LIS 753: Internet Fundamentals and Design

Summer 2006

Dr. Kate Marek
Dominican University Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Crown 342
708-524-6648
kmarek@dom.edu

Office hours as arranged by appointment.

For Blackboard support, contact Ken Black at kblack@dom.edu .

Course Overview

LIS 753 is an introduction to the fundamentals of the Internet, including its origins, evolution, current state, and future. Critical Internet issues such as privacy, copyright, and other related topics will be examined. Students will have a basic understanding of Web content languages and the Internet as a result of this course. Pre-requisites are 701 and 703.

Topics will include networking, Internet protocols and architecture, the World Wide Web, Web site design and evaluation, browsers, HTML coding, search engines, and digital libraries.

Course Goals

To gain a basic understanding of networking principles and techniques, Internet protocols and architecture, and major telecommunication issues.

To gain a basic understanding of the World Wide Web, coding standards, Web site design and page layout, and current issues.

To develop the understanding and skills to produce a group of linked HTML documents that can be published on the Internet.

To understand the use and benefits of the World Wide Web in libraries today, and to gain an appreciation for the Web's many complex social and legal issues.

To gain an understanding of the complexities that are involved when libraries today mount digital resources on the Web, and how this fits into a national and international information infrastructure.

Textbook and Readings

Pence, James H. How to Do Everything with HTML & XHTML. Emeryville, CA: Osborne Press, 2003.

Additional readings will be posted on Blackboard and will be available online or as PDF or Word files.

Course Design

This course will begin with one full-day, face-to-face meeting on the Dominican campus. The remainder of the class will be conducted fully online using Blackboard course management software.

Content includes HTML training and exercises, readings relevant to Internet issues and theory, and class discussion forums. Detailed assignments and instructions are posted on the Blackboard site.

The course is divided into ten Sessions on Blackboard. Students should move through the Sessions sequentially, finishing the Exercise, Readings, and Quiz for each before proceeding to the next. Six of the ten Sessions will include Discussion Forums which will stay active throughout the term. Small groups will be assigned as Forum leaders and will be responsible for posting relevant questions based on the readings as well as continuing to lead the discussion throughout the term.

Discussion board posts should be carefully proofread before posting (you may want to write in a word processing program first and then cut and paste them in to a dialog box).

Blackboard support documents are posted at http://domin.dom.edu/documents/blackboardstu.htm

For minimum system recommendations, see http://domin.dom.edu/Intranet/infotech_files/Minimum%20System%20Recommendations.pdf

Course Assignments

10 HTML Exercises, @ 2 points 20 points

10 Quizes (One per Session) @ 5 points 50 points

Discussion forum:

5 individual postings @ 5 points 25 points

5 individual responses @ 2 points 10 points

2 Group discussion questions @ 5 points 10 points

Final Quiz 10 points

Final Web Page 25 points

Total possible points 150

All due dates are posted with the Course Sessions. Late assignments will not be accepted without prior approval of the instructor and will receive points off in proportion to the original due date.

Grading:

A 94 -100 %

A- 90 – 93 %

B+ 86 – 89 %

B 82 – 85 %

B- 78 – 81 %

C+ 74 – 77 %

C 70 – 73 %

C- 65 – 69%

D 60 – 64 %

F 0 - 59 %

See also the GSLIS Grading Policy as distributed in class.

Expectations

It will be especially important in an online environment that you are a self-directed learner. For this summer session, you should complete two Sessions per week. This is a very fast pace, so it is important that you keep steady attention to the course, logging in every day and participating regularly.

Academic Honesty and Integrity:

"All students of the GSLIS are expected to observe high standards of academic honesty and integrity. Any student whose conduct violates such standards may be subject to disciplinary action as determined by due process." (GSLIS Bulletin, p. 48) Plagiarism is unacceptable and will result in project failure. See Purdue University's "Avoiding Plagiarism" at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html or Indiana University's "How to Recognize Plagiarism" at http://education.indiana.edu/~istd/test.html if you feel unsure about what is and is not considered acceptable behavior when using other people's words and ideas.

Course Readings by Session:

Session #1

Internet History

Internet Society. “A Brief History of the Internet.” Available online at http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml .

Web Page Design Basics

Barrett, Edward, Deborah Levinson, and Suzana Lisanti. The MIT Guide to Teaching Web Site Design. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001. Chapter 3: “Planning a Web Site.” Available in Course Documents as a PDF file.

Marek, Kate. Class Handout: “Web Page Design.” Available in Course Documents as a Word File.

Usability

“Usability,” from Wikipedia. Available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability .

“Jakob Nielsen,” from Wikipedia. Available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakob_Nielsen_%28usability_consultant%29 .

“Useit.com: Jakob Nielsen’s Website.” Available online at http://www.useit.com/. (Browse this site; you are not required to follow the numerous links or to read extensively from this site.)

Bad Design and Usability

“Vincent Flanders’ Web Pages that Suck.” Available online at http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ .

Session #2

Copyright on the Web

“Web Site Legal Issues.” Bitlaw, A Resource on Technology Law. Available online at http://www.bitlaw.com/internet/webpage.html .

Creative Commons. See http://www.creativecommons.org .

Google Print / Google Book Search

“About Google Book Search.” Google. See http://books.google.com/googleprint/about.html .

Lessig, Lawrence. “Is Google Book Search ‘Fair Use’?” See online video summary at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l2nrbmBQXg .

Session #3 (Discussion Forum Led by Group I)

Security

Specter, Michael. “Doomsday Click.” May, 2001. Available online at http://www.michaelspecter.com/ny/2001/2001_05_28_doomsday.html .

Zimmer, Michael T. “The Tensions of Security Cyberspace.” First Monday, March 2004. Available online at http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_3/zimmer/index.html

Session #4(Discussion Forum Led by Group II)

Customization vs. Privacy: Web Profiling

Litwin, Roy. “The Central Problem of Library 2.0: Privacy.” Libraryjuice, May 2006. Available online at http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?p=68 .

W3C. “Privacy and Profiling on the Web.” See http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-Web-privacy .

Session #5 (Discussion Forum Led by Group III)

Net Neutrality

“Net Neutraility Showdown.” CNET News. Available online at http://news.com.com/Net+neutrality+showdown/2009-1028_3-6055133.html

Lessig, Lawrence and Robert W. McChesney. “No Tolls on the Internet. Washington Post, June 8, 2006. Available online at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html

Session #6 (Discussion Forum Led by Group IV)

The Long Tail

Anderson, Chris. “The Long Tail.” Wired, October 2004. Available online at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html .

Dempsey, Lorcan. “Libraries and the Long Tail.” D-Lib Magazine, April 2006. Available online at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april06/dempsey/04dempsey.html

Storey, Tom. “The Long Tail and Libraries.” OCLC Newsletter, April/May/June 2006. Available online at http://www.oclc.org/news/publications/newsletters/oclc/2005/268/thelongtail.htm

Session #7 (Discussion Forum Led by Group V)

Open Content

Open Content Alliance. See http://www.opencontentalliance.org/

Farb, Sharon. “Libraries, Licensing, and the Challenge of Stewardship.” First Monday, July 2006. Available online at

http://www.firstmonday.org/nextissue/farb/

Session #8 (Discussion Forum Led by Group VI)

“Library 2.0” / Social Networks

Abram, Stephen. “The Shop Window: Compelling and Dynamic Library Portals.” SirsiDynix OneSource, July 6, 2006. Available online at http://www.imakenews.com/sirsi/e_article000485040.cfm?x=b11,0,w

“The Library Lookup Project.” Available online at http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/stories/2002/12/11/librarylookup.html .

Rousch, Wade. “Social Machines: Computing Means Connecting.” MIT Technology Review. August 2005. Available online at http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=14664&ch=infotech

Session #9

Web Technologies and Developments: RSS, VOIP, Internet2

Vamosi, Robert. “RSS: Why It’s Important.” CNET Reviews. Available online at

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10088_7-5143656-1.htm .

Needleman, Rafe. “RSS: Feel the Need for Feeds?” Video Tutorial at the same site (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10088_7-5143656-1.htm )

Needleman, Rafe. “Internet Phones: Simple Solutions for Calling Over the Net,” and Video Tutorial, “What is VoIP?” Available online at http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-9140_7-5131535.html .

Internet2. See http://www.internet2.org/

Session #10

Searching: Google Page Rank; Faceted Searching.

Search Engine Definitions: See SearchWebServices.com at http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,290660,sid26_gci212955,00.html

Search Engine Optimization, defined at Wikipedia. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization .

Google Pank Rank. See http://www.google.com/technology/ .

New Idea Engineering. “Parametric Search, Faceted Search, and Taxonomies.” Available online at http://www.ideaeng.com/pub/entsrch/v2n6/article03.html .