LIBR 247-01
LIBR 247-10
LIBR 247-11
Vocabulary Design
Spring 2014 Greensheet

Dr. Ali Shiri
E-mail
Phone number: (780) 909-2132
Office Hours: Via email, chat, Collaborate, or telephone 

Students will be automatically enrolled in the D2L site for this course. The course will be automatically available to students on Monday, January 20.

Course Description

The course is designed to explore and examine the principles and practice of indexing, abstracting, thesaurus construction, web-based application of thesauri and other types of knowledge organization systems and social organization of information.

Course Requirements

Course work will consist of written lectures, readings, online discussions, three major assignments, and a number of small exercises. Though the class is designed to support a variety of learning styles, discussion, collaboration and sharing ideas is a key requirement. 

Assignments:

1. Online Discussion/Class Participation
   As this class is completely on-line and asynchronous, participation in the D2L discussions is essential for success in the course. Students will be expected to provide a thoughtful and reflective response to these topics. In addition to responding to each of the topics, students are also encouraged to engage in dialog with each other by responding to other student's responses to the topics.
2. Introduction and short biography via D2L: Students will provide a brief introduction of themselves, including their career goals and their motivation for choosing the course.  
3. Observations on image indexing: Students will carry out sample searches on content-based and concept-based image indexing digital image collections and will share their observations on the discussion forum. 
4. Observation on abstract writing: Students will write an abstract for a journal article and will compare their abstract with the author-generated abstract and will share their observations on the discussion board.
5. Indexing and abstracting project: Students will create an indexing and abstracting record for a journal article using a web-based thesaurus.
6. Thesaurus construction project: Students will create a small thesaurus for an LIS community using the facet analysis technique.
7. Evaluation of Thesaurus-enhanced search systems project: Students will compare and evaluate two operational thesaurus-enhanced search systems in terms of user interface and retrieval.

Assignments and weekly discussion postings are due each Sunday by midnight.

Course Calendar
The weekly course calendar will be provided in the D2L site for this course.

Grading

Late Assignments
Late assignments will not be accepted without prior consent of the instructor and will incur a penalty.

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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. 

Student Learning Outcomes

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

1. Apply principles of indexing, abstracting, and subject analysis.
2. Apply the principles of thesaurus structure and use to create a NISO Z39.19-compliant thesaurus.
3. Differentiate between the design of a single document index and the design of multi-document indexes.
4. Analyze the information needs of a specific community and design a metadata structure and appropriate vocabularies/taxonomies for a collection useful to that community.
5. Identify thesaurus applications in new indexing environments such as subject gateways, portals, and digital libraries.
6. Identify and evaluate the socio-technical dimensions of knowledge organization.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

LIBR 247 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Aitchison, J., Gilchrist, A., & Bawden, D. (2000). Thesaurus construction and use: A practical manual (4th ed.). Routledge. Available through Amazon: 0851424465

• Cleveland, D. B., & Cleveland, A. D. (2013). Introduction to indexing and abstracting (4th ed.). Libraries Unlimited. Available as free eBook through King Library

Recommended Textbooks:

• Shiri, A. (2012). Powering search: The role of thesauri in new information environments. Information Today. Available through Amazon: 157387454X

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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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