Drexel University
College of Information Science & Technology
Syllabus
INFO 740 Digital Reference Services Spring 2011 Online
Instructor
E-mail:
Phone:
Skype:
Office Hours:
Lily Rozaklis
lr99@drexel.edu
[redacted]
[redacted]
In-person, and via telephone or Skype, upon request. Many times available!
ipl2 Administrative Team and Contact Information
Mike Galloway, Manager, Digital Collections ([redacted])
Jennifer Lau-Bond, Researcher for Distance Education ([redacted])
Alison Miller, Manager, Reference Services ([redacted])
Course Description
INFO 740 Digital Reference Services will present an overview of digital reference services with
hands-on experience utilizing ipl2 (a merger of the Internet Public Library and the Librarians’
Internet Index). Students will prepare to become managers of e-reference services by exploring
question answering services, developing virtual collections, exploring the state of the art in
digital reference, and discussing issues related to digital reference services.
Course Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Apply reference skills to provide reference service using a web-based digital reference
service (ipl2).
2. Critique virtual (chat) reference interviews.
3. Explain key legal issues related to virtual reference.
4. Identify trends and issues relating to e-reference.
5. Evaluate resources for inclusion in a digital collection.
Course Logistics
 READ CAREFULLY: It is important to read all course information and material carefully,
particularly descriptions of course assignments. Feel free to ask for clarification! Use the
“Ask Lily” discussion topic in Blackboard or via email.
 Course Material generally will be made available on Monday morning at 8:00 a.m.
Discussions will often continue until Wednesday of the following week – so there will be
an overlap as we wrap up one week and begin the next. There are exceptions which will
be clearly noted. All course materials are available on Blackboard at
http://drexel.blackboard.com.
INFO 740 Digital Reference Services
Instructor: Rozaklis
Spring 2011
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Assignments: Students are to submit assignments to the designated Assignment
Dropbox location in Blackboard. When delivering assignments to the Assignment
Dropbox, please use a file name that includes both your name and the name of the
assignment, i.e., Jones_digitalreferencepaper. Points are deducted for late assignments.
Communication: The instructor will respond to e-mail or Blackboard postings within 24
hours (usually much sooner than that). The instructor will make every effort to return
graded assignments with comments by the end of the following week. The instructor
will notify students when she will be out of town and therefore will not be as accessible
as usual. Students should do the same (see note under the description of the
participation grade). Please contact the instructor as soon as possible if you are having
problems keeping up with the readings, discussions, or assignments!
Course Activities: This course consists of two types of activities. First, there are activities
that are considered to be contact hour activities; that is, they are equivalent to the time
you would spend in a physical classroom. Second, there are projects and assignments.
o Contact Hours: Time spent reading course materials (lectures), participating in
electronic discussions, and completing class exercises are all considered contact
hours - the equivalent of class time. You should plan to spend 30 contact hours over
the period of 10 weeks. This is approximately the amount of time a 3-credit class is
in session during a 10 week term.
o Assignments and Projects: Time spent on assignments, outside reading, and
projects is NOT considered to be part of contact hours. For graduate courses,
students are expected to spend approximately 3 hours for every hour spent in class.
That would mean 9 hours per week in addition to the contact hours.
Course Readings
Readings are assigned each week based on the topic to be covered and are listed in the Class
Schedule document. Readings are available online either through Drexel University Libraries or
on freely available websites. Students are expected to retrieve articles found in subscription
databases that are identified as available through the Drexel University Libraries. Students will
supplement assigned readings for various projects and assignments. Additional readings may be
added during the quarter.
Course Deliverables and Grading Weight
The course deliverables are summarized below. Each deliverable is described in detail in the
Course Assignments document found in the Syllabus & More section in Blackboard.

ipl2 Team Position - 35%
- Students will assist in running ipl2 through one of four teams: Reference Administrator,
Newsletter, Information Outreach, or Social Media. There will be an ipl2 staff liaison for
each team. Each student must submit a job application for two team positions, and will
be assigned to one position. Each team is required to provide a weekly progress report
in the Blackboard discussion forum, in addition to the individual and team deliverables
due at the end of the term.
INFO 740 Digital Reference Services
Instructor: Rozaklis
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
Digital Reference Paper - 25%
- Each student will compose a paper about his/her ideas of where digital reference
services may be going in the future. The paper will focus on the student’s argument
about the changing nature of digital reference services, including new challenges and
opportunities, and will include evidence of his/her position from literature (both
assigned readings for this course and external materials) and examples of experiences
with different types of digital reference services.

Participation - 20 %
- Active and responsive participation is essential. Each student will post initially and
comment on several other students’ posts during weekly discussion topics in the
Blackboard discussion forum. Each student will submit an assessment of his/her
participation at the end of the term.

Digital Reference Activities - 20%
- Each student will proactively monitor ipl2’s QRC to answer Rescue Reference questions
and/or provide feedback during Weeks 3-10 (2 times per week for 8 weeks of the term).
Each student will also complete four hands-on digital reference experiences during the
related weeks of the term: IM/chat (students’ choice of technology), IM/chat using
QuestionPoint, text/SMS using Mosio’s Text a Librarian, and collaborative with Quora.
Grading Policy
Meeting deadlines is an important professional responsibility. For this reason, points will be
deducted for late assignments.
Final grades are based on the sum of the points received for each of the assignments described
in the syllabus. Drexel implemented a plus and minus grading system in the Fall 2006 term. For
details, please see: http://www.drexel.edu/provost/policies/grades.asp. The following table
shows the relationship between course grades and overall GPA.
Course Grade
99 – 100
92 – 98
90 – 91
88 – 89
82 – 87
80 – 81
78 – 79
72 – 77
70 – 71
68 – 69
60 – 67
< 60
INFO 740 Digital Reference Services
Final Letter Grade
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
F
Instructor: Rozaklis
Overall GPA
4.0
4.0
3.67
3.33
3.0
2.67
2.33
2.0
1.67
1.33
1.0
0.0
Spring 2011
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Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
Students must comply with Drexel University’s policy on Academic Honesty, available at
http://www.drexel.edu/provost/policies/academic_dishonesty.asp.The Academic Honesty
policy is written in support of the University's strong commitment to high academic standards
and integrity. Please read and understand Drexel University’s policy.
As a student in this course, you must comply with the following:
 All work that you will submit will be entirely of your own work.
 You will not quote the words of any other person from a printed source or a website
without indicating what has been quoted and providing an appropriate citation.
 You will not submit assignments for this course to satisfy the requirements of any other
course or submit assignments submitted for other courses to satisfy the requirements of
this course.
Other resources on this topic include:
 Drexel University’s academic honesty policy, available at
http://www.drexel.edu/studentlife/judicial/honesty.html
 The Hagarty Library’s description of plagiarism, available at
http://www.library.drexel.edu/resources/tutorials/plagiarism/plagiarism.html
 Drexel University Official Student Handbook, available at
http://www.drexel.edu/studentlife/studenthandbook/SH2010.2011.pdf
Students Needing Accommodations
Any student with a documented disability who needs accommodations should contact the
Office of Disability Services (ODS). Students must register with the ODS and receive an
Accommodation Certification Form prior to receiving accommodations. This information will be
strictly confidential. For additional information, contact ODS at http://www.drexel.edu/ods/,
3201 Arch St., Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215.895.1401 (V), or 215.895.2299
(TTY).
Library and Research Assistance
Individualized advising on research and APA citing practice for your work is available from Tim
Siftar, your IST Librarian, at siftar@drexel.edu. More about Tim Siftar here:
http://www.library.drexel.edu/services/librarians#library
INFO 740 Digital Reference Services
Instructor: Rozaklis
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