LIBR 285-02
LIBR 285-13
Research Methods in Library and Information Science
Topic: Youth Services
Spring 2014 Greensheet

Dr. Anthony Bernier
E-mail
Home Office: (510) 339-6880
Office Hours: by appointment

Mission of the School
The School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) educates professionals and develops leaders who organize, manage and enable the effective use of information and ideas in order to contribute to the well-being of our global communities.

Getting Launched
SLIS utilizes a content management system called Desire2Learn (D2L) for class communications: submitting assignments, discussions, grades, and email. We will automatically enroll you in the D2L site for our course and you will be able to begin access to it between 20-23 January.

Our class formally begins on Thursday 23 January. Weekly units end on Saturdays at 5PM (Pacific time) – and all assignments are due on Saturdays at 5 PM (Pacific Time) unless otherwise indicated.

Course Description

This course prepares students to become analytical consumers of research through introducing the fundamental principles of identifying, assessing, and applying current scholarship to youth services and program evaluation.

285 Waiver Option
If a student has taken and passed a graduate level-research methods course AND completed a thesis or dissertation as part of a previous graduate degree (as documented by an official transcript), you can petition the SLIS Graduate Advisor to waive the LIBR 285 requirement. A waiver, if granted, does not reduce the total units required for the MLIS degree. See Waiver option

Course Requirements

• Elluminate Class Sessions (3 sessions): 4 points each
  Mandatory participation in all three, three-hour Elluminate sessions (dates and times listed below);
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) Certification: 5 points
• IRB Training Requirement
  Complete the National Institute of Health’s online workshop titled: “Protecting Human Research Participants (PHRP).” Completion of this workshop is required by all San José State University faculty and students intending to do research with living human subjects. The course can be located at: phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php
  
  You can complete this short on-line mini-course at any point during the semester. It will take about two hours to complete. When you have finished the course, you will be given a "certificate," that you should submit as proof of completion via the appropriate Angel Drop Box;
• Discussion Board Topics (6 throughout the term): 3 points each
  Based on relevant readings and other course experiences, these interactive posts demonstrate, articulate, and share your learning with fellow students;
• Briefs (4 throughout the term): 5 points each
  1-2 page content-based and skill-enhanced writing assignments;
• Two Short Papers: 5 points each
  Brief critical engagements on selected topics (3-5 pages);
• Research Study Evaluation: 10 points
  Discover and evaluate a recent scholarly youth studies monographic (3-5 pages);
• Term Project: 25 points
• Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of an actual library youth program (15-20 pages) All assignments are must be turned at 5 p.m. (Pacific time) on the day they are due. Late submissions will be reduced by 20% of the total points possible for that assignment.

Holiday Observances
Only University-recognized holidays will be observed for this class. See the Academic Calendar on the University’s website for specific details.

Course Requirements

Assignments
All assignments are must be turned at 5 p.m. (Pacific time) on the day they are due. Late submissions will be reduced by 20% of the total points possible for that assignment.

• Elluminate Class Sessions (3 sessions): 4 points each
  Attend and participate in three, three-hour Elluminate sessions (dates and times listed below)
• IRB Certification: 5 points
  Complete the National Cancer Institute’s online workshop titled: “Human Participant Protections Education for Research Teams.” Completion of this workshop is required by all San José State University faculty and students intending to do research with living human subjects. The course can be located at:
  http://cme.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/learning/humanparticipant-protections.asp
  
  You can take this short on-line mini-course at any point during the semester. It will take about two hours to complete. When you have finished the course, you will be given a certificate, which you should submit to me as proof of completion.
• Discussion Board Topics (6 throughout the term): 3 points each
  Based on relevant readings and other course experiences, these interactive posts demonstrate, articulate, and share your learning with fellow students.
• Briefs (4 throughout the term): 5 points each
  1-2 page content-based and skill-enhanced writing assignments
• Primary Source Survey: 10 points
  Discover, locate, describe and evaluate primary sources important for professionals serving young people (3-5 pages)
• Research Study Evaluation: 10 points
  Discover and evaluate a recent monographic study of youth (3-5 pages)
• Term Paper: 25 points
  Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of an actual library youth program (15-20 pages)

Course Calendar and Grading

Recommended Style Manual

Scholarly research in LIS requires the effective communication of findings and evaluation of the writings of others. An important aspect of this scholarly communication is understanding and demonstrating facility with standard LIS citation formatting. Thus, if you have not done so already, I strongly encourage you to invest in a copy of the:

• American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: APA. (Available through the iSchool eBookstore. Free electronic version is available at: http://ischool.sjsu.edu/resources/apa_refguide.htm)

Other Readings
Other articles and resources will be assigned throughout the term. These will be available through the King Library’s full text databases, the web, or in our Course Documents.

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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 202, LIBR 204. 

Student Learning Outcomes

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

1. Understand the difference between primary and secondary research.
2. Demonstrate knowledge of fundamental principles and processes of conducting research.
3. Articulate the research method(s) covered in the course, appropriately apply them, and understand their strengths and liabilities.
4. Understand appropriate data collection/analysis tools, and ethical concerns related to research.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

LIBR 285 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Best, A. L. (2007). Representing Youth: Methodological Issues in Critical Youth Studies. New York University Press. Available through Amazon: 0814799531.

• Dimitriadis, G. (2008). Studying urban youth culture. Peter Lang. Available through Amazon: 0820472697.

• Dresang, E. T., Gross, M., & Holt, L. E. (2006). Dynamic Youth Services Through Outcome-based Planning And Evaluation. ALA. Available through Amazon: 0838909183.

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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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