Next time taught: Fall 2024 Term (confirmed as of 02/28/2024)
Location: FIMS & Nursing Building, the University of Western Ontario, London, CANADA.


Objectives:

  • To develop an understanding of general principles and techniques for the organization and representation of information.
  • To develop an understanding of general principles and techniques of classification and classification schemes, subject representation with controlled vocabularies, and contemporary bibliographic description.
  • To develop an ability to communicate the concepts of information organization clearly and effectively to users, colleagues, paraprofessionals and other stakeholders in information communities.

Course Description:

Principles and techniques for the organization and representation of information as exemplified in classification and classification schemes, subject representation with controlled vocabularies, and contemporary bibliographic description.


Course Content:

Objectives of Information Organization. Information Curation. Data Access. Data and Metadata. Environments: Catalogues. Archives. Records.
Data and Metadata Arrangement. Classification Theory.
Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)
Library of Congress Classification (LCC)
Subject Analysis
Verbal Subject Access. Thesaurus Construction. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).
Controlled Vocabularies. Folksonomies.
Principles of Library Cataloguing, Archival Description, and Records Management
Descriptive Cataloguing. FRBR Conceptual Model. Resource Description and Access (RDA)
Access Points. Authority Control. Personal and Corporate Names.
Encoding of Metadata: MARC.
Big Data. Linked Data. Natural Language Processing (NLP). Automation.
Information Organization Tools Demonstration. Examples of Metadata Project.
Digital Curation and Information Life Cycle.


Assignments:
2 Essay Assignments:
reflecting on the nature and comprehensiveness of library classification systems
3 Practicum Assignments include original descriptive cataloging of several items and transferring the catalogue records into the standard MARC format.


Methods of Evaluation:
2 Written Assignments @ 20% each = 40 %
3 Practicum Assignments @15%, 15% and 20% = 50 %
Participation 10 %