INF2309H (summer 2019 and summer 2020) — Special Topics in Information Studies: Liaison Librarianship in Academic Libraries
This course is designed to prepare students for careers as liaison librarians in academic libraries. The course will cover the evolution, development, and current issues surrounding subject or liaison librarianship in academic and research libraries. A general history of liaison librarianship and examination of the scope of liaison responsibilities in teaching, learning and research will be reviewed and form the basis for discussion of current issues in liaison work. Students will examine how liaison work relates to and supports the impact an academic library has on the reputation of its parent institution; uncover the challenges and tensions in modern liaison librarianship, especially in the teaching, learning and research lifecycles; and engage with current and anticipated trends in liaison work. One of the goals of this course is to challenge current thinking on the nature of faculty/student and librarian interactions and to break through common assumptions of how a modern librarian engages with stakeholder communities.
No pre-requisite courses required.
INF2309H (winter 2020) — Special Topics in Information Studies: Applied Data Science Using R
Data science is a fast-growing field and new tools and techniques are designed everyday to perform data analysis in quick and robust ways. This course covers the fundamentals of data science using the R language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. R is currently widely used by information students and data scientists from various disciplines. The course will teach students how to do data science in an easy way. It is designed for students from the social sciences and from non-programming backgrounds. We will learn skills of data collection, storage, cleaning, transformation, visualization, and various techniques of data analysis. We will apply those techniques to analyze structured tabular data and unstructured text data through experimenting on real datasets, including online data. This course will provide students with a new skill highly in demand in the information and data sciences job markets.
INF2309H (summer 2018) — Special Topics in Information Studies: Archival Leadership
The course provides an overview of leadership, management and governance in the context of archives. In particular, it explores strategic and change leadership; foundation management practices; and people leadership in various types of archival setting. Drawing on archival and business management literature, and exploration of the leadership journeys of selected prominent professionals, the course will equip students to take on leadership responsibilities in a range of professional contexts, and prepare for more senior roles.
Pre-requisites: INF1330H and/or INF2175H
