INLS 180: Human Information Interaction
Spring 2004
Syllabus

Time and Place: 9:30-10:45 Mons. & Weds. Room 307 Manning Hall
Instructor: Gary Marchionini Email: march@ils.unc.edu 203 Manning Hall Phone (919) 966-3611

Brief Course Description
This course is concerned with the behavioral, cognitive and affective activities of people as they interact with information, with emphasis on the roles of the information professionals who may mediate that interaction. It will provide an overview of the literature on peoples' recognition of their information needs, the actions they may take in resolving those needs, the roles of information professionals in supporting those actions, the use of information, the further dissemination of information, and the context of information interaction.

Course Materials
No textbook is required. Readings are on reserve in the SILS Library or online.

Assignments and Evaluation
Activities include a set of readings, an online discussion, and two media analyses. The media assignments will be graded and in combination worth 30% of the final grade. A final term project will determine 40% of the grade. The term project will be an original design of an information product or service (infoware), or a critical assessment of a product, service, or idea. All projects must be approved by the instructor. Small group (two or three collaborators) projects are encouraged. A brief summary of the project will be presented in the final week of class. In addition, every student will be expected to make postings to the class electronic list and lead a discussion/reporting summary on one or more of the readings. The remaining 30% of the grade will be based on class participation, reading discussion leadership, and special activities which contribute to the learning experience of other students (e.g., forums, discussion groups, out-of-class meetings, etc).

Readings

Term Project

TV Structure Assignment

Website Structure Assignment

Scholarly Policies and Honor Code
The UNC Honor Code prohibits giving or receiving unauthorized aid in the completion of assignments. Students are strongly encouraged to cooperate and assist one another and share insights and respective expertise in this course. I expect that you will acknowledge the support you receive from your colleagues (this may be done in acknowledgements at the end of assignments or projects). It is crucial, however, that in every case where you use the actual written words of others, that these be properly quoted and cited. When you build arguments upon the ideas of others, the originators of those ideas should also be cited. You should adopt a style guide (e.g., American Psychological Association, Council of Biology Editors, Modern Language Association, Chicago, Turabian, etc.) and use it for your written work. Any style guide is acceptable, as long as you use one and follow it consistently. As you use the SILS library and lab resources during the course of the semester, please remember that many of your fellow students also need to use the same material. Be considerate of others and follow the proper checkout procedures, return materials promptly, and share workstation time if necessary. Please also conserve resources by consciously managing your printing in the labs.

Tentative Schedule

Note: General pattern is lecture/discussion on Mondays with readings discussed on Wednesdays.

Wed. Jan 7 : Course Introduction and Overview
Overview of course
Assignments and reading discussion groups
Introduce 1-min paper

Assignments:
Subscribe to list, send favorite definitions (communication, information, interaction)
Join the class blog
Term Project
Read for Monday
Pierce, J. (1972) Communication. Scientific American, 227(3), 31-41

Read for next Wed:
Tannen, D. (1995). The power of talk: Who gets heard and why.

Optional: Weaver, W. (1949). Recent contributions to the mathematical theory of communication. In, The mathematical theory of communication. Urbana, IL: U. of Illinois Press. [Read Chapter 1]
Schramm, W. (1973). Channels and audiences. In Ithiel Pool, Wilbur Schramm, Nathan Maccoby & Edwin Parker, (Eds.), Handbook of communication. Chicago: Rand McNally. 116-129 only

Day 1 Notes

Mon. Jan 12:
Discuss Pierce
Communication perspectives
Interpersonal communication and tools
Mass communication and media
Scholarly communication and information flow
Design as communication

Read for next week:
Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations. pp 1-37. (Note: this item is on reserve in the SILS library.)
Pool, I. D. S. (1973). Communication systems. pp 3-36.
Optional: Solomon, 1977 Conversation in information-seeking contexts: A test of an analytical framework (LISR, 19(3), 217-248

Day 2 Notes

Wed. Jan 14:
Discuss
Tannen, D. (1995).

Day 3 Notes

Mon. Jan 19: MLK Birthday (no class)

Wed. Jan 21.
Discuss
Rogers
Pool

Day 4 Notes

ISEE demo

Read for next week:
Belkin, N. J. (1980). Anomalous states of knowledge as a basis for information retrieval.
Chatman, Elfreda. (1996). The impoverished life-world of outsiders. (JASIST online)
Taylor, R. S. (1968). Question-negotiation and information seeking in libraries.

Wed. Jan 28.
Project Ideas

Mon. Feb 2. Module 2: Interaction Contexts and Information Flow
TV analysis assignment due
Discuss Taylor

Read for next week:
Dervin, B., & Nilan, M. (1986). Information needs and uses.

Day 7 Notes

Wed. Feb 4
Discuss readings: (Virtual)
Belkin
Chatman

Day 8 Notes

Mon. Feb 9 Module 3: Analysis of Information needs
Examples from Library of Congress, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Read for next week:
Marchionini, G. (1995). Information Seeking in Electronic Environments. pp 27-60. (Note: this item is not in the reading packet, and may instead be found on reserve in the SILS library. The book is located behind the reference desk.)
Smith, Linda (1981). Citation analysis. Library Trends, Summer 1981, 30(1), 83-106.
Kling & McKim (2000) Not just a matter of time: Field differences and the shaping of electronic media in supporting scientific communication. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51(14), 1306-1320

Day 9 Notes

Wed. Feb 11
Discuss readings:
Dervin & Nilan

Day 10 Notes

Mon. Feb 16. Module 4: Information Seeking
Discuss readings:
Marchionini

Read for next week:
Harter, S. P. (1992). Psychological relevance and information science. (JASIST online)
Schamber, L., Eisenberg, M. B., & Nilan, M. S. (1990). A re-examination of relevance: Toward a dynamic, situational definition.
Amento, B., Terveen, L., & Hill, W. (2000). Does ‘authority’ mean quality? Predicting expert quality ratings of web documents. Proceedings of ACM SIGIR (Athens, July 24-28). 296-303. ( ACM Digital Library).

Day 11 Notes

Wed. Feb 18. Module 5: Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics
Discuss readings:
Smith
Kling & McKim

Day 12 Notes

Mon. Feb 23. Module 5: Assessing Information Value
Project commitments

Read for next week:
Reeves, B. & Nass, C. (1996). The media equation: How people treat computers, television, and the new media like real people and places. NY: Cambridge University Press. (Preface ix-xiii, Chapter 1 p 3-15, and Chapter 23 p251-256.)
Optional: Barreau (LISR)

Day 13 Notes

Wed. Feb 25
Discuss readings
Harter
Schamber et al.
Amento et al.

Day 14 Notes

Mon. March 1. Module 6: Information Use
Web analysis assignment due
Read for next week:
Travis interviews with Bliss, Curtis, Gordon, Ritchey, & Rosenfeld (ASIST Bulletin, Aug/Sept, 2000 online)
Rosenfeld JASIST

Day 15 Notes

Wed. March 3.
Discuss readings
Reeves & Nass

Day 16 Notes

March 5-14 Spring Break

Mon. March 15 Module 7: Information Design
Rosenfeld and Morrville (new edition)

Read for next week:

Roloff, M. E. (1981). Interpersonal Communication: The Social Exchange Approach. Chapter 1, Social Exchange: Key Concepts, p13-31.
Dewdney & Sheldrick Ross (1994). Flying a light aircraft: Reference service evaluation from a user’s viewpoint. RQ 34(2), 217-30.
Optional: Tibbo, H. (1995). Interviewing techniques for remote reference: Electronic versus traditional environments

Day 17 Notes

Wed. March 17.
Discuss readings:
Bliss et al interviews
Rosenfeld

Day 18 Notes

Mon. March 22. Module 8: The Roles of Intermediaries I
Intermediation and disintermediation

Read for next week:
Ackerman, M. & Malone. T. Answer Garden: A tool for growing organizational memory. Proceedings of ACM COIS (Cambridge, MA April, 1990). P 31-39. http://www.ics.uci.edu/~ackerman/pub/90b03/cois90.final.pdf
Moorhead, G., Ference, R., & Neck, C. P. (1991). Group decision fiascoes continue: Space Shuttle Challenger and a groupthink framework.
Optional: Constant, D., Kiesler, S., & Sproull, L. (1994). What's mine is ours, or is it? A study of attitudes about information sharing.

Day 19 Notes

Wed. March 24.
Discuss readings:
Roloff:
Dewdney & Sheldrick-Ross

Day 20 Notes

Mon March 29. Module 9: Collaboration and Computer-Mediated Interaction
Read for next meeting:
Dibbell, J. (1996). A rape in cyberspace: How an evil clown, a Haitian trikster spirit, two wizards, and a cast of dozens turned a database into a society. In Mark Stefik (Ed.) Internet dreams: Archetypes, myths, and metaphors. Cambridge, MIT Press.

Day 21 Notes

Wed. March 31.
Discuss readings:
Ackerman & Malone
Moorhead et al.

Day 22 Notes

Mon. April 5. Class Project Data Collection

Read for next meeting:
Samuelson, P. (2001). Toward a new politics of intellectual property (ACM DL)

Wed. April 7 (no class ECIR)

Mon. April 12.
MOO

Wed. April 14
Discuss readings:
Dibbell
Samuelson

Mon. April 19.
Project Presentations

Wed. April 21.
Project Presentations