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Home - Course Web Pages - Spring 2009 - LIBR 266-01 Assignments

LIBR 266-01
Collection Management
Spring 2009 Assignments

Joni Richards Bodart
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Phone: (408)924-2728
Web Site: thebooktalker1.com

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Class Participation | Reading and Logging Synthesis | Collection Development Policy Manual
Assignment Due Dates

Class Participation

Read text and participate in class discussions on discussion boards. Participate is defined as posting 3-4 times weekly, both in response to the questions I post and to others’ reactions to them. Comments should be thoughtful and insightful, adding to our mutual learning process. Questions will be posted on a biweekly basis.

Elluminate Sessions
There will be six Elluminate class sessions. All are required, but live attendance is required only for the first and last. Since all sessions will be recorded, you will be able to look at them asynchronously when necessary. These sessions will be from 630-830pm PST on 1/28; 2/4; 2/25; 3/18; 4/8; 4/29. My assistant will send you a link to each session ahead of time so you can get to the sessions. Remember, January 28 and April 29 sessions are required. However, students have told me consistently that participating in the other sessions was extremely valuable, and I urge you to attend as many as you can, including all of them.

You are required to have a microphone and speaker to use this software. I suggest purchasing a headset with a mike attached, since that will give the best sound quality and also leave your hands free for typing and mousing. You will need to get to class AT LEAST 15 minutes ahead of time, so my assistant can check to see that you can speak and hear. When this has been confirmed, she will tell you how to indicate that you’ve stepped away from your computer, and you don’t have to come back till 630. BTW, I have to do this too, to make sure my hardware is working properly as well.

Take a look at the Elluminate tutorials at http://senna.sjsu.edu/lmain/ogla/el_stu.html. Log in with your first and last name. Do not use your ANGEL username. If this is the first time you will be using Elluminate, you may be prompted to download some software which may take anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes depending upon your Internet connection speed. You can pre-configure your system with the required software by going to the support page located at: https://nexus.sjsu.edu:443/support.help.

Debbie Faires will be hosting demo sessions on Elluminate, and the dates and times will be posted to slisadmin. YOU MUST ATTEND ONE OF THESE SESSIONS BEFORE OUR FIRST SESSION.

Topics for E sessions will be:

This scheduling and the due dates for assignments should inform your reading of the text, BB articles, and outside readings.

Group Work
Work as a team member with the others in your group, using email, your group discussion board, and your group VC. You are welcome to meet f2f if that is possible, but it is not required. You are required to be a member of a group for this class.

At the end of the semester, after you have turned in your revised policy manual, you will be required to evaluate your group members on their participation and the quality of work that they contributed to the project. These evaluations will be incorporated into the participation grade. You will submit this document via the assignments page, as described below.

Your group sites (VC, group email, discussion boards) will be set up as soon as possible but you are welcome to begin your work immediately after your groups are formed. I will be happy to meet with groups to work on questions/problems at a time convenient for all of us. I will meet with you in your group’s collaboration area, in person, or over the phone via Elluminate or a conference call, whatever is most convenient. I will be a member of all the groups, however, these group utilities are for your ease and convenience, not so I can keep an eye on you. I will not be monitoring your participation in them.

It is up to the members of each group to work out interpersonal problems. I am available for advice and consultation, but it is ultimately up to the group members to figure out how to work together successfully and ensure that everyone contributes equally. You will spend a good part of your professional life as part of one group or another, and knowing how to be a good team player, both in contributing and convincing others to contribute, is essential. This semester will give you a chance to practice that.

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Reading and Logging Synthesis

There are many print and online sources on collection development outside the textbook. You will need to explore those items in order to get information that will help you put together your policy manual, and to examine the current and evolving collection development theory. We are moving from a print society to one that will be partially or completely digitized in the future. In the text and in lectures, we will be examining the role of the librarian in collection development now. In addition to finding materials that will help with your policy manual, use this assignment to seek out and examine information on what may happen in this area in the future, and how it will impact your career as an information professional.

Besides the required textbook, you should read the equivalent of 350 pages of professional reading, including:

There is a bibliography of articles and sites students from previous classes have found useful to get you started, although you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. However, it’s just a beginning point—I do expect you to research other sources as well. A log that contains citations only from the bibliography will not be eligible for an A, so you might want to indicate the new articles in some way to show me that you did indeed add new resources. This bibliography is updated every semester I teach this course.

Keep a log of your readings and web work, including for each item, the bibliographic citation including the number of pages in the chapter/article, and a summary/evaluation, including what you did or didn’t find useful about it. The information on each item should be at least half a page to a maximum of one page. Organize your log into chapters like the ones in your policy manual. At the end of the course, write a synthesis of your interpretation of the current state of collection development theory and your projection of how it might develop in the future, based on the materials in your log and in your textbook. In a separate section or document, you also need to explain and discuss what you have learned/how you have changed or grown this semester, and how you will be using what you have learned in the future. (This is the “informal paper.”)

While I am not going to add up the number of pages for each and every log, please be aware that if I think you have not read the required number of pages, I will go back and count them. When you count the number of pages in a book, include only the pages in the chapters you read, not front matter, bibliographies or indexes. You may have used these sections, but I doubt you will have actually read them for content.

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Collection Development Policy Manual

Working in groups of 2-3, based on the type of library you are interested in, develop a comprehensive collection management policy, including the following sections:

Appropriate forms and documents will be included in an appendix as appropriate for each section. These can be ones developed by the group or ones from actual libraries. This assignment can be done using an actual physical library or one that the group creates. Either way, precise information about the library, its policies, staff, and collections will be required. Be aware that including tables, graphs and charts will help you convey information more concisely and in formats that can be more easily understood than straight text. Each section will contain a bibliography citing the various sources, print and online, that you used while writing that section. When the completed manual is turned in as a whole at the end of the semester, these chapter bibliographies will be as the end of the manual, rather than at the end of each chapter. (I.e., a bibliography section, with items from Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and so on. In other words, you don’t have to realphabetize the whole list.)

Those of you who are writing about a real library will need to cite the extant documents very carefully. Using an existing policy manual with minor changes IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Your manuals must be your own work, even when you include forms, surveys or other supportive documents from the library you are writing about. If I think you are using chunks of material from an existing manual, rather than writing your own policies, I will want to discuss it with your group. You will be required to demonstrate why you have not plaigerized any materials.

The completed manual will be detailed enough that an actual library could use it to define, create, and implement collection development and management policies. It will be a demonstration of the depth of your knowledge of the subject, and may be added to your portfolio documenting your accomplishments as a library school student.

Please note that this manual will differ in some aspects from the actual policy manuals you will find in libraries and on the web. Many policies do not contain the detail that I am requiring. All chapters must be complete and detailed, even if it is unlikely that an actual policy for your type of library would have them. This is an exercise, not reality. Therefore, even though a real special library might not have a reconsideration policy, saying “We don’t have an intellectual freedom problem in this library” will not suffice.

You will turn in each section above, based on the due dates given below. Please include a cover sheet for each chapter, giving the chapter title, the name and type of the library, the group number, and names of group members. Points will be deducted if you do not have a cover sheet for each section you turn in. They will be evaluated, and returned to you. At the end of the semester, you will be able to turn in (if your group chooses to do so) a corrected final version of your entire project. This does not mean that every section will need to be rewritten, since only those that receive less than satisfactory grades (in the group’s opinion) will need to be rewritten. Other sections can be turned in without further changes, assuming their formatting is the same as the corrected chapters. While this is not required, it will allow you to raise the grade received for the project. (See grading standards below.) All members of a group will receive the same grade for the policy manual, but due to differing participation grades, may not receive the same grade for the course.

Each section of your policy manual will be submitted in document format. When you are ready to submit a chapter, use the following procedures for the BB site or for email:

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Assignment Due Dates

All assignments are due on Sundays at midnight. This gives you the whole weekend to work on them. In other words, at midnight on the day before Monday, when Sunday ends, not when it begins.

I am willing to be flexible about due dates and will always give you extra time when you ask for it. However, any assignment that does not come in on time when no extension has been requested will be penalized one letter grade for lateness. When in doubt, ask for more time, just in case. You have a huge project before you, and my due dates are designed to keep you caught up, so you don’t have too many things overwhelming you at the end of the semester.
ALL DELAYED OR LATE ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE IN TO ME WITHOUT EXCEPTION NO LATER THAN 9 AM ON MAY 22 IN ORDER TO SUBMIT GRADES ON TIME. I am willing to be as flexible as I can, but the due date for grades MUST be met.

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