Details: Coursework

Autumn 2006

LIS 500: The Life Cycle of Information

Overview of the major concepts, processes and systems, actors, and operations in the life cycle of information. Introduction to the creation, publishing and distribution, evaluation and selection, organization, access, retrieval, and use of information. Exploration of the social context in which these processes and their stakeholders interact.

LIS 510: Information Behavior

Introduction to the user-centered approach to information behavior. Theoretical foundations of various information behaviors such as information need, utilizing, gathering, seeking, and evaluating. Synthesis of user studies, construction of user profiles, performance of gap analysis, and application of the results of user studies to improve services and system design.

LIS 520: Information Resources, Services, and Collections

Concepts, processes, and skills related to parts of the life cycle of knowledge involving creation, production, distribution, selection, collection, and services to facilitate access. Specific discussion topics include characteristics of recorded knowledge; organizations and services devoted to managing access to recorded knowledge; principles associated with development of recorded knowledge and collections.

Winter 2007

LIS 530: Organization of Information and Resources

Concepts, processes, and issues related to the larger social context within which the life cycle of knowledge is played out. Discussion topics include intellectual freedom, information as public/private good, intellectual property, privacy, confidentiality, information liability, information and telecommunications policy, the economics of information, and other professional values.

LIS 541: Internet Technologies and Applications

Overview of Internet technologies including networking hardware, the TCP/IP protocol suite, addressing, packets and routing, the client/server model. End-user applications for communication and collaboration such as telnet, FTP, email, conferencing, and streaming media. Web site creation, development, and management.

LIS 550: Information in Social Context

Spring 2007

LIS 540: Information Systems, Architectures and Retrieval

Introduction and overview of information systems, system architectures, and retrieval models. Emphasis given to the role of users in the design, development, and evaluation of information retrieval and database management systems.

LIS 560: Instructional and Training Strategies for Information Professionals

Develops knowledge and skills in instruction and training functions for library and information settings. Issues and strategies for learning and teaching. Design, development, and evaluation of information and technology literacy programs. Addresses the needs of users when designing and delivering instruction.

LIS 600: Independent Study (Re-finding Information on the Web)

The goal of this study is to build an application that can potentially solve the problem of re-finding and keeping information found on the web. The proposed technique focuses on recording the memory path of a web search and permits subsequent manipulation of the web sites visited. Traditionally, users can save the address of a web page using the concept of a bookmark (or favorite), or they can copy the address into a personal document or email for later use. These methods require the user to make an active choice to save the relevant link. If no link is saved, the browser history may be used to return to a page, or a web search may be performed. Neither of these options is ideal, and the reliance on these methods causes the user to lose valuable information about the context in which the page was originally encountered. I suggest a different approach. Upon initiating a "web session," a self-modifying, local web page is created which actively tracks the pages a user visits as they browse. The user's web browsing experience is saved into this document which contains all the links they have visited and a simple user interface to manage this "web session" document. Rather than choose which links to keep, the user may choose which links to discard or hide. Methods may also be provided to flag certain pages as important, for faster access in the future. An entire session could be resumed, or sent to a friend or colleague since all the information and functionality for re-finding is contained within the document.

Summer 2007

IMT 589: Information Architecture Institute

This course covers the key elements of Information Architecture: understanding your users' information needs, building architectural frameworks to store information effectively, proper organizing and labeling of information for improved navigation and search, and perceiving opportunities where information architecture can increase business value.

IMT 589: Knowledge Management Institute

This course introduces participants to the conceptual foundations and current best practices in knowledge management (KM). This institute is designed to provide participants with the background to identify opportunities within their own organizations for implementing and improving knowledge management programs.

Autumn 2007

LIS 537: Construction of Indexing Languages

Exploration of the design, construction, evaluation, and maintenance of controlled indexing languages, including studies of how users are integrated into the design process. Through completion of thesaurus construction project, prepares students to design index languages, plan and implement a design project, and evaluate indexing languages.

LIS 549: Introduction to Information Representation, Access, and Delivery using XML

Introduces XML markup as a way to encode information format and structure. Focuses on the use of XML to create information types and access structures (hierarchies, indexes, associations, and sequences). Teaches how to render encoded format and structure as an HTML Web site. Stresses user-centered design of information bases.

TC 517 Usability Testing

Discusses the human-computer interface (HCI) as the communicative aspect of a computer system. Analyzes usability issues in HCI design, explores design-phase methods of predictability, and introduces evaluative methods of usability testing.

Winter 2008

IMT 531: Metadata Design and Interoperability

Design principles of metadata schemas and application profiles - implementation of interoperable application profiles using XML technology. Focuses on achieving syntactic and semantic interoperability among diverse metadata schemas and application profiles.

INFO 498: Programming Semantic Structures

The motivation for the course springs from the rapid proliferation of semantic structures that bridge the world of librarianship to the Semantic Web. Thus we will establish the names of rock musicians with the Name Authority File of the Library of Congress, model the name elements with FOAF (Friend of a Friend) and our own name element namespace. We will go to theWorldCat to establish the entries for musical albums and model this information with Eprints DC XML ( this is the emerging semantic standard for open archives ) and our own album name namespace. We will bind musicians and albums together with RDF ( Resource Description Format ). Student activities will be building desktop applications that harvest established content and facilitate the creation of new content in compliant and valid structures. Depending on time we will look atRDFa, the new protocol for adorning HTML pages with structured information.

LIS 580: Management for Information Organizations

Introduction to internal and external management issues and practices in information organizations. Internal issues include organizational behavior, organizational theory, personnel, budgeting, planning. External issues include organizational environments, politics, marketing, strategic planning, funding sources.

Spring 2008

INFO 498: Input and Interaction

The ability for humans to enter and interact with information is a cornerstone of human-computer interaction. This course examines the ways people manipulate information systems through input and interaction techniques, including the invention of recent techniques for emerging computing paradigms. Topics include text entry, mouse pointing, speech input, accessibility devices, mobile input, eye tracking, large display input, and theoretical models of input and interaction (e.g. Fitts' law, Steering law). Evaluation of techniques will also be covered. The course gives students an opportunity to create their own input or interaction technique for a given domain and to build a prototype.

LIS 545: Programming for Information Systems

The course focus is on the five elements of building interactive web pages: (1) The human/design/aesthetic elements of font/image/color that includes usability and accessibility, (2) The architectural standards of HTML and XHTML, (3) Cross-browser strategies, (4)JavaScript and (5) Cascading style sheets. Each week of the quarter will feature projects to build. Web 2.0 techniques such as AJAX and JSON will be covered.

TC 518: User-Centered Design

Explores the user-centered design paradigm from a broad perspective, emphasizing how user research and prototype assessment can be integrated into different phases of the design process. Students learn to think like a user-centered designer and carry out activities that are key to user-centered design.

Summer 2008

LIS 570: Research Methods

Research as a process from problem definition and formulation of questions to design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. Students recognize research opportunities, translate them into researchable frameworks, design research projects, and implement results in libraries and other information agencies.

LIS 600: Independent Study (TiddlyThesaurus)

The TiddlyWiki Thesaurus (TWT) is a web application which can be used to create a thesaurus of subject terms for indexing or searching a collection of items. The TWT was originally created by me in autumn 2007, and was used in a course project for LIS 537: Construction of Indexing Languages. It was built as an aid to the thesaurus construction process, and an alternative to manual methods such as using index cards or spreadsheets to collect and organize terms. Trent Hill felt that in its current form, it showed promise for use as a distance learning tool in the online version of LIS537. The TWT was a central focus of study in my TC 518: User-Centered Design course in spring 2008, and my group applied many usability techniques to determine the strengths and weakness of the application, and create a proposal for redesign and improvements. The existing TWT, with a few minor improvements, was also used by a group of students in LIS 537 during spring quarter. This independent study will focus on implementation of a redesign of the TWT, leveraging the information collected in the recent usability study and proposal, and guidance from the major stakeholder (Trent Hill).