University of Arizona
School of Information Resources and Library Science
IRLS 589 Scholarly Communication
Instructor: Peter Botticelli
Course Information
Prerequisites
IRLS 504 is the sole prerequisite for this course. Students who have not
completed IRLS 504 may be admitted with the instructor’s permission.
Course Description
This three-credit course is approved as a distributed elective in the SIRLS masters
program, under the Evaluation of User Needs and Information Resources
category.
The course is designed to serve as an introduction to the historic changes taking
place today in scholarly communications as a result of digital technology. Our
natural focus will be on the changing role of academic libraries in facilitating the
work of research and teaching in universities and other scholarly communities.
Course Objectives
By the end of this course, students should have a broad understanding of the
multidisciplinary field of scholarly communications and be prepared to discuss,
in general terms:
—How advances in technology and digital data are driving innovations in
research and teaching methods.
—Organizational issues facing libraries in meeting new scholarly information
needs.
—Policy challenges facing academic institutions and scholarly communities.
—Emerging trends in the products of scholarship within and across disciplines.
How the Course Will Be Taught
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Given the rapid pace of change in the field of scholarly communications today,
this course will necessarily emphasize class discussion using the D2L platform
and will feature current readings that will be selected as the semester progresses.
The course will be taught asynchronously, so you will not be required to log in at
any specific time. But this is not a self-paced course, and students will be
expected to keep up with the weekly schedule and the assignment deadlines
specified in the syllabus. Students are also welcome to read ahead if they wish,
but with the understanding that apart from the Christine Borgman book, the full
set of readings will not be finalized until just before the scheduled start of each of
weekly unit.
As a general guideline, the lecture and accompanying readings for each unit
should be read within four days, giving you three days to complete the unit’s
mandatory class discussion assignment, based on a general question posted by
the instructor each week.
Course Readings
This course will involve at least two required readings each week. For much of
the semester, one of the assigned readings will consist of a chapter from the
following book:
Christine Borgman. Scholarship in the Digital Age: Information, Infrastructure,
and the Internet (MIT Press, 2007).
All other readings in the course will be freely available on the Web. Most will
consist of recently-published journal articles or timely project reports selected by
the instructor. In many cases, readings will be drawn from the extensive
bibliographies on scholarly communications presented by Charles Bailey on his
Digital Scholarship website.
Assignment Deadlines
All assignments in this course have a specific due date, which means that the
date stamps recorded by D2L must be the same as the due date. For this course,
each unit will officially start on a Thursday morning. Therefore, all weekly
assignments for the previous unit must carry a Wednesday time stamp.
Please note: As internet routing and D2L cannot be expected to process
commands instantaneously, you should not wait until 11:00pm or later on the
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due date to post your assignments. Late penalties will be strictly enforced in all
cases unless there is a documented outage of D2L on the evening of the due date.
Late assignments will accepted with the following penalties for a weekly
assignment due on a Wednesday:
1-2 days late (posted by Thursday): 1 point (4%)
3-4 days late (posted by Saturday): 2 points (8%)
5-7 days late (posted by Tuesday): 3 points (12%)
8-14 days late: 4 points (16%)
15+ days late: 5 points (20%)
Late weekly assignments carry a maximum penalty of five points, so it is in
students’ best interest to complete assignments even if they are significantly late.
Also, note that for all late assignments I do not guarantee written feedback
beyond the number grade. Exceptions to the late policy will be made, but only in
the event of a serious emergency.
Late penalties also apply to the semester project final report (worth 100 points),
which is due on Wednesday, May 4, as follows:
1 day late (posted by Thursday): 1 point
2 days late (posted by Friday): 2 points
3 days late (posted by Saturday): 3 points
4 days late (posted by Sunday): 4 points
5 days late (posted by Monday): 5 points
Please note: As the semester officially ends on Thursday, May 12, late semester
projects cannot be accepted later than noon on Friday, May 13.
Workload
All DigIn certificate courses are required to meet or exceed the Arizona Board of
Regents (ABOR) guidelines for hours of expected work. ABOR requires a
minimum of 135 hours of work for a 3-credit course. As a rule of thumb, students
should expect to spend a minimum of 9-10 hours per week on this course.
Assignment Guidelines
Weekly discussion assignments:
In grading the discussion forum, my main concern is that all postings make a
substantive contribution to the discussion. This means that you need to do more
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than state an opinion, or respond to another’s position. You also need to provide
a context for your argument, including supporting details and concrete
examples. Postings should be written in complete sentences and with correct
grammar. Keep in mind that the purpose of assignments like this is to help you
learn to communicate effectively in professional settings. Thus, to fulfill the
grade requirement you will need to contribute one or more posts with a
cumulative total of at least 300-400 words.
Semester project:
A document with detailed guidelines and minimum requirements for the
semester project will be posted early in the semester; please refer carefully to the
guidelines in carrying out your project and ask questions as soon as possible if
you encounter any problems or if any aspect of the assignment is not clear.
Grading
The final grade for the course will be based on the following elements:
Class discussion: 300 points
(12 weeks, 25 points each)
Semester Project: 50 points
Course Total: 350 points
In grading assignments for this course, a number is given instead of a letter
grade, but you can think of the number as corresponding roughly to a letter
grade. So for weekly discussions you could read the assigned number as follows:
Points Percent Grade
25
100%
A+
24
96%
A
23
92%
A-
22
88%
B+
21
84%
B
20
80%
B-
Note that for the final grade, the UA only uses “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” and “E,” with
no pluses or minuses. Thus, a semester total that comes to at least 90 percent of
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the total available points will receive an “A,” while a total between 80-89 percent
will receive a “B,” etc.
Communicating Online
Given the importance of text in online learning, all assignments for this course
will be graded not only on intellectual content but also on writing style and
presentation. Thus, norms of graduate level writing, including appropriate
organization, standard grammar and spelling, and citation of resources, are
expected in this class. Problems will be indicated in returned assignments, but
the instructor will not edit students’ work.
For advice on improving writing style, students should make an appointment to
consult the instructor. Extra help in improving writing is available through the
UA Writing Center. The following Web sites offer excellent advice as well: The
OWL at Purdue University, and the Paradigm Online Writing Assistant.
Also, because the course covers a range of professional disciplines, it is important
to avoid jargon and to watch for words that have different meanings in different
settings. When in doubt, use a phrase, rather than a single word, to ensure your
meaning is clear. If, for instance, you are unsure how to use the word “record,”
which has separate meanings in archives and database technologies, use a phrase
like “documentary record” or “archival record” or “database record.”
Academic Integrity
Students are expected to abide by The University of Arizona Code of Academic
Integrity. The guiding principle of academic integrity is that a student’s
submitted work must be the student’s own or contain clear indications of the
source following accepted conventions of source citation. It’s necessary for
scholars to acknowledge and properly cite the work and ideas of others.
Acknowledgement is vital because effective learning requires the open sharing of
information. To share ideas, we need to establish trust, which is why academic
communities have established strict rules and serious penalties governing the
use of intellectual works of all types. If you have any questions regarding what is
acceptable practice under this Code, please ask the instructor.
Incompletes
Incompletes are strongly discouraged under UA policies. See the Graduate
College website for the official University Policy on Incompletes and note
especially the following:
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The grade of I may be awarded only at the end of a semester, when all but a
minor portion of the course work has been satisfactorily completed. The
grade of I is not to be awarded when the student is expected to repeat the
course; in such a case the grade of E must be assigned. Students should make
arrangements with the instructor to receive an incomplete grade before the
end of the semester... If the incomplete is not removed by the instructor
within one year the I grade will revert to a failing grade.
In addition, the university does not allow an incomplete if a student has not
already accumulated enough grade points to receive a passing grade for the
course. Finally, when an incomplete is given, SIRLS requires the student and
instructor to sign a formal agreement setting a firm deadline for completing the
coursework. My own policy is that an incomplete must be cleared by the first
official day of classes for the semester following the course for which a student
has received an incomplete.
Accommodating Disabilities
The University of Arizona has a Disability Resource Center. If you anticipate the
need for special accommodations to meet the requirements of this course, you
must register with the Disability Resource Center and request that the DRC
officially notify the instructor of your accommodation needs as soon as possible.
At the same time, please contact the instructor directly to discuss
accommodations and how the course requirements and activities may impact
your ability to participate.
Contacting the instructor
Teaching is more than presenting information. It includes guiding the learning
process, and helping students acquire skills as well as knowledge. Students
should never hesitate to contact the instructor whenever they have concerns
about how well they are doing. Not only will this help the students get assistance
they need, it will also provide valuable feedback as to how the course can be
improved.
For questions that may be of general interest to the class, please use my
instructor’s discussion forum in D2L. For more specific questions or to discuss
matters that are personal in any way, please use my UA email account:
“Peter Botticelli” <pkb@email.arizona.edu>
Also, if you are in Tucson, feel free to make an appointment for a face-to-face
meeting.
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