New Summer Courses 2010 

Updated March 14, 2010

CLSC 834 Art & Museum Librarianship Institute
Instructor: Sally Sims Stokes
During a week of field visits and classroom sessions, supplemented by individual research and writing projects, students will gain an overview of the rich variety of library collections that support, and operate in tandem with, cultural institutions in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Students will learn about the programs and mission of large, nationally-known museums as well as small, community-based historical organizations. Students will be encouraged to consider changes in technology and informatics during the first decade of the 21st century, and the impact of those changes on art and museum library and archival services, collections, space allocations, staffing, and equipment.

CLSC 877 Metadata and Project Management.
Instructor: Jackie Shieh
This course prepares students and information professionals to create, edit, and implement metadata for the purpose of describing, controlling and providing access to materials in text, image, audio, video, and other formats. For description and organization of information resources, the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard will be the focus. For structural metadata, MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema) and Dublin Core, and MARC will be discussed. Issues of interoperability, metadata harvesting, and repurposing of metadata will be examined. Students of this course will learn to transform metadata in MARC and XML schemas using open source application such as MarcEdit, MARC::Record, etc. In addition to lectures and hands-on practice, students will visit information organizations and agencies in Washington, DC, to learn about best practices. In the process, students will learn the implementation process of various schemas, including success and lessons learned, of the visited locales

CLSC 878 Institute on Digital Collections in Libraries, Archives, and Museums
Instructor: Günter Waibel and Mary Elings
"Digital Collections in Libraries, Archives and Museums" introduces the practices, standards, and challenges evident across the spectrum of cultural heritage institutions trying to leverage collections online. The class considers the entire life-cycle of digital collections from creation to dissemination to preservation, as well as looking at institutional conditions - past, present and future - that influence collection access online. The current era challenges libraries, archives and museums (LAMs) to connect with their audiences, as well as with their peers, in ways that redefine traditional notions of authority and autonomy. Taking an institutional as well as a network-level perspective, the class tracks this (r)evolution-in-progress and looks at emerging strategies to make digital heritage collections matter in an environment dominated by for-profit networking and information spaces. Concepts introduced in class lectures and discussions will be deepened through focused site-visits with experts at local institutions. 

CLSC 879: Public Programs, Outreach and Digital Exhibits in Libraries, Archives, and Museums
Instructor: Maria Mazzenga
While archivists, librarians, and museum staff are well aware of the treasures held within their institutions, key user groups who would benefit from knowledge and use of such materials, both virtual and physical, are often not. Additionally, existing patrons of such institutions may not be aware of new acquisitions and novel applications and contextualization of existing materials. Educating constituencies on collections special interest to them benefits both the institution in question and a potentially broadening range of patrons. This course focuses on three aspects of making archival, library, and museum resources known to various user groups: public programs, outreach, and exhibitions. Public programs entail the presentation of one’s materials to a variety of publics. Outreach focuses on the identification of services to constituencies with needs relevant to the institution’s mission, with special attention to underserved groups, and tailoring services to meet those needs. The exhibit, an organized display of materials centered on a theme, fits into a public programming agenda and can function as an effective form of outreach to underserved user groups when thoughtfully and strategically conceived. Here, we will examine information seeking behavior in archival, library, and museum settings, and the principles, design, and implementation of access and outreach services in such institutions. We will explore various types of public programs, outreach strategies, and digital and physical exhibits, study the principles and practical elements involved in creating each, conduct site visits toward understanding the application of such principles in existing institutions, and apply learning in programming, outreach, and exhibit projects.