IS290-1, Spring '07
After Google, What?
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Jan 17, 24, 31
Feb 7, 14, 21, 28
Mar 7, 14, 21
Apr 4, 11, 18, 25
May 2
Last modified: January 12, 2007

Syllabus

Introduction

The subjects we will be discussing are complex and not likely fully to be available in any one article or text. The reading list reflects this fact and provides a number of alternative or possible perspectives for each of the topics we will be covering. In some cases (overview of assessment methods) it is possible to identify a single most important work which it is essential that everyone become familiar with, in most others you will want to dip into a variety of works that are listed, grazing, perhaps, rather than intensively digesting.

In addition and more passively, you may want to use RSS feeds to keep up with "the news" as it becomes available. A selection of serial publications, blogs, and news sources is supplied below.

There is no course-reader, nor are there required texts. Most of the readings are available on-line. Some will be circulated by email.

Assigned and suggested readings are organized by seminar date and topic. Priority should be given to readings indicated with an asterisk '*' as these will substantially orient or underpin work in seminar.

1/17/2007 - Course aims and overview

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1/24/2007 - Toward the 21st century land-grant university

* The Promise and Power of 10 (this unpublished staff work documenting thinking about the University of California in 2025 will be circulated in advance)

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1/31/2007 - The academic library as place, steward, and information service

The literature on the changing roles of academic libraries is already long and continually growing.

* Graze through and get a feel for reactions to this topic in some of the following:

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2/7/2007 - Changing fundamentally...

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2/14/07 - Open Access Publishing

The prolific literature that has grown up around this topic seems sometimes to generate more heat than light.

*Get a flavor by reading selectively from the brief articles contributed to "Web Focus. Access to the Literature" in Nature (March-September, 2004) from http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/accessdebate/archive.html. Every point of view is represented there and it is best not to gravitate toward the one(s) with which you feel most naturally inclined.

In addition, information about how the economics of scholarly publishing impact directly at UC, and about UC's various responses, and a very good list of credible information resources, are available from the website maintained by The Office of Scholarly Communication http://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/.
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2/21/07 - Academic values and scholarly publishing

* Diane Harley et. al., The influences of academic values on scholarly publishing practices and communication (September, 2006) from http://cshe.berkeley.edu/publications/docs/ROP.Harley.AcademicValues.13.06.pdf
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2/28/2007 - Scholarly publishing in transition

Reading TBD.
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3/7/2007 - What is cyberinfrastructure?

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3/14/2007 - High performance computing and the future

Read the stimulating report from Microsoft first, then graze through various reflections on it, as published in Nature's Web Focus.

*Towards 2020 Science (Microsoft, 2006) from http://research.microsoft.com/towards2020science/

*Reactions in Nature's web-focus http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/futurecomputing/index.html

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3/21/2007 - Different modalities

*Reading TBD

In addition, an excellent list of useful reports and etc on aspects of this subject is maintained by Educause at "Instructional Technologies". See the Archived Resources in particular from http://www.educause.edu/InstructionalTechnologies/645?Parent_ID=383

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3/28/2007 - SPRING BREAK - NO CLASS

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4/4/2007 - Yahoo(!). A networked student community

Readings TBD
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4/11/2007 - Mass Digitization and its discontents

Reading TBD
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4/18/2007 - Planning investments in the academic information environment

*Selected draft reports representing work of the University of California's IT Guidance Committee will be circulated in advance of the seminar

Background information on issues in IT Planning is widely available, but not always very good, so if you choose to graze do so with a light touch.

Annual Educause Surveys are published annually in Educause Quarterly (the first couple are nowhere to be found). They provide a good description of the hot issues on campuses as they plan their IT investments and now an overview of how those issues evolve (or don't) over the years.

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4/25/2007 - Aligning policies with purpose

Reading TBD
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5/2/2007 - After Google what?

No assigned reading.
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Sources of information worth checking regularly

Serials that may be worth watching:
News sources that may be worth watching:
Blogs that may be worth watching
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