LIBR 275-01
LIBR 275-11
Library Services for Racially & Ethnically Diverse Communities
Spring 2013 Greensheet

Dr. Arglenda Friday
E-mail
Office Location: Virtual
Phone: (918) 378-2609
Office Hours: Virtual or by arrangement

This course will be available on D2L. Students will be automatically enrolled in the D2L site class site on the first day of the semester. I will send more information about course access as we approach this date through MySJSU.

Course Description

This 3 unit course focuses on developing skills for planning, implementing, and evaluating programs and services for addressing the information needs of racially, ethnically, linguistically, and culturally diverse communities. It will also review major national, state, and local studies.

Course Requirements

The primary requirements for this web based course are:

Assignments

• Papers and Exercises
  In addition to short diversity exercises, students will complete:
• A library visit report to assess its responsiveness to the ethnic and racial characteristics of the community
• A review of a selection tool or resource to promote collection diversification
• A final project pertaining to future trends or library and information services to racial or ethnic groups 
• Discussion Forums
  Forums provide opportunities for class members to engage in meaningful cognitive exchanges about their experiences, observations, and information about public library programs, services, collections, and functions. This form of class participation may also include analyzing case studies, role playing, and posting relevant cites to support your opinions about issues.
• Fieldwork
  Students are expected to keep abreast of diversity issues affecting all types of library and information centers through:
  1. Association and interaction with working librarians and library professionals;
  2. Observations in various library settings; and
  3. By regularly reading professional literature, monitoring relevant listservs, and scanning newspapers and other journals.

Course Calendar
Readings and discussion topics will be posted in modules on a weekly basis. Topics to be covered in this intensive course include the following, but the list is subject to change with fair notice:

• Week 1:  Introduction & Overview; Definitions & Dimensions of Diversity   
• Week 2:  Privilege & User (Information Seeking) Behaviors
• Week 3:  Collection Diversification
• Week 4:  Programming, Planning, Marketing and Outreach
• Week 5:  Services - including Technology & the Digital Divide 
• Week 6:  Partnerships, Planning, Grants & Funding Sources
• Week 7:  Recruitment, Retention, & Cultural Sensitivity

Evaluation Criteria
Grades will be assigned based on how well students demonstrate:

• understanding of diversity and how it affects the delivery of library programs, and services, and the diversification of its collections;
• critical, reflective, and innovative thinking skills;
• ability to articulate the ways that philosophical perspectives influence our understanding of underserved populations in our library service areas
• originality in the approach to the assignment
• greater depth of analysis and overall treatment than required by the assignment
• superior organizational, written, or communication skills in the presentation of the material.

Grades for class participation will be based on your performance in terms of concrete, cognitive, and relevant contributions to the discussions or issues for analysis. Assessment would include the number of times you participate in class discussions or the number of times you provide links to outside sources of interest. Cognitive activities include the depth of your posts, critical evaluation of the readings by comparing them to other authors/sources/best practices, providing new ways of looking at an idea or suggesting new sources or leads for the class, and bringing up new ideas or questions.

Late Assignments
Late assignments will not be accepted without prior notification and approval of the instructor, and with the understanding that there may be a reduction in number of points earned for the assignment. Incompletes will be assigned ONLY in cases of documented family or medical emergency.

Readings

The readings and articles will be available through the King Library, the Internet, and/or the course site. Current topics will be taken from library journals and other appropriate venues, including periodicals promoting services and programming to diverse communities.

Supplemental Readings & Resources

• Galens, J. et al. (eds.) Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. (2nd Ed.) New York: Gale Research Inc., 2000.
• Guerena, S. (ed.). Latino Librarianship: A Handbook for Professionals. (2nd Ed.) Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2000.
• Josey, E.J. & DeLoach, Marva (eds). Handbook of Black librarianship. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000.
• Metoyer-Duran, C. Gatekeepers in Ethnolinguistic Communities. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Pub., 1993.
• American Library Association - diversity articles and publications.

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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 200, LIBR 204. 

Student Learning Outcomes

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

1. Demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics, challenges, issues, needs, interests, and concerns associated with providing information services to diverse groups.
2. Develop skills and methods for identifying appropriate resources and communication channels for service delivery to these patrons.
3. Design, implement, and evaluate effective and responsive programs and services.
4. Review readings and studies reflecting major national, regional, state, and local trends for providing culturally appropriate library services to racially and ethnically diverse groups.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

LIBR 275 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

No Textbooks For This Course.

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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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