LIBR 100
Fall 2007
Information Research
Syllabus
Thomas Hunter, Rm. 402
Instructor: Tony Doyle, tdoyle@hunter.cuny.edu
Office hours: By appointment (Rm. 412 HE)
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) Magazines and scholarly journals. (4) 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? (5) Reading citations. (6) Finding demographic
and Congressional information. (7) Print reference sources. (8) Evaluating
sources: print, organizational websites, Wikipedia, and blogs. (9) Plagiarism
and academic integrity. (10) Information ethics: intellectual freedom,
censorship, intellectual property, copyright, and privacy.
Course Goals.
At the end of the
course you should be able to:
1. Know how to
identify an appropriate research 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, 4th Edition
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 for your next class.
Assignments:
Quizzes and
participation: 10%
Midterm: 10%
(October 24)
Homework: 20%
Final project:
Oral Component: 10%
Written Component: 30%
Final exam: 20%
(December 19, 11:30-12:20)
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
* Climate
change/global warming
* Some aspect of
the
* No Child Left
Behind
* Stem cell
research
* Hurricane
Katrina
* The
* 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
* Two scholarly
articles
* Two articles
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)
* Two articles
from The New York Times (at least
1000 words)
* Two credible websites
* One of the
demographic or Congressional sources that Professor Danise Hoover discusses in
her guest lecture on October 17.
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 November 14 and December 12 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. Your discussion should include:
(1) the databases you used to find your magazine, journal, and newspaper
articles, with an explanation about why you chose them, and (2) at least four
sources that you’ve consulted. Each of the four should be of a different type,
for instance, scholarly article, website, and so on. For this you will need to hand
in an outline of at least twelve components, along with a bibliography of the
sources you discuss in your presentation. You can refer to this outline during
your presentation, but you shouldn’t read from a text. You can use Powerpoint
or other visual aids as you see fit.
Assessment of final project.
In your oral presentation
I will be looking for lucid coverage of the 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.
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 the final essay
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 ask 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. Giving
assistance to acts of academic misconduct or 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
August 29: Information, choosing a topic, and
database searching
1. Pre-test
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 September 5, 10
AM.
September 5: 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 September
19): Choose a topic for your final project and
write three questions you want answered about that topic.
September 19: 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
Reading:
Quaratiello, ch. 2; 68-77; ch. 6, read the sections on the following databases:
Ebscohost, Lexis-Nexis, Jstor, and Net Library; General Searching Strategies
(tutorial; http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/tdoyle/Boolean_files/v3_document.htm)
Recommended:
Bolner, pp. 59-69.
September 26: Citations; Magazines, Journals; political
bias or orientation in magazines
1. Reading
citations
2. Annotated
bibliographies
3. Writing
annotations
4. Periodicals: scholarly,
trade, and popular sources
5. Scholarly
communication
Recommended:
Bolner, pp. 29-31; 225-31
Homework (due
October 3): 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.
Articles should be at least 1500 words long. 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. Please indicate what
your topic is. Citations in MLA format. See the
October 3: Magazines and Journals (cont.); Books
1. Determining
whether the article has a bias—for instance, political or religious—or
orientation
2. Plausibility
of information
3. Older vs.
newer articles
4. Library of
Congress classification
5. Using Library
of Congress subject headings
6. Deciphering
catalog records
7. Call numbers
8. Books as
sources of bibliographies
Recommended:
Bolner, 79-80 (top); 81-84; 157-60; 359
October 10: Books (cont.); print reference sources
1. Scholarly
books vs. trade books
2. Net Library
3. Finding book
reviews in databases
4. Sources for
book reviews: The New York Review of
Books and The Times Literary
Supplement (TLS)
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
6. Primary vs.
secondary sources again
Homework (due October
17): Provide citations and annotations for one scholarly book that is relevant
to the topic of your final project. Your annotation should justify your choice.
The annotation should be roughly 250
words.
Quaratiello, chapter
5
Raimes, The Open Handbook, p. 402 (eres)
Recommened:
Bolner, pp. 30; 173-83 (top); 186-92
October 17: 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
October 24: Midterm
1. Midterm (25
minutes): will cover August 29-October 17; format: multiple choice and several
questions requiring short answers.
2. Print
reference sources (continued from October 10)
October 31: 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 November
7): 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.
November 7: 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
2. Wikipedia
Also:
Fallis, Don. “On
Verifying the Accuracy of Information: Philosophical Perspectives.” Library
Trends 52.3 (2004): 463-466, paragraph 2; 470 (bottom)-472 (bottom).
Rothenberg, David.
“How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students’ Research Papers." Chronicle of Higher Education 32 (August
15, 1997): A44. (eres)
Vedder, Anton and
Robert Wachbroit. “Reliability of Information on the Internet: Some
Distinctions.” Ethics and Information
Technology 5.4 (2003): 211-15.
Recommended:
Bolner, 157-61
Burbules, Nicholas. “Paradoxes of the Web:
The Ethical Dimensions of Credibility.” Library
Trends 49.3 (2001): 441-47, paragraph 1.
November 14: Presentations; Research on the web continued
1. Presentations
2. Research on
the web, continued
a. Search engines and search directories
b. Effective web search strategies
3. Blogs
4. Wikipedia
---. “
---. “The Wiki
Principle.” The Economist 378.8474
(April 22, 2006): Special Section, 14-15.
Giles, J.
“Internet Encyclopedias Go Head to Head.” Nature
438.7070 (December 15, 2005): 900-01.
Reed, Brock. “
‘Wikimania’ Participants Give the Online Encyclopedia Mixed Reviews.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 53
(September 1, 2006): 62.
Recommended:
Poe,
Schiff, Stacy.
“Know it All.” New Yorker 82 (July 23,
2006): 36-43.
Homework (due November
28): Provide citations and annotations for two credible and content-rich
websites that are relevant to the topic of your final project. Avoid .com sites. Your annotations should
briefly describe the website’s content and justify your choice of the websites
in the light of the following criteria for web evaluation: (1) author (or
organization); (2) the author’s expertise regarding the site’s content; and (3)
possibility that the author or site is biased. 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.
For information about how to cite web sites see page 11 of the Reading/Writing
Center’s handout on MLA at http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/reading-writing/on-line/mla.pdf.
November 28: Presentations; Information ethics I
1. Presentations
2. Information
ethics: Copyright, intellectual property, fair use, and plagiarism and academic
integrity
Hettinger, Edwin.
“Justifying Intellectual Property.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 18.1 (1989):
31-32.2; 47.4-49.
Raimes, A. The Open Handbook, pp. 363-67 (eres).
Recommened:
Bolner, pp. 35-36
December 5: Presentations; Information ethics II
1. Presentations
2. Censorship and
intellectual freedom
3. Privacy
Reading:
Frické, Martin, Kay
Mathiesen, and Don Fallis. “The Ethical Presuppositions behind the Library Bill
of Rights.” Library Quarterly 29.4 (2000): 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, James. “The
Ethics of Privacy Protection.” Library
Trends 39.1/2 (1990): 76.3-80.1.
Recommended:
Fallis, Don.
“Epistemic Value Theory and Information Ethics.” Minds and Machines 14.1 (2004): 101-17.
Garoogian, Rhoda. “Librarian/Patron Confidentiality: An Ethical
Challenge.” Library Trends 40 (Fall
1991): 216-33.
December 12:
1. Presentations
2. Post-test