LIBR 281-14
Seminar in Contemporary Issues
Topic: International and Comparative Librarianship
Summer 2017 Syllabus

Melanie Sellar
E-mail
Office location: No physical office; online through Canvas
Office Hours:  By appointment 

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning June 5th, 6 am PT 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

This course will provide students with a broad understanding of international library activities and practices, with a particular focus on traditional libraries (public, school, community, and academic libraries) in non-North American settings. In the spirit of critical library practice, students will be asked to employ a critical mindset to all of the class discussions and assignments. 

Course Requirements

In this course, we will both study international librarianship and engage in international librarianship ourselves. The learning activities and assignments support both of these goals. The studying part is likely most familiar to you as students. How will we engage in international librarianship, given the time boundaries of an academic semester?

To begin, you will network with an international colleague of your finding and choice. This networking assignment will require you to identify a person and organization of interest and then to interview them. We are "doing" international librarianship by opening up professional dialog to span country borders. 

Secondly, your written assignments are positioned as white papers. A white paper needs an audience; for this course, Librarians Without Borders (LWB) will be our theoretical audience. The white papers will have a particular focus, and will include a section where you suggest how LWB might support those areas (if at all). An orientation to LWB with an optional synchronous session will be provided. Instruction on writing white papers will also be provided.

Lastly, all students in the course will have the opportunity to pitch a blog post article to LWB, during and after the course ends. If your pitch is accepted, you will publish a piece relating to international librarianship under your name. This is a volunteer option available to you if you are interested, it is not a requirement.

Nature of Assignments
There are two categories of assignments: participation and individual writing. 

The participation category is comprised of four (4) types: a networking assignment (1), regular discussion forum participation (6 posts), facilitating a discussion forum (1), and the culminating discussion forum (1 post). 

There will be two (2) written assignments that will take the form of white papers. A white paper, in essence, is a kind of writing product that you can expect to write very frequently in your professional career. See this Wikipedia article for a definition. You will be provided with a template for writing the white paper, as well as some instruction on how one writes it. 

Professionalism of Discourse
The netiquette statement -- that is, expectations for how to communicate with peers -- will be published in the course. Students are expected to converse with their peers in discussion forums in adherence with this statement. Those who do not are subject to points deductions from their participation grades. 

Late Policy
Assignment late policy: 20% deduction per day, with assignment not accepted after 2 days. Discussion forum late policy: no late submissions accepted.

Course Calendar
*Subject to change with fair notice*

All modules will be published at midnight PST on Tuesday and Friday of each week. The exception is Week 1 (5/5-5/10), which will have a Monday and Tuesday schedule. 

Course Calendar for LIBR 281-13 Summer 2017

Grading
*Subject to change with fair notice*
Rubrics will be provided in advance by the instructor for all assignments.

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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 281 has no prequisite requirements.

Course Learning Outcomes

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

1. Demonstrate understanding of the principles, concepts, and practices of international and comparative librarianship.
2. Identify and critically assess the roles and contributions of professional organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and non-governmental agencies working internationally.
3. Discuss specific major issues facing libraries, library services and the library profession, both in multinational and local contexts.
4. Analyze library services and systems, successes and challenges in other national library environments, within their historical, societal, and cultural contexts.
5. Apply a critical mindset to international librarianship activities in order to impact their own praxis as future global librarians.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

INFO 281 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 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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