Reference and Information Services - General - Three (3) Unit Version
INFO 210

Dr. Ruphina Ozoh
E-mail
Office Location: Virtual
Office Hours: Available via email. Telephone appointments scheduled as needed.

A process-oriented examination of how information professionals answer reference questions. The interpersonal skills required for effective question negotiation and the sources with which questions are answered are stressed.

Full Description
This course will introduce you to the very exciting world of reference and information services! We will be learning about the major roles of reference librarians as well as examining and evaluating key information sources in a variety of formats. Because the field of librarianship is changing rapidly, we will be exploring various methods and models for delivering information, examining emerging trends, and also looking at new ideas and skills that are impacting the future of reference services and access to information.  
 

Writing Requirement
If the instructor finds that a student's writing is unacceptable, the instructor will require the student to sign up for online writing tutoring. The student will ask the tutor to confirm with the instructor that he or she is attending sessions.

Expectations

Students are expected to participate fully in all class activities. It is expected that students will be open-minded and participate fully in discussions in class and debate in a mature and respectful manner. Use of derogatory, condescending, or offensive language including profanity is prohibited. Disagreement is healthy and perfectly acceptable. Expressing disagreement should always include an explanation of your reasoning and, whenever possible, evidence to support your position. In accordance with San José State University's Policies, the Student Code of Conduct, and applicable state and federal laws, discrimination based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or disability is prohibited in any form.

Course Workload

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group; contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes) Supported

INFO 210 supports the following core competencies:

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Identify and assess the characteristics and functions of various types of reference sources.
2. Use basic reference tools and searching techniques to answer a wide range of questions.
3. Conduct effective reference interviews.
4. Describe the relationships between user needs, information resources, and relevant information technologies.
5. Describe current issues and trends in reference services, including the impact of technology on user needs and reference interactions.
6. Evaluate reference services that address the needs of a diverse and changing society.
7. Understand the relationship between reference service and information literacy instruction.
8. Begin to develop a personal philosophy of reference service.

Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Cassell, K.A., & Hiremath, U. (2018). Reference and information services: An introduction (4th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman. Available as free eBook through King Libary

Recommended Textbooks:

• American Psychological Association (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association. Available through Amazon: 1433832178.

Course Structure

INFO 210 will be conducted in an asynchronous manner.  There will be no live sessions organized by the instructor. 

Discussion Forum

This course will consist of lectures and discussions comparable to the ones held in a traditional classroom. The weekly reading assignments will consist of mandatory textbook sections and sometimes recommended scholarly journal articles. Occasionally, some articles may be assigned as required reading. Short YouTube videos and prerecorded guest speaker sessions will be provided for some units. While the videos and prerecorded guest speaker sessions added will make the class experience more exciting and fun, they were selected for their educative and informative values. Additional materials may be added when necessary.

 Participation in the discussion forum is mandatory as it is a platform designed for all to exchange information gained from the textbook, scholarly articles, videos, prerecorded guest speaker sessions, and personal experiences and observations.

Students will be required to provide substantive comments on each discussion topic with a minimum of 300 words by the deadlines noted. In addition, students will be required to respond to at least two students for each discussion session. While a specific length is not required when commenting on the posts made by other students, such comments must go beyond the "great post" or "I agree with that" type of message.  Please note that you must submit your main post for each unit in order to earn points for responding to two students.

Comments made by students on each discussion topic will stimulate a classroom discussion and give students the opportunity to interact and learn from the instructor and one another.

Discussion participation will be evaluated based on the quality of the work submitted as related to each topic. Supports CLOs: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.

Assignments:

There will be a total of three projects for this course:

The three projects assigned for this course will be in the form of exercises that will be conducted at the library either physically or virtually. 

The purpose of these projects will be to offer practical experience to some of the key concepts that will be learned in class.

PROJECT 1: REFERENCE/INFORMATION SERVICES INTERACTION (Physical/Virtual Visit). 

As a library user seeking to retrieve information for a research project or other purposes, prepare a total of two questions to ask reference/information services librarians at any library of your choice. One question should be asked during a physical visit and one during a virtual visit.  You can use the same library or two different libraries. Please note that you CANNOT use the library that you work in. Make a mental note of your interaction with the librarians as you will have to critically evaluate your general impression of the services you received. Briefly observe the services provided to other library users during the physical visit, if possible. Try to grasp even subtle nuances of facial expressions or body language that might have impacted the level of services that you and other clients received.

NOTE: Whatever you can find out that could help in determining the level of services received from the information professionals at both visits will be useful. Please do not interview the reference librarians about their jobs, as you are ONLY required to ask the type of questions that information seekers ask every day. 

Students are required to synthesize these reference interactions with the concepts discussed by Cassell and Hiremath and other books and articles they might have consulted for this paper. 

This project should be written in the form of a well-organized essay. Please do not include the transcript of the interview.  Submit 2-3 pages of double-line spacing. Do not submit more than three pages.  The title and bibliography pages will not count.

Supports CLOs: 3,4,7,8.

PROJECT 2: DATABASE SEARCHING AND WEBIBLIOGRAPHY (Virtual Visit)

One of the most important duties of reference/information services librarians is to ensure that library users are aware of the databases available at the libraries They are also expected to train and assist them on how to use the databases effectively.

2A: LIBRARY ELECTRONIC DATABASE SEARCHING 

• Choose any topic of your choice and note it at the top of the page.
• Be sure to select a popular topic that will generate hits during the search, such as ‘diabetes.’
• Utilize five electronic databases for the search and provide a brief scope of each database. That is, state the content of each database.
• Write down the search strategies used for each database, such as Key Words, Truncation, Boolean Operators, etc.
• Write down five articles retrieved from each database in the form of an enumerative bibliography. The bibliographic entries for the articles should be listed directly after each database reviewed. You should have a total of twenty-five bibliography items. That is five items per database.
• All articles retrieved must be Peer-Reviewed.
• All articles retrieved must be Full-Text only.

Note that an enumerative bibliography is the standard bibliography found at the end of books and articles, similar to the one you will submit for Project 1.  

2B: WEBIBLIOGRAPHY 

• Search the internet and prepare an annotated webibliography with five trustworthy websites on the same topic you worked on for 2A. 
• Begin each entry with the URL (web address) and then the annotation.
•  Since information professionals are expected to assist information searchers in retrieving AUTHORITATIVE information from all sources, provide a good justification as to why you selected each website.  
• The annotation, that is, summary for each website should provide an information seeker with a good description of what the website is all about. 

  2A and 2B should be produced as one project and should be 6-10 pages of double line spacing.  Do not submit more than 10 pages. Supports CLOs: 2,4,5

PROJECT 3A: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MAJOR SUBSCRIPTION DATABASES- GROUP PROJECT (Virtual Visit).

Subscription-only databases contain thousands of periodicals and scholarly journal articles that are not available through free search engines. Students will be divided into groups to analyze and compare two major subscription-only databases. Each group will determine crucial differences or similarities between the databases selected. Each group will operate as the Collection Development Committee of a small library or information center with very limited financial resources. Given that financial resources are scarce, make a convincing argument to the organizational leaders about why one database should be selected over the other. The following points, as discussed by Cassell and Hiremath, should be considered when completing this project:

Scope, Quality of Content, Accuracy, Currency, Authority, Ease of Use, Arrangement, and Appropriateness. Two databases with similar scope should be selected by each group.

NOTE: Each group should conduct as many searches as possible in order to get a good feel for the selected databases.  Do not submit more than fifteen (15) pages of double-line spacing. Only one submission should be transmitted by a group member. Supports CLOs: 1,2,4. 

3B: INSIGHTS GAINED/PEER REVIEW

Summary of the insights gained from 3A and a peer review of other team members should be submitted by each student.  Please note that your final grade for 3A is subject to change as a result of the reviews provided by your team members. Submit 1 to 2 pages of double line spacing.  Supports CLOs: 2,4.

EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR PROJECTS

Quality of the presentation- neat, orderly, and free of mistakes

Quality of the writing- clear and concise

Quality of the organization- logical flow

Requirements for Assignments:

• Title Page
• Double-Spaced
• 12 Point Font
• APA Format

The title page and bibliography sections will not count towards the length requirements for each project.

NOTE: Professional behavior is required when conducting any projects at libraries either physically or virtually.

All discussion posts and projects should be submitted by 11:59 pm PACIFIC STANDARD TIME.

This is a graduate program and students are expected to be responsible with regards to deadlines. However, if there is an extenuating circumstance that would prevent a student from meeting a specific deadline noted, the instructor should be contacted so that the student can be accommodated. 

LATE SUBMISSIONS

• Discussions: Discussion posts can be made within the assigned period only.  
• Projects: One point will be deducted each day a project is submitted late.  Projects submitted after 7 days will not be accepted. 

Grading

This schedule is subject to change with fair notice

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work or undergraduate (for BS-ISDA);
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA, Informatics, BS-ISDA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation. You must repeat the class if you wish to stay in the program. If - on the second attempt - you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Graduate Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduates must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

Per University Policy S16-9 (PDF), relevant university policy concerning all courses, such as student responsibilities, academic integrity, accommodations, dropping and adding, consent for recording of class, etc. and available student services (e.g. learning assistance, counseling, and other resources) are listed on the Syllabus Information web page. Make sure to visit this page to review and be aware of these university policies and resources.

This schedule is subject to change with fair notice