Indiana University School of Library and Information Science
L540 : Foundations of information architecture
Fall 2003

Instructor: Elin Jacob
Email: ejacob@indiana.edu
Office: 017 SLIS
Office phone: 812-855-4671
Office hours: Monday 1:00-3:00 pm or by appointment

COURSE SYLLABUS

Introduction
Although the representation and organization of information resources has long been a focus of the information profession, the recent explosive growth in both the number and the variety of information resources has dramatically underscored the inability of free-text searching (e.g., string-matching) to retrieve materials based upon shared intellectual content. In the digital environment of the World Wide Web, the lack of any explicit physical presence has similarly highlighted the need for information structures that facilitate user understanding and navigation in conceptual space. Faced with the need to construct information architectures that not only provide for effective and efficient retrieval but also promote understanding, information professionals have returned to the basic principles that have provided a foundation for traditional systematic structures such as classification schemes, ontologies, controlled vocabularies and thesauri.

Effective information systems depend upon a comprehensive awareness of formal structures and a deep understanding of human social, technological and cognitive environments. Accordingly, this course also reviews research in information science, cognitive science, semiotics, and computer science that has contributed to an understanding of how communities represent, organize, retrieve and ultimately use information and examines how this research can inform current practices of representation and organization in the design of more effective information systems.

Course Objectives
By the end of the course, participants will

1. Understand the objectives, functions and applications of information architectures in a variety of environments including enterprise organizations and the World Wide Web.
2. Become familiar with a range of structured models of information representation and organization -- including classification schemes, precoordinate and postcoordinate indexing systems, and thesauri -- and discern the implications for effective retrieval and/or navigation inherent in each type of system.

Class Organization
Each class session will cover the topic(s) indicated on the Schedule of LECTURES and READINGS (pp. 6-17). Class sessions will include lectures by the instructor, class discussions of assigned readings and/or in-class activities designed to illustrate principles and theories presented in readings and lectures. Students may also be asked to work in small groups and to report to the class on the results of small-group activities. Students are encouraged to participate actively in all lectures and discussions since participation in class activities will constitute 15% of each student's final grade.

Readings
It is important for all students to be actively involved with the intellectual content of the course. Accordingly, required and recommended readings have been selected to facilitate understanding of the materials and participation in class discussions. Each student will be required to reference these readings in composing weekly essays (see Weekly Essays, below).

Electronic Reserves
The Schedule of LECTURES and READINGS (pp. 6-17) identifies required and recommended readings for each class session. Copies of required and recommended readings that are not available on electronic reserve will be available in the SLIS library. The url for electronic reserves is:
http://ereserves.indiana.edu/
The password necessary to access the list of readings for this class will be provided in class.

listserv : ejacob_l540_03fall@majordomo.indiana.edu
A majordomo listserv will be used for distribution of course-related materials and for online discussions. Each student will automatically be subscribed to the listserv:

Class Participation
Class participation will constitute 15% of the final grade. It will reflect the student's participation in discussions and activities during class sessions . Assigned readings, class discussions and small group activities are intended to create a learning community and to promote critical literacy skills among all students -- skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking and thinking. The success of these activities will require substantive and meaningful contributions from all students. Each student's class participation grade will be assessed on the following criteria:

• attendance.
• regular and voluntary contributions to class discussions.
• ability to tie observations to the ideas developed in the readings, to the contributions of other discussants or to ideas presented in other classes.
• contribution of observations or ideas that are original or diverge from commonly accepted notions.
• continuous demonstration of respect for the ideas, opinions and feelings of all members of the class.

Weekly Essays
Students will be required to write nine (9) weekly essays across the semester (Sessions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12). Grades assigned for all essays will be averaged to provide a single "Weekly Essay" grade which will comprise 20% of the student's final course grade.

Weekly essays are intended to promote critical literacy skills and to demonstrate the student's familiarity with the required readings as well as his/her grasp of the ideas presented in those readings. In addition, these essays have been designed to provide the student with an opportunity to improve his/her written communication skills.

Essays are to be turned in at the beginning of the class session for which they have been assigned (see Late Submissions, p. 3). Grading of essays will reflect the student's familiarity with both required and recommended readings, understanding of the problem area and the principal arguments presented in the readings and logical structure of the student's argument. Spelling and grammar will also be taken into consideration in assigning grades. In addition, each essay should be accompanied by a bibliography of materials used (see Academic Dishonesty on p. 4)..

Website Evaluations
These exercises involve analysis and evaluation of the architecture of three different websites. Together, the three website evaluations will account for 30% of the student's final course grade. Each website will be identified one week before the evaluation is due. Website evaluations are to be turned in at the start of class for sessions 9, 11 and 13.

Take-home Final Exam
The final exam, which accounts for 10% of the student's final course grade, will be a take-home exam consisting of a single essay question. The exam will be distributed via the listserv on April 23 and is to be turned in at the beginning of class on 10 December 2003

Course Project
The product of the course project will be a detailed information architecture and will involve restructuring of the current architecture of a website or other knowledge resource. The course project, which will account for 25% of the student's final course grade, will be turned in no later than 5:00 pm on Wednesday, 17 December 2003.

Grading
The student's final course grade will be computed on the basis of letter grades assigned for class participation, weekly essays, take-home final exam, website evaluations and course project.

Satisfactory fulfillment of the minimum course requirements as outlined in this syllabus is considered "Good work" and will constitute a grade of B (see "GRADING SCALE" on p. 5). A grade of A (work demonstrating "Outstanding achievement") or A- ("Excellent achievement" reflecting "thorough knowledge of the course materials") will be assigned only when both the intellectual quality and the originality and/or creativity of the student's work surpass expectations reflected in the minimum course requirements.

Schedule of Assignments

Late Submissions
In fairness to students who turn in assignments on time, all late papers will be penalized by lowering the earned grade one grade level (e.g., from A- to B+; from B to B-) for each day that the assignment is late.

Incompletes
Each student is expected to complete all coursework by the end of the term. A grade of Incomplete [ I ] will be assigned only when exceptional circumstances warrant.

Academic Dishonesty
Policies on academic dishonesty have been established by Indiana University and the School of Library and Information Science. These policies, which have been set out in the Code of Student Ethics, will be adhered to in this class.

Nonetheless, as Dr. Alice Robbin observes <http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/arobbin/COURSES/
public/L509-s03_syllabus.html#Introduction>, there is more to avoiding plagiarism than simply citing a reference. To aid students both in recognizing plagiarism and in avoiding the appearance of plagiarism, Indiana University's Writing Tutorial Services has prepared a short guide entitled "Plagiarism: what it is and how to recognize and avoid it". This guide is available at:

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html

It provides explicit examples of plagiarism and offers strategies for avoiding it. Each student should be familiar with this document and use it as a guide when completing assignments.

Dr. Robbin offers tips on avoiding inadvertent plagiarism that she gleaned from Ralph Brower, a colleague at Florida State University:

1. Whenever you "borrow" material, from any resource whatsoever, and include it in an assignment for this class, you must provide a footnote, endnote or parenthetical reference (and bibliographic citation) identifying the original resource. If you have any questions about how to do this, review the guidelines set out in the APA Style Manual.
2. Any time that you quote any resource verbatim, you must enclose that text in quotation marks and identify the original resource, as indicated in (1).
3. Ideas that you paraphrase must also be attributed, as indicated in (1), even if you do not quote the original source verbatim.

Any assignment that contains plagiarized material or indicates any other form of academic dishonesty will receive, at a minimum, a grade of F. A second instance will result in an automatic grade of F for the course. Penalties may be harsher depending upon the severity of the offense.

Notice
If you are a student with a special need, please feel free to discuss it with me.

Grading Scale
All grades will be assigned according to the SLIS Grading Policy for Master's and Specialist Level Students. This policy was defined by student and faculty members of SLIS's Curriculum Steering Committee and was adopted by the Faculty of the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, on November 11, 1996, as an aid in evaluation of student performance:

Schedule of
LECTURES, ASSIGNMENTS and READINGS [IUB]

Required texts [on reserve in SLIS library]:
Garrett, J.J. (2003). Elements of user experience: user-centered design for the web. Boston: New Riders. [TK5105.888 .G377 2003]
Krug, S. (2000). Don't make me think: a common sense approach to web usability. Indianapolis: New Riders. [TK5105.888 .K78 2000]

Recommended texts [on reserve in SLIS library]:
Berners-Lee, T., & Fischetti, M. (1999). Weaving the Web: the original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web by its inventor. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. [TK5105.888 .B46 1999]
Brown, J.S. & Duguid, P. (2000). The social life of information. Boston: Harvard University Press. [HM851 .B76 2000]
Clark, A. (2003). Natural-born cyborgs: minds, technologies and the future of human intelligence. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [T14.5 .C58 2003]
Dourish, P. (2001). Where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [QA76.9.H85 D68 2001]
Farkas, D.K. & Farkas, J.B. (2002). Principles of Web design. New York: Longman.2 [TK5105.888 .F36 2002]
Jacobson, R.. (1999). Information design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [NK1510 .I53 2000]
Lesser, E. L. & Prusak, L. (Eds.). (2000). Knowledge and communities. Boston: Butterworth Heinemann. [HD58.82 .R47 2000]
Norman, D. A. (1988). The design of everyday things. New York: Doubleday. [TS171.4 .N67 2002]
Norman, D. (1993). Things that make us smart. Cambridge: Perseus Books. [TS171.4 .N669 1994]
Shedroff, N. (2001). Experience design 1: a manifesto for the creation of experiences. Indianapolis: New Riders. [TK5105.888 .S478 2001]
Winograd, T. & Flores, F. (1986). Understanding computers and cognition. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing. [QA76 .W58 1987]
Zerubavel, E. (1991). The fine line: making distinctions in everyday life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [BF445 .Z47 1991 ]

Glossaries:
Berners-Lee, T., & Fischetti, M. (1999). Weaving the Web: the original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web by its inventor (pp. p 211-219). San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. [LB1575.5.U5 C495 1989]
Hagedorn, K. (2000). Information architecture glossary. Available at: http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/iaglossary.html
Reiss, E.L. (2000). Glossary. In Practical information architecture: a hands on approach to structuring successful web sites (pp. 183-185). Harlow, UK: Addison-Wesley. [TK5105.888.R45 2000]
Wretlind, J. C. (1999). A helpful glossary of terms. Infotect: The Online Journal of Information Architecture. Available at: http://www.infotect.com/#

On information abstracts and executive summaries:
Howe Writing Initiative. (2001. Accessed on 01.07.2002). Guidelines for writing an executive summary. Available at: http://www.sba.muohio.edu/hwi/executivesummary.htm
Jacob, E.K.. (1997). Writing abstracts. Unpublished manuscript.
Jacob, E.K.. (2001). Re: Writing an informative abstract. Unpublished manuscript.
[Response to: Mirowsky, J. (1999). Writing an informative abstract. Available at: http://www.asanet.org/pubs/infoab.html ]
Zwickel, S.B.. (Accessed on 01.07.2002). Reference: executive summary. Available at: http://tc.engr.wisc.edu/zwickel/397/execsumm.html

NOTE: For each class session, the following schedule includes a topic statement, a list of required readings and a list of recommended readings. All required readings are to be completed before the scheduled class session and are listed in the order in which they should be read. Recommended readings are listed alphabetically and may be read in any order at any point across the semester. Assigned readings are subject to amendment by the instructor.

Session 1 -- September 3
Topic: Introduction

Session 2 -- September 10
Topic: Fundamentals: Information Architecture / Information Design
Required readings:
Zachmann, J. A. (1987). A framework for information systems architecture (pp. 276-282 only). IBM Systems Journal 26 (3), 276-292.
Wurman, R.S.. (1996). Introduction. In Information architects (pp. 15-18). Zurich: Martin Pedersen & Richard Saul Wurman.
Bradford, P. (1996). Peter Bradford. In R.S. Wurman, Information architects (pp. 62-75). Zurich: Martin Pedersen & Richard Saul Wurman.
Raskin, Jef. (1999). Presenting information. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information design (pp. 341-348). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Essay assignment:
After you have completed the required readings, write a short (two- to three-page) essay addressing the question "What is information architecture?" In your essay, you should integrate ideas presented in the required and/or recommended readings with your understandings gleaned from previous classes and/or your personal intuitions regarding information architecture.
Recommended readings:
Brown, J.S. & Duguid, P. (2000). Chapter 7: Reading the background. In The social life of information (pp. 173-205). Boston: Harvard University Press.
Dillon, A. (2002). Information architecture in JASIST: just where did we come from?. JASIST 53 (10), 821-823.
Horn, R.E. (1999). Information design: emergence of a new profession. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information design (pp. 15-33). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Morville, P. (2001, January 30). An information architect's manifesto. ArgusC enter for Information Architecture. Available at: http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/speed.html
Rosenfeld, L. (2002). Information architecture: looking ahead. JASIST 53 (10), 874-876.
van Dijck, P. (2002). What is an "information architect"? Available at: http://petervandijck.net/whatis.htm
von Halle, B. (1996). Architecting in a virtual world. Database Programming & Design (November 1996). Available at: http://www.dbpd.com/vault/9611arch.htm
Zweis, R. (2000). Observations on the American Society for Information Science Summit 2000 meeting: Defining information architecture. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science 26(5), 10-12. Available at: http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/June-00/zweis.html

Session 3 -- September 17
Topic: Fundamentals: Data/Information/Knowledge
Required readings:
Brown, J.S. & Duguid, P. (2000). Introduction (pp. 1-9). Chapter 1: Limits to information (pp. 11-33). In The social life of information. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Buckland, M. (1991). Information as thing. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42, 351-360. Available at: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~buckland/thing.html
Wheatley, M. J. (1999). Chapter 6: The creative energy of the universe--information. In Leadership and the new science: Discovering order in a chaotic world, 2nd ed. (pp. 93-112). San Francisco CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Shedroff, N. (2001). An overview of understanding. In R.S. Wurman, Information anxiety 2 (pp. 27-29). Indianapolis, IN: Que
Passini, B. (1999). Sign-posting information design. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information design (pp. 83-98). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Essay assignment:
The readings for Session 3 present several different approaches to the questions "What is information?" After you have completed the required readings, write a short (two- to three-page) essay discussing what you think "information" is. Your essay should include a working definition of information and an analysis of the relationships among data, information and knowledge. Incorporate in your essay ideas presented in the required and/or recommended readings, your own understandings gleaned from previous classes and/or your personal intuitions regarding the nature of information.
Recommended readings:
Agre, P.E. (1995). Institutional circuitry: thinking about the forms and uses of information. Information technology and libraries, 14(4). 225-230. Available at: http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/circuitry.html
Buckland, M. (1998). What is a “Document”?. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 48(9), 804-809. Preprint available at: http://sims.berkeley.edu/~buckland/whatdoc.html
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphorical systematicity: highlighting and hiding. In Metaphors we live by (pp. 10-13). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Reddy, M.J. (1979). The conduit metaphor -- a case of frame conflict in our language about language. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 284-297 only). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shannon, C.E.,& Weaver, W. (1963/1949). The mathematical theory of communication (pp. 31-35 only). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Session 4 -- September 24
Topic: Representation
Required readings:
Barsalou, L. W. (1992). Representation. In Cognitive Psychology: an overview for cognitive scientists (pp. 52-56 only). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norman, D. (1993). Chapter 3: The power of representation. In Things that make us smart (pp. 43-75). Cambridge: Perseus Books.
McCloud, S. (1994). The vocabulary of comics. In Understanding comics: the invisible art (pp. 24-41). New York: HarperCollins.
Dervin, B. (1999). Chaos, order and sense-making: A proposed theory for information design. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information design (pp. 35-57). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Peat, F. D. (1993). Science as story. In C. Simpkinson and A. Simpkinson (Eds.), Sacred stories (p. 53-62). San Francisco: Harper.
Essay assignment:
After you have completed the required readings, write a short (two- to three-page) essay on language as a tool for representation. Given the five criteria for a representational system identified by Barsalou (p. 52), how does language serve to "re-present" the world around us? Is language an effective representational system? Incorporate in your essay ideas presented in the required and/or recommended readings, your understanding of language gleaned from previous classes and/or your personal intuitions regarding the workings of representational systems.
Recommended readings:
Muhlhausen, J. (2000). Wayfinding is not signage. Available at: http://www.signweb.com/ada/cont/wayfinding0800.html
Norman, D. (1993). Chapter 1: A human-centered technology (pp. 3-17). Chapter 2: Experiencing the world (pp. 19-41). In Things that make us smart. Cambridge: Perseus Books.
Winograd, T. & Flores, F. (1986). Chapter 6: Towards a new orientation (pp. 70-79). Chapter 7: Computers and representation (pp. 83-92). Chapter 8: Computation and intelligence (pp. 93-106). Chapter 9: Understanding language (pp. 107-124). In Understanding computers and cognition. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.

Session 5 -- October 1
Topic: Cognitive Scaffolding: Augmentation
Required readings:
Engelbart, D. C. (1963). A conceptual framework for the augmentation of man’s intellect. In P. W. Howerton (Ed.), Vistas in information handling (pp. 1-29). Washington, D.C.: Spartan Books.
Clark, A. (2003). Chapter 3: Plastic brains, hybrid minds (pp. 59-87). In Natural-born cyborgs: minds, technologies and the future of human intelligence. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Norman, D. (1993). Chapter 4: Fitting the artifact to the person (pp. 77-113). Chapter 9: Soft and hard technology (pp. 221-242). In Things that make us smart. Cambridge: Perseus Books.
Bush, V. (1996/1945). As we may think. Interactions, 3(2), 35-46. Originally published in Atlantic Monthly, 176 (1), 101-108. Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm
Krug, S. (2000). Introduction: Read me first (pp. 2-9). Chapter 1: Don't make me think! (pp. 10-19). Chapter 2: How we really use the web (pp. 21-29). Chapter 3: Billboard design 101 (pp. 31-39). Chapter 4: Animal, vegetable or mineral? (pp. 41-43). In Don't make me think: a common sense approach to web usability. Indianapolis: New Riders.
Essay assignment:
After you have completed the required readings, write a short (two- to three-page) essay discussing how the conceptual structure of a website can or cannot function as a kind of cognitive scaffolding. Incorporate in your essay ideas presented in the required and/or recommended readings, your understanding gleaned from previous classes and/or your personal intuitions regarding cognitive scaffldings.
Recommended readings:
Brown, J.S. & Duguid, P. (2000). Chapter 2: Agents and angels. In The social life of information (pp. 35-62). Boston: Harvard University Press.
Schank, R., and Kass, A. (1988). Knowledge representation in people and machines. In U. Eco, M. Santambrogio and P. Violi (Eds.), Meaning and mental representation(pp. 181-200). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Session 6 -- October 8
Topic: Cognitive Scaffolding: Communities of Practice/Communities of Knowledge
Required readings:
Norman, D. (1993). Chapter 6: Distributed cognition. In Things that make us smart (pp. 139-153). Cambridge: Perseus Books.
Brown, J.S. & Duguid, P. (2000). Organizational learning and communities of practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation. In E.L. Lesser, M.A. Fontaine & J.A. Slusher, Knowledge and communities (pp. 99-121). Boston: Butterworth Heinemann.
Dourish, P. (2001). Chapter 3: Social computing (pp. 55-97). In Where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bannon, L. and Bødker, S. (Accessed 1999.02.09). Constructing common information spaces. Available at: http://www.ul.ie/~idc/library/papersreports/LiamBannon/ECSCW.htm
Garrett, J.J. (2003). Introduction (pp. 1-4). Chapter 1: User experience and why it matters (pp. 6-19). Chapter 2: Meet the elements (pp. 20-36). Chapter 3: The strategy plane (pp. 38-59). Chapter 4: The scope plane (pp. 60-82). In Elements of user experience: user-centered design for the web. Boston: New Riders.
Krug, S. (2000). Chapter 3: Billboard design 101 (pp. 31-39). In Don't make me think: a common sense approach to web usability. Indianapolis: New Riders.
Essay assignment:
After you have completed the required readings, visit the website of IU's School of Law [available at http://www.law.indiana.edu/ ]. After reviewing the School of Law's website, write a statement that defines 1) what you presume to be strategy of this site (site objectives and needs of intended users) and 2) its actual scope (the functional specifications and content requirements). Then provide an analysis of how the current scope of the site supports your assessment of what the strategy of this site is (or should be).
Recommended readings:
Brown, J.S. & Duguid, P. (2000). Chapter 3: Home alone (pp. 63-89). Chapter 4: Prctice makes process (pp. 91-115). Chapter 5: Learning – in theory and practice (pp. 117-146). Chapter 6: Innovating organization, husbanding knowledge (pp. 147-172). In The social life of information . Boston: Harvard University Press.
Jacob, E. K. (1994). Classification and crossdisciplinary communication: breaching the boundaries imposed by classificatory structure. In H. Albrechtsen and S. Oernager (Eds.), Knowledge organization and quality management: Advances in knowledge organization, vol. 4 (pp. 101-108). Frankfurt/Main: Indeks Verlag.
Lesser, E. L. & Prusak, L. (2000). Communities of practice, social capital and organizational knowledge. In E.L. Lesser, M.A. Fontaine & J.A. Slusher, Knowledge and communities (pp. 123-131). Boston: Butterworth Heinemann.
Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization 7(2), 225-246.
Wenger, E., & Snyder, W. (2000). Communities of practice: the organizational frontier. Harvard Business Review (January-February 2000), 139-145.

Session 7 -- October 15
Topic: Cognitive Scaffolding: Lumping and Splitting
Required readings:
Zerubavel, E. (1991). Islands of meaning (pp. 5-20). The great divide (pp. 21-32). The social lens (pp. 61-81). In The fine line: making distinctions in everyday life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brown, R. (1958). How shall a thing be called? Psychological Review 65, 14-21.
Norman, D. A. (1983). Some observations on mental models. In D. Gentner and A. L. Stevens (Eds.), Mental models (pp. 7-14). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Norman, D. A. (1988). Chapter 3: Knowledge in the head and in the world (pp. 54-80). In The design of everyday things. New York: Doubleday.
Garrett, J.J. (2003). Chapter 5: The structure plane (pp. 84-111). In Elements of user experience: user-centered design for the web. Boston: New Riders.
Essay assignment:
After you have completed the required readings, return to the website of IU's School of Law [available at http://www.law.indiana.edu/ ]. Write a short (two- to three-page) analysis of the "islands of meaning" Your analysis should consider, at a minimum: (1) the explicit and/or implicit categories indicated by the organization of content; (2) why you think this particular organizational structure was adopted; and (3) how the organization of the website accords with your expectations for an academic website. Include in your essay ideas presented in the required and/or recommended readings, your understanding gleaned from previous classes and/or your personal intuitions regarding the organizational structure of this store.
Recommended readings:
Tesar, P. (1991). The other side of types. In G. Rockcastle (Ed.) Midgård Monographs of Architectural Theory and Criticism, Number 2 (pp. 165-175).
Ward, T.B. (1993). Processing biases, knowledge and context in category formation. In G.V. Nakamura, D.L. Medin & R. Taraban (Eds.), Categorization by humans and Machines. Psychology of learning and motivation 29, (pp. 257-281). San Diego: Academic Press.

Session 8 -- October 22
Topic: Architecture of Websites: Design and Evaluation
Required readings:
Farkas, D.K. & Farkas, J.B. (2002). Chapter 3: Designing and building the project (pp. 49-56 only). Chapter 7: Hierarchies and organizing content (pp. 148-169). Chapter 13: Non-hierarchical information structures (pp. 305-329). Chapter 12: Site maps, search and indexes (pp. 276-301). In Principles of Web design. New York: Longman.2
Mok, C. (1996). Information design. In Designing business: multiple media, multiple disciplines (pp. 95-123). San Jose, CA: Adobe Press..
Toub, S. (2000). Evaluating information architecture: a practical guide to assessing web site organization. Argus Associates. http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/evaluating_ia.pdf
Gullikson, S. et al.. (1998). The impact of information architecture on academic web site usability. The Electronic Library 17 (5), 293-304.
Garrett, J.J. (2003). Chapter 7: The surface plane (pp. 140-159). In Elements of user experience: user-centered design for the web. Boston: New Riders.
Krug, S. (2000). Chapter 7: The first step in recovery … (pp. 97-129). In Don't make me think: a common sense approach to web usability. Indianapolis: New Riders.
Essay assignment:
After you have completed the required readings, write a short (two- to three-page) essay comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the different organizational architectures discussed in the readings. Incorporate in your essay ideas presented in the required and/or recommended readings, your understanding gleaned from previous classes and/or your personal intuitions regarding various web structures.
Recommended readings:
Farkas, D.K. & Farkas, J.B. (2002). Chapter 1: Understanding the Web: a designer’s view (pp. 1-22). Chapter 9: Designing effective links (pp. 202-217). In Principles of Web design. New York: Longman.2
Garrett, J. J. (2001). A visual vocabulary for describing information architecture and interaction design. Available at: http://www.jjg.net/ia/visvocab
Haverty, M. (2002). Information architecture without internal theory: an inductive design process. JASIST 53 (10), 839-845.
Large, A., Beheshti, J. & Cole, C. (2002). Information architecture for the Web: the IA matrix approach to designing children's portals. JASIST 53 (10), 831-838.
Reiss, E.L. (2000). Practical information architecture: a hands on approach to structuring successful web sites. Harlow, UK: Addison-Wesley. [The following chapters may be especially helpful: Chapter 8: Putting together the first structure (pp. 83-96); Chapter 9: Getting it down on paper (pp. 97-104); Chapter 10: Calling things by their right name (pp. 105-111); Chapter 11: Structuring the lower levels (pp. 112-119); Chapter 14: Refining the first structure (pp. 141-144).]
Shiple, J. (1998). Information architecture tutorial. webmonkey. Available at: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/design/site_building/tutorials/tutorial1.html
Toms, E. G. (2002). Information interaction: providing a framework for information architecture. JASIST 53 (10), 855-862.
Wallace, J.S. [Uncle Netword]. (Accessed 2001.08.14). Information architecture. Available at: http://uncle-netword.com/articles/writeweb3.html

Session 9 -- October 29     Website evaluation I
Topic: Organizing Knowledge: Order and Organization for Navigation
Required readings:
Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (1998). Organizing knowledge. Available at: http://slofi.com/organizi.htm
Farkas, D.K. & Farkas, J.B. (2002). Chapter 6: Hypertext theory and node-link diagrams (pp. 123-146). In Principles of Web design . New York: Longman.2
Dillon, A. (1996). Myths, misconceptions, and an alternative perspective on information usage and the electronic medium. In J.-F. Rouet et al. (Eds.), Hypertext and cognition (pp.25-42). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Garrett, J.J. (2003). Chapter 6: The skeleton plane (pp. 112-139). Chapter 8: The elements applied (pp. 160-173). In Elements of user experience: user-centered design for the web. Boston: New Riders.
Krug, S. (2000). Street signs and breadcrumbs (pp. 51-95). In Don't make me think: a common sense approach to web usability. Indianapolis: New Riders.
Recommended readings:
Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P. (1998). Chapter 4: Designing navigation systems. In Information architecture for the World Wide Web (pp. 47-71). Beijing: O’Reilly.
Shedroff, N. (1999). Information interaction design: a unified field theory of design. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information design (pp. 267-292). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Wurman, R.S.. (2001). LATCH. In Information anxiety 2 (pp. 40-45). Indianapolis, IN: Que

Session 10 -- November 5
Topic: Organizing Knowledge: Labeling Systems and Indexing Languages
Required readings:
Buckland, M. (1999) Vocabulary as a central concept in library and information science. In T. Arpanac et al. (Eds.), Digital libraries: interdisciplinary concepts, challenges, and opportunities. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science [CoLIS3] 23-26 May 1999, Dubrovnik, Croatia, (p 3-12. Zagreb: Lokve. Available at: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~buckland/colisvoc.htm
Schwartz, C. (2001). Controlled vocabularies. In Sorting out the Web: approaches to subject access (pp. 83-108). Westport, CN: Ablex Publishing.
Batty, D. (1998). WWW -- Wealth, Weariness or Waste: Controlled vocabulary and thesauri in support of online information access. D-Lib Magazine, November 1998. Available at: http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/edoc/aw/d-lib/dlib/november98/11batty.html
Lancaster, F. W. (1998). Natural language versus controlled vocabulary: some general considerations. In Indexing and abstracting in theory and practice, 2nd ed. (p. 227-232). Champaign, IL: Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois.
Essay assignment:
After you have completed the required readings, write a short (two- to three-page) essay evaluating the effectiveness of indexing by extraction and indexing by assignment by contrasting the advantages and disadvantages of natural language and controlled vocabulary. Incorporate in your essay ideas presented in the required and/or recommended readings, your understanding gleaned from previous classes and/or your personal intuitions regarding controlled vocabularies and natural language.
Recommended readings:
Batty, D. (1989). Thesaurus construction and maintenance: a survival kit. Database 12 (1), 13-20. [This is the second of two related articles and is introduced by Eddison & Batty's 1988 article published in Database 11 (6), 109-113.]
Eddison, B., & Batty, D. (1988). Database design: words, words, words -- descriptors, subject headings, index terms. Database 11 (6), 109-113. [This is the first of two related articles and introduces the 1989 article by Batty published in Database 12 (1), 13-20.]
Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P. (1998). Chapter 5: Labeling systems. In Information architecture for the World Wide Web (pp. 72-98). Beijing: O’Reilly.
Soergel, D. (1985). Chapter 12: Terminological control (pp. 213-222). Chapter 13: Index language functions (pp. 225-249). Organizing information , San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Session 11 -- November 12       Website evaluation II
Topic: Organizing Knowledge: Classification or Categorization?
Required readings:
Norman, D. (1993). Chapter 7: A place for everything, and everything in its place. In Things that make us smart (pp. 155-184). Cambridge: Perseus Books.
Jacob, E. K. (1991). Classification and categorization: drawing the line. In B. H. Kwasnik and R. Fidel (Eds.), Advances in classification research, vol. 2 (pp. 67-83). Washington D.C.: American Society for Information Science.
Kwasnik, B.H. (1999). The role of classification in knowledge representation and discovery. Library Trends 48(1), 22-47.
Hammond, T.H. (1993). Toward a general theory of hierarchy: books, bureaucrats, basketball tournaments and the administrative structure of the nation-state. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 3(1), 120-145.
Recommended readings:
Bliss, H. E. (1929). Chapter VI: Classes and concepts (pp. 118-133). Chapter VIII: Classification (pp. 142-157). In The organization of knowledge and the system of the sciences. New York: Henry Holt.
Bliss, H. E. (1934). Chapter II: The principles of classification for libraries. In The organization of knowledge in libraries (p. 21-46). New York: H.W. Wilson.
Jacob, E.K. (2001). The everyday world of work: two approaches to the investigation of classification in context. Journal of Documentation 57(1), 76-99.
Jacob, E.K., & Albrechtsen, H. (1997). Constructing reality: the role of dialogue in the development of classificatory structures. In I. C. McIlwaine (Ed.), Knowledge organization for information retrieval: Proceedings of the 6th International Study Conference on Classification Research, 14-16 June 1997, London (pp. 42-50). The Hague, Netherlands: International Federation for Documentation.
Murray, P.C. (Accessed January 5, 2001). Cooperative development of a classification of knowledge management functions. Available at: http://www.media-access.com/classification.html
Olson, H. (1994). Universal models: a history of the organization of knowledge. In H. Albrechtsen and S. Oernager (Eds.), Knowledge organization and quality management: Advances in knowledge organization, vol. 4 (pp. 72-80). Frankfurt/Main: Indeks Verlag.
Shera, J. H. (1965/1950). Classification as the basis of bibliographic organization. In Libraries and the organization of knowledge (pp. 77-96). Hamden, CT: Archon.
Shera, J. H. (1965/1957). Pattern, structure, and conceptualization in classification for information retrieval. In Libraries and the organization of knowledge (pp. 112-128). Hamden, CT: Archon.
Studer, P.A. (1977). Classification as a general systems construct. In B.M. Fry & C.A. Shepherd (Comp.), Information management in the 1980’s: Proceedings of the[40th] ASIS Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, September 26-October 1, 1977 (pp. 67, G6-G14, A1-A9). White Plains, NY: Knowledge Industry for American Society for Information Science.
Thompson, B., and Thompson, B. (1991). Overturning the category bucket. Byte, 16 (1), 249-255.

Session 12 -- November 19
Topic: Organizing Knowledge: Faceted Classification
Required readings:
Sanders, G. L. (1995). Introduction to data modeling concepts. In Data modeling (pp. 16-38). Danvers, Mass.: Boyd Frasier.
Classification Research Group. (1985/1955). The need for a faceted classification as the basis of all methods of information retrieval. In: L.M. Chan, P. Richmond & E. Svenonius (Eds.), Theory of Subject Analysis: A Sourcebook (pp.154-167). Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
Spiteri, L. F. (1999). The essential elements of faceted thesauri. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 28 (4), 31-47.
Jacob, E.K., & Priss, U. (In press). Non-traditional indexing structures for the management of electronic resources. In H. Albrechtsen and J.-E. Mai (Eds.), Advances in classification research, vol. 10. Medford, NJ: Information Today for the American Society for Information Science. Revision of: Jacob, E.K., & Priss, U. (1999). Application of faceted classification structures in electronic knowledge resources. In H. Albrechtsen and J.-E. Mai (Eds.), Proceedings of the 10th ASIS SIG/CR Classification Research Workshop (pp. 87-106). Silver Spring, MD: American Society for Information Science.
Morville, P. (2001, November 14). The speed of information architecture. Semantic Studios. Available at: http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/speed.html
Essay assignment:
After you have completed the required readings, write a short (two- to three-page) essay analyzing the organization of Yahoo! Browse the category structure of Yahoo! and identify materials dealing with classification. Then. using the search facility on Yahoo!, do a search on the term "classification". Where does “classification” occur in the organization of categories? Were you able to find all groupings of relevant materials by browsing? Why? Why not? How did the organization of Yahoo! facilitate or impede your search? Include in your essay ideas presented in the required and/or recommended readings, your understanding gleaned from previous classes and/or your personal intuitions regarding the organizational structure of Yahoo!
Recommended readings:
Binwal, J.C. & Lalhmachhuana. (2001). Knowledge representation: concept, techniques and the analytico-synthetic paradigm. Knowledge Organization 28(1), 5-16.
Music Library Association. Working Group on Faceted Access to Music. (Accessed 12.30.1999). Discussion paper: Faceted access to music: possibilities and ramifications. Available at: http://www.music.indiana.edu/tech_s/mla/
Priss, U. (2000). Comparing classification systems using facets. In C. Beghtol, L.C. Howarth and N.J. Williamson, Dynamism and stability in knowledge organization: proceedings of the Sixth International ISKO Conference, 10-13 July 2000, Toronto, Canada (pp. 170-175). Würzburg, Germany: Ergon Verlag.
Priss, U., and Jacob, E.K. (1999). Utilizing faceted structures for information systems design. In L. Woods (Ed.), Knowledge, Creation, Organization and Use: Proceedings of the 62nd ASIS Annual Meeting (pp. 203-212). Medford, NJ: Information Today.

Thanksgiving Break -- November 26

Session 13 -- December 3 Website       evaluation III
Topic: Organizing Resources: Metadata and Ontologies
Required readings:
Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J. & Lassila, O. (2001). The semantic web. Scientific American (May 2001). Available at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/2001/0501issue/0501berners-lee.html
Metadata
Berners-Lee, T. (1997). Axioms of web architecture: metadata. Available at: http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Metadata
Duval, E. et al. (2002). Metadata principles and practicalities. D-Lib Magazine 8(4). Available at: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april02/weibel/04weibel.html
Milstead, J., & Feldman, S. (1999). Metadata: cataloging by any other name … . Online (January 1999). Available at: http://www.cbuc.es/5digital/1.pdf Also available at: http://www.onlineinc.com/onlinemag/OL1999/milstead1
Ontologies
Jacob, E.K. (2003). Ontologies and the semantic web. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 9(4), 19-22. Available at: http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Apr-03/Jacob.pdf
McGuinness, D.L. (2002). Ontologies come of age. In D. Fensel et al. (Eds.), Spinning the Semantic Web:bringing the World Wide Web to its full potential. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Available at: www.ksl.stanford.edu/people/dlm/papers/ontologies-come-of-age-abstract.html
Recommended readings:
Metadata
Berners-Lee, T., & Fischetti, M. (1999). Chapter 13: Machines and the Web. Chapter 14: Weaving the Web. In Weaving the Web: the original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web by its inventor (pp. 177-209). San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco.
Bray, Tim. (1998). RDF and metadata. XML.com (June 9, 1998). Available: http://www.xml.com/pub/98/06/rdf.html
Chandrasekaran, B., Josephson, J. R., & Benjamins, V. R. (1999). What are ontologies and why do we need them? IEEE Intelligent Systems, 14(1), 20-26. Available at: http://computer.org/intelligent/ex1999/x1020abs.htm
Denenberg, R. (1996). Structuring and indexing the Internet. Available at: http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/papers/italy.html
Gill, T. (2000/1998). Metadata and the World Wide Web. In M. Baca (Ed.), Introduction to metadata: pathways to digital information. Available at: http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/intrometadata/2_articles/gill/index.html
[ NOTE: Introduction to metadata: pathways to digital information is available in its entirety at http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/intrometadata/index.html It also contains a crosswalk of metadata standards at http://www.getty.edu/research/
institute/standards/intrometadata/3_crosswalks/index.html -- a list of acronyms (many with links to online resources) at http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/
standards/intrometadata/5_acronyms/index.html -- and a glossary of metadata terms at http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/intrometadata/4_glossary/index.html ]
Gilliland-Swetland, A.J. (2000/1998). Setting the stage. In M. Baca (Ed.), Introduction to metadata: pathways to digital information. Available at: http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/intrometadata/2_articles/index.html
Lagoze, C. (1997). From static to dynamic surrogates: resource discovery in the digital age. D-Lib Magazine (June 1997). Available at: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june97/06lagoze.html
Libicki, M., et al. (2000). Knowledge organization and digital libraries. Appendix C in Scaffolding the new Web: standards and standards policy for the digital economy (pp. 75-90). Rand. Available at: http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1215/
Ontologies
Amann, B., Fundulaki, I., & Scholl, M. (2000). Integrating ontologies and thesauri for RDF schema creation and metadata querying. International Journal of Digital Libraries, 3(3). Available at: http://cedric.cnam.fr/AfficheArticle.php?id=14
Gómez-Pérez, A. & Benjamins, V. R. (1999). Overview of knowledge sharing and reuse components: ontologies and problem-solving methods. In Proceedings of the IJCAI-99 Workshop on Ontologies and Problem-Solving Methods (KRRS). Available at: http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/250906.html
Guarino, N. (1998). Formal ontology and information systems. In: N. Guarino (Ed.), Formal ontology in information systems: Proceedings of FOIS'98, Trento, Italy (p. 3-15). Amsterdam: IOS Press. Available at: http://www.ladseb.pd.cnr.it/infor/Ontology/Papers/FOIS98.pdf [Acessed from: http://www.ladseb.pd.cnr.it/infor/Ontology/Publications.html ]
Guarino, N., & Giaretta, P. (1995). Ontologies and knowledge bases: towards a terminological clarification. In N. Mars (Ed), Towards very large knowledge bases: knowledge building and knowledge sharing (pp. 25-32). Amsterdam: IOS Press. Available at: http://www.ladseb.pd.cnr.it/infor/Ontology/Papers/KBKS95.pdf [Acessed from: http://www.ladseb.pd.cnr.it/infor/Ontology/Publications.html ]
Kim, Henry. Predicting how ontologies for the Semantic Web will evolve. Communications of the ACM. 2002; 45(2):48-54. Available at: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=503124.503148
Smith, B. (1995). Formal ontology, common sense and cognitive science. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 43, 641-667. Available at: http://wings.buffalo.edu/philosophy/ontology/focscs.htm

Session 14 -- December 10       Take-home exam due
Topic: Organizing Resources: [Mis]Understanding Systems of Organization
Required readings:
Rosenfeld, L. & Morville, P. (1998). Chapter 3: Organizing information. In Information architecture for the World Wide Web (pp. 22-46). Beijing: O’Reilly.
Essay assignment:
After reading Chapter 3: Organizing information of Information architecture for the World Wide Web by Rosenfeld & Morville (pp. 22-46), critique the authors' understanding (or lack thereof) of systems of organization in light of earlier course readings, class lectures and class discussions.

Addendum:
Topic: Organizing Resources: The Zachmann Framework
Required readings:
Attinger, M. (1993). Integrated information management: a real world theory. Records Management Quarterly27 (3), 12-16, 30-31.
Cook, M. (1996). Chapter 2: The business approach to enterprise information architecture design (pp. 41-61). Chapter 3: The ballpark view of the process architecture (pp. 63-76). In Building enterprise information architectures: Reengineering information systems. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.
Goedvolk, H., de Bruin, H., & Rijsenbrij, D. (Accessed on 2001.08.13). Integrated architectural design of business and information systems. Available at: http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/271852.html
Hay, D. C. (1997). The Zachman framework: an introduction. The Data Administration Newsletter (1). Available at: http://www.tdan.com/i001fe01.htm
Hay, D. C. (1998). Patterns and the Zachman framework. The Data Administration Newsletter (4). Available at: http://www.tdan.com/i004fe07.htm
Horton, F.W. (1989). Information architectures: the information resources entity modelling approach. ASLIB Proceedings 41 (11/12), 313-318.
Kettinger, W., Teng, J., and Guha, S. (1996). Information architectural designs in business process reengineering. Journal of Information Technology 11, 27-37.
Laudato, N. & DeSantis, D. (1995). Reshaping the enterprise through an information architecture and process reengineering. Cause/Effect 18 (4), 30-31, 36-42.
Perisasamy, K.P. & Feeny, D. (1997). Information architecture practice: research-based recommendations for the practitioner. Journal of Information Technology 12, 197-205.
Sowa, J.F. & Zachmann, J. A. (1992). Extending and formalizing the framework for information systems architecture. IBM Systems Journal 31 (3), 590-616.
Zachmann, J. A. (1987). A framework for information systems architecture (pp. 276-282 only). IBM Systems Journal 26 (3), 276-292.
Topic: Organizing Resources: Knowledge Mapping
Ahmed, K. (2002). Introducing topic maps: a powerful, subject-oriented approach to structuring sets of information. XML Journal 3(10). Available at: http://www.sys-con.com/xml/articl
Garshol, L. M. (2002). What are topic maps? XML.com (11 Sept. 2002). Available at: http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/2002/09/11/topicmaps.html
Hansen, Y. M. (1999). Visualization for thinking, planning and problem solving. In R. Jacobson (Ed.), Information design (pp. 193-220). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Horn, R. E. (2001). Knowledge mapping for complex social messes. A presentation to the Foundations in the Knowledge Economy at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, July 16, 2001. Available at: http://www.stanford.edu/~rhorn/SpchPackard.html
Pepper, S. (2002). The TAO of topic maps: finding the way in the age of infoglut. Available at: http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tao.html
Rogers, R. & Marres, N. (2000). Landscaping climate change: A mapping technique for understanding science and technology debates on the World Wide Web. Public understanding of science 9, 141-163.
Topic: Knowledge management
Falconer, J. (1999). The business pattern: a new tool for organizational knowledge capture and reuse. In L. Woods (Ed.), ASIS ‘99: Proceedings of the 62nd ASIS Annual Meeting, Washington DC, October 31-November 4, 1999 (pp. 313-330). Medford, NJ: Information Today for American Society for Information Science.
Lyman, P. (2001). Knowledge discovery in a networked world. In G. Bernbom (Ed.), Information alchemy: the art and science of knowledge management (pp. 43-65). New York: Josey-Bass.
McDermott, R. (2000). Why information technology inspired but cannot deliver knowledge management. In E.L. Lesser, M.A. Fontaine & J.A. Slusher, Knowledge and communities (pp. 21-35). Boston: Butterworth Heinemann.
Storck, J. & Hill, P.A. (2000). Knowledge diffusion through “strategic communities”. In E.L. Lesser, M.A. Fontaine & J.A. Slusher, Knowledge and communities (pp. 65-83). Boston: Butterworth Heinemann.
Zand, D. (1981). From knowledge to action (pp. 19-35). The management of knowledge (pp. 3-17). In Information, organization and power . New York: McGraw-Hill.