Introduction: Topic description and project goals; members

Specific tasks that are distributed among members

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

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

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Final Project Examples

1. 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.

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Final Project Examples

2. 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.

Final Project Examples

3. 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

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Final Projects: Road Map/TOC/Outline for the

Information Organization Portfolio

I. Introduction• What is your project? Expectations, Required elements, etc.• Issues/concerns specific to your project topic that play a role in developing

an IOP

II. Class topics and their relationship to your project3-5 key considerations about each topic that is significant in developing an IOP on the specific project

III. Case-Studies and their Critique based on class topics or mor

List of web resources (DL or web portal) with short description and location

3 or more case studies as relevant

Comparative analysis

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Final Projects: Road Map/TOC/Outline for the

Information Organization Portfolio

IV. Design Solutions/Templates Design solutions reflecting key Web design solutions Analysis of designs

V. Recommendations

VI. Future Considerations

VII. Documentation Report

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Contact Information

Office & Hours: Communications 449;

Monday and Tuesday 1 - 4 p.m. Or by appointment

Contact: voice: (865) 974-5917;

email: bmehra@utk.edu

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Questions

A. Why do we need to organize information? Give examples from your experiences (or everyday life) where organizing information helped you in some way. How did organizing information help you in that context? (Functions of Organization)

B. There are different environments where information is organized (libraries, archives, museums and art galleries, Internet, Data administration and office environments). What is similar and what is different in the varied contexts regarding organization of information?

C. As more and more information gets digitized, digital libraries are becoming significant tools for providing access to information. Will traditional libraries disappear in the future? Discuss. What are the concepts/principles of information organization and access that are relevant across contexts?

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