LIBR 246-06
LIBR 246-14
Information Technology Tools and Applications – Advanced Topic: Web 2.0
Spring 2013 Greensheet

This course will be available on D2L. You will be enrolled into the site automatically. We will send more information about course access as we approach this date through MySJSU..

Course Description

Most people think of social networking tools for fun and personal use: posting pictures to Facebook, using YouTube to find entertaining videos. Yet social tools have drastically changed the information landscape. People use social tools to find and share information, and libraries are increasingly using social tools to share their rich resources and to make themselves more visible to their patrons, customers and communities. In this course, we will look at some of the tools currently available, examine the dynamics behind these tools, look at several examples of libraries and information centers effectively using these tools, and develop an approach for selecting the appropriate social tools to meet our organizational goals.

This course primarily aims to explore the nature of social information tools and how they interact with information and libraries. It is intended to provide students a strategic and holistic framework within which to think about these technologies, and practical ways to approach and implement the tools. Inside and outside of class, we will explore the larger issues of technology and how it is affecting information distribution, access and the concepts of authority and credibility.

Course Requirements

Students are expected to attend all scheduled classes, actively participate in class discussions, complete reading assignments and submit assignments on due dates.

Assignments
Course assignments are intended to build upon each other, with the ultimate goal being the creation of a comprehensive plan to implement 2.0 technology effectively within an information organization.

There are no “right” and “wrong” answers for the assignments; they will be evaluated instead on methodology (demonstrating your thought process), completeness, demonstration of innovative thinking, AND whether or not you actually followed the assignment details. Also, you will be graded on whether or not you seemed to have engaged in the spirit of the assignment – e.g., did you do the minimum necessary to complete it or did you bring reflection, personal introspection, and individual engagement to the assignment? Please keep in mind, however, that the purpose of the assignments is to help you develop the information you personally need to engage with technology in the information space.

Graduate level writing expected.

Collaborate/Panopto
Most of our sessions will via Collaborate or Panopto recordings, and we will have 1-2 synchronous Collaborate sessions. You will need to purchase a USB headset or microphone to participate in Collaborate sessions. Be sure you have had Collaborate training or have taken a tutorial. For more information, see the Student Guide at http://ischool.sjsu.edu/software/elluminate/students/.

Technology Requirements
You will need a current and fast internet connection like DSL, Cable, or FIOS. Please see the home computing environment requirements at:
http://ischool.sjsu.edu/ecommunication/homecomputing.htm

You will also need to be able to access sites like Facebook and MySpace and so must have access to a computer that doesn’t block popular social networking sites.

Assignments

Note that assignments may be subject to minor changes.

Extra credit: Additional blog entries (5 points total, no matter how many additional entries) and/or a second Social Media Communications Evaluation (10 points total).

• Blog entries (5 points each, 4 required)
  You will be required to write a blog entry about a tool we have explored. You will choose one tool (or you may choose to compare tools) and provide your reflection upon that tool:
  • How difficult was it to use?
  • What kind of information was useful?
  • Do you know of something better?
  • How do you see this fitting into a library or information environment?
  • You will be required to both create a blog entry, and to comment on others’ blog entries. Commenting on others’ blog entries – in a thoughtful way, not just saying “great idea!” – is a required component of each of the four blog entries in order to receive full points.
  • Addresses SLOs 1, 2 and 4
• Social Media Communications Evaluation (20 points) (the idea for this assignment is from Meridith Farkas, our thanks to her!)
  You will be required to evaluate an information space, library, or an information provider (vendor, aggregator, publication) that is currently using social media as part of their communications and awareness strategy (ex. blog, Facebook page, Second Life work, LinkedIn group, YouTube, Twitter feed, etc.). You will explain what social tools they are using, how they are using them, and your opinion about the effectiveness of their usage. We will provide you with some ideas of information providers and vendors that you may want to evaluate (ex. Safari Books Online, Springer, EBSCO, Outsell, FUMSI, Library of Congress, etc.). Here are some things to consider:
  • What are they doing right in their communication efforts and can be improved?
  • What tools or combination of tools are they using? How do they connect the tools for effective usage?
  • Do they have a person or team working with that tool for on-going conversation, responding, and communication?
  • Are they engaging their audience in discussion and conversation? What types of topics do they address, discuss and are they the right topics for their audience?
  • Does it seem that they get good input from their community members that could help their business / work?
  • If they hired you as a social media marketing consultant, what would you suggest to them?
  • Consider contacting someone at that library, information company, vendor, or publication to talk to them about their efforts.
  • Addresses SLOs 2, 3 and 4
• Social Media Plan (50 points)
  Select any library or information setting: academic, public, special, corporate, school, consultancy, information vendor, publisher etc. This setting could be your workplace, or it could be any site that interests you, or one you visit frequently. Imagine that the information setting of your choice is in the process of either creating or redoing their communications, information awareness and access, and social media plans on a large scale. The goal is to prepare a social plan for the setting you chose that incorporates 2.0 technology. A comprehensive plan should address (but is not limited to) the following:
  1. Discuss existing technology and services currently used and offered
  2. Provide a needs assessment, to outline what users and stakeholders need from the technology and offerings. Note that you may need to investigate this as part of your project.
  3. Establish priorities for meeting those needs and provide justifications
  4. Create a budget proposal. As much as possible, try to find cost info from the vendors if appropriate
  5. Develop an implementation plan

  Before starting to gather data and write along the above steps, your social media plan needs to start with the following basic components:

  • A statement of the organization's mission (library, organization, vendor, ec.)
  • An outline of the user population of the organization’s products and services
  • Goals and objectives for the use of social tools in fulfilling the mission and serving the population
  • Activities required to accomplish these goals and objectives and their cost

  Final output:

  • Presentation of Social Media Plan to classs
  • Slides for presentation
  • One page summary of plan which includes important points
  • Addresses SLOs 3, 4 and 5

  More information about this assignment will be covered in class.

• Participation (10 points)
  Participation will constitute a significant part of your participation grade. You will be expected to view all Elluminate sessions, participate in the Class Blog and groups, comment/respond to at least 2 blog entries/questions, participate in discussions, and contribute to the Twitter class session. Especially since this is an online class, it can be very easy to sit back and “lurk”. Part of what makes online communities and tools successful is active participation by ALL participants. Please don’t be shy – let’s build a community!

Course Calendar
(Note: subject to change)

Late Assignments
Assignments that are up to one week late will only receive half credit. We will not accept any assignment more than 1 week late. Accommodations may be made in emergency cases when we are contacted in advance of the due date.

Textbooks and Software

There is no required textbook for this course. All course readings will be posted to our Class Blog on an ongoing basis. The textbook that we recommend is: Farkas, M. (2007). Social software in libraries: Building collaboration, communication, and community online. Medford, NJ: Information Today.

Please be sure to check both D2L and the blog regularly for discussion, assignments, etc. Much of the content and communication for this course will be through D2L and the blog. We will also be communicating via email and discussion forums.

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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

LIBR 202, other prerequisites may be added depending on content. 

Student Learning Outcomes

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

1. Define the basic syntax of coding PHP programs.
2. Use HTML forms with PHP.
3. Use standard PHP functions and be able to write their own custom functions.
4. Demonstrate a basic understanding of MySQL and be able to use it in a PHP program.
5. Build and maintain a small Web application.
6. Identify the features of JavaScript.
7. Incorporate JavaScript/Jscript into HTML using current versions of popular Internet browsers.
8. Identify the types of data and operators in JavaScript.
9. Incorporate variables in JavaScript.
10. Declare functions and add objects along with their methods and properties in JavaScript.
11. Manage JavaScript events by using event handlers.
12. Create interactive HTML forms by applying the properties and methods of form objects and elements.
13. Implement loops in JavaScript programs.
14. Manipulate the images displayed on a Web page.
15. Identify how information about a Web page is stored.
16. Identify the functions of cookie attributes; create and manipulate cookies.
17. Identify information provided by navigator object properties.
18. Manipulate strings using the string object method.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

LIBR 246 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Recommended Textbooks:

• Farkas, M. G. (2007). Social software in libraries: Building collaboration, communication, and community online. Information Today. Available through Amazon: 157387275X.

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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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