21:259 Topics: Information Needs of Special Populations and for Disaster Recovery
Fall 2007
Mondays: 1:00-3:30 p.m.
3 Credits
3092 Main Library

Professor Padmini Srinivasan
email: my email address in in this link
Office: 3067 Main Library (335-5708)
Office Hours: Tues & Wed, 2:30-4:30pm and by appointment

Welcome to our course homepage!

Contents

Assignments

Text Book

Additional Requirements

Special Considerations

Course Description

This special topics course will explore information needs analysis, collection and management of information along two dimensions.  The first dimension relates to special populations as for example immigrants, migrant workers, homeless groups, non-literate or/and low literacy populations.  The second dimension concerns the information needs of communities
coping with and recovering from disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis and tornadoes.

The course will be run as a seminar with students presenting papers, highlighting methods, exploring case studies, conducting small scale and semester length projects, testing tools etc. Project work will be significant. Individual participation will be emphasized.  We will also have several speakers who will share their experience and insights on the information needs faced in specific contexts.

There will be a set of "contextualized" assignments.  In each case the student will be expected to put her/himself in a particular situation and explore the information needs/sources etc. from the situational perspective.  Assignments will also emphasize identifying and working with key members of the community.

Evaluation Points

Students are expected to participate in class discussions, complete all readings and complete any assignments on time. Assignments are due at the "beginning" of the specified class period.

Students are expected to do their assignments and exams on their own - unless explicitly permitted by the professor. Cheating/plagiarism will result, at least for the assignment in question and possibly for the full course, in a score of zero. If in doubt whether something is permitted, do ask me.
 
Item Points
Assignments & Quizzes 90%
Class participation 10%

Highlights, Notes etc.

to be added as needed

Guest Lecturers

1. Susan Craig.  Director, Iowa City Public Library:  Public libraries Disaster Preparedness. (September 17, 2:30 - 3:30)

2. Chris Juett. 2-1-1 Program Manager, First Call for Help Iowa, Inc. (October 8, exact time to be set)

3. Regenia Bailey, Director of Community Impact, United Way of Johnson County (October 15, exact time to be set)

4. Alison Ames Galstad. Director, Coralville Public Library (October 22, exact time to be set)

5. Johnson County Crisis Center (October 29, 1pm at the Crisis Center)

6. Ross Wilburn. Executive director of the Crisis Center and Mayor of Iowa City (November 5, 1pm)

7. Mark H. Neufer. President, Integer Research & Consulting, LLC (November 26, exact time to be set)

8. David Wilson.  Coordinator, Emergency Management Agency, Johnson County (December 3, exact time to be set)

Outline of topics. (Will be expanded as needed). Readings and guest lecturers will also be added.

1: Introduction to Course & Background

  1. Something old, something new: preliminary findings from an exploratory study about people's information habits and information grounds. Fisher et al. Information Research. Vol. 10 No. 2, January 2005
  2. Choosing people: the role of social capital in information seeking behaviour
    Catherine A. Johnson. Information Research. Vol. 10 No. 1, October 2004.

  3. Public Access Computers, Libraries, and the Poor: Do Neighborhood Factors Make a Difference? A Report to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation U.S. Library Program.  Prepared by Margaret T. Gordon et al., 2003.

2: Information needs for low income individuals and families

  1. The Children's Partnership: Online content for low-income and underserved Americans. 
  2. The Search for High-Quality Online Content for Low-Income and Underserved Communities: Evaluating and Producing What's Needed (October 2003), a report which included Guidelines for evaluating online content. (From the above web site).

3: Pathfinders and wikis

  1. Examples from the Internet Public Library.
  2. Ten reasons why your next pathfinder should be a wiki by Joyce Valenza. School Library Journal, May 2007.

4: Information needs of immigrants

  1. Library services for immigrants: A report on current practices. Office of Citizenship, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (2006).
  2. U.S. Public Library Services to Latin American Immigrants: A Survey of Information Needs, Barriers to Access, Best Practices and Guidelines for Developing Library Services at a Local Level.  2006

5: Information needs of migrant workers

  1. Information behaviour of migrant Hispanic farm workers and their families in the Pacific Northwest by Karen E. Fisher et al. Information Research. Vol. 10 No. 1, October 2004.

6: Information behaviour and culture

  1. A framework for understanding culture and its relationship to information behaviour: nese aborigines' information behaviour by Nei-Ching Yeh. Vol. 12 No. 2, January 2007

7: Information needs when faced with an illness

  1. An examination of the health information seeking experiences of women in rural Ontario, Canada by Nadine Wathen and Roma M. Harris. Information Research.
  2. Health information ties: preliminary findings on the health information seeking behaviour of an African-American community by Ophelia T. More.  Information Research. Vol. 12 No. 2, January 2007.
  3. Hesperian Foundation.

8: Information needs of the elderly

to be added.

9: Information needs for non literate/low literacy populations

to be added.

10: Information needs during disasters

to be added.

11: Student project presentations

details to be provided

The University of Iowa / School of Library and Information Science / email me from here