Instructor

Unmil Karadkar (@unmil, please do call me by first name)
Office: UTA 5.408

How to contact me:

email: via canvas or to unmil-At-ischool.utexas.edu (please include the text "INF385S" in your subject line)

with prior appointment in-person meeting or, videoconference

skype: unmil.karadkar, Google hangouts: unmil-aT-utexas-dot-edu (please don't send email to this address)

drop by my office without an appointment–I will try to make time for you

Class Meetings

Classroom: UTA 1.204
Time: Tuesdays, 9am to Noon

Course unique id: 27742

Canvas page: https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/1231843

iSchool description:

Research, development, and evaluation issues in digital libraries, including collection development and digitization; provision of access to multimedia materials; access strategies and interfaces; metadata and interoperability; and the implications of digital libraries with respect to policy and social issues. Three lecture hours a week for one semester.

Prerequisites

An interest in subject materials
Motivation to learn more as necessary for your project

Readings

No textbook. Assigned readings will be available online or made available via Canvas. Some online readings are only available to UT Austin students and you may access these off-campus via UT-VPN or via the libraries' web site.

Introduction

Personal photographs, scanned historical documents, social media posts by friends, colleagues, and influencers, data sets generated by sensors and other instruments are all indispensible for our personal, professional, intellectual, social, cultural, and political activities. As more and more data becomes available, we need better tools to organize, manage, present, and deliver this content. This course will introduce you to good practices for creating and managing useful, sustainable data collections as well as to evaluate the intellectual and software infrastructure for ensuring the longevity of these collections.

Pedagogy and Organization

Class time will be split between short content-based lectures, reading discussions & debates, and group activities. Lectures will highlight important aspects of assigned readings as well as introduce you to related materials. The goal is to create a learning environment in the classroom where we raise significant questions, discuss concepts, and develop skills collaboratively. This course is designed as a Flipped Classroom course. This format requires participation of all class members. Students are expected to:

Participate actively in all activities
Attend all class sessions; if a student misses a class, it is her/his responsibility to arrange with another student to obtain all notes, handouts and assignment sheets
Read all material prior to class; use the course readings to inform their classroom participation and to perform the class activities and assignments
Hand in all deliverables fully and on time. Late submissions will only be accepted as specified in the grading policies or the assignment. For exceptions related to emergency situations and university excused absences, please contact me as soon as possible. (see also Grading and Policies)
Educate themselves and their peers. The successful completion of this course and their participation in the information professions depend upon the students' willingness to demonstrate initiative and creativity. Your participation in the professional and personal growth of your colleagues is essential to your success as well as theirs. Such collegiality is at the heart of professional practice. In-class group activities and discussion of the assignments is designed to encourage this kind of collaboration
When needed, ask for additional help from peers or me

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

Articulate and discuss issues related to digital collections
Ask essential questions in order to maximize the benefits of digital collections for all stakeholders
Develop criteria for a collection to meet the needs of its audience
Describe how the digital collection serves the intended demographic
Read and interpret standards-based metadata documentation
Design standards-compliant metadata to describe and manage digital objects
Retrieve metadata from standards-compliant collections via Web-based APIs (RESTful APIs, OAI-PMH)
Compare and evaluate digital data formats
Make informed recommendations for adopting the most suitable formats for a collection

My Personal Goals

In addition to the content-specific objectives, I will do my best to:

provide opportunities to think deeply and carefully about the topics being discussed in the class
foster an environment where students all feel welcome and free to share not only their knowledge knowledge but concerns and desires about course-related topics
help develop skills that will be useful to you in your career
engender a deeper interest in learning that can be pursued beyond this course
to make you proud of your achievements in this course, and,
help you enjoy the process!

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