INLS200: Retrieving and Analyzing Information (Fall, 2008)

Syllabus

Course Schedule & Readings

Assignments

Homepage

Class information

Fall 2008
Tuesday & Thursday, 2:00-3:15
307 Manning Hall

Instructor information

Instructor: Yan Zhang
Email: yanz@email.unc.edu
Website: http://ils.unc.edu/~yanz
Office hour: Tuesday & Thursday, 12:30-2:00 pm; By appointment

Course description

Information searching, accessing, and evaluation are important skills in the Information Age. This course is an introductory level course. At a general level, student will learn to identify their own information needs, access various information sources, evaluate those information sources, and use the information accessed to fulfill their information needs. At a practical level, students will learn to formulate effective search strategies, given the characteristics of the information source, will master basic search logic and commands, and will gain hands-on experience in database searching.

There is no text for this course. The information sources used in the class will be predominately commercial databases and Web search engines. This course is a prerequisite for the Information Science major and is required for the Information Science minor.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, we will be able to:
- Identify various information resources for conducting research for an interested subject
- Master basic working mechanisms of search engines and of the backbone databases
- Use search tools effectively
- Formulate effective search strategies for an information need
- Evaluate information sources for quality
- Gain hands-on experience in database searching

Course materials (textbook and reading)

No textbook is required. All readings will be assigned on the class schedule. The readings will be available on the free Web, as an e-journal, via the Library's e-reserves, or on the Blackboard site.

Grading

Assignments and points

Grading scale

The purpose of grades is to identify degrees of mastery of subject matter. Here is how I will relate grades to mastery: A: Mastery of course content at the highest level of attainment that can reasonably be expected of students.
B: Strong performance demonstrating a high level of attainment for a student.
C: A totally acceptable performance demonstrating an adequate level of attainment for a student
D: A marginal performance in the required exercises demonstrating a minimal passing level of attainment for a student.
F: For whatever reasons, an unacceptable performance. The F grade indicates that the student's performance in the required exercises has revealed almost no understanding of the course content.

Semester grades will be computed as follows:
A = 94-100
A- = 90-93
B+ = 87-89
B= 84-86
B- = 80-83
C+ = 77-79
C = 74-76
C- = 70-73
D+ = 67-69
D = 60-66
F = anything below 59

Policies

Policies concerning assignments

-- Assignments must be submitted by midnight (12:00AM) on the due date.
-- Any assignment submitted late will be scaled down so that the highest grade that a student can receive on the late assignment is the lowest grade that any student got who submitted the assignment in on time.
-- No assignment submitted more than one week after the due date will be accepted.
-- These penalties will not apply to students who know in advance that they will be submitting an assignment late, and let me know in advance. "In advance" means up until 24 hours before the class session in which the assignment is due.

Policies on class attendance and participation

--The Honor Code applies in this class. It can be read in full here
-- You must attend every class and arrive at each class promptly. Class attendance will be graded as part of your final grade.
-- You must participate in class discussions, including discussions on the Blackboard discussion forums. Learning from each other is especially important for an application oriented course. Extensive participation in class discussion will be an essential element of your learning success on the subject of retrieving and analyzing information. Active involvement in learning increases what is remembered, how well it is assimilated, and how the learning is used in new situations. Class participation will be graded as part of your final grade.
-- Reading assignments must be done before class so that you can ask questions and participate in discussions in class.
-- If there is something you don't understand, ask a question during class, post it to the Blackboard discussion forum, talk to me before or after class, come to my office hours, or contact me by email. This will be counted as part of your participation grade.
-- If you know in advance that you must miss a class, let me know in advance (up until 24 hours before the class session).
-- If you miss a class session, unexpectedly, get in contact with me ASAP.