Fall Reading Syllabus

• Required Readings
• Class Summary
• Assignment Catalog
• Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Thanksgiving, 9, 10

Required Readings

Michel Foucault. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (1994).

Katharine A. Harmon. You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination (2004).

Henry Petroski., The Book on the Bookshelf (1999).

Matthew Battles . Library: An Unquiet History (2003).

Marge Piercy. He, She and It (1986).

Selected writings online (see syllabus).

Class Summary

Tuesdays 10-12 / Reading seminar, A3107 Sem 2.

Tuesdays 1-3 / Computer skills practicum, General Computing Classroom, GCC.

Fridays 1-3 / Imaging & web development class, GCC.

Assignment Catalog

Landscape Project – Students will choose an area of the library for study and observation, such as Government Documents, Archives, Reference, etc. There they will explore and map the terrain of knowledge and services managed in their area. Academic emphasis will be placed on the translation of traditionally linear modes of library and information organization into web friendly forms of navigational logic. Students will express this translation in a series of spatial and linguistic maps that remap their areas of study from a variety of perspectives and across a number of themes.

Project Development Blog – Students will collect their project research and development steps in their blogs. Minimum requirements for the blog include online strings for analytical research, creative themes and ideas, images/map scans, and seminar paper postings.

Project Website – Each student will develop an individual website to integrate and formally present his or her Information Landscape. The website will represent the final map of the student's chosen area of information and ideas.

Mid-term and Final Presentations – Individuals present initial web project designs and postings in Week 5. Follow-up presentations in Week 10.

Seminar Papers – Reading reaction papers 1-2 pages due each week in seminar. This short but serious assignment reviews reading content, focuses thoughts for discussion, and practices formal writing skills. Typewritten, double-spaced with all due attention to grammar and spelling. NOTE: You must also post your paper on your blog by seminar time each week.

 

Weekly Schedule

Week 1 / Sept 26-Sept 30 - Introductions/Orientation.

Tues 10-12, LC / Introductions.

READINGS: James F. Holly, “Library Position Paper #1,” unpublished paper, The Evergreen State College, 9 October 1969; Stephen S. Hall, “I, Mercator” in You Are Here , ed Katharine H. Harmon (NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004), 15; Foucault, Forward, Preface and “Las Meninas.”

Tues 1-3, LC / Library tour and orientation.

Fri 1-3, GCC / GCC Orientation.

- How to access and post to your Blog.

 

Week 2 / Oct 3-Oct 7 - Philosophy of Information - Archaeology of Knowledge (The big questions).

Tues 10-12, A3107 Sem 2 / Seminar

READINGS : Batson and Bass, “Teaching and Learning in the Computer Age,” Change 28:2 (Mar/Apr 1996), 42-49; Luciano Floridi, “Open Problems in the Philosophy of Information," Metaphilosophy 35:4 (July 2004), 554-582. Foucault, “Prose of the World.”

Tues 1-3, GCC / Computer skills practicum.

Fri 1-3, GCC / Digital imaging & web class.

- Introduction to the Internet, web development and information design

-Activity: create a site map of your project web site.

 

Week 3 / Oct 10-Oct 14 - Media Literacy & Research Methods (Reading the web critically and well).

Tues 10-12, A3107 Sem 2 / Seminar.

READINGS : Sonia Livingstone, “Media Literacy and the Challenge of New Information and Communication Technologies,” The Communication Review 7 (2004), 7-14; Katie J. Ward, “Cyber-Ethnography and the Emergence of the Virtually New Community,” Journal of Information Technology 14 (1999), 95-105; Jeremy Moss, “Power and the Digital Divide” Ethics and Information Technology 4:2 (2002), 159-165. Foucault, “Representing.”

Tues 1-3, GCC / Computer skills practicum.

Fri 1-3, GCC / Digital imaging & web class.

- Photoshop for the Web: preparing images and designing page layouts

- Activity: analyze design of a site you like and come up w/ a design for your site.

 

Week 4 / Oct 17-Oct 22 - Virtual Communities/Virtual Worlds (Ethics and authenticity on the web).

Tues 10-12, A3107 Sem 2 / Seminar.

READINGS : Julian Dibble, "A Rape in Cyberspace," Village Voice (Dec 21, 1993), 36-42; Thomas M. Powers, "Real Wrongs in Virtual Communities," Ethics and Information Technology 5:4 (2003), 191-198; Miriam Catterall and Pauline Maclaran, "Researching Consumers in Virtual Worlds," Journal of Consumer Behavior 1:3 (Feb 2002), 228-237. Foucault, “Speaking.”

Tues 1-3, GCC / Computer skills practicum.

Fri 1-3, GCC / Digital imaging & web class.

- Introduction to HTML

- Intro to Dreamweaver: site definitions, create new pages, links and publishing

- Activity: Create the navigational structure and link up the pages of your site.

 

Week 5 / Oct 24-Oct 28 - Computers & Computer Language (Structure and semiotics).

Tues 10-12, A3107 Sem 2 / Seminar.

READINGS : David M. Levy, "From Documents to Information: A Historical Perspective," UC Berkeley Document Academy ; Codognet, “Ancient Images and New Technologies,” Leonardo 35:1 ( 2002), 41-50 ; Martin G. Brodwin, Tristen Star, Elizabeth Cardoso, "Computer Assistive Technology for People who Have Disabilities: Computer Adaptations and Modifications," Journal of Rehabilitation 70:3 (2004), 28-33. Foucault, “Classifying,”

Tues 1-3, GCC / Computer skills practicum.

Fri 1-3, GCC / Mid-term presentations.

 

Week 6 / Oct 31-Nov 4 - Where Does Knowledge Reside? (Libraries as hosts to information).

Tues 10-12, A3107 Sem 2 / Seminar.

READINGS : Henry Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999). Foucault, “Exchanging.”

Tues 1-3, GCC / Computer skills practicum.

Fri 1-3, GCC / Digital imaging & web class.

- Dreamweaver: inserting images and tables, formatting with CSS.

 

Week 7 / Nov 7-Nov 11 - How Does Knowledge Survive? (Politics and importance of preservation).

Tues 10-12, A3107 Sem 2 / Seminar.

READINGS : Matthew Battles, Library: An Unquiet History ( New York : W.W. Norton, 2003). Foucault, “Limits of Representation.”

Tues 1-3, GCC / Computer skills practicum.

Fri 1-3, GCC / Digital imaging & web class.

- Dreamweaver: Review and putting it all together

- Common web scripting techniques.

 

Week 8 / Nov 14-Nov 18 - The Digital Turn (Institutional change and resistance).

Tues 10-12, A3107 Sem 2 / Seminar.

READINGS : Stanley N. Katz, "Don't Confuse a Tool with a Goal," Helen Scott , "The Integration of Technology into Learning and Teaching in the Liberal Arts," Liberal Education 88:2 (Spring 2002), 30-40;” Rem Koolhaas, Seattle Public Library Proposal , OMA/LMN (December 1999); TESC Enrollment Growth DTF , "Final Recommendations of the Enrollment Growth DTF," TESC, 20 June 2005. Foucault, “Labour, Life, Language.”

Tues 1-3, GCC / Computer skills practicum.

Fri 1-3, GCC / Digital imaging & web class.

-Photoshop: image manipulation and retouching techniques.

 

Thanksgiving Break / Nov 21-25

 

Week 9 / Nov 28-Dec 1 - Is the Internet Emancipatory? (The politics of the web).

Tues 9-6, Site Visit to Seattle Public Library.

Fri 1-3, 3107 Sem 2 / Seminar.

READINGS : Andrew Boyd, “The Web Rewires the Movement,” Nation Online (17 Jul 2003); Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181. Foucault; “Man and his Doubles.”

 

Week 10 / Dec 5-Dec 9 - Information Fiction (The future is now).

Tues 10-12, A3107 Sem 2 / Seminar.

READINGS : Marge Piercy , He, She and It (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991); Foucault, “The Human Sciences.”

Tues 1-3, GCC / Independent work.

Fri 1-3, LC / Final presentations – Potluck.

 

Evaluation Week / Dec 13-17.