LIS 637 Information Technology

School of Library and Information Science
Universit of Kentucky
Spring, 1995
Time: 3:30 - 4:45, Mondays & Wednesdays
Classroom: KL 505
Instructor: Xia Lin
Office: 518D, King Library South
Office Hours: 2:00 - 4:00, Mondays & Tuesdays
Telephone: 606-257-3853
Course Objectives
This course examines issues and trends in computer and telecommunication technology. Special Consideration is given to areas such as computer hardware configuration and installation, HTML authoring, multimedia database design, local and wide area networks, and organizing and evaluating Internet resources.

The theme of this course is using information technology for problem solving. Through the course, students will continue to practice basic computer skills and enhance their proficiency on information technology. They will develop an understanding on issues related to creating, managing, and maintaining products or projects of information technology. They will become familiar with one or several application packages that they choose for their projects.

Methodology
Lectures, discussions, demonstrations and hands-on lab activities are primary techniques used to achieve the objectives of the course. Completion of the assigned reading and assignments is also essential to the learning process. Students will gain practical experience by developing a major term project. They will share their experience with the class through two presentations.

Reading and Supplies
No textbooks are required. A recommended reference book is:
Graham, Ian S. HTML Sourcebook. John Wiley & Sons, 1995.

Some readings will be from the following:
McKeown, Patrick G. Living With Computers. Fourth Edition.
The Dryden Press, Orlando, FL.
Norton, Peter. Outside the IBM PC and PS/2: Access to New Technology. Brady Publishing, New York, 1992.
Vaughan, Tay. Multimedia: Making it work. First or Second Edition.
McGraw-Hill, New York.
Boettcher, Judith (ed.) 101 Success Stories of Information Technology in Higher Education: The Joe Wyatt Challenge.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1993. (Available online over Internet.)

There are also many online readings that are kept in this course's homepage.
Other readings: Selected papers are kept in the Box of LIS 637.
Supplies: Several 3.5'' disks may be needed for assignments and projects.

Policies
Students are expected to read assigned materials and participate in class discussions and other activities. All assignments need to be finished on time. Late assignments will be penalized. It is the student's responsibility to be present for exams. A make-up will only be given to students who miss exams for justifiable reasons.

Grades and assignments:
Grades for this course will be based on the following:
Mid-term exam 20 %
The term project 40 %
Three assignments 30 %
Two presentations 10%

Some other assignments may be given throughout the semester.

Course Outline for LIS 637, Spring, 1996

Jan. 10. Introduction to the course

Jan. 17. Overviews of projects
Reading: Boettcher, 101 success stories.

Jan. 22. Use of information technology for problem solving

Jan. 24. Proposal development/tool identification/Social impacts of Information Technology
Reading: McKeown, Living with Computers, Chapters 15 & 16.
Project phase 1: Proposal

Jan. 29. Advanced HTML authoring
Jan. 31. Reading: A beginner's Guide to HTML (online)
Barry, Jeff. The hypertext markup language (HTML) and the world-wide web: (online)
Assignment 1: HTML home page

Feb. 5. Hardware configuration/installation
Feb. 7. autoexec.bat/config.sys/win.ini, etc.
Reading: Rosch, W. L. The hardware Bible. Chapter 1. 17-27; Chapter 3, 83-109.
Gookin, Dan. MS-DOS to the Max. Chapter 1, pp. 1-31.
McFedries, The Complete Idiot's next step with Windows
Ch. 2, 3, 5, 9. pp. 19-47, 59-72, 117-130.

Feb. 12. Operating systems (Windows’95 and UNIX basics)
Feb. 14. Reading:
Microsoft, Making The PC Even Easier for all Users.
Christian, K. & Richter, S. (1994). The UNIX Operating System.
chapter 3, UNIX System Basics. pp. 19-30
chapter 5. The UNIX File system pp. 54-67
chapter 6. Managing your files pp. 68-104

Feb. 19. Memory and Harddisk management
Feb. 21. Reading: Hannah, Memories are made of this.
Minasi, Trouble Shooting Windows, pp. 66 - 147
Robinson, Welcome to memory management
Ch. 1 - 3, 1-108.
Norton, Outside the IBM PC and PS/2
Ch. 1 & 2, pp. 1-74.
Assignment 2: “Adopt a computer”

Feb. 26. Local area networks and NOVELL
Feb. 28. Reading: Norton, Outside the IBM PC and PS/2
Ch. 3 & 6. pp. 75-128, 187-222.

Mar. 4. Standards: MARC, HTML, SGML, and Z39.50
Reading: Lynch, Information retrieval as a network application


Mar 6. Mid-term

Mar. 11. Spring Break

Mar. 13.
Mar. 18. Organizing and evaluating Internet resources
Assignment 3: evaluation of Internet resources
Reading: Evaluation of Internet Resources page (online)
Mar 20. No class (Digital library conference)

Mar. 25. Multimedia

Mar. 27. Toolbook
Vaughan, T. “A multimedia Overview”.
In: Multimedia: Making it Work. Chapter 1. pp. 17-61.
Townsend, Multimedia -- Myth or reality.

Apr. 1. Sound, Imaging, & graphics technology
Apr. 3. Reading:
Norton, Outside the IBM PC and PS/2
Ch. 10. pp. 327-371

Apr. 8. Library automation systems
Apr. 9. Reading:
Cortez E. M. & Smorch, T., Planning second generation automated library systems.” Ch.1 & Ch. 4, pp. 1-8, & 43-60.
Caplan, P. A user's eye View of OPAC (online).

Apr. 15. Digital Library
Apr. 17. Project presentations
Clement, Gail P. Library without walls.
Barker, Electronic libraries -- visions of the future (online).

Apr. 22. Project presentations
Apr. 24.