University of Arizona
School of Information Resources & Library Science
IRLS 695E: Controlled Vocabularies
Spring 2004 - Course Outline (final)
Instructor: Anita S. Coleman
Office Hours: By WebCT email & chat
WebCT Technical Support: John Stanton (email:
stanton@email.arizona.edu)
GAT: Youfen Su (email:
yfs@email.arizona.edu)
Mode of Instruction: Virtual via WebCT
First day of classes: 14 January
2004; First day for IRLS 695E: 16 January 2004
Course Listserv: IRLS695e [Note:
You MUST susbscribe to this list and MUST have UA account to subscribe - if you
don't have one, you can get UA email and web account online by visiting https://account.arizona.edu/.]
Course Texts
Required Texts:
1. ANSI/NISO Z39.19 - 1993
(R1998) Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual
Thesauri. 84 pp. ISBN: 1-880124-04-1 Price: $55. URL: http://www.niso.org/standards/index.html.
Note:
The full-text of this standard can be downloaded from NISO site for free as an
Adobe file or purchased from NISO.
2. Information Architecture for the
World Wide Web, 2nd Edition By Peter Morville, Louis Rosenfeld 2nd Edition 2002
0-596-00035-9, 486 pages, $39.95 US. URL: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/infotecture2/toc.html
Catalog Description
IRLS 695: This course provides an introduction to
knowledge organization systems that use controlled vocabularies. Principles,
standards, design and maintenance of thesauri using computer software are
studied. The use of controlled vocabularies in electronic information
environments such as the WWW is explored.
Course Description
This course introduces the emerging field of
Information Architecture and focuses on the need and use of controlled
vocabularies in websites. Includes the study of the ANSI NISO standard Z39.19,
Guidelines for the construction, format, and management of monolingual thesauri.
Course History
This course has its genesis in Knowledge Structures II,
but it is significantly different from KS 2 as taught in the past. You can find
descriptions of how KS 2 was taught by Prof. Fallis in Spring 2000 , Spring 2001 , and by myself in
Spring 2002 . We have
now separated knowledge organization processes into several courses as
follows: Organization of Information (IRLS 401/501, previously called
Knowledge Structures I), Cataloging and Metadata Management (to be offered this
summer), Indexing and Abstracting (offered last fall), Classification (to be
offered Spring 2004), Controlled Vocabularies (taught first in Spring 2003),
and Knowledge Structures (TBA). You can read about this in an article titled, Interdisciplinarity:
The Road Ahead for Education in Digital Libraries.
Goals and Objectives
Broad and intended learning outcomes include:
- Knowledge of the standard guidelines for constructing monolingual thesauri
- Understanding of information architecture, specifically, the role of
controlled vocabularies
- Ability to analyse the usability of websites
- Familiarity with new tools and technologies for electronic information
organization, creation, navigation, display and use
Course Pre-requisite
IRLS 401/501 is a pre-requisite for this
course.
Course Requirements
Requirements and specific
assignments/activities include:
- Assignment 1: Four one-page papers on specific topics due at different times
- Assignment 2: Thesaurus/Ontology/Other
Details will be given within
WebCT Assignments. To see what students have done for this course, visit the Spring 2003 student
submissions in the Learning Showcase. You can also see what Spring 2002 students
did.
Methods of Instruction
The classroom environment for this virtual course
is WebCT . Here are guidelines to help
schedule learning:
Do not expect to do too much within WebCT itself
until after Feb. 1. Read your text, this syllabus, etc.
Complete weekly
readings by the end of the day they are scheduled and discuss them publicly.
Adhere to the UA
codes of student conduct and academic integrity.
Use the opportunity to
work with plenty of practical tools from the KS Toolbox . Discussions and final project will require you to be familiar with many of these
tools. Get a head start by browsing, reading, and interacting with the resources
assembled here.
I generally try to limit my push of information to you (either by lecture notes, etc. or discussion posts) to Fridays and Mondays.
I try to use constructivist principles in my teaching. I try to give learners control of their own learning (while I sequence and time to a certain extent), encourage discussions and exploratory learning (you'll have opportunity to explore and discuss bibliographic databases and websites), and believe that learners 'construct' knowledge.
This means that you don't just receive information from text or me passively. You question, explore, reflect, and actively do something (create web pages, etc.). All four are important aspects of your learning in this course.
Schedule of Readings
Important Note: The NISO standard is referred to as
Z39.19 and the Information Architecture text is referred to as Rosenfeld &
Morville (or R&M).
Week 1, Jan. 16 - Defining Information Architecture
Read
Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 1, Defining Information Architecture
Read
Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 2, Practising Information Architecture
Week 2, Jan. 23 - Defining Controlled Vocabularies
Read Z39.19,
Section 1, Introduction
Read Z39.19, Section 2, Scope of the Standard
Read
Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 9: Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and
Metadata, p. 176 - 197.
Week 3, Jan. 30 - Fundamentals of
Information Architecture
Read Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 3: User Needs
and Behaviors
Read Rosenfeld & Morvile, Chapter 4: The Anatomy of An
Information Architecture
Week 4, Feb. 6 -
Distinguishing IA Components
Read Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 5,
Organization Systems
Read Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 8, Search
Systems
Week 5, Feb. 13 - Information Presentation
Read
Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 6, Labeling Systems
Read Rosenfeld &
Morville, Chapter 7, Navigation Systems
Week 6, Feb. 20 - Evaluating
WebSites
Read Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 10, Research
Week 7,
Feb. 27 - Fundamentals of Controlled Vocabularies
Read Rosenfeld &
Morville, Chapter 9, Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata, p. 198 -
208
Read Z39.19, Section 3 and 4
Week 8, Mar. 5 - Fundamentals
of Controlled Vocabularies
Read Rosenfeld & Morville, Chapter 9,
Thesauri, Controlled Vocabularies, and Metadata, p. 198 - 208
Read Z39.19,
Section 3 and 4
Week 9, Mar. 12 - Relationships
Read Z39.19,
Section 5
Week 10, Mar. 19 - Spring Break!
Happy Spring Break!
Week 11, Mar. 26 - Thesaurus Construction
Week 12, April
2- Thesaurus Maintenance
Week 13, April 9 - Review
Week 14, April
16 - Information Presentation (continued)
Read Z39.19, Section 6
Read
Z39.19, Section 7
Week 15, April 23 - Present Major Project
Week 16, April 30 - Discuss Presentations of Major
Project
May 7 Finals week - Submit Major Project
Milestones/Important Dates
May 7 - Final papers and deliverables
due
Due Dates for other discussions (assignments) will be given within WebCT Assignments tool.
Evaluation
- All work must be turned in on the dates due by 5:00 pm Arizona time
(unless other times are allowed by the WebCT submission facility). WebCT will
NOT allow submissions past the DUE Date/Time if I have set it up to be so.
Therefore, read your Assignments page and instructions carefully. Availability
times are very clearly marked under the Assignments link in WebCT and in case
of doubt, email the GAT for the course.
- All work must be turned in using the submit/email facility within
WebCT.
- HTML format must be used for all work turned in for grading.
Grade Breakdown:
Assignment 1: 40%
Assignment 2: 60%
Total: 100%
Grade
Assignment:
All work must be done and turned in on time to get a passing
grade in this course. Course grades will be assigned as follows:
A=90+
(Superior work)
B=80-89 (Very Good)
C=70-79 (Marginally satisfactory)
F=0-69 (Failed)
WebCT will
contain the final, definitive syllabus and record of all work to be done for
this course.
Coleman Home |
Syllabus | Learning
Showcase
Created By: Anita S. Coleman