[Asis-l] Special Topics Courses Offered at SILS

[Monroe, Wanda G.]

Special Topics Courses are truly SPECIAL! The courses offered at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in this category are normally offered once. The credits received can be used as an elective or just because you want to know more.

Consider one of the SILS Special Topics courses highlighted below or visit:  (http://sils.unc.edu/courses/special-topics). The following courses still have space: 

INLS 490-189, Social Media and Society: A Theoretical and Empirical Overview (3 credits) This course examines the increasingly important technologies of connectivity from a theoretical and empirical perspective. We will explore the evolution, implications and complications of social media in multiple spheres of life including sociality, community, politics, power and inequality, education, knowledge, and information. Our emphasis will not be on any one current platform (such as Facebook or Twitter) or even a particular device. Rather, we will study how different configurations of connectivity encourage or stifle different socio-cultural practices and values. This course will provide conceptual and methodological foundations for studying and evaluating current and future developments in this area. (Stutzman)
 

INLS 490-172, Personal Information Management (3 credits) Personal Information Management (PIM) is the study of how people organize and manage information in their daily lives, including to-do lists, calendars, e-mail, address books, and file management. In today's digital age, many devices including cell phones, computers, PDAs, and music players play a role in PIM. This course will focus on major issues in PIM research, including information organization, human cognitive and memory issues, task continuity across devices, mental models of information, usability issues, and the role of technology in PIM. The course will be structured as a readings and discussion seminar with a semester-long research project. Students will become familiar with current PIM research and will design and implement a research study of PIM. Students will also prepare "a day in the life of my PIM" presentations to share aspects of their own personal information management techniques and challenges and to stimulate classroom discussion. (Capra)

 
INLS 490-161, Building a Personal Digital Library (3 credits) This class will prepare students to implement their own personal digital LifeTime Library. The collection that is assembled at SILS will be maintained throughout their academic career, and will be available for migration to their own laptop when they graduate. Topics covered will include: creation of a personal digital library including organization of the material, creation of descriptive metadata, management of the collection, and sharing of the collection.
 
The LifeTiime Library will be based on the integrated Rule-Oriented Data System (iRODS). The iRODS software implements policy-based data management. Up to 250Gigabytes of storage space will be provided for each student. During the course, we will investigate choice of user interface, automation of digital library management functions, enforcement of management policies, and assessment of collection properties. Students will be able to use the LifeTime Library to manage class material, organize multi-media material, archive personal data collections, and share selected material.

Students will be asked to test the digital library, help evaluate the functionality, and generate ideas for improving the system. Students are encouraged to think of themselves as the innovators in the development of digital libraries that will be used by other students. (Moore)


INLS 490-188, User Experience Design (3 credits) This course will provide an overview of user experience (UX) design. We will cover some of the basic concepts and techniques used to create useful and purposeful information systems, as well as the basic process for leading such projects. This course is practical in nature, and focuses on how people will interact with information systems. The outcome of the design process is a series of blueprints for the system. We will not discuss how to build systems, but rather, you will learn about how to shape strategy and structure design in order to empower end users, and as a result, create good business for the project's stakeholders. (Velasco-Martin)
 

INLS 490-046, Data Management and Curation (3 credits) This class will explore the full range of data curation lifecycle activities starting with the design of good data, through content creator management, metadata creation, ingest into a repository, repository management, access policies and implementation, and data reuse. Speakers from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences will discuss data requirements in their fields and data curators will discuss challenges and current best practices as well as resource allocators. Data management plans for various funders such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institite of Health (NIH) will be explored and federal funders will join in this discussion. (Tibbo)

For more information about programs and courses at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, please go to sils.unc.edu/programs.

********************************************
Wanda Monroe
Director of Communications
School of Information and Library Science 
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
100 Manning Hall, CB 3360
Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3360
Phone: 919-843-8337
Web: sils.unc.edu
Follow us on Twitter at: UNC SILS
Like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/uncsils