INFO 261A-11
Programming and Services for Young Adults
Fall 2016 Syllabus

Jennifer Velásquez
E-mail
Office Hours: By appontment

Mission of the School
The School of Information 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 communities.

Getting Started

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning August 24th, 6 am PDT unless you are taking an intensive or a one unit or two unit class that starts on a different day. In that case the class will open on the first day that the class meets.

You will be enrolled into the Canvas site automatically.

Course Description

A comprehensive introductory survey of competencies required of librarians working with or around today’s young adults, featuring an introduction to the skills, relationships, methods, materials, and resources necessary for the delivery of a successful, developmentally-appropriate, and professional library service profile.

Course Requirements

General Requirements
As this is an advanced course (i.e., not a required "core" course), the instructor makes some assumptions about student skills. More specifically, it is assumed that students possess skills in navigating bibliographic resources, group or collaborative work, and in delivering presentations. We will rely upon these skills throughout the term, but apply them to young adult-specific content.

Further, this 261A course requires that you:

• complete reading and writing assignments as required in Course Outline (including the instructor’s comments following short class writing assignments)
• perform literature searches and produce critical written analysis
• be responsible for all lectures
• refer to and post to our course discussion/ participation  - opportunities frequently arise
• produce a final project as detailed in the Course Outline
• have minimal home computing environment required by SLIS, see http://ischool.sjsu.edu/ecommunication/homecomputing.htm
• access to the required software downloads (free):
  • Adobe Reader available at:
    http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
  • RealPlayer available at:
    http://ischool.sjsu.edu/ecommunication/realplayer.htm

All assignments and written products are to be completed and submitted by 11:59pm on the Friday of the week in which they are due, unless noted otherwise. 

Assignments

• Readings Assignments are detailed in Course Outline
• Reflections: topical exercises/entries/posts - instructions provided in Course Materials (2 due during FA 16)
  
• Discussions: short, shared responses to topics (1 set of 3 due during FA 16)
• One, 5 -7 page LIS & Teen Services Assignment
• One, 10 - 12 page Teen Library Space Analysis & Video/Audio Tour: please note this requires creating/recording and sharing an online photo or video/audio narrated tour - camera & microphone are necessary.
• One, 3 - 5 page YA Job Description Developement Assignment
• One, Teen Service Topic - Group Project: current policies, research and service implications, etc.
• Final Project Peer Review

Feedback
All of your major written work will receive written or audio analytical comments. These comments are designed to help strengthen skills and build confidence to perform and deliver developmentally-appropriate library services for young adults at a professional level. They are not necessarily intended to explain your grade.

Late Assignments
Assignments date-stamped after 11:59pm Pacific Time on the due date will receive a 20% reduction of the total points possible for that assignment. An additional 10% reduction of the total points possible for that assignment will be assessed per day until assignment is submitted. 

Assignment Changes
The instructor reserves the right to alter assignments and assignment due dates with fair notice.

Incompletes
An incomplete is granted only in the case of documented serious medical or family emergency. The majority of coursework must be completed and supporting documentation is required. Inefficient time management or course overload is not a valid reason to receive an incomplete. Students should avail themselves of the policy for uncompleted coursework on the School’s website.

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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

INFO 200. 

Course Learning Outcomes

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

1. Demonstrate knowledge of and increase their confidence in delivering library services for young people in a demographically complex contemporary culture.
2. Demonstrate practical and analytical facility with the innovative principles of youth development and civic participation through involvement in library programs, materials, presentations, atmospherics, and professional resource management.
3. Begin developing professional skills for working directly with young adults and with adults who work with young people.
4. Establish familiarity with a wide range of creative forms produced for, desired by, and produced by young people.
5. Identify one particular domain of youth experience and develop a plan for library service linkage.
6. Develop an overarching philosophy of today's young people that includes ways in which the library can contribute to their lives and meanings, the institution's public value, and their communities in general.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

INFO 261A supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Bernier, A. (Ed.). (2013). Transforming young adult services. ALA Neal-Schuman. Available through Amazon: 1555709079

• Velasquez, J. (2015). Real-world teen services. ALA. Available through Amazon: 0838913423

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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 or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — 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 if you wish to stay in the program. 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.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

Per University Policy S16-9, university-wide policy information relevant to all courses, such as academic integrity, accommodations, etc. will be available on Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Programs' Syllabus Information web page at: https://www.sjsu.edu/curriculum/courses/syllabus-info.php. Make sure to visit this page, review and be familiar with these university policies and resources.

In order to request an accommodation in a class please contact the Accessible Education Center and register via the MyAEC portal.

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