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 a study of the types of government publications and tools for their bibliographic organization.

Drop Dates
The last day that this course may be dropped with full refund is September 6th.
The last day to drop full-term classes without academic penalty is October 4th.

Required Text: United States Government Information Policies and Sources by Peter Hernon et al. Libraries Unlimited, 2002

Required Listserv: Subscribe to govdoc-L listserv http://govdoc-l.org/

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

1. Discuss issues pertaining to public policy on Federal information access and dissemination, including changing user needs, effects of new technologies, retrenchment, and private sector developments
   
   
2. Demonstrate knowledge of the history, functions, and purposes of the Government Printing Office, the Superintendent of Documents, and the Depository Library system
   
   
3. Identify and use major publicly and privately produced indexes, catalogs and guides to U.S. government publications, in traditional and e-formats, to access government documents
   
   
4. Identify and use a variety of government documents and related sources to answer specific questions
   
   
5. Identify publications that are generated at each step in the congressional legislative process
   
   
6. Use the SUDOCS classification system to locate desired documents
   
   

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 government sources. Students will complete weekly exercises and a report on a specific government agency of their choice.

Weekly Schedule
Subject to Revision

Week 1: Course Introduction & Overview

Course Syllabus
Hernon, Appendix: Literature on Government Info Policy
Robinson, Chapter 14

Week 2: Government Publishing

Hernon, Chapter 1
Robinson, Chapter 1

Week 3: Access to Government Info

Hernon, Chapter 2
Robinson, Chapter 2

Week 4: Depository Libraries

Hernon, Chapter 15
Robinson, Chapter 4

Week 5: Congress or Legislative Branch

Hernon, Chapters 3 & 4
Robinson, Chapter 3

Week 6: Presidency or Executive Branch

Hernon, Chapters 5 & 6

Week 7: Judiciary or Judicial Branch

Hernon, Chapter 11
Robinson, Chapter 11

Week 8: Intellectual Property

Hernon, Chapter 12
Robinson, Chapter 7

Week 9: Fall Break Week

Midterm Exam

Week 10: Regulations

Hernon, Chapter 10
Robinson, Chapter 9

Week 11: Statistics

Hernon, Chapter 13
Robinson, Chapter 12

Week 12: Maps & GIS

Hernon, Chapter 14
Robinson, Chapter 13

Week 13: FOIA, Declassified Records

Hernon, Chapters 7 & 9

Week 14: Thanksgiving Week

Week 15: Electronic Government

Hernon, Chapters 8 & 16

Government Agency Report Due

Week 16: Final Exam

Course Requirements

1. Search exercises (6 x 5 points each = 30 points)
   
   
2. Midterm Exam (15 points)
   
   
3. Report on a government agency, its history, administration, and publications (25 points)
   
   
4. Final Exam (15 points)
   
   
5. Class Participation (15 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.

Students are required to subscribe to listnews, the LIS listserv. Subscribe to lisnews by completing the online form available at https://mailman.usm.edu/mailman/listinfo/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.