MARA 256-10
21st Century Archival Methods
Summer 2012 Greensheet

Lori Lindberg
E-mail

Students will be automatically enrolled in the D2L course site on June 1st, 2012.

Course Description

Course Catalog
Archival science and archival methods as presently practiced in archival repositories. Types of archival repositories. Influence of other disciplines on archives and vice versa. Focus on technological changes and their effects on traditional archival records, systems, methodologies.

Greensheet Description
This course is designed as an introduction to the basic theories, methodologies, significant challenges and opportunities relating to the management of records, particularly archival records, the practical administration of archives, and the institutions, programs, and associations that support this work. This course will provide a basic understanding of archives and archival work which will enable students to better understand the role of archives in the world of information management and enable them to perceive differences and similarities between archivists, records managers, manuscript curators, rare book librarians, librarians, and other information professionals.

Course Requirements

Course Meetings
There will be weekly live lectures via Collaborate from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. PST every Monday from June 4 - August 6. The link to access the Collaborate session will be posted in the News widget on the Home Page of the D2L course site.  We will utilize a Collaborate Room for the duration of the term, so this link will be the same throughout the Summer Session. The recording links will be unique and will be posted immediately after they are generated, also in the News section of the D2L Home Page for the Course.

These sessions are NOT required for your attendance (though it is nice to have someone to talk to) and will be recorded. You are required to listen to every lecture. Not every lecture will have a corresponding Power Point. Some lectures may involve web sharing and application sharing for illustration.

Note: for Week 6 (7/9) and Week 10 (8/4) the weekly Collaborate session will be replaced by a pre-recorded lecture to which a link will be provided at the above-referenced time and day (Monday, 6:00 p.m. PST).

Primary Requirements
Course requirements include:

• Adequate preparation to discuss the required reading assignments;

• Full participation in D2L class discussions/bookmarking

• Completion of assigned exercises; Requirements provided via D2L. These exercises support SLO#1

• Composition of two short Assignments (< 10 pp.) in response to tasks posed by the instructor, due Saturday at 11:59 p.m. of Week 8 (7/28) and Week 9 (8/4), respectively. 

• The first Assignment involves the use of social bookmarking and active monitoring of current events over the first 8 weeks of the course. Requirements provided via D2L. This Assignment supports SLO#2.

• The second Assignment involves a virtual and physical visit to an archival repository in your geographic area. Requirements provided via D2L. This Assignment supports SLO#3

• Completion of a comprehensive exam - available on 8/6, due 8/10. The exam is a combination of 20 fill-in-the-blank, short answer, multiple choice and True-False questions and is administered entirely in D2L. This exam supports SLO#1

Weighting
Your course grade will be weighted through the following assignments:  

Attendance and Discussion
Because the course meetings are recorded Blackboard Collaborate sessions, course attendance is optional. Students are expected to actively participate in class discussions/bookmarking and exercises (all shared with cohort). In keeping with standard School of Library and Information Science policy, incompletes will be issued only for exceptional and compelling circumstances.

Deadlines and Due Dates

Lectures are on Mondays, so the course week will run from Monday - Sunday. In-class exercises/discussion questions, assigned on Monday, are due via their assigned Weekly Discussion Board by noon Sunday so that the instructor may comment in the following Week's lecture.

Because one of the two major assignments requires a physical visit to an archival repository, students should begin a canvass of their area to identify potential locations immediately. Contact me if you need help with this.

All assignments are to be submitted complete on the due dates as specified. Students submitting assignments late will be penalized one letter grade for papers and no credit for exercises in the assessment of the final grade. If a student cannot submit an assignment by the due date, it is his/her responsibility to discuss the situation with the instructor prior to the due date.

Quality of Work
This is a Graduate course. Therefore, students are expected to produce mature written work of a scholarly level that conforms to a particular style manual and presents a well-supported thesis, free of spelling and major grammatical errors. More information on paper expectations and requirements will be provided at the first class session.

Course Outline

• Week 1 (6/4): The Archival Mission; Archival Ethics; the Archival Profession
• Week 2 (6/11): Archival Appraisal
• Week 3 (6/18): Acquisitions and Accessioning
• Week 4 (6/25): Arrangement
• Week 5 (7/2): Archival Description
• Week 6 (7/9): Standards
• Week 7 (7/16): Preservation and Security
• Week 8 (7/23): Access, Reference, Outreach and Promotion (Assignment 1 due)
• Week 9 (7/30): Audiovisual and Digital Records (Assignment 2 due)
• Week 10 (8/4): More on digital records; Management (Final Exam due)

Course Readings

Course Readings

Listed below are the primary readings for each Week from the Course Text. Some supplemental readings will be required. Week 1's complete readings are provided ahead of the first week's class. Subsequent weeks' supplemental readings (if any) are provided via D2L. Other supplemental materials such as .ppt presentations are provided va D2L. All reading is due to be completed by the END (Saturday) of the designated week.

• Week 1: Hunter, Chapters 1/2/13; SAA Core Values of Archivists; SAA Code of Ethics for Archivists.
• Week 2: Hunter, Chapter 3
• Week 3: Hunter, Chapter 4
• Week 4: Hunter, Chapter 5
• Week 5: Hunter, Chapter 6
• Week 6: Browse SAA's Standards Portal. Specific standards addressed in lecture and exercises.
• Week 7: Hunter, Chapters 7/8
• Week 8: Hunter, Chapter 9
• Week 9: Hunter, Chapters 11 (read first)/10
• Week 10: Hunter, Chapter 12

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Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

MARA 200. 

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

MARA 256 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Hunter, G.S. (2003). Developing and maintaining practical archives: A how-to-do-it manual. Neal-Schuman. Available through Amazon: 1555704670

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Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work;
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation.  You must repeat the class the following semester. If -on the second attempt- you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

General Expectations, Rights and Responsibilities of the Student

As members of the academic community, students accept both the rights and responsibilities incumbent upon all members of the institution. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with SJSU's policies and practices pertaining to the procedures to follow if and when questions or concerns about a class arises. See University Policy S90-5 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S90-5.pdf. More detailed information on a variety of related topics is available in the SJSU catalog at http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/catalog/departments/LIS.html. In general, it is recommended that students begin by seeking clarification or discussing concerns with their instructor. If such conversation is not possible, or if it does not serve to address the issue, it is recommended that the student contact the Department Chair as a next step.

Dropping and Adding

Students are responsible for understanding the policies and procedures about add/drop, grade forgiveness, etc. Refer to the current semester's Catalog Policies section at http://info.sjsu.edu/static/catalog/policies.html. Add/drop deadlines can be found on the current academic year calendars document on the Academic Calendars webpage at http://www.sjsu.edu/provost/services/academic_calendars/. The Late Drop Policy is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/aars/policies/latedrops/policy/. Students should be aware of the current deadlines and penalties for dropping classes.

Information about the latest changes and news is available at the Advising Hub at http://www.sjsu.edu/advising/.

Consent for Recording of Class and Public Sharing of Instructor Material

University Policy S12-7, http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S12-7.pdf, requires students to obtain instructor's permission to record the course and the following items to be included in the syllabus:

• "Common courtesy and professional behavior dictate that you notify someone when you are recording him/her. You must obtain the instructor's permission to make audio or video recordings in this class. Such permission allows the recordings to be used for your private, study purposes only. The recordings are the intellectual property of the instructor; you have not been given any rights to reproduce or distribute the material."
  • It is suggested that the syllabus include the instructor's process for granting permission, whether in writing or orally and whether for the whole semester or on a class by class basis.
  • In classes where active participation of students or guests may be on the recording, permission of those students or guests should be obtained as well.
• "Course material developed by the instructor is the intellectual property of the instructor and cannot be shared publicly without his/her approval. You may not publicly share or upload instructor generated material for this course such as exam questions, lecture notes, or homework solutions without instructor consent."

Academic integrity

Your commitment, as a student, to learning is evidenced by your enrollment at San Jose State University. The University Academic Integrity Policy F15-7 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/F15-7.pdf requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The Student Conduct and Ethical Development website is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/studentconduct/.

Campus Policy in Compliance with the American Disabilities Act

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you need to make special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 at http://www.sjsu.edu/president/docs/directives/PD_1997-03.pdf requires that students with disabilities requesting accommodations must register with the Accessible Education Center (AEC) at http://www.sjsu.edu/aec to establish a record of their disability.

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