LIBR 100
Spring 2007
Information
Research
Syllabus
Thomas Hunter, Rm.
402
Instructor: Tony Doyle, tdoyle@hunter.cuny.edu
Office hours: By
appointment
Course
Description
Since the arrival
of the internet a chief problem for students and researchers alike has become
not too little information but too much. This embarrassment of riches means that
it is more important now than ever to have the skills for homing in on relevant
and credible sources. This one credit course strives to meet this need.
We will cover the
following topics: (1) The many ways in which
information gets to researchers: books, magazines, journals, websites, wikis, and blogs, as well as the
different degrees of reliability accruing to each; the role of peer review in
scholarly books and journals. (2) Electronic research: selecting a manageable
topic; choosing an appropriate database; identifying keywords; combining
keywords with the boolean
operators and, or, and not; the different types of databases
(full text, index and abstract, and index). (3) Books: How is searching for
books by subject in a catalog different from searching for magazine or journal
articles by subject in a database? Why do books remain a valuable source for
research? (4) How to cite sources. (5) Working with bibliographies. (6) Print
indexes. (7) Evaluating sources: print, organizational websites, blogs, and wikis. (8) Information
ethics: intellectual freedom, censorship, intellectual property, copyright, and
privacy. (9) Plagiarism and academic integrity.
Course Goals.
At the end of the
course you should be able to:
1. Identify an
appropriate topic.
2. Find relevant
print and electronic sources on your topic.
3. Use the free
web effectively.
4. Evaluate
sources, both print and electronic, as to authority, reliability, and
bias.
5. Cite your
sources correctly
6. Know what
constitutes plagiarism
Required
text:
Arlene Rodda Quaratiello, The College Student’s Research
Companion, 3rd Edition (On reserve)
Recommended text:
Myrtle Bolner and Gayle Poirier, The Research Process: Book and Beyond,
4th Edition. (On
reserve)
Blackboard site:
This course has a Blackboard site. You are expected to check the site in time to
be prepared to your next class.
Assignments:
Quizzes and
participation: 15%
Midterm:
10%
Homework:
15%
Final project:
Oral Component: 10%
Written Component: 30%
Final exam:
20%
Homework. There will be four short
assignments.
Final project
The project: Choose a controversial topic related to
the Bush administration. Here are some examples of topics you might
choose:
* The evidence
for weapons of mass destruction in
* The treatment
of prisoners at Abu Ghraib
prison
* The
* No Child Left
Behind
* Stem cell
research
* Hurricane
Katrina
* Logging in
national forests
Other topics are
also possible, subject to my approval.
You will be
expected to give an informed and accessible discussion of your topic and your
sources. You should evaluate your sources and explain how you located them. You
will need to find at least 6 types of sources to support your discussion. These
sources are
* One scholarly
book
* One scholarly
article
* One article
from a respected and serious magazine (other than for instance Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, or the like;
articles should be least 1500 words)
* One article
from The New York Times (at least
1000 words)
* One
website
* One reference
source
Focus. The paper should focus on a discussion of
your research strategy. In it you should address the following questions: What
keywords and subject terms did you use? Which ones worked? Which ones didn’t?
What databases did you use? Which yielded the best results? Did you have to
refine or revise your topic? If so, why? You should
also discuss your sources. Did they deal with your topic? Were they biased? What
were the authors’ credentials? What bearing did these credentials have on the
credibility or objectivity of the source?
All the sources
that you use have to be available here at Hunter. If you have trouble finding a
source, let me know. Please don’t go to the reference
desk.
Purpose: to choose a plausible topic, refine it,
locate credible and relevant sources, and to defend the choices that you’ve
made. Avoid editorializing.
Length: five pages,
double spaced, one inch margins, 12 pt. Times Roman font. Citations in MLA format. See the
Oral component: Between May 2 and May 16 everyone will be
expected to talk about their project for 5 minutes. I will ask people to sign up
for a time during the first class. Things you should discuss include: (1) the
databases you used to find your magazine, journal, and newspaper articles; (2)
the book(s) you used; (3) the website(s) you used. For this you will need to
turn in an outline of at least twelve components. You can refer to this outline
during your presentation, but you shouldn’t read from a text. You can show
relevant websites and use Powerpoint if you’d
like.
Audience: Imagine that you’re a policy analyst for
a member of the House of Representatives. You’re providing House members with a
briefing in the form of a research guide on your topic.
Assessment of final
project. In your oral presentation I will be
looking for lucid coverage of the four themes mentioned above. Your essay will
be graded on the overall quality of your presentation: (1) the clarity of your
prose, (2) the coherence of your essay, (3) the extent to which you address the
questions mentioned above in focus, and (4) the quality of the
sources that you have chosen.
All assignments are due at the beginning
of class. I will accept nothing electronically. I will accept no late work
without a legitimate documented excuse.
Lateness and absences: You will not pass
the course if you miss more than two classes unless you have a compelling
documented excuse. Lateness after 5 minutes will be counted as half an absence;
lateness after 15 minutes will be counted as a full absence. You are responsible
for everything covered in classes that you miss.
Please turn off your cell phone during
class.
Please note: There will be no
incompletes.
Also, there will be no class on the
following days: Feb 21 and April 4
Communication: Occasionally I will want to get in touch
with the whole class by email. I will address all emails to your Hunter account.
If you're not in the habit of checking your Hunter account, please have your
emails forwarded from it to the account that you do check
regularly.
Plagiarism and
cheating. Cheating on
an exam will result in an automatic F for the exercise. I will also pass your
name along to the college's student disciplinary committee for possible further
sanctions. Plagiarism is any attempt to pass someone else's ideas or research
off as your own, through either unattributed direct
quotation or paraphrasing. It's a kind of theft. Plagiarism on either of the
essays will also result in an automatic F for the assignment, and I will again
pass your name along to the student disciplinary committee. Plagiarism doesn't
pay: if you try it, you will almost certainly get caught.
Turn-it-in.com.
If I suspect plagiarism I will aks that you submit
your essay to Turn-it-in.
CUNY POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/english2/plagiarism.html
Academic Dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York and
is punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension, and expulsion.
Cheating is the unauthorized use or attempted use of material, information,
notes, study aids, devices or communication during an academic exercise.
The
following are some examples of cheating, but by no means is it an exhaustive
list:
* Copying from another student during an examination or allowing
another to copy your work.
* Unauthorized collaboration on a take home
assignment or examination.
* Using notes during a closed book examination.
* Taking an examination for another student, or asking or allowing another
student to take an examination for you.
* Changing a graded exam and
returning it for more credit.
* Submitting substantial portions of the same
paper to more than one course without consulting with each instructor.
*
Preparing answers or writing notes in a blue book (exam booklet) before an
examination. Allowing others to research and write assigned papers or do
assigned projects, including use of commercial term paper services. o Giving assistance to acts of academic misconduct! dishonesty
* Fabricating data (all or in part).
*
Submitting someone else's work as your own.
* Unauthorized use during an
examination of any electronic devices such as cell phones, palm pilots,
computers or other technologies to retrieve or send information.
Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person's ideas, research or
writings as your own.
The following are some examples of plagiarism, but by
no means is it an exhaustive list:
* Copying another person's actual words
without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their
source..
* Presenting another person's ideas or
theories in your own words without acknowledging the source.
* Using
information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the source.
*
Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments.
Internet plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or parts
of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without
citing the source, and "cutting & pasting" from various sources without
proper attribution.
Obtaining Unfair Advantage is any activity that
intentionally or unintentionally gives a student an unfair advantage in his/her
academic work over another student.
The following are some examples of
obtaining an unfair advantage, but by no means it is an
exhaustive list:
* Stealing, reproducing, circulating or otherwise gaining
advance access to examination materials.
* Depriving other students of
access to library materials by stealing, destroying, defacing, or concealing
them.
* Retaining, using or circulating examination materials which clearly
indicate that they should be returned at the end of the exam.
*
Intentionally obstructing or interfering with another student's work.
Adapted with permission from
Course
Schedule
January 31: Information, choosing a topic, and
database searching
1. Pre-test:
VOILA!
2.
Information
a. How is information
produced?
b. How does it find its way to
you?
c. How do we assess its
credibility?
d. Peer review
e. Primary vs. secondary
sources
Homework: Please
send me an email indicating your major or potential major. Due Feb 7, 10 AM.
February 7: Research topics
1. Choosing a
viable research topic
2. Topic vs thesis
3. What is a
database?
a. Indexes
b. Indexes with
abstracts
c. Full text
databases
4. Choosing the
right databases:
a. General databases vs. specialized
databases
b. Scholarly databases vs. non-scholarly
databases
Recommended:
Bolner: pp. 23-26
Homework (due Feb
14):
Choose a topic for your final
project and write three questions you want answered about that topic.
February 14: Search methods and
databases
1. Boolean
methods and proximity operators
2. Subject
indexing/headings; thesauruses
3. Searching with
controlled vocabulary
4. Field
searching vs. full text searching
5. Working with
specific databases
a. Academic Search
Premier
b. Lexis-Nexis
c. Specialized
databases
Recommended: Bolner, pp. 47-60.
February 28: Magazines, Journals; political bias or
orientation in magazines
1. Scholarly,
trade, and popular sources
2. Scholarly
communication
3. Determining
whether the article has a bias—for instance, political or religious—or
orientation
4. Plausibility
of information
5. Older vs.
newer articles
Recommended:
Bolner, pp. 30-31; 139-45
Homework (due
March 7): Provide citations and annotations for two magazine articles—that is,
articles from non-scholarly periodicals—that are relevant to the topic of your
final project. Make sure your articles come from a high quality source. Avoid,
for instance, Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report. Your
annotations should justify your choice of articles and indicate any bias or
assumptions in the article. The annotations should be between 100 and 150 words
each. Citations in MLA format. See the
March 7: Books
1. Library of
Congress classification
2. Using Library
of Congress subject headings
3. Deciphering
catalog records
4. Finding books
in World Cat
5. Books as
sources of bibliographies
6. Scholarly
books vs. trade books
7. Finding book
reviews in databases
8. Sources for
book reviews: The New York Review of
Books and The Times Literary
Supplement (TLS)
Recommended:
Bolner, 333-337; 65-72
March 14: Working with bibliographies; print
reference sources
1. Reading
citations
2. Putting
together a bibliography/proper documentation
3. Annotated
bibliographies
4. Writing
annotations
5. Conventional
(print) reference sources
a. Atlases
b. Statistical
c. Biographical
d. Specialized (subject)
encyclopedias/dictionaries
e. Directories
f. Handbooks
g. Quotation sources
h. Chronological
sources
i. Bibliographies
Homework (due
March 21): Provide citations and annotations for two scholarly books that are
relevant to the topic of your final project. Your annotations should justify
your choice of the books. The annotations should be between 100 and 150 words
each.
Quaratiello, pp. 49-64
Raimes, The Open Handbook, p. 402 (eres)
March 21: Demographic and Congressional information
with guest speaker Professor Danise
Hoover
1. Demographic
information
a.
b. New York City Department of
Planning
c. Infoshare
2. Congressional
Information: Lexis-Nexis Congressional
March 28: Midterm
1. Midterm (25
minutes): will cover Jan 31-March 21; format: several questions requiring short
answers.
2. Print
reference sources (continued from March 14)
April 11: Evaluating scholarly sources; research on
the web
1. Evaluating the
quality of scholarly articles
a. Citation counts
b. How to use a citation
index
c. Citation counts in Google
Scholar
2. Research on
the web
a. Credibility: the internet vs.
print
Homework (due
April 18): Provide citations and annotations for two peer reviewed articles that
are relevant to the topic of your final project. Your annotations should justify
your choice of articles. The annotations should be between 100 and 150 words
each.
April 18: Research on the web
continued
1. Criteria for
evaluating websites
a. Authorship; sponsoring
institution
b. Authority
c. Purpose
d. Quality of writing; tendentious
language
e. How recent?
f. Can factual claims be
corroborated?
g. Domain
Also:
Fallis, D. 2004. “On Verifying
the Accuracy of Information: Philosophical Perspectives.” Library
Trends 52 (3): 463-466, paragraph 2; 470 (bottom)-472 (bottom).
Rothenberg, D.
1997. “How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students’ Research Papers." Chronicle of Higher
Education 32 (August 15): A44. (eres)
Vedder, A. & Wachbroit, R. 2003. “Reliability of Information on the
Internet: Some
Distinctions.” Ethics
and Information Technology 5 (4): 211-15.
Recommended:
Bolner, 139-45
April 25: Research on the web
continued
1. Research on
the web, continued
a. Search engines and search
directories
b. Effective web search
strategies
2. Blogs
3. Wikipedia
Giles, J. 2005.
“Internet Encyclopedias Go Head to Head.” Nature 438 (7070; December 15:
900-01.
Poe, M. 2006.
“The Hive.” Atlantic 298 (September):
86-94.
Reed, B. 2006. “ ‘Wikimania’ Participants Give the Online Encyclopedia
Mixed
Reviews.” The Chronicle of Higher
Education 53 (September 1): 62.
Schiff, S. (2006). “Know it all.” New Yorker 82 (July 23):
36-43.
Recommended:
Bolner, pp. 123-27
Homework (due May
2): Provide citations and annotations for two credible and content-rich websites
that are relevant to the topic of your final project. Your annotations should
justify your choice of the websites in the light of the main criteria for
evaluating websites above. The annotations should be between 100 and 150 words
each. Helpful source: Hunter’s Reading/Writing Center’s handout on web
evaluation at http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/reading-writing/on-line/evaluating-web-sources.pdf
May 2: Information ethics
I
1. Information
ethics: Copyright, intellectual property, fair use, and plagiarism and academic
integrity
2.
Presentations
Hettinger, E. 1989. “Justifying
Intellectual Property.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 18 (1):
31-32.2; 47.4-49.
Raimes, A. The Open Handbook, pp. 363-67 (eres).
Recommened: Bolner, pp.
31-32
May 9: Information ethics
II
1. Censorship and
intellectual freedom
2. Privacy
3.
Presentations
Frické, M., Mathiesen, K., and Fallis, D.
2000. “The Ethical Presuppositions behind the Library Bill of Rights.” Library Quarterly 29 (4): 470.2; 473.3-77.4;
478.3-79.1.
The Library Bill of Rights (http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/statementspols/statementsif/librarybillrights.htm)
Moor, J. “The
Ethics of Privacy Protection.” Library
Trends 39 (1/2): 76.3-80.1
Recommended:
Fallis, D. 2004. “Epistemic
Value Theory and Information Ethics.” Minds and Machines 14 (1):
101-17.
Garoogian, R. 1991.
“Librarian/Patron Confidentiality: An Ethical Challenge.” Library Trends 40 (Fall):
216-33
May 16:
1. Student
presentations
2. Voila!
Post-test