Course Catalog

Data Science Discovery is the intersection of statistics, computation, and real-world relevance. As a project-driven course, students perform hands-on-analysis of real-world data sets to analyze and discover the impact of the data. Throughout each experience, students reflect on the social issues surrounding data analysis such as privacy and design.

Same as CS 107 and STAT 107.
This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for Quantitative Reasoning I.

Explores the way in which information technologies have and are transforming society and how these affect a range of social, political and economic issues from the individual to societal levels.

This course satisfies the campus undergraduate Social and Behavioral Science requirement.

Previously IS 199DCA.

Introduction to database technology concepts and architecture. Explore data types and reading/writing database layout descriptions. Discussion of database ethics and privacy concerns. Comparison of different database systems a user might encounter including RDBMS, XML/RDF/JSON, NOSQL, and Graph database systems. Labs involving common database tools and exercises in SQL

How do communities contribute to transformative, world-changing innovations? Why is their participation indispensable for fostering change? And what makes change ultimately transformative across diverse spaces and time? Community Innovation explores how engagement with interdisciplinary communities and collaborations, as well as histories of globally-changing local innovations from the Illinois were critical to fostering and sustaining new social and technical practices across space and time.

Examines issues of Human Computer Interaction and the design of better computer interfaces.

Explores cultural ideas about computers, including hopes and fears about the effects of computers on our lives. Will analyze images of computers in fiction and movies. The course will also examine hackers, online subcultures, and other computer-related subcultures, and the integration of computers into various cultural practices.

Examines the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) are shaped by -- and help to shape -- social relations of race and gender.

This course provides an introduction to the technologies behind the Web. Topics covered include: hypertext, hypermedia, the history of the Web, the role of Web standards and their impact on the development of Web resources. The course introduces principles of Web design and usability. Students will gain an understanding how the Web works and how to design, construct, evaluate, and maintain Web-based materials.

Evaluation, selection and use of books and other resources for children (ages 0-14) in public libraries and school media centers; explores standard selection criteria for print and non-print materials in all formats and develops the ability to evaluate and promote materials according to their various uses (personal and curricular) and according to children's various needs (intellectual, emotional, social and physical).

Evaluation, selection and use of books and other resources for young adults (ages 12-18) in public libraries and school media centers; explores standard selection criteria for print and non-print materials in all formats and develops the ability to evaluate and promote materials according to their various uses (personal and curricular) and according to young adults' various needs (intellectual, emotional, social and physical).

Fundamental principles of the art of storytelling including techniques of adaptation and presentation; content and sources of materials; methods of learning; practice in storytelling; planning the story hour for school and public libraries and other public information settings; and audio, video, and digital media.

Community engagement refers to the multiple ways that information professionals in libraries and other settings learn about, collaborate with, and provide service and outreach to community members. Provides an introduction to, and overview of, community engagement theory and practice. A significant portion of coursework will take the form of service learning or community-based research via approved projects that match students' interests.

Evaluation, selection and use of information books and other resources for young people (ages 0-18) in public libraries and school media centers; explores standard selection criteria for factual print and nonprint materials in all formats and develops the ability to evaluate and promote nonfiction books and resources according to their various uses (personal and curricular) and according to young people's various needs (intellectual, emotional, social and physical).

The selection and evaluation of historical and contemporary fantasy literature and media for library collections aimed at children and young adults. Texts examined will include books, movies, and games.

Hands-on introduction to technology systems for use in information environments. The course steps students through choosing, installing, and managing computer hardware and operating systems, as well as networking hardware and software. The course also explores alternatives for administering IT and how to assess emerging technologies and their applicability to library settings. While students are expected to have basic computer competencies per the School of Information Sciences admissions requirements, the goal of the course is to provide practical detailed knowledge of the technology for all levels of competency. The primary objective is to provide a conceptual understanding of the topics of the day through concrete hands-on examples of implementation. By learning the underlying concepts, students will be better prepared to help design networked systems that not only work well today, but also develop systems that can be easily adapted for the needs and technologies of tomorrow.

Covers common data, document processing, and programming constructs and concepts. Focuses on problem solving and abstraction with a programming language. By the end of the course students will be able to design, develop and test a moderately complex computer program to manage full text, bibliographic records or multimedia. The course prepares students for working with applications in data analytics, data science, digital libraries, text mining and knowledge management. No prior programming background is assumed.

Previously IS 490DBO.

The course provides students with both theoretical and practical training in good database design. By the end of the course students will create a conceptual data model using entity-relationship diagrams, understand the importance of referential integrity and how to enforce data integrity constraints when creating a database. Students will be proficient in writing basic queries in the structured query language (SQL) and have a general understanding of relational database theory including normalization.

This course introduces students to data science approaches that have emerged from recent advances in programming and computing technology. They will learn to collect and use data from a variety of sources, including the web, in a modern statistical inference and visualization paradigm. The course will be based in the programming language R, but will also use HTML, regular expressions, basic Unix tools, XML, and SQL. Supervised and unsupervised statistical learning techniques made possible by recent advances in computing power will also be covered.

Provides an introduction to learning theories and instructional methods used in a variety of information settings, including libraries, archives, museums, online, and educational environments. Includes an overview of theoretical and applied research and discusses relevant issues and concepts. Students will have an opportunity to design and present an instructional program.

The course examines various ways that information technologies are and might be used in museums and other cultural heritage settings. Museum websites, visitor apps, interactive exhibits, and uses of digitized and federated collections are explored. Students gain an introduction to Design Thinking by working on a final project that involves the development of a novel computational resource. Students are encouraged to approach class topics from their individual backgrounds in the humanities, sciences, or social sciences.

The course provides an introduction to the concepts, technologies, practices and challenges of Information Assurance. It takes a broad view of Information Security and Privacy and covers the essential principles for the protection of information systems; the relevant technologies; organizational concerns; policies, human aspects; legal approaches; criminology; and ethical issues. Students will gain an appreciation for the difficulty of designing, developing, deploying and maintaining information systems, services and software products that are secure and comply with expectations of security and privacy.

Studio-based learning methods, which are common in art and architectural education, are used to help students address a real-world problem or 'case' within a social justice framework. Working in teams and mentored by the instructor and experts, students will learn how to 'be a professional' in an environment in which process is as important as project.

Requires Instructor approval, please email John Weible at jweible@illinois.edu. The course incorporates aspects of database administration and systems architecture relevant to computational information science work. Given the rise of NOSQL systems and big data trends in analytics, the course will explore and compare several types of scalable database engines. Develops practical skills and representative tools for providing reliable and efficient DBMS infrastructure to support activities like data analytics within a context of production systems. Student teams will experiment and present findings to the class.  Prerequisites: prior knowledge of SQL and DB design similar to IS490DB plus comfort with command-line tools and installing complex software.

The course provides students with both theoretical and practical training in good database design. By the end of the course students will create a conceptual data model using entity-relationship diagrams, understand the importance of referential integrity and how to enforce data integrity constraints when creating a database. Students will be proficient in writing basic queries in the structured query language (SQL) and have a general understanding of relational database theory including normalization. 

The course will examine the current state of global health informatics from both a local and global perspective, including opportunities and challenges. Focus will be placed on the transition from paper-based records to electronic systems, with a particular emphasis on large international open-source initiatives and the use of mobile devices. Guest speakers will share their experiences with WHO, cell phone based education, and regulatory issues. No programming or statistical experience is required.

Introduces students to a range of rapid prototyping techniques and methods to analyze needs, opportunities and design spaces. Students will work in teams to develop ideas for novel computational devices or applications to meet identified needs. Covers the interlinked entrepreneurial skills of identifying an unmet need, exploiting technological opportunities, exploring a design space to refine an idea, and communicating a design vision through demonstrations with prototypes and proofs of concept. This enables developers to show how their envisaged working interactive technology will be used productively in a particular real-life context. Communicating the vision of computational devices is a challenge because dynamic use in context is hard for people other than the device's developers to imagine. The ability to produce convincing, clear, powerful demonstrations even at the early stages of a project is a highly valuable entrepreneurial skill, and also highly applicable within an organization. Directed and supervised investigation of selected topics in information studies that may include among others the social, political, and historical contexts of information creation and dissemination; computers and culture; information policy; community information systems; production, retrieval and evaluation of knowledge; computer-mediated communication.

In this immersive and experiential course, students consider "playfulness" as a key aspect of design methodologies and practices. Looking closely at the philosophical, social, and relational dynamics of play from multiple disciplinary angles, students will explore how playful approaches to design thinking and other design methodologies can encourage collaboration, engagement, and emergent, transformative solutions to a range of challenges that face us in our rapidly-changing, information-based culture.  The course aims to build student competency in design methods through a sequence of project experiences arising from a deep consideration of play.

This interdisciplinary course introduces students to fundamental theories, methods, technologies and applications of social computing. Students learn about this emerging discipline from two perspectives: First, basic principles of collective information production and processing, and methods for studying these principles. Topics include prediction markets, games with a purpose, open source software development, social media, social networks, information visualization, and online games. Second, socio-technical aspects of the design and usage of respective technologies. This includes participation, privacy and security. Students learn how to solve problems in social computing in a systematic and rigorous fashion. At the end of the course, students will be able to design, manage and execute social computing projects for scholarly and commercial use, and to critically assess work in this area.

This course covers the impact of global and national computer networks on politics, culture, and social relations during a time of upheaval and revolutionary change. Topics may include the new social media, the politics and culture of the internet, hacktivism, cyber warfare, and mobile telephony and their role in the formation, dissemination, manipulation, and suppression of public opinion in Russia/Eurasia, the China/Pacific region, Central/South America, as well as Africa, Iran, and the Middle East.

This is an introductory course in the fundamentals of technology in library and information science (LIS). Following an overview of information system concepts, terminology and usage in organizations, there will be discussions covering a wide variety of topics including hardware and software, systems development (traditional and modern methods), programming languages, databases and the internet. Special attention will be paid to the knowledge and skills needed to succeed at the iSchool (servers, file access and management, office software, markup languages, website design and development, etc.) and LIS professional settings. Application of concepts is key. Readings will be supplemented with hands-on exercises and collaborative projects.

This course examines youth services by surveying how libraries and other organizations serving youth meet young people?s developmental, informational, social, personal, and cultural needs through programs. The course will provide practical experience and theoretical knowledge for understanding the value and impact of library programs for teens; strategies, techniques, and resources for developing programs; approaches for ensuring programs are relevant to service communities; and methods for assessment and evaluation of program success.

This service-learning course will examine youth services by exploring how young people's information and educational needs are met by community institutions and organizations. We will draw upon youth services librarianship and youth informatics concepts to explore youth informatics in after school programs, community center programs, and other institutions that serve young people. A significant portion of coursework will take the form of service learning or community-based research via approved projects that match students' interests.

Emphasizes information organization and access in settings and systems of different kinds. Traces the information transfer process from the generation of knowledge through its storage and use in both print and non-print formats. Consideration will be given to the creation of information systems: the principles and practice of selection and preservation, methods of organizing information for retrieval and display, the operation of organizations that provide information services, and the information service needs of various user communities.

Explores major issues in the library and information science professions as they involve their communities of users and sponsors. Analyzes specific situations that reflect the professional agenda of these fields, including intellectual freedom, community service, professional ethics, social responsibilities, intellectual property, literacy, historical and international models, the socio-cultural role of libraries and information agencies and professionalism in general, focusing in particular on the interrelationships among these issues.

Explores information needs and uses at a general level, addressing formal and informal information channels, barriers to information, issues of value, and impacts of technology. Examines information seeking practices of particular communities and within various environments, introducing recent approaches to user-centered system design and digital library development. Provides an overview of methods that can be used to study information needs, information seeking behavior, and related phenomena.

Explores reference and information services in a variety of settings, introduces widely used print and online sources, and develops question negotiation skills and search strategies.

Designed to explore the principles that govern how organizations and institutions work, this course provides a foundation for and introduction to the theories, practices and procedures involved in the management and administration of libraries and information centers.

Theory and techniques in planning, implementing and evaluating library programs/services for youth (age 0-18) in public and school libraries/media centers; the knowledge base, skills, and competencies needed by the library media professional in the development of all aspects of young people's reading/viewing/listening and information literacy skills.

Introduction to basic principles and concepts of descriptive and subject cataloging in the context of information service needs for various user communities. Explores principles, structures, standards, technologies and practices relating to organizing and creating access to print and non-print media. Includes coverage of subject analysis and descriptive practices. Introduces controlled vocabularies.

Examines issues affecting the development and management of collections for academic, public, special, and school libraries: collection development policies, collection assessment, the marketplace, publishing, legal issues, and budget allocation; document delivery; collaboration and cooperation.

The literature, history, and problems of providing library service to the general adult user; investigation of user characteristics and needs, and the effectiveness of various types of adult services.

Interpretation of children's literature from the earliest times, including the impact of changing social and cultural patterns on books for children; attention to early printers and publishers of children's books and to magazines for children.

Provides students with theoretical knowledge and practical methods useful to librarians and other professionals working with young people and media. Building on traditional understandings of literacy, media literacy explores the consumption and production of diverse types of texts including print, images, games, and music. Topics for this course may include the role of race in media, media literacy as a catalyst for social change, and intellectual property issues related to media education.

School Library Information Specialists serve children and young adults (ages 5-18) in K-12 school library media centers. Students will acquire specific knowledge, skills and competencies needed to design, develop, integrate and assess curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on the information needs of K-12 students. Readings and projects provide students with opportunities to apply the practical knowledge and skills they have learned about building reading literacy, teaching information literacy skills, collaborating with teachers and integrating resources into teaching and learning.

Survey of an emerging field that studies how local, historical communities use information and communication technologies or otherwise access, create, organize, and share information. Covers key principles for working in libraries or the wider non-profit/public sectors as individuals, organizations, and communities harness new technologies and media. Prepares both professionals and researchers, whatever their technology background. Especially useful for those interested in public or community libraries, youth services, university public engagement, social work, education, and anyone interested in working with or studying underserved communities.

Introduces students to the fundamentals of doing social science research in LIS. Students will learn how to frame a research problem, choose an appropriate research method, apply it, and write up the research for presentation and publication.

Overview of the information needs and practices of researchers, practitioners, and the general public. Detailed consideration of disciplinary literatures and print and electronic reference materials. Advanced training in addressing reference questions and research problems in the arts and humanities.  Prerequisite: IS 504 or consent of instructor.

Aims to acquaint students with government publications, their variety, interest, value, acquisition, and bibliographic control, and to develop proficiency in their reference and research use; considers publications of all types and all governments (local, national, international) with special emphasis on U. S., state and federal governments, and on the United Nations and its related specialized agencies. Prerequisite: IS 504 or consent of instructor.

A survey of genre fiction, readers' advisory services, the promotion of fiction, narrative nonfiction & media collections in libraries, the social effects of reading, and publishing as a business. Course objectives include: understanding why adults read for pleasure; gaining familiarity with popular fiction genres and their authors; understanding principles and tools of readers' advisory services; examining the issues of popular fiction publishing including the impact of technology in creating new formats; and the process of acquisition, maintenance, and marketing of popular fiction in libraries.

Covers the available universe of African studies materials in all formats and how to find them. The class begins with evaluating general reference sources and continues with sources by discipline for the study of the continent of Africa. Covers research strategies for the humanities and social sciences.

There is an increasing demand from both corporate and academic sectors for business information professionals. At the same time, roles and responsibilities for business information professionals is rapidly changing. This course is designed to provide fundamental knowledge in business information services and help practice the application of business information for different user groups. This course will especially help those, both in the LIS and IM tracks, who plan to pursue careers in such roles as consultants, business or social sciences librarians, corporate research analysts, and knowledge management specialists. Additionally, students will have an opportunity to practice how to use business information to answer complex business questions in diverse settings. This course also serves as the foundation for Information Consulting (IS 590) and Applied Business Research (IS 540).

Provides a general introduction to information services and sources which serve the health-related information needs of health care professionals and the lay public. Provides exposure to the tools and services most often encountered in delivery of health-related information, issues and trends in health science library practice, ethical issues in provision of health-related information, and specialized programs and services for all health information consumers.

Music Librarianship is a unique field, requiring a firm grasp of principles of music and librarianship. This course will cover a number of aspects of music librarianship, including music collections, information literacy, and music technology. Students will explore the current literature on music librarianship and analyze the theoretical aspects of the field through discussions and written assignments. Students will also delve into the practice of music librarianship by meeting music librarians and completing a project for a music library.

This course is designed to provide graduate students in both area and information studies with a comprehensive introduction to research techniques in the Russian & East European field. Depending on enrollment, course content is designed to cover a broad range of interests--for example, Central Asia as well as Russia--while demonstrating that many tools serve more than one specialty. The course will also discuss the resources and skills required for digital scholarship, as well as traditional approaches.

Data cleaning (also: cleansing) is the process of assessing and improving data quality for later analysis and use, and is a crucial part of data curation and analysis. This course identifies data quality issues throughout the data lifecycle, and reviews specific techniques and approaches for checking and improving data quality. Techniques are drawn primarily from the database community, using schema-level and instance-level information, and from different scientific communities, which are developing practical tools for data pre-processing and cleaning.

This course examines two of the most popular practices of business research: Competitive Intelligence (CI) & Knowledge Management (KM). This course provides theoretical foundations and conceptual framework of CI & KM, as students acquire skills in translating research data into actionable intelligence and managing organizations' intellectual capital systematically. This course will introduce concepts of strategic analyses of businesses, and students will also explore key KM technologies widely used in the industry.

This course is designed to provide fundamental knowledge in providing research services and also introduce the latest trends and innovative approaches in research services. Information professionals are increasingly being challenged to provide not just data but insights and recommendations that are critical for strategic decision making. Using methodologies widely adopted by professional firms and researchers, this course will cover basics of research consulting including framing research problems, developing deliverables, and presenting professionally.

As an experiential learning class, this course covers advanced techniques of business research with an emphasis on managing real-world client projects. Students will be assigned to teams and work with clients to identify research requirements and construct recommendations. Students will acquire critical skills in creating professional deliverables through client engagements. Students will build professional research portfolios at the conclusion of their projects.

An introduction to statistical and probabilistic models as they pertain to quantifying information, assessing information quality, and principled application of information to decision making, with focus on model selection and gauging model quality. The course reviews relevant results from probability theory, parametric and non-parametric predictive models, as well as extensions of these models for unsupervised learning. Applications of statistical and probabilistic models to tasks in information management (e.g. prediction, ranking, and data reduction) are emphasized.

The character, success, and costs/benefits of information technologies are socio-technical matters. Because of this, best practice for IT design and integration relies on participants' ability to understand and create for the totality of those settings, including social and technical dimensions. This course provides students with analytic tools for examining socio-technical settings and experience in applying that knowledge in IT modeling, design and management.

This course is intended to provide a historic and contemporary overview of social justice and advocacy work in librarianship. The course will be primarily focused on activities in the United States, though international movements and perspectives will be addressed. Topics include: desegregation of libraries and professional associations; recruitment and retention of library workers from traditionally underrepresented populations; library outreach; intellectual freedom; and emerging critical theories and issues in the field.

Examines intellectual freedom issues throughout the United States and the world. Approaches intellectual freedom as an ethical issue based in interpretations of the First Amendment and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The course encourages information professionals to view commitment to intellectual freedom as a core professional value and gives students the opportunity to develop skills and strategies needed to navigate censorship controversies in the workplace.

This course is designed to prepare future information professionals to develop and provide inclusive services to underrepresented populations, and to analyze and evaluate services to ensure equality of access to information in a range of institutional settings. Through readings, discussion, guest lectures, and site visits, students will explore diversity issues that impact information services and develop skills for planning, implementing, and evaluating programs and services for addressing these issues. Specific diversity issues include race and ethnicity; education; language; literacy; disability; gender and sexual orientation; social class; national origin; physical, psychological, and learning ability; and age.

Studies the library's physical plant in the light of changing concepts and patterns of library service; analyzes present-day library buildings (both new and remodeled), and their comparison with each other as well as with buildings of the past; examines the interrelationship of staff, collections, users, and physical plant; discussion supplemented by visits to new libraries and conference with their staffs. A two-day field trip is required.

The course provides an introduction to: issues in Human Computer Interaction; analysis of interfaces and their use; the interface design process as an engineering activity; designing usable interfaces under constraints; and the rapid prototyping and evaluation cycle. The course covers interface design in multiple contexts including websites, web-based applications, smartphone apps, regular computer apps and new contexts of interacting with computers.

Network Analysis has become a widely adopted method for studying the interactions between social agents, information and infrastructures. The strong demand for expertise in network analysis has been fueled by the widespread acknowledgement that everything is connected and the popularity of social networking services. This interdisciplinary course introduces students to fundamental theories, concepts, methods and applications of network analysis in a practical manner. Students learn and practice hands-on skills in collecting, analyzing and visualizing network data.

An introduction to the foundations of information modeling methods used in current digital library applications. The specific methods considered include relational database design, conceptual modeling, markup systems, and ontologies. The basic concepts underlying these methods are, respectively, relations, entities, grammars, and logic. Implementations include relational database design, ER/EER/UML diagrams, XML markup languages, and RDF/OWL semantic web languages. First order logic is emphasized throughout as the foundational framework for information modeling in general, and for contemporary web-based information management and delivery systems (including semantic web technologies) in particular.

Combines theoretical examination of the design of metadata schema with their practical application in a variety of settings. Hands-on experience in the creation of descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata, along with their application in systems such as OAI harvesting, OpenURL resolution systems, metasearch systems and digital repositories, will help students develop a thorough understanding of current metadata standards as well as such issues as crosswalking, metadata schema, metadata's use in information retrieval and data management applications, and the role of standards bodies in metadata schema development.

Introduces the higher education environment in which academic librarians and other information professionals operate in order to prepare students for leadership roles both within academic libraries and in their parent institutions. This course explores academic librarianship through a variety of lenses including: history and organization of higher education; accreditation; characteristics of students; roles of faculty and other campus professionals; and current issues and challenges.

Provides an overview of the contexts, materials, services, and issues characterizing theological librarianship. Students interact with a number of librarians currently working in the field.

Designed to familiarize the student with the basic principles of library financial administration, including budgeting and planning within the mission and goals of the organization. Provides an orientation to the variety of financial management techniques appropriate for libraries and information centers, with an emphasis on sources for obtaining financial support, controlling expenditures, creating and controlling budgets, financial decision making and exploring specific financial and budgetary problems for the major operational areas of libraries - public services, technical services, information technology and facilities.

This course will cover a wide variety of topics concerned with the history and development of the book, both as a physical object and as the bearer of intellectual content. Discussions will explore different aspects of written materials, including the physical properties of the objects that carry text and image (e.g., papyrus, paper, parchment, etc.) and their cultural and intellectual function.

This course explores a wide variety of medieval manuscripts from their creation in the Middle Ages to today and considers the following topics: production of manuscripts, use of books and their cultural significance, patronage and demand for books, translations, literacy, book collecting, libraries and reproduction in the modern age. The course will include visits to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library and hands-on experience with manuscripts.

Seminar on theoretical and applied approaches to cataloging, including the creation and management of complex descriptive and subject metadata. Topics include current developments in conceptual models for bibliographic materials; information processing and mapping; socio-cultural and critical warrant; and ethical foundations of information organization. Students will engage critically with principles and practices in the application of bibliographic standards in a variety of contexts.

Seminar on the principles, problems, trends, and issues of acquiring, identifying, recording, and conserving/preserving materials in all types of libraries and information centers; includes the special problems of serials management; emphasizes service aspects.

Designed as a practical introduction to Rare Book and Special Collections Librarianship, to cover for the neophyte as well as the experienced librarian the many issues of these departments' responsibilities, including selection, acquisition, receiving, cataloging, processing, shelving, circulation, inter-library loan, reference, preservation and conservation, security, exhibition, publication, and so forth, including the uses of information technology.

Administration of archives and manuscript collections in various types of institutions. Theoretical principles and archival practices of appraisal, acquisition, accessioning, arrangement, description, preservation, and reference services. Topics will include: records management programs, collecting archives programs/special collections, legal and ethical issues, public programming and advocacy, and the impact of new information technologies for preservation and access.

Covers the broad range of library preservation and conservation for book and nonbook materials relating these efforts to the total library environment; emphasizes how the preservation of collections affects collection management and development, technical services, access to materials and service to users.

Provides seminar discussions and a hands-on processing experience that applies current theories and practices utilized to solve the most common problems that are encountered by today's archivists and curators when arranging and describing historical records, archives, manuscripts, and artifacts. Issues of intellectual and physical arrangement, description, and access are addressed.

Focuses on international librarianship (how librarians communicate on international issues) and how that differs from comparative librarianship (the comparative study of library services in specific contexts). Examines how concepts such as "one-world" and "free flow of information" are valid in the international information arena; the importance of internationalizing library education; the role of international information agencies and the need for formulating information policies. Local and regional issues relating to library and information science are studied in the context of global issues.

Examines current problems with and approaches to digital preservation that are fundamental to the long-term accessibility of digital materials. Examines the range of current research problems, along with emerging methods and tools, and assesses a variety of organizational scenarios to plan and implement a preservation plan. Topics include basic information theory, preservation of complex digital objects; standards and specifications; sustainability and risk assessment; authenticity, integrity, quality control, and certification; and management of preservation activities.

This required course for all first-semester library and information science (LIS) doctoral students introduces students to the historical foundations of LIS. Examinations of the interactions of socio-cultural, technological and professional factors underlying the emergence of LIS provide a basis for exploring more recent developments in theory and practice.

Provides an introduction to the design of LIS research, beginning with an in-depth consideration of the philosophical and logical underpinnings of research. A brief survey of different methods used in LIS research is followed by an exploration of research design issues through comparative hands-on exercises. Throughout the course, the emphasis will be on research design choices, especially the connections between research questions and research methods.

In this seminar-style course we will discuss advanced topics in visualization techniques.  This will cover topics such as the history of visualization techniques, the perception and understanding of visual information, and new frontiers in displaying quantitative information.  We will explore the modern technical stack for creating and sharing visualizations, including topics in javascript, python, and reactive frameworks.  Prereqs: programming courses.  Students are expected to either be familiar with, or be prepared to familiarize themselves with, Python, Javascript, GitHub, and other computational tools.  Data Viz (IS590DV) is optional, but encouraged.

As analog film, video, and audio materials and playback equipment become obsolete, libraries and archives with audiovisual (AV) materials in their collections face great challenges in preserving these materials. AV preservation and collection is costly, time-consuming, and requires specialized knowledge. This course will discuss the ways that librarians and archivists are responding to the challenges of audiovisual handling, preservation and collection.

A foundational course in practical data analytics for the beginner. Students will be introduced to current data analysis tools and techniques for the querying, transformation, summarization, visualization, and modeling of data. Concurrently, the course will explore the terminology and theory behind data analysis and delve into the soft skills required to become an analytics advocate in the workplace. Tools used will include R, MySQL, and Tableau. No prior experience is assumed.

A hands-on exploration of multiple styles of bookbinding. Students will acquire fundamental technical knowledge by creating a variety of book structures using traditional tools and materials.

Examines all the physical aspects of books and how these inform us of the books' manufacture and place in a scholarly world. Covers all aspects of book production, from the earliest books to computers, and concentrates on their physical aspects. The course will look at all kinds of manifestations and features of codices that will useful in cataloging and bibliographical description, in reading scholarly bibliographies, in deciphering booksellers' catalogs, and in describing copy-specific information for finding aids.

Community Archives are a collection of material that documents one or many aspects of a community's heritage, collected and preserved by that community and its members. These materials tell the story of groups of people who have often been excluded from mainstream archives, which have tended to focus on official documents and the lives of elites. We will investigate the role community archives play in supporting a sense of heritage and identity amongst members of a community and how they serve to raise awareness of these neglected stories in the wider public. Will work with local organizations that have agreed to take part, and students will contribute to the work of their archives by assisting in identifying records of long term value, documenting the experience of its members, providing the organization with practical and affordable solutions within a framework of best practice of archives and records management, and working collaboratively with the organizations to secure the long-term viability of their documentary heritage.

This course will introduce the student to the principles, practices and standards for information representation and organization in school media centers. Course content will include an introduction to original cataloging of non-standard materials (such as realia and audiovisual materials), evaluation of bibliographic records, exposure to authority control and subject access systems with a special focus on the Dewey Decimal System and Sears Subject Headings. The course will also provide an overview and exploration of different library systems/OPACS.

This course covers various aspects of cloud computing. Given the variety of cloud computing services, this course will focus on exposure to as many practical scenarios as possible. Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service, Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, APIs and data security will all be some of the key concepts covered in this course. At the conclusion of this course, students will have had practical experience in selecting and utilizing a cloud solution.

Lab-based seminar and class studying best practices in participatory design, civic data research, and community data application and outreach. The class will engage new methods in blending qualitative and quantitative data collection, assessment and visualization, to explore how diversified data collections can inform civic decision making, public policy, community engagement, and the design of infrastructures for public participation. During the semester, we will engage collaborations with local government, community groups, civic associations, and local civic stakeholders to build skills in collecting, assessing, evaluating and communicating insights drawn from diverse forms of data. Suitable for students pursuing professional and research-oriented careers.

Copyright is a complicated legal concept that affects all information institutions, including corporations, libraries, archives, and museums whether they are online or off. This course will explore copyright from both a legal and information management perspective to demystify the concept and provide practical tools for working with copyrighted material. Topics discussed include the Constitutional underpinnings of copyright, copyright basics, copyright exceptions, fair use, the open access movement, licensing, data and copyright, and educational issues relating to copyright including issues related to K-12 teaching. This course is designed for students with a variety of backgrounds and interests.

Comics--in forms including comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, webcomics, and manga--represent an important cultural medium, which appeals to persons of all ages and is collected by many school, public, and academic libraries. This course introduces students to the comics medium, its history, and its cultural influences. Students will read a variety of comics and learn about materials and techniques key to providing reader's advisory in this medium. Although this course focuses on American comics, some readings and discussions will touch on this medium's international dimensions.

Prerequisite: MS/IM must have completed IS 543. ### The course will cover data ethics and data governance in a range of contemporary situations, including libraries, corporate settings, non-profits, governments and policy making, algorithms and AI, academic research, and healthcare. Students will be introduced to policies and best practices for decision-making when faced with ethical dilemmas involving data. The course will also involve critical discussion of a range of underlying ethical theories and principles. The course is suitable for anyone who plans to work in a professional setting that will involve generating, processing, and/or using data. It is also suitable for those seeking a grounding for future study and research of data and information ethics.

The course will address issues of data governance, including data ethics, and design and implementation of policy responses and best practices

Looks at some of the history of digital humanities, examine some case studies of digital tools and methods applied to humanities material in the context of research, and consider the implications of such projects for libraries, both in terms of providing support to their creators and in terms of collecting the results. This course considers fundamental concepts and common technologies to understand how they enable and constrain digital scholarship in the humanities, and to explore the abundant opportunities and challenges that digital projects pose for libraries. Through lectures, discussion, and hands-on use of digital tools and humanities data, students will gain familiarity with the shape and prominent features of the extensive landscape of digital humanities research, along with some of the basic skills required to navigate it.

An introduction to understanding data as a source for storytelling and to telling stories based on data. This process will include understanding and analyzing data sets to find informative aspects, changes, or contrasts that will provide the basic information for developing stories. Course participants will learn storytelling concepts, narrative theories, and performance techniques and develop stories in a collaborative workshop style. Students will work with data visualization toolkits, which will involve variable levels of coding and skill. By using storytelling techniques with data, students can develop, and tell well-evidenced stories, organizations can make better data-driven decisions.

Data mining refers to the process of exploring large datasets with the goal of uncovering interesting patterns. This process usually involves a number of tasks such as data collection, pre-processing, and characterization; model fitting, selection, and evaluation; classification, clustering, and prediction. Although data mining has its roots in database management, it has grown into a discipline that focuses on algorithm design (to ensure computational feasibility) and statistical modeling (to separate the signal from the noise). It draws heavily upon a variety of other disciplines including statistics, machine learning, operations research, and information retrieval. Will cover the major data mining concepts, principles, and techniques that every information scientist should know about. Lectures will introduce and discuss the major approaches to data mining; computer lab sessions coupled with assignments will provide hands-on experience with these approaches; term projects offer the opportunity to use data mining in a novel way. Mathematical detail will be left to the students who are so inclined.

Data visualization is crucial to conveying information drawn from models, observations or investigations. This course will provide an overview of historical and modern techniques for visualizing data, drawing on quantitative, statistical, and network-focused datasets. Topics will include construction of communicative visualizations, the modern software ecosystem of visualization, and techniques for aggregation and interpretation of data through visualization.Particular attention will be paid to the Python ecosystem and multi-dimensional quantitative datasets.

This course examines the construction of a data warehouse and business intelligence system. It will review the roles and requirements of building the system, including data modelling and business intelligence product design. This course will explore real-world case studies of data warehouse and business intelligence projects leading to a final project to design a solution for a business case.

In order to be a leader in digital citizenship education, educators, technology leaders, and information specialists will need to understand the historical context and present state of digital citizenship education through the lenses of legal obligation, various local and national sets of standards, traditional frameworks of citizenship education, and research on youth and technology. Upon completion of this course, participants will be more prepared to lead digital citizenship conversations, curricular initiatives, and make informed decisions regarding the education of students in a digital age.

The opening night of any exhibition is the culmination of many months and sometimes years of planning centered around an initial core idea for a show. After that idea has gelled into a working concept, it is handed to Design and Installation Specialists to see what is really possible. Can we have all the art suspended from wires? Can the ceiling support a replica of a sea mine? Can we devise a secure vitrine for this priceless manuscript? Does this meet ADA restrictions? How will everything fit together? Can we get that look? This course will address how exhibitions attains a specific "look"? This is not a course on developing or curating the information, but rather a course on presenting that information in the most compelling way. We will look at the planning, fabricating, painting, building, and installing are large parts of our work. We also have to consider that nothing, with few exceptions, is permanent. Our work needs to be secure and stable, but also reversible to make way for the next show. We will also survey the conceptual and procedural dimensions of carrying an exhibition through from curatorial musings to the reality of opening night. We will cover the techniques and processes that begin with a dialogue and move into the concrete. We will discuss the "what's possible" response to the initial idea. We will discuss the collaborative aspects of working with Curators, Directors of Cultural Institutions, Registrars, Collections Managers and Architects. The course will be a mix of discussion and hands-on experience with some courses taking place in the Krannert Art Museum workshop.

Provides an introduction to a wide variety of online learning methods, including videos, multimedia tutorials, webinars, and online courses (including synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid models) with a focus on their use in libraries and information centers. The course will prepare students to develop patron-oriented e-learning resources and to lead online courses following best practices.

In-depth exploration of current topics in the rapidly changing world of e-resources management in libraries and information centers. Discusses trends, problems, and issues relating to how e-resources are reshaping the entire spectrum of library service. Example areas of focus include open access publishing, scholarly communication, proprietary as well as open source e-resources management systems, licensing and copyright issues, consortia, usage statistics, balancing e-resources with more traditional collections and services, and intellectual access challenges in a highly diffuse information environment.

This course will introduce students to major ethical theories and their application to the design, management, and use of information and information technologies. Some of the topics and issues considered include: professional ethics, intellectual property, privacy, data mining, and information access.

Introduction to theories, approaches, and methodologies for evaluation and assessment of library programs and services. Explores assessment and evaluation models through lenses of user needs, policy and compliance, continuous improvement, and performance review as well as communication with stakeholders.

An introduction to the craft of writing and submitting successful grant applications. Grant writing is critical for multi-type libraries, nonprofit information entities, and other service-based organizations. Through a combination of individual and group assignments, and peer and instructor review, students will learn how to identify grant sources and strategically target their writing to those sources.

This course provides students the fundamental theory and skills necessary to design, develop, and evaluate human centered information systems. By the end of the course students will be able to gather user needs in light of existing sociotechnical systems, design effective human centered interfaces, implement interactive prototypes, and conduct unit testing and user studies of software.

Information history covers diverse institutions and practices, from libraries and postal systems to cartography and statistics, and connects these to overarching historical processes. This course examines the role of information in the transition to capitalism; in processes of state formation; in industrialization, and in other important historical movements and events.

Introduces the international information policy-making environment and the role of international associations in fostering the world information society as well as the role of libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions in ensuring equitable access to information and knowledge to enhance people's lives. Considers international associations as both policy institutions and professional advocates for individual professional action and development and examines issues of ethics, diversity, and equity.

This course will examine how academia, the scientific experiment, bureaucratic administration, databases, and algorithms (and others) continue to shape our understanding of what constitutes information. Particular attention shall be paid to gender, indigenous knowledge practices, and embodiment.

Covers the design, implementation, assessment, marketing, and sustainment of gaming programs in public, school, and academic libraries, and other community or institutional settings. Surveys games for different demographic groups, and explores methods for integration of gaming with other library programming. Reviews the history of recreational gaming and the use of games in research, educational, and clinical contexts.

A dramatic increase in computing power has enabled new areas of data science to develop in statistical modeling and analysis. These areas cover predictive and descriptive learning bridge ideas and theory in statistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. We will cover many of these new methods including predictive learning such as estimating models from data to predict future outcomes, notably regression and classification models. Regression topics include linear regression with recent advances to deal with large numbers of variables, smoothing techniques, additive models, and local regression. Classification topics include discriminant analysis, logistic regression, support vector machines, generalized additive models, naive Bayes, mixture models and nearest neighbor methods. Lastly we develop neural networks and deep learning techniques, bridging the theory introduced in the earlier parts of the class to purely empirical methods. We situate these methods in the "data science lifecycle" as part of the larger set of practices in the discovery and communication of scientific findings.

In this course students will build upon their previously acquired skills in machine learning to undertake a variety of team-based project which apply appropriate machine learning techniques to one or more real-world datasets to gain useful actionable insights. Teams will also document their analyses and findings, explaining the strengths weaknesses and reliability of their approaches. 

Open to all PhD students across campus.  We focus on deep learning, generative adversarial networks, adversarial learning, word embedding, and selected current topics in AI, mainly responsible computing (especially biases in data and learning, fairness, and ethics). In this seminar, students discuss papers on these topics in depth, analyze the papers in the wider context of theories, methods, and findings from their fields, guide or lead discussions, and reflect on the discussed papers in the context of their own research. Exceptions can be made for advanced MS students who have a strong focus on research and as per their advisor's approval.

An advanced topics seminar in subject description and access that focuses upon representation in race, gender, sexuality and other contested categories. Critical intersections of bias, exclusion, and marginalization will be explored through a variety of case studies. Implications for how we construct search and discovery systems (e.g databases, finding aids, taxonomies and catalogs), and other tools, are crucial considerations for those engaging in cultural heritage work.

An introduction to formal ontology focusing on development and implementation issues and contemporary ontology software tools and languages.

Introduces the theory and practice of oral history to graduate students in history, communication, library and information science and related fields through reading, discussion and practice with field work and interviewing. Over the last fifty years, oral history has moved from a controversial (and sometimes despised) technique on the margins of the discipline history, to one of the most important forms of historical knowledge production and dissemination in the academic and non-academic worlds. Yet its goals and relations to the communities it touches are often less than clear. Examines oral historical works, some canonical, some experimental, produced by historians, anthropologists, folklorists, sociologists and political activists. Up for discussion are questions of orality and literacy, privileged versus marginal histories, the problem of memory, problems of listening and learning how to ask, and debates about audience and presentation. Readings will cross continents (the Americas, Europe, Africa, South America) and historical periods from the 18th through the 21st centuries. 

Data sharing & modern open data standards have been creating large repositories of data that remain disconnected. Many data science & machine learning techniques are boosted by incorporating data representing a variety of domains & granularities. Topics on data curation, data cleaning, copyright, web scraping, storage, processing & automation will be reviewed. This course seeks to explore techniques & perspectives of combining various data sources to create a dataset ready for analysis, but in a project oriented space so that each topic is synthesized with practice & experienced in context. Students will select a project area & explore the technical & conceptual requirements of that project space, eventually producing a proof of concept around it. All project domains & area are open, with the only requirement be that they combine several data sources into a new dataset. This course is meant for students who have completed at least two semesters of coursework, are comfortable with programming in Python (the project can be completed in any language, but instruction will be in Python), & desire a space to explore & develop a capstone or independent study project. However, further work on the project is not a requirement. Guest speakers & field experts from the University Library will be invited. Students will be encouraged to share & publish their datasets at the end of the semester. Prerequisites: IS452 or demonstrated programming Experience, 20 hrs of completed coursework.

This course is meant to build on previous coursework in Preservation, Special Collections and/or Rare Book Curation, will focus on the physical structure and chemical composition of book, paper, and photographic materials. Students will learn how historic and modern library and archives materials are produced, how they age and potentially deteriorate, and different approaches for their physical care. Class work will be split between traditional lectures and readings as well as hands-on projects in book construction and minimally invasive treatments and stabilization mechanisms. The goal will be to educate students to a level at which they can effectively communicate with conservation and preservation professionals, as well as set educated priorities and expectations for the care of their collections.

This course provides hands-on experience with practical data analysis. Datasets will be drawn from the health sector and will include structured, unstructured, social media, and geospatial data. Students will work in teams to refine the project question, identify the appropriate analytical methods, obtain any necessary supplemental data from online sources, perform the analysis, visualize the results, and present the project to stakeholders. Teams will be assigned based on analytical skill-level from basic statistics to advanced machine learning. Students should have taken an introduction to statistics class, but no prior experience in the health domain is required.

Explores the philosophy, history, and function of public libraries. Examines current practices of public library management as they relate to organization, administration, operation, services and facilities. Studies current conditions and issues, as well as planning to ensure responsive development.

Building on the fundamentals introduced in IS 452, this course adds skills, data structures, tools, and patterns needed for developing and modifying software to solve more complex problems and to improve code maintainability and reliability. These skills are relevant to many types of programming, but many scenarios used will involve data analysis, conversion, validation, and processing pipelines. The course helps prepare students for work on larger projects with multiple developers. Includes test-driven design, more OOP design concepts, refactoring, profiling, introductory parallel processing, and more. Primarily uses the Python language.

This course will examine the notion of privacy in its historical context, and in relation to existing and projected information/communication technologies and institutional arrangements. Topics covered include the nature of "identity"; protecting personal data; technologies for personal identification, societal surveillance, and privacy enhancement; technologies for describing, monitoring, and controlling levels of privacy; changes in cultural, legal, and policy understandings of privacy and privacy rights; needs for and approaches to privacy protection in a variety of institutions and industries; security-privacy interactions and policy implications; and specific cases such as privacy implications of automated transportation systems, medical records, online behavior, Google Maps, information mining, trans-border data flow, credit card theft, etc.

Learn, experiment, code with, and compare performance of common data structures and algorithms in a fun, collaborative, and challenging context. In class, students will solve or play and discuss several types of logic puzzles and strategy games. In small teams they will explore the deductive, strategic, and tactical decisions involved, select appropriate data structures & algorithms to develop efficient program solutions to automate playing, solving, generating, or analyzing puzzles & games. Techniques used include analysis of efficiency (Big-O, Big-theta), recursion, minimax, Monte Carlo Tree Search, client/server network communications, deterministic vs non-deterministic algorithms. Structures used include arrays, matrices, hash tables, stacks, various trees, network graphs, and custom structures.

Survey of strategies of qualitative inquiry, considering methods of collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting data.

Introduction to both the history and process of reviewing children's literature. A writing-intensive course designed to improve students' ability to produce concise, clearly structured reviews of children's and young adult literature. Also includes examination of the cultural context and implications of reviewing.

This class will provide an overview of the history and commonly offered command line interfaces and essential shell scripting tools. These approaches will be extended to cover common version control tools, including git and GitHub, their value, and how to appropriately organize a project within them

Examines books, media, and other resources for young people (ages 0-18) in a multicultural, globalized, and increasingly digital media-saturated world. Explores the history of multicultural writing for the young, and major issues and debates of youth literature concerning diversity, racism, power, ideology, etc. Guides students to better select, interpret, evaluate, and promote such literature, media, and resources according to young people's various needs (intellectual, emotional, social and physical).

This seminar takes up the question "What is information?" and explores a theory of information that is based on a combination of insights from philosophical logic (e.g. Frege and Church) and social pragmatics (e.g. Grice and Searle), and on elements adapted from the model for bibliographic entities developed by the International Federation of Library Associations: Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR).

This course introduces students to the knowledge discovery process and methods used to mine patterns from a collection of text. We will critically review text mining methods developed in the knowledge discovery and databases, information science, and computational linguistics communities. Students will develop proficiency with modeling text through individual projects

This course focuses on the basics of web site design, content development, constructing web pages with standard HTML and CSS. We will also cover usability and accessibility, content management system options, multi-media and interactivity in the context of standard HTML and CSS, procedures and policies for organizations, with a concentration on public, academic and special libraries. Students will investigate, design, and draft a representative site. Students may work work with non-profit and library clients in constructing and redesigning their web sites or design and construct their own personal professional pages.

Web Development Using Application Frameworkw: A course in the use and evaluation of Web application frameworks for system architects, designers, and developers. 
Prerequisties:

• Experience in creating static Web sites using HTML and CSS
• Experience in Python programming (IS 452 or equivalent)
• Experience in creating dynamic Web sites using tools like PHP is helpful but not required.
• Experience in using relational databases is helpful but not required.
   

Supervised field experience of professional-level duties in an approved library or information center.

Permits the intermediate or advanced student opportunity to undertake the study of a topic not otherwise offered in the curriculum or to pursue a topic beyond or in greater depth than is possible within the context of a regular course.

Individual study of a problem in library and information science; forms the culmination of the Certificate of Advanced Study program.

Full-time or part-time practice of of any information sciences in an off-campus information science environment

Individual study and research.