[Metadatalibrarians] Online Course> S531 Subject Access Systems (SLIS, IUB)

[Lai Ma]

The Indiana University-Bloomington School of Library and Information Science will offer S531 Subject Access Systems as an online course in Fall 2011. Taught by Dr. Elin Jacob and Ms. Lai Ma, the class will meet online from 6:00 to 7:30 EDT on Tuesdays and Thursdays from August 30 through December 8, 2011. For additional information about course requirements and how to register, please contact Elin Jacob <ejacob at indiana.edu> or Lai Ma <lama at indiana.edu>.

Course description: 

S531 Subject Access Systems introduces students to systems of categorization and classification used to represent the intellectual content of resources in any format. S531 offers in-depth study of traditional systems of representation (e.g., subject heading systems, faceted classifications) as well as more recent approaches (e.g., social bookmarking systems, ontologies). This course will focus on the theoretical principles underlying each type of subject access system, as well as the practical application of each system for effective information retrieval and its advantages and disadvantages in various settings.

This course should be of interest to a wide range of students and practitioners. It is an important course for technical services librarians because it will give them fundamental knowledge necessary for selection of the most appropriate access system to meet the needs of special user groups or collections; for reference librarians because it will give them comprehensive understanding of the structure of traditional and innovative representational systems that will maximize the efficiency of their online searching activities; and for access system developers because it will give them more extensive knowledge of the pros and cons of each type of representational system which is necessary for the design and development of effective retrieval systems.