INFO 281-20 (2-Units)
Seminar in Contemporary Issues
Topic: Information Secrecy and Freedom of Information
Fall 2021 Syllabus

Susan Maret, Ph.D.
E-mail

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning August 19 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.

This is a two-unit course that runs from September 27th - December 6th. It will be available on Canvas on September 27th.

You will be enrolled in the Canvas site automatically.

Course Description

This course examines the political, legal, regulatory, historical, and social dimensions of government secrecy and its relationship to freedom of information in the United States. Topics covered in the class include the growth of the U.S. government secrecy system, federal information policies, censorship, privacy, and federal control over public, scientific, and technical information resources. Consideration is also given to national and domestic security issues pertaining to information access in library settings.

Course Requirements

Required Readings
There is no required textbook for this course. The course readings list is available through our Canvas course site and details access to materials (e.g., through King Library's subscription databases, open access).

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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. Describe the impact of government secrecy and restriction of government information within a historical and contemporary perspective.
2. Describe and evaluate critical policy issues involved in government secrecy, information restriction, freedom of information, access and dissemination of information to libraries and society.
3. Understand and explain the role of libraries and librarians in freedom of information.
4. Identify the foundational research associated with secrecy theory, history of secrecy, information policy, and access to federal information.

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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