School of Information Management & Systems.
142  Access to American Cultural Heritages. Spring 1997.

Assignment 5: Portfolio.   Various deadlines to be announced.
- Assignment 5A: One-page draft of topic due Oct 7.
- Assignment 5B: One-page or more 1st progress report due Oct 21.
- Assignment 5C: One-page or more 2nd progress report due Nov 11.
- Assignment 5D: First deadline: At least parts 2, 3, 6 & 7 due Nov 25.
- Assignment 5E: Final deadline: Completed portfolio due Dec 9.

Select a theme within the scope of the course: some combination of topic(s) and cultural group(s). Topics relevant to cultural heritage include: "cultural property"; tourism; economic development; governmental cultural policies; textbooks; history; policies, politics, and economics of institutions concerned with cultural heritages (archives, libraries, museums, schools); the entertainment industry, etc; or a major event or historical development that has been significant in in relation to the cultural heritage of one or more cultural groups. Explore this topic in relation to one or more cultural groups.

1. What constitutes the cultural heritage of selected cultural groups? Their language, their literature, their songs, their customs and costumes, their archaeological remains, etc.
2. Classification and intellectual access across cultures and languages. Problems of multi-cultural bibliographic access, cf Sanford Berman's Prejudices and antipathies.
3. Library collections: What heritage material is where? How accessible is it.
4. Museum collections, art museums, historic sites, and cultural monuments: The perspectives and semiotics of presentation.
5. Cultural property: What is it? Who has what rights to it? Alienation and repatriation (e.g. The Elgin marbles; Native American bones).
6. The conscious creation and use of "culture", e.g. Nazi Aryan history; ----- history month.
7. Restoration, preservation, and use of new technology to present cultural objects.
8. The uses of cultural heritages for political purposes (chauvinism, nationalism, patriotism, ethnic politics, etc.).
9. The uses of cultural heritages for commercial purposes (advertising, marketing, tourism).

Imagine other students who have the same interest as you do but who could not take this course and want learn on their own through self-study. What you develop should be designed as a study guide: The reasons for a study guide approach is two-fold: (i) It requires you to focus on problems of access and (ii) it gives you experience in making resources accessible. The contents and design of each portfolio will depend upon the theme selected, but use the following structure unless there is reason to do otherwise. The balance between 3 and 4 is likely to vary considerable with choice of theme.

1. Brief introduction to the study guide.
2. Short explanation of theme. First draft (half a page) due Oct 2.
3. Discussion of the issues.
4. Annotated, evaluative guide to selected sources, with an emphasis on selecting the best examples of different types of resource: Encyclopedias, textbooks, bibliographies, internet sources, associations, historic sites, special collections (archives, libraries, museums,...), etc., as applicable.
5. Discussion / explanation of any terminological aspects.
6. Summary of what you learned and/or found interesting about this theme.
7. Recommendations for improving access to American cultural heritages in your topic area.
8. Postscript: What would you have done to develop an even better guide if you had had more time.)

Draft the best guide that you can, within the balance of the six hours a week. You are encouraged to draw on the assignments and exercises: Provide relevant definitions and mention the best encyclopedias and dictionaries (as in Assignment 1); Visit a relevant exhibit Assignment 6 and use it as a case study to explain relevant issues; provide advice on good sites (and good searches) on the World Wide Web; recommend subject headings in the MELVYL Catalog; identify the most useful databases and suggest the best subject headings in each; and so on. Class time will be devoted continuously to discussion of the portfolios. Short in-class presentations of what you discovered. Individual consultation will be expected. The choice of theme will be subject to the instructor's approval. The relationship of the portfolio to your other academic work should be explained. Expect to modify your scope during the course of the semester depending on how much material is found.