Graduate
LIS741: Reference
Sources in the Social Sciences
Spring 2008
Monday, 6-9 pm
Dan Blewett, Adjunct Instructor
and
Reference Library, The
Office Hours: Monday, 5-6pm and by appointment
E-mail: dbllewett@dom.edu
Telephone: 630-942-2279
Office:
Course Description
A survey of the production, appraisal and use of reference and information sources, including databases, in the fields making up the social sciences. Prerequisites or co-requisites: 701 and 704.
Course Objectives
This course provides an introduction to reference sources in the social sciences, focusing on the major disciplines of anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, political science, economics and geography. The class will also examine reference sources in the related fields of education and communication. Class activities and assignments are designed to acquaint students with a broad array of sources in these disciplines, both print and electronic, and to strengthen verbal and written communication of librarians working with diverse users in a variety of library/information environments.
Student Learning Outcomes
Required Texts
The text for this course is The Social Sciences: a
Cross-Disciplinary Approach to Selected Resources, 3rd ed.,
edited by Nancy Herron (
Grading
Class attendance and participation: 10%
Electronic resources report: 20%
Reference questions: 40%
Final project: 30% -- a pathfinder to an interdisciplinary topic (25%) and a public presentation that grows out of it. (15%).
Class attendance and thoughtful participation are essential to success in this class. You must attend class and actively contribute to class discussions if you wish to perform well in this course. As a matter of professional courtesy, please inform me in advance if you will be late or absent from class.
All written assignments are due at the beginning of the class period. Students must provide a digital copy of all work; submit the digital copy as an e-mail attachment. Late assignments will not be accepted. All written work must be typed and error free, and written clearly and carefully in accordance with set guidelines. Since all assignments will be due at the beginning of class, please be sure to bring an extra copy of all work in order to participate in discussions and annotate as needed.
Final grades will be based on the following
A = 95-100
A- = 90-94
B+ = 85-89
B = 80-84
B- = 75-79
C+ = 70-74
C = 65-69
C- = 64-below
Academic Integrity and Honesty
“All students of the
Classroom Etiquette
Cell phones should
be turned off or set to vibrate.
Classes will be
conducted informally but with the understanding that the instructor and
students will behave kindly and respectfully toward one another. No exceptions will be tolerated.
Assignments—Deadlines and Descriptions
Electronic Resources Report: Choose a topic within a discipline or major sub-discipline, within the social sciences to present important, selected electronic resources to the class. Choose a particular library setting and formulate your coverage accordingly. For example:
· You might consider that you are responsible for creating a webpage for the topic at a liberal arts college,
· or that you are presenting a bibliographic instruction session to graduate students on electronic resources relevant to their subject,
· or that you are presenting an in-service training session for your public library,
· or that you are working in a particular school library media setting.
Make a 15-minute presentation to the class, preferably during a session appropriate to the topic. Include a brief overview of the topic and an-depth presentation of at least 3 electronic resources. Provide a 1-2 page bibliography for class members. Include primary sources, such as digital collections, as well as other types of electronic resources. Generally two reports will be presented per class from Feb.14 through March 28. The sign-up sheet for dates will be circulated on Feb. 7. Topics must also be submitted at this time. Since topics require advance approval of the instructor, consult with me beforehand. Failure to secure timely approval of your topic will affect your final grade.
Reference exercise assignments: These assignments are
designed to give you experience with select reference sources in each
discipline. All work can be done at the Crown Library at Dominican.
You may use any library that fulfills the requirements, but make sure you use
sources available at Dominican. Be sure
to re-state the number of the question and the question as given for each
reference assignment.
· If the source is a print source, include the author,
title, edition and/or volume (if applicable), year of
publication, page number, and call number. Provide a
complete citation in the order stated above.
· If the source is an electronic source from a database, include the name of the database and the search terms you used. What controlled vocabulary did you use—i.e., what terms did you use and how did you use them (e.g. “dogs” as a keyword; “botany” as a subject term; Whitman as an author).
· If you found the source on a website, give the full URL and identify the specific place on the website. Hyperlink the URL. As noted above, a complete URL is long enough to get a user to the specific place in a web site, but it’s not encumbered with a long line of encoded data. In order to avoid the latter problem, provide navigational prompts, e.g.:
· In general, document the answer with enough information so that I (or a library user) could take the information to find or check the answer. Don’t answer the question as if I already know the answer. For example, if you are giving someone a journal citation, whether it’s print or online, you need to give enough information to find the article and, likewise, if you are giving a book title, you must give enough information for the user to take the information to another library to find it at a later date.
· To receive full credit, answers must include complete citations. Partial credit will be deducted from each question for which you don’t provide all the required information.
Note: For the purposes of these search assignments, Web searching in unauthoritative sites like Google and Wikipedia does not substitute for using appropriate reference tools.
Vetted sites are:
Final Project
A. Prepare a pathfinder to the source literature of a discipline or sub-discipline which is of interest from various aspects or viewpoints and which is studied in a variety of disciplines. This project is due on April 25.
Submit final project topics no later than Feb. 28. Since topics require advance approval of the instructor, consult with me beforehand. Failure to secure timely approval of your topic will affect your final grade.
v Introduction: include a description of the topic/question/problem and the intended audience. Provide a lively introduction to engage your reader and an analytical “road map” so that the reader knows where you’re headed and how you intend to get there.
v Include a description of the aspects or viewpoints of study to which the topic is of interest.
v Conclusion: provide a conclusion that frames (i.e., pulls together) your analysis.
v Material that must be documented (i.e. cited in footnotes) includes: controversial or distinctive arguments and opinions that are not your own, facts that are not a matter of broad general knowledge, statistics, all quotes, and paraphrases or summaries of an author’s argument.
v Give complete hyperlinked URLs for web sources. A complete URL is long enough to get a user to the specific place in a web site, but it’s not encumbered with a long line of encoded data. In order to avoid the latter problem, provide navigational prompts (e.g. www.website/xxx > Links > Syllabi).
B. Public presentation of 15-20 minutes. This is a practical application growing out of the research for the paper. You will share this with class members on April 25 or May 2.
Weekly Class Schedule
|
January 14 -- Overview of Social Sciences resources |
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January 21 -- Government Information sources |
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January 28 -- Political Science resources; Gov’t. Info |
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February 4 – Business and Econ Resources, pt.1 |
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February 11 – Business and Econ Resources, pt.2 |
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February 18 -- Geography resources |
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February 25 -- Anthropology sources |
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March 3 -- Spring
Break- NO CLASS |
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March 10 -- Sociology & Social Work sources |
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March 17 – Communications and film resources |
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March 24 -- History resources |
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April 7-- Education resources |
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April 21 -- Psychology resources |
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April 28 -- Class presentations |
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April 5 -- Course evaluations; class presentations |
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May 12 -- Final Project Due-- |