INFORMATION AND LIBRARY SCIENCE (INLS)

Topics and trends in sustainable and smart cities. Role of information in the design of network resources and impact on urban design, development, and urban living will be explored.

Special topics course; content will vary each semester.

Introduction to and application of the processes that can be used in seeking information, evaluating the quality of the information retrieved, and synthesizing the information into a useful form.

Tools and concepts for information literacy. Includes software use and maintenance, computer applications, and networked information systems.

Examines the evolution of information science; information representation, organization and management; search and retrieval; human information seeking and interaction; organizational behavior and communication; policy, ethics and scholarly communication.

Introduction to foundational core concepts and core techniques in information organization, information retrieval, and data mining.

Introduces key areas and concepts in information science, to include task modeling, information-seeking behavior, search behavior, human-computer interaction, usability, user interfaces, social media, and social media analysis.

Design, implementation, and evaluation of interfaces for computer systems. User-based techniques, usability issues, and human factors.

Analysis of organizational problems and how information systems can be designed to solve those problems. Application of database and interface design principles to the implementation of information systems.

Overview of ethical reasoning, followed by examination of ethical issues relevant to information science, including access to information and technology, societal impacts of technology, information privacy, surveillance and security, intellectual property, and professional ethics.

Basic concepts in the way that information, people, and technology interact to influence organizational effectiveness. Principles of problem solving, teamwork, leadership, and organizational change/innovation.

Exploration of an introductory-level special topic not otherwise covered in the curriculum. Previous offerings of these courses do not predict their future availability; new courses may replace these.

Supervised observation and practice in information science. The internship typically takes place in an information agency or an information technology company. Faculty-led seminars and a paper enhance the experience. Pass/Fail only. Permission of the school.

Study by an individual student on a special topic under the direction of a specific faculty member. A prospectus/plan for the work is required in advance of registration.

Design, implementation, and evaluation of interfaces for computer systems. User-based techniques, usability issues, and human factors.

This course provides an introduction to the very idea of artificial intelligence and teaches students to think, write, and speak critically about artificial intelligence from philosophical, ethical, and imaginative perspectives.

Prepares students to be conversant with information technologies that underlie digital collections in order to evaluate the work of developers, delegate tasks, write requests for proposals, and establish policies and procedures. Teaches students how to think about information technology systems and recognize and manage interdependencies between parts of the systems.

Students will learn about many of the current issues facing businesses as well as how to prevent and discuss these issues and controls in depth. Focus will be placed upon preventing loss of information and protecting networks. Students should be able to understand any security control, describe its usage and rationale, as well as test and verify these controls are working as expected.

Exploration of an introductory-level special topic not otherwise covered in the curriculum. Previous offerings of these courses do not predict their future availability; new courses may replace these.

Second field experience course to be offered to coincide with the student's information science project in a local organization. Enrollment restricted to IS majors and minors; Instructor permission required.

The behavioral and cognitive activities of those who interact with information, with emphasis on the role of information mediators. How information needs are recognized and resolved; use and dissemination of information.

Analysis, use, and evaluation of information and reference systems, services, and tools for both printed and electronic delivery. Provides a foundation in electronic information search techniques, question negotiation, interviewing, and instruction.

Study of information retrieval and question answering techniques, including document classification, retrieval and evaluation techniques, handling of large data collections, and the use of feedback.

Natural language processing (NLP) uses mathematics, machine learning, linguistics, and computer science to make language computationally accessible and analyzable. In this course, you will learn to do essential NLP tasks using Python and survey a selection of NLP applications to describe the problems or tasks each addresses, the materials and methods used, and how the applications are evaluated. At least a semester of Python or equivalent practical experience is highly recommended.

Identification, provision, and evaluation of resources to meet primary needs of clientele in different institutional environments.

Examines concepts of health, health conditions, policy, and information collections and services from social and cultural perspectives. Analysis and design for provision and access to consumer health information services.

Introduces elements of organizing systems: classes, instances, properties, values, and relationships. Provides fundamental principles applicable to a wide range of information organization activities, including data modeling, vocabulary design, information architecture, data curation, library cataloging, and more. Emphasis on social and cultural context.

Design and implementation of basic database systems. Semantic modeling, relational database theory, including normalization, indexing, and query construction, SQL.

Explores relationships between new information and communication technologies and organizational efforts to define, identify, control, manage, and preserve records. Considers the importance of organizational, institutional and technological factors in determining appropriate recordkeeping strategies.

A survey of print and nonprint library materials particularly suited to the needs of adolescents.

This course encourages students to explore the array of technologies available to children and adolescents, the issues surrounding the use of technology, the role of care givers, and potential impacts on development.

An introduction to information visualization through reading current literature and studying exemplars. The course reviews information visualization techniques, provides a framework for identifying the need for information visualization, and emphasizes interactive electronic visualizations that use freely available tools. Students will construct several visualizations. No programming skills are required.

In this course, students will critically engage with the conceptualization of the makerspace in a "T-shaped" manner. Vertically, students will develop a deeply practical, critical, and theoretical understanding of the makerspace and its remarkable adoption rate in libraries and communities across the U.S.; horizontally, students will develop a wide range of technical skills in areas such as fabrication, circuitry, reality, and micro- computing. At the end of the course, students will have engaged with a variety of topics including how to staff a makerspace, equity and inclusion, and ways to navigate ethical issues in makerspaces.

The history of the origin and development of the book in all its formats: clay tablets to electronic. Coverage includes scientific and other scholarly publications, religious works, popular literature, periodicals, and newspapers.

The history of cultural institutions related to information from earliest times to the present day. Includes specific institutions, trends in service and facilities, and individuals important in the development of these institutions.

Survey of the principles, techniques, and issues in the acquisition, management, and administration of records, manuscripts, archives, and other cultural and documentary resources in paper, electronic, and other media formats.

An overview of storytelling, its historical development, and the presentation and administration of storytelling programs. The class focuses on performance skills merged with theoretical issues.

Introduction to programming and computational concepts. Students will learn to write programs using constructs such as iteration, flow control, variables, functions, and error handling. No programming experience required.

Students will learn about hardware, software, principles, and methods for capturing and curating digital data that have been stored on removable media (i.e., hard drives, floppy disks, USB memory sticks).

Intermediate programming concepts in information processing and data analysis. Students will learn object-oriented programming, data structures, data analysis methods, and information processing techniques in the context of information science topics.

Introduction to current technologies, standards, and best practices for front-end web development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Includes coverage of responsive design techniques for the development of websites that render and perform well on various devices.

Introduction to the systems approach to the design and development of information systems. Methods and tools for the analysis and modeling of system functionality (e.g., structured analysis) and data represented in the system (e.g., object-oriented analysis) are studied.

An overview of ethical reasoning, followed by discussion of issues most salient to information professionals, e.g., intellectual property, privacy, access/censorship, effects of computerization, and ethical codes of conduct.

Introduction to management principles and practices for information professionals working in all types of organizations. Topics include planning, budgeting, organizational theory, staffing, leadership, organizational change and evaluation, and decision making.

This course takes an in-depth look at experimental information retrieval systems that focus on different search tasks and are evaluated in community-wide evaluation forums such as TREC and INEX.

This course will allow the student to develop a general understanding of knowledge discovery and gain a specific understanding of text mining. Students will become familiar with both the theoretical and practical aspects of text mining and develop a proficiency with data modeling text.

Knowledge graphs are interlinked descriptions of things--objects, people, products, events, concepts--and the relations among them. Distributed knowledge graphs are published on the Web and maintained collaboratively. This course covers the core concepts and standards needed to understand and work effectively with distributed knowledge graphs, including the Resource Description Framework (RDF), the SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL), and the Web Ontology Language (OWL).

Intermediate-level design and implementation of database systems, building on topics studied in INLS 523. Additional topics include MySQL, indexing, XML, and nontext databases.

This course introduces analytical techniques to deal with very large data sets. Students will become familiar with predictive modeling, clustering, data mining, and paradigms such as map resource.

This project-based course provides an overview of visual analytics. Material includes foundational concepts and theories, seminal and recent research in the field, and hands-on experience with commonly used technologies. Programming experience strongly recommended.

Recent years have witnessed explosive growth of heterogeneous and large-scale data sets. With a focus on practical applications, this course will survey methods for discovering knowledge from different modalities of data: item sets, matrix, text, image, time series, sequence, network, and more. Students will learn through lectures, seminar discussions, shared tasks, and a course project. Prior experience in data-oriented programming languages (e.g., Python or R) is strongly recommended.

An introduction to the management of audio, film, and video archives with an emphasis on the history of recording, best practices for preservation and access, and copyright. Through selected readings, lecture, class discussion, assignment, and hands-on demonstration, students will gain an understanding of the history of recording, format identification, storage and handling, philosophy of media preservation, and copyright.

Explores the evolution, implications, and complications of social media in multiple spheres of life including sociality, community, politics, power and inequality, education, and information from theoretical and empirical perspectives.

This course is a broad introduction to project management principles, tools, and strategies intended for use in a variety of applications. Key topics include project planning tools, project process groups, risk assessment, budgeting/cost estimation, and team management. Through the use of readings, videos, assignments, and forum discussions, students will have the opportunity to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the strategy behind successful project management and problem resolution.

Exploration of a special topic not otherwise covered in the curriculum, at an intermediate level. Previous offering of this course does not predict future availability; new courses may replace these. Topic varies by instructor.

Senior standing and permission of the instructor. Restricted to information science majors. An introduction to research methods used in information science. Includes the writing of a research proposal.

Senior standing and permission of the instructor. Students in the SILS undergraduate honors program engage in independent research and write an honors thesis reporting the research under the supervision of a faculty member. Restricted to information science majors.

Study by an individual student on a special topic under the direction of a specific faculty member. Six credit maximum for master's students. Graduate faculty.

Senior standing required. Information science major or minor. Contemporary topics of information science, information systems, information technology, information design, and information management. Assessment of future impact of new developments.

Addresses how scholars approach academic work; social relationships within academia; external stakeholders in the scholarly communication system; and emerging technologies' impact upon work practices. Intended for students interested in academic libraries or digital collections of scholarly materials, and/or conducting research on scholarly communication.

A survey of information and data sources from all levels of U.S. government, and international bodies. Primary focus on strategies for finding information; secondary, collection management, role of librarians, etc.

An introduction to the legal system and the development of law libraries, their unique objectives, characteristics, and functions. The literature of Anglo-American jurisprudence and computerized legal research are emphasized, as well as research techniques.

Combines an introduction to basic business concepts and vocabulary with consideration of current issues in business librarianship and of key print and electronic information sources.

An introduction to the process of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and clinical practice including question building, searching, and critical appraisal of studies and to the supporting roles and opportunities for medical librarians.

Crises come in many forms, from natural disasters to individual health emergencies. Preparedness, prevention, and planning are all critical components in handling these situations effectively. In this course, students will learn about risk assessment, training and other tools, disaster prevention, recovery, partnerships, and outreach as they apply to all types of libraries.

Changes in technology and publishing practices have eased the task of recording and sharing textual information electronically. This increased quantity of information has spurred the development of a new field called text mining. The overarching goal of this new field is to use computers to automatically learn new things from textual data. Throughout the course, a strong emphasis will be placed on evaluation. Students will develop an understanding of one method through a course project.

The data explosion experienced by computerization of every aspect of our lives from social media to internet of things requires a deeper look at information analytics. The course introduces proven and emerging analytical techniques that can be used to deal with mountains of mostly unstructured data. We will look at several analytical paradigms from Predictive Modeling to Data Mining, Text Analytics to Web Analytics, Statistical Analysis to novel paradigms in Map Reduce and Storm.

Basic principles for designing the human interface to information systems, emphasizing computer-assisted systems. Major topics: users' conceptual models of systems, human information processing capabilities, styles of interfaces, evaluation methods.

This course will introduce central concepts in usability engineering, testing and evaluation including: UX lifecycle, contextual inquiry, formal and informal evaluation techniques, measures, metrics, qualitative and qualitative analysis, evaluation reporting.

Examines metadata in digital environment. Emphasizes the development and implementation of metadata schemas in distinct information communities and the standards and technological applications used to create machine understandable metadata.

Covers principles, practices, and future trends for cataloging library resources. Topics include RDA/AACR2, MARC, authority control, subject analysis, classification, and cataloging of print, nonprint, and digital resources.

Examines fundamental concepts central to structured metadata implementations and surveys the many types of standards that attempt to harmonize description and enable interoperable systems. The course situates the challenge of implementing standards for interoperable data within the messy reality of persistent interpretive diversity. Students cannot receive credit for both INLS 722 and INLS 720.

We explore the management and preservation of electronic records for maintaining institutional accountability; protecting rights of citizens, employees and customers; supporting efficient operations; perpetuating social memory; and helping individuals to integrate the past into their sense of identity. We begin by considering the messy recordkeeping environment that surrounds us and then build up a set of concepts, tools and strategies that information professionals can use to help shape more appropriate, valuable and sustainable recordkeeping systems.

This class will introduce students to current and emerging practices for dealing with big data and large-scale database systems used by many social networking and ecommerce services. These applications are highly data intensive and use novel algorithms and NoSQL databases that are mainly open source, non-schema oriented, having weak consistency properties and heavily distributed over large and evolving clusters of off-the-shelf server systems. We will look at several such systems in this course.

Survey of literature and related materials for children with emphasis on 20th-century authors and illustrators.

Objectives and organization of public library services for children and young adults; designed for those who may work directly with young people or who intend to work in public libraries.

This course will prepare students to work as ILS professionals in today's increasingly diverse society. Students will develop a theoretical base in critical race theory (CRT) and other cross-disciplinary theories.

Service, professional, and administrative issues related to information access by nontraditional information service users. The course examines trends, public policy, ethical issues, programming, and evaluation of services.

A survey of the history and practice of art and visual resources librarianship/curatorship, with an emphasis on administration, collection development, copyright practices, digital resource management, and public service.

Introduces students to digital curation; focusing best practices for the creation, selection, storage, provision, and long-term preservation of digital entities. Discusses the digital/data curation life cycles and identifies the activities associated with each stage and their social, legal, ethical, and policy implications.

This course explores best practices, standards, new tools, and workflows for the full range of data lifecycle activities including: FAIR data; the ethics of data collection, analysis, and storage; data sharing and reuse for the academic, government, and business sectors; key data curation standards; data quality; document and content management; data maturity models; and organizational change management. The second half of the class focuses on data governance.

Focuses on best practices for the creation, provision, and long-term preservation of digital entities. Topics include digitization technologies; standards and quality control; digital asset management; grant writing; and metadata.

An introduction to current practices, issues, and trends in the preservation of materials for libraries and archives, with an emphasis on integrating preservation throughout an institution's operations.

Explores user needs, information seeking behaviors, and provision of access to primary source materials in archives, manuscript repositories, and museums. User education and outreach are major foci.

Explores history, theories, techniques, and methods that archivists use to identify documents and other materials of enduring value for lone-term preservation.

Explores the theory and practice of archival description, with a focus on both traditional and contemporarily expanding notions of description. Includes descriptive activities across the life of archival collections, at the levels of accession, finding aid creation, descriptive media titling, digital collection metadata, tagging, and reviews of US standards, such as LOC subject headings and DACS. Introductions to archival description software, within an experimental sandbox setting, is included in this course.

This course explores the concepts and practice of community archives, which can be loosely defined as collections of material(s) documenting one or many aspects of community heritage, collected and/or preserved by that community and its members. In addition to learning core concepts, theories, frameworks, and histories associated with community archives, students will also apply this knowledge to consider how community archivists implement collections in a variety of settings.

Programming experience required. Explores concepts and practice surrounding the implementation and delivery of Web-enabled databases. Students will gain experience with and evaluate PC and Unix Web database platforms.

This course provides fundamental skills for developing software for the analysis of structured data sets. Students will learn data analysis techniques using numeric, textual, and tabular data in the context of data science topics such as information retrieval, textual analysis, and basic machine learning. The course combines conceptual understanding of data structures and algorithms with practical techniques for implementation and debugging. Course concepts are taught using Python. For Certificate in Applied Data Science students.

Prepares students to be conversant with information technologies that underlie digital collections in order to evaluate the work of developers, delegate tasks, write requests for proposals, and establish policies and procedures.

This course will address international standards for repository design and audit; risk assessment and mitigation; repository audit and certification tools and processes; criteria for trustworthiness; and the development of specific workflows to support trustworthy digital curation functions. It is also the first step in preparing for repository self-audits and the Trustworthy Digital Repository Auditor's credential to become an auditor of trustworthy digital repositories (ISO 16363).

Information assurance is a broader concept than (computerized) information security. It deals with aspects of data integrity, privacy, paper and human security issues, and security from several perspectives: legal issues, technical tools and methods, social and ethical concerns, and organization's policies and procedures, and standards. Previously offered as INLS 566.

An applied course introducing computational statistical analysis, machine learning, data exploration and communication with a focus on applied concepts as encountered within common data science applications.

This course will introduce the basic concepts and implementations of relational database management systems suited for data science applications. Topics include user requirements and specifications, ER models, database programming including SQL, data quality, and applications.

This course will introduce students to ethical issues faced by data scientists in creation, collection, curation, and use of data. It addresses issues at multiple scales. Students begin with an overview of ethical frameworks and apply them to cases through the course. Readings and class discussions will be drawn from current events. The course is heavily discussion and participation-based, and students are expected to bring examples of ethical scenarios to class sessions.

Introduce to digital and data curation in a wide array of environments including business, government, and academia. Topics include: the Data Curation Lifecycle; research data management; data sharing; challenges and benefits of big data, good data, open data, and FAIR data; the ethics of data collection, analysis, and storage; data sharing and reuse for the academic, government, and business sectors; and the roles of data management plans in all data venues.

This course explores ethical issues related to information, data, knowledge, and technology in various individual, community, and societal contexts.

Examines the relationships between information, technology, and people from an array of disciplinary, professional, cultural, and other orientations. Survey from historical and future viewpoints. Explores the application of diverse perspective to understand current matters of concern.

During this course each student will prepare a proposal for the work to be completed during the following semester for their masters paper/project (INLS 992). Students will also receive an introduction to research methods used in information and library science, exploring the design, interpretation, analysis and application of published research.

This course will prepare students to conduct their capstone practicum. It includes a broad introduction to project management principles, tools, and strategies intended for use in a variety of applications.

Addresses evaluation and assessment activities in libraries. Existing tools for evaluation library operations will be considered. Students will design and conduct their own evaluation of one or more library operations.

Examines the role of school, public, and academic librarians in providing instruction. Pedagogy, learning theories, information literacy standards and curricula, and assessment methods are addressed.

This course examines values and ethics and their application to information, data, knowledge, and technology in various contexts. Will include some formal frameworks for ethical reasoning and examination of current and recent issues.

Students will learn to read/analyze legal materials, identify major legal issues and legal regulations governing librarians, and use legal information to create policies and guide best practice in particular institutions.

The Applied Data Science Practicum course is designed to build upon the formal classroom instruction in data science concepts and technologies through a "hands-on" project experience within an industry, non-profit or other work environment that relates to the student's primary field of study/practice. The aim is to provide students with a practical learning opportunity to apply data science techniques on real-world problems. Permission of Instructor required for this course.

Permission of Instructor. PSM Internship in Digital Curation is a planned, individualized, mentored, evaluated, experiential learning opportunity that serves as a bridge between academic training and non-academic practice.

Required preparation, completion of 18 semester hours. Permission of the instructor. Supervised observation and practice in an information service agency or library. The student will work a required amount of time under the supervision of an information/library professional and participate in faculty-led discussions for ongoing evaluation of the practical experience.

Required preparation, completion of at least 21 semester hours, including INLS 744 and INLS 754. Permission of the instructor. Supervised observation and practice in a school library media center. Faculty-led seminars, reflection journals, and on-site faculty observations enhance the experience.

Second Field Experience course to be offered to coincide with graduate students information or library science project in an organization. Department consent required.

This course will provide brief introductions to materials that do not otherwise fit into the 31 credit format of the PSM in Digital Curation degree. This course will cover established topics but also late-breaking developments so as to keep students up-to-date with changes in tools, practices, and standards. A lecture or interview with a digital curation expert will be posted biweekly.

Research and development in design and evaluation of user interfaces that support information seeking. Major topics: interactivity, needs assessment, query and browser interactions, interactive design and maintenance, usability testing.

Study of problems in the organization and administration of college and university libraries with emphasis on current issues in personnel, finance, governance, and services.

Selected topics relating to the roles of public and academic libraries in the provision and marketing of popular materials for adult users (romance, science fiction, mysteries, etc.), including readers' advisory tools and techniques used to connect users to these materials.

Required preparation, completion of 12 semester hours. Selected topics in public library services, systems, networks, and their management. Current issues are emphasized, along with the interests of the participants.

A study of the nature and importance of rare book collections; problems of acquisition, organization, and service.

Doctoral students will work on faculty-sponsored or off-site research projects to gain foundational research skills. Students may be involved in research design, data collection, data analysis, or other research-related activities.

Introduction to the fundamental ideas, papers, people, research approaches, and scholarly publication practices in information and library science. Development of scholarly skills and exploration of research interests in a mutual-support environment.

Provides students an opportunity to focus on learning the tools, techniques, and procedures for completing their comprehensive exam and dissertation research effectively and efficiently. Topics include: structure and writing of comprehensive exam, development of research questions, how to write a prospectus, IRB procedures, grant-writing, research ethics, and professional development skills.

Doctoral standing required. Presentation and discussion of research issues, questions, methods, analytical approaches by students, faculty, or visitors.

Review and critical assessment of research methods in information and library science, including how to analyze, assess, and adapt methodologies to research questions in LIS. Permission of the instructor for students lacking this preparation.

Doctoral students will observe and work with faculty in the classroom to gain foundational teaching skills. Students may gain supervised experience designing class sessions, exercises, leading class, and/or grading assignments.

Doctoral or advanced master's standing required. Discussion and critique of the structural components and processes utilized in theory development. Seminar provides knowledge relating to the various stages of theory building.

Introduction to contemporary teaching practices in a university setting. Topics include principles of instructional design and assessment, pedagogical theory, and classroom management. Students will create course syllabi, assignments, evaluation rubrics, and personal teaching philosophies.

For doctoral students currently involved in teaching activities, these regular seminar meetings are designed to discuss aspects of the teaching experience including course planning, responding to student needs, grading issues, and fostering student engagement.

Exploration of an advanced special topic not otherwise covered in the curriculum. Previous offering of these courses does not predict their future availability; new courses may replace these.

Permission of the instructor. Supports individual and small group research undertaken by doctoral students in information and library science intended to produce research results of publishable quality.

Provides a culminating experience for master's degree students, under the supervision of a faculty member, to engage in: 1) independent research with a final research paper, or 2) a practicum experience with a final presentation or poster.

Doctoral research and dissertation work conducted under the supervision of an advisor.