Bibliography of the Sciences

                       Spring Semester 2005

Instructor:  G. Lynn Berard

This course has been designed to enable the student to:

• understand and have a working knowledge of science and technology library collections;
• to build, maintain, budget, and manage a science or engineering library collection;
• to learn how to communicate with their clientele
• and how to negotiate the purchase of both print and electronic resources necessary to the collection.

Contact Info:

Email is the preferred way to reach me but feel free to call if you wish. I will return calls as soon as possible.

Office Hours:

Class Sessions: 
The class virtual meeting schedule will be announced via Blackboard and  attendance at set meeting times will be required as part of the course grade.
 

Supplemental Texts: On reserve or in the reference collection in the Carlson Library

• Using science and technology information sources/ Ellis Mount and Beatrice Kovacs.   Q223 .M68 1991
• Scientists at Work:  Profiles of Today's Groundbreaking Scientists From Science Times/ Edited by Laura Chang, McGraw-Hill, 2000.  Q141 S2945 2000 (Ref Collection).
  
• Reference sources in science, engineering, medicine, and agriculture / H. Robert Malinowsky. Z7401 .M278 1994
• Scientific and technical information sources / Ching-chih Chen.  Z7401 .C48 1987 (Ref Collection).
  
• Scientific and technical literature: an introduction to forms of communication / Richard D. Walker and C.D. Hurt.  Q223 .W34 1990
• Manual of Online Search Strategies, Volume 1:  Sciences.  Edited by C.J. Armstrong and Andrew Large.   Z699.3 .M36 1988
• Guide to information sources in the physical sciences by David Stern.  rZ7141.S74 2000  (ref collection)

 I will keep this syllabus updated with detailed information on all of the course readings and projects. They will also be listed on Blackboard at each session.  Each Sunday the Blackboard site will be updated with new assignments and readings.

Syllabus Web Site:   http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/usr/lberard/LS5562005.html

Student Web Site:http://student.clarion.edu/

• I am always available via email and will endeavor to answer your questions right away.  There will be set office hours and I will be using the Chat room on Blackboard for interactive sessions.

• When you drop assignments into the digital box on blackboard you need to remember to give your file and extention.  Extentions on files look like this:  SallyFieldAssignment1.doc.    A .doc file is a file created in Word.  A power point file has the extention .ppt and so on.  It all depends on what software package you created your work in.  PC users will recognize this convention; this in not a normal convention with Mac's, so please always remember to add the extention whether you are on a PC or a MAC.  This is critical.  Also, please add your name to make your work your own.  (NO SPACES IN-BETWEEN LETTERS, please.)   If I get 12 Assignment1.doc's without names, I will have a hard time grading them :-}.

• I will be creating groups within the class.  You will be receiving more info on how to choose your topic group.

• There will be 11 sessions for this course; basically one 1 a week throughout the semester.   For many of the sessions, I will be pointing you to articles to read that we will discuss by utilizing the bulletin board section of blackboard. See blackboard for assignments and readings at each session.

• I have provided lots of additional texts for those who would like to learn more about individual topics and resources from this course.  These readings are not required but are meant to provide guidance and an in-depth view of what we will be covering. 

Grading:

Special Needs: Students with learning disabilities and/or special physical requirements should make their needs known to me. I will make every effort to assist you.

Note: Clarion University of Pennsylvania regards student participation in class as essential to the learning process. Therefore regular classroom attendance is required. It is understood that absence does not excuse the student from course work and the responsibility to complete assignments on time. The instructor should be notified in advance of planned absences and arrangements will be made to complete missed work. The instructor is not required to give make up examinations or accept class work missed as a result of an unexcused absence.

Statement of Scholarly Responsibility:Students are expected to follow normal practice in acknowledging the source of facts, ideas, summaries, quotations, and paraphrases used in their written work. Direct quotations must be enclosed in quotation marks and the exact source acknowledged. The use of another's words without attribution and without enclosing the words in quotation marks is plagiarism. Using facts, ideas and summaries derived from another source without indicating the source is also plagiarism. A close paraphrase may also be considered plagiarism - even if the source is named. Submitting another student's work as though it were your own is always plagiarism - even if the original paper has been paraphrased or otherwise modified. If you are in doubt as to what constitutes plagiarism, you are encouraged to consult with the instructor. Any student suspected of plagiarism will have the suspect passage pointed out to him/her and will be given an opportunity to explain why it should not be regarded as plagiarism. Depending on the severity of the infraction, penalties for plagiarism include 1) receiving a reduced grade for the assignment 2) redoing the assignment on a different topic 3) receiving a failing grade for the assignment, or 4) receiving a failing grade for the course. Students who are dissatisfied with the instructor's decision in such a case may - without prejudice - refer the matter to the attention of the department chair, the college dean, the provost and academic vice president, and/or the university Conduct Board, as described in the Student Rights and Regulations Handbook

Calendar

Session 1      (Week of Jan. 10)

Session 2     (Week of Jan. 17)

Session 3      (Week of Jan. 24)

- Print and Electronic Journals

Session 4      (Week of Jan. 31)

- Manufacture's literature, newsletters, current awareness tools, dissertations, bibliographies and conferences.

Session 5       (Week of Feb. 7)

Session 6       (Week of Feb. 14)

Session 7       (Period of Feb. 21 - March 3)

Session 8       (Week of March 15-22)

                                         SPRING VACATION = March 23 - March 30

Session 9       (Week of April 4 )

Session 10       (Week of April 11)

- Vendors and Publishers
- How to get familiar with your collection area
- Document delivery methods and suppliers
 

Session 11   (Weeks of April 18 & 25)
- Group project coordination and work to be done during this time period.  Group forums will be set up in Blackboard to facilitate remote group work.  Final projects will be shared with the class and critiqued on the discussion bulletin board.

Project is due May 1st to facilitate discussion of projects at a scheduled time during finals week, May 2nd.

Assignments:

Environmental Engineering
Mathematics
Physics
BioMedical Engineering
Biology
Ceramics and Plastics Research
Chemistry
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
 

At your site, no library collection currently exists. You were hired to build it.  Keep in mind that you will need a ready reference collection to answer inquires; a small book collection for in-depth study; a current journal section; and you will need to select appropriate online services (i.e. CDROMs, search services, databases, etc.).   You can call upon the services of the main corporate library remotely, but document delivery and assistance are slow.

Your assignment is to create a working list of your collection.  Choose one of the areas listed above and purchase away!  For each category, you will need to purchase:

Reference Collection = 8 items
General book collection = 10 items
Journal collection = 8 titles
Databases = at least 3

State each item selected and annotate it.  Describe how it can be utilized in your setting.  Feel free to use the Internet ­ go look at engineering and science university library home pages, bookstore web sites, society web sites and so on.

Length should not exceed 10 pages.  Introduce your collection and tell me about your services.  Extra points will be given for creative approaches.  This assignment is the major course assignment and will count 25% toward the final grade (out of a possible 100%).
 

Hints:
1. Remember that your clients will ask non technical, general reference queries.
2. You can take advantage of document delivery services to purchase requested documents.
3. This is only a skeleton collection; a first pass at a beginning working collection.

Please feel free to ask questions about this assignment. DUE: May 1, 2005
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Session Assignments:
For each session there will be an assignment in the form of either a quiz, question set, search, etc.   Cumulatively these assignments count for 50% of your grade.  They are designed to assist you in becoming familiar working with science and technology resource materials and may operate as review material for future reference.  There will be no final for this course.

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Field Trip

Field Trip instructions - OR - What I observed at the Science/Engineering Library I toured

As a part of your graded assignments you will need to make plans to tour a sci-tech library.  Choose carefully and make sure to contact a librarian at your chosen site to secure an invitation and meeting time that is convenient for them.  As a part of this course I invite all of you to come and tour the Science Libraries at Carnegie Mellon.  If there is interest, please contact me and we can plan a weekend tour in early April.  You may use that visit to do this assignment if you wish.

Due: April 18, 2005

As a result of your field trip to a science or engineering library of your choice, I hope you will:

* Get a "feel" for what a science/engineering collection is actually like

* Determine from the perspective of a working engineering or science librarian some of the professional issues they are facing.

* Develop an impression of how well the library is serving the science information needs of it?s clientele

* Among the things you will want to determine are:

1. What classification system is used by the library?

2. Is there a collection development policy?

3. How is the collection cataloged on site? Centrally or by the librarian?

4. Is there one librarian with specific responsibility for science/engineering documents or is it the responsibility of all librarians on staff?

5. Do they have a digital collection and what portion of their collection is digital?

6. Are they many electronic databases available for searching?

7. Is the librarian you interviewed satisfied with the use that the collection
receives, both digitial and paper-based?
 
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Updated January 3, 2005
G. Lynn Berard