Instructor
Teresa Welsh, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
The University of Southern Mississippi
School of Library & Information Science
Cook Library, Room 206H
Office Hours: Mon-Thurs, 1-4 pm or by appointment
Phone: 601.266.4228
Teresa.Welsh@usm.edu
http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w146169/

Description
This three hour course is an overview of the development and administration of special libraries serving businesses, institutions, and government agencies.

Drop Dates
The last day that this course may be dropped with refund is January 27th.
The last day to drop full-term classes without academic penalty is March 3rd.

Required Text: Knowledge and Special Libraries Edited by J.M. Matarazzo and S.D. Connolly Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998.

Strongly recommended: Student membership in Special Libraries Association (pdf file), $35 a year

Course Goals
After completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the professional ethics and core values of special librarianship
   
   
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the impact, historical growth and development of special libraries
   
   
3. Identify similarities and differences among special libraries, such as corporate, medical, law, and academic
   
   
4. Identify and analyze the wide variety of business needs and opportunities for special librarians/libraries
   
   
5. Identify and evaluate the information needs of special library patrons and the role of special librarians in addressing those needs
   
   
6. Recognize and discuss current trends in special library organization and management
   
   
7. Be knowledgeable about the research currently conducted in/about special libraries.
   
   

Teaching Strategies
Online lecture notes, directed readings, virtual classroom sessions, and discussion board postings will form the basis for the course. Students will retrieve and evaluate information on specific topics from scholarly articles and specialized databases. Students will produce an annotated bibliography on a specialized topic and a report on a specific special library of their choice.

Weekly Schedule
Subject to Revision

Week 1: Special Librarianship

Matarazzo & Connolly, Introduction

Week 2: History of Librarianship

"The Alexandrian Library As It Once Was" by Peter Brush (2000)
History of Librarianship

Week 3: History of Information Science

Matarazzo & Connolly, Chapter 6

Week 4: Powers of Information, Medical Librarianship

Matarazzo & Connolly, Chapters 3, 4

Week 5: Government Information Sources

Matarazzo & Connolly, Chapters 1, 2

Week 6: Law Librarianship

Online Lecture Notes & Readings

Week 7: Law Librarianship

Online Lecture Notes & Readings

Annotated Bibliography Due

Week 8: Midterm Exam

Week 9: Knowledge Management

Matarazzo & Connolly, Chapters 10-12

Week 10: Competitive Intelligence

Matarazzo & Connolly, Chapters 5, 7, 8

Week 11: Information Brokers, Data Miners

Matarazzo & Connolly, Chapter 15

Week 12: Libraries as Business Assets

Mount, Chapter 12, Special Libraries & Information Centers, on e-reserve

Week 13: Spring Break Week

Week 14: Visualization of Information, Information Architecture

Online Lecture Notes & Readings

Week 15: Digital Collections

Matarazzo & Connolly, Chapters 13, 15

Special Library Report Due

Week 16: Final Exam

Course Requirements

1. Development of an annotated bibliography on a specialized topic approved by the instructor (20 points)
   
   
2. Midterm Exam (20 points)
   
   
3. Report on a specialized library, its history, scope, and administration (20 points)
   
   
4. Final Exam (20 points)
   
   
5. Class Participation (20 points)
   • Students are expected to read the online material and required texts in order to participate in virtual classroom discussions and discussion board postings.
   • Students are expected to attend each virtual classroom session for the entire time of the session. All absences from the virtual classroom sessions will be recorded. Points will be deducted from the participation portion of the grade for missed participation in the virtual classroom or failure to post responses to questions or topics on the Discussion Board.

Grading

A	95-100
A-	93-94
B+	91-92
B	86-90
B-	84-85
C+	82-83
C	75-81
C-	73-74
D+	71-72
D	66-70
D-	64-65
F	0-63

Course Policies
Students are responsible for reading syllabus content and becoming familiar with course policies and procedures

Students will not be granted an Incomplete for this course for failing to complete assignments. A student who receives an Incomplete will have only ONE semester in which to complete the work, and will not be eligible to receive an A.

If a student stops attending class and does not complete the appropriate withdrawal papers or procedures with the registrar, that student will be assigned an F. If this is the only class a student is taking then the student must call the USM graduate school to properly withdraw.

If a student commits plagiarism, that student will receive an F in the course.

A student may not self-plagiarize or submit work done in another course unless receiving prior permission from the instructor. Any assignment that is self plagiarized without prior permission from the instructor will receive zero points.

Virtual classroom attendance and participation is expected. Participation is a large part of the grade and consists of the virtual classroom participation and discussion board postings.

Students are required to subscribe to lisnews, the LIS listserv. Subscribe to lisnews by sending an email to: Majordomo@usm.edu with nothing in the subject box and the following command in the body of the email message: subscribe lisnews

All assignments should be saved in .doc or .rtf format and posted to the Digital Drop Box. Work not turned in on time will be assessed a penalty of 10% per week without prior approval from the instructor.

Failure to follow specific instructions for content and formatting of assignments will result in lower grades.

Writing skills: All work must be in standard English; inappropriate grammar, punctuation, and/or spelling will result in lower grades.

Academic Code of Conduct
Students are expected to follow the Academic Code of Conduct, which includes mutual respect and academic honesty.

"When cheating is discovered, the faculty member may give the student an F on the work involved or in the course. If further disciplinary action is deemed appropriate, the student should be reported to the dean of students. In addition to being a violation of academic honesty, cheating violates the Code of Student Conduct and may be grounds for probation, suspension, and/or expulsion. Students on disciplinary suspension may not enroll in any courses offered by The University of Southern Mississippi." USM Graduate Bulletin, p. 30.

"Plagiarism is scholarly theft, and it is defined as the unacknowledged use of secondary sources. More specifically, any written or oral presentation in which the writer or speaker does not distinguish clearly between original and borrowed material constitutes plagiarism. Because students, as scholars, must make frequent use of the concepts and facts developed by other scholars, plagiarism is not the mere use of another's facts and ideas. However, it is plagiarism when students present the work of other scholars as if it were their own work. Plagiarism is committed in a number of ways:

1. Reproducing another author's writing as if it were one's own.
2. Paraphrasing another author's work without citing the original.
3. Borrowing from another author's ideas, even though those ideas are reworded, without giving credit.
4. Copying another author's organization without giving credit.

Plagiarism is a serious offense. An act of plagiarism may lead to a failing grade on the paper and in the course, as well as sanctions that may be imposed by the student judicial system." USM Graduate Bulletin, p. 30; USM Student Handbook, p. 73.