theorywatch

In the rather unlikely event that anyone is curious about what will be covered in the “Digital Collections” course (KM/LIS 5990) this coming spring, here’s a short version of the syllabus:

COURSE TITLE: KM/LIS 5990 DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

Catalog Course Description: 3 hours. Introduction to the creation and development of digital collections and to the technical requirements for storage and dissemination of digital materials. Topics will include creation, development, organization, maintenance, and use of digital collections. Students will explore a variety of techniques and technologies for digitizing materials, evaluate the strengths and limitations of current efforts in creating, collecting and organizing digital materials, and explore the different opportunities and challenges of digital libraries, repositories, and archives.

Interpretation of Course Description: This is a survey course that introduces students to theories and practices relating to digital collections of different kinds. Assigned readings will explore major issues and current trends in creating and maintaining digital collections. A key part of the semester will involve designing a digital collection for a specific audience or institution and implementing the preliminary stages of the proposed collection.

Audience (level, environment/setting): General elective; advanced; appropriate for both KM and MLIS students. Offered even-numbered Springs. Online format.

Expectations: Students should be able to use D2L, including accessing news and contents, participating in discussion boards, and submitting assignments through folders; and produce documents that are professional in appearance using word processing software. Students are encouraged to be familiar with the use of scanning software, digital photography, and relevant metadata tools prior to entering this class. Use of specific collection management software (e.g., OMEKA, ContentDM) will be introduced during the semester.

Textbook: None (the ones that are affordable are out of date, and the ones that are up to date are not affordable!) but there will be a significant number of readings every week. Consider yourself warned!

Topics:
• Historical background of collections
• Contemporary convergence of collecting institutions
• Contemporary digital collection examples
• Collection philosophies
• Collection preservation issues
• Collection best practices
• Usability and retrieval
• Collection economics
• Collection copyright issues
• Text in collections: special problems
• Images in collections: special problems
• Multimedia in collections: special problems
• Data curation
• The future of collections
• Competencies relevant for digital collections librarian and similar positions.

Opportunities for utilizing relevant real-world skills and technology:
Students will use a variety of technologies and software to build sample collections.