UNIVERSITY OF
LIS 3100 Seminars in
Professional Issues: Rethinking Professional Education
Instructor:
Richard J. Cox, Professor
Office Number and Telephone: SIS 614;
Office
Hours: By appointment or anytime by e-mail
E-mail:
rcox@mail.sis.pitt.edu or
rjcox111@comcast.net
Homepage:
http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/~rcox
Purposes of This Course. The purposes of
this course are threefold:
First, the course will introduce
doctoral students to the nature, history,
and purpose of higher education, with a focus on the American university
system. The course will have students consider the idea of the university,
the role of faculty, the place of professional schools in higher education, the
debate about the nature of the modern university, the responsibilities of
faculty (scholarship, reading, teaching, writing, and publishing), and
challenges to the university’s historic mission as played out by new
limitations on intellectual property and free speech. Each week students will
be responsible for reading the assigned book and participating in an in-depth
class discussion about the book.
Second, students will learn about critical issues confronting Schools of
Library and Information Science by working on a research paper on some aspect
of these schools and regularly reporting on progress made on their papers
during class sessions. Students also are
required to read and comment on a draft manuscript of the instructor’s own
ideas about professional education presented via a blog (more details about
this and how to access it will be made available at the first class). These
activities will provide doctoral students a foundation for understanding
both the nature of these schools as well as the research being conducted about
the education of librarians, archivists, and other information
professionals. The intention of the
instructor is to write a longer critical analysis of professional education as
seen in the changing nature of LIS education as witnessed by the recent
I-School movement.
Third, this course will give
students the opportunity to prepare a
publishable research essay or to make progress on their own dissertation
research (if there is a connection to professional education). The requirement for producing this
research paper is the student's identification of an appropriate topic, a
particular methodology, and sources. For this course, the paper must
focus on some aspect of the education of information professionals – and there
are some specific topics the instructor would like to see researched. If
a student is planning to do a dissertation on some aspect of education, then
they will be permitted to work on a paper supporting their own research
project. More about this research paper and its requirements have been provided
below.
Doctoral students completing this
course will have a firm foundation in the nature of professional education in
the university, some understanding of the changing nature of library and
information science, and the issues and challenges being faced by higher
education today. This course should
assist students to explore their own interests in preparing to assume faculty
positions in the university, acquiring a better sense of what professional
schools and their faculty members do.
Research Paper. The doctoral student's main
obligation is to prepare a research essay with potential for publication or
that is directly connected to the student’s ongoing dissertation research. The
focus of this course allows the student to examine most any topic related to
the role, debate about the role, and other controversies and challenges facing
the education of library and information professionals. Students should select
a topic of interest to them or that supports the preparation of a dissertation
proposal or the dissertation itself (depending on how far along they are in the
doctoral program). Students should select a topic in which there is an ample
array of available resources for completing a study or a topic within the term
that this course is being offered.
Since the instructor was recently
elected LIS program chair, he has a number of topics he is interested in seeing
doctoral students conduct some research in about the state of LIS
education. These topics (additional
topics may be identified by the instructor at the start of this course) are as
follows:
§ The changing status and role of historical topics, such as the history of print and publishing, in the LIS curriculum.
§
The role of adjunct faculty in LIS
graduate education.
§
The definition of primary professional
knowledge as seen by the core curriculum in the MLIS degree.
§
The definition of core knowledge in
LIS doctoral programs.
§
The role of doctoral programs in
contributing to the scholarly and research literature supporting library and
information science.
§
The implications of replacing
“library” with “information” as the critical domain of the education of
librarians, archivists, and other information professionals.
Students will be expected to have
immersed themselves in the relevant professional and research literature,
examined the current web sites of the LIS schools, and contacted (if necessary)
the schools for additional information.
Course Requirements. Each student will
be expected to complete three major assignments.
First, each student will be expected
to complete the readings below and to be prepared to discuss them in class.
Students are expected to have read the required readings. Each doctoral student
will be expected to lead the class in discussion of at least one particular week's readings, with the
topics and dates to be assigned at the beginning of the course. The student
will have one hour in which to summarize and evaluate the readings or to start
the discussion by presenting relevant (and perhaps controversial) issues. Each
student leading this discussion will be expected to highlight aspects of the
readings relevant to the understanding of the education of information
professionals. In preparation for leading the class, the student is
expected to do literature searches related to the topic and to comment on other
relevant readings (especially identifying sources available on the World Wide
Web). The student should send as an email attachment their list of other
sources to all the other students in the course on the Monday before the class
session.
Second, each student will be expected
to prepare a major research paper on some aspect of LIS professional
education. The paper must be original
and based on sources pertinent to their topic (archival sources for a historical
analysis, key or pivotal studies for an analysis of research trends, and Web
sites and interviews for current professional education issues). The length
should be about 25 to 30 pages, including footnotes or endnotes. The paper
should use the recent Chicago Manual of
Style, 15th edition, for citation forms. A portion of each class (generally
the beginning) will be devoted to progress reports by students on their papers,
as well as a brief presentation about the final version of the paper (with
critique by other students). The paper
is due on the last day of class (November 28) and must be submitted both in
paper and electronically as a Word document sent as an attachment to an email
message to the instructor. Students will
present briefly their papers on the last day of class.
Third, each student will be expected to read weekly the Chronicle of Higher Education. This publication is the premier source of news and information about higher education, and it is published in three sections: the news section; The Chronicle Review, a magazine of arts and ideas; and Careers, with career advice and hundreds of job listings. During each class session, the instructor will highlight higher education news pertinent to professional schools and library and information science education. Depending on the number of students enrolled in the seminar, there may be an opportunity for each student to have a subscription during the term at a substantially discounted rate.
Grading. The course grade will be based on
a 50/50 weighing for the paper and the class discussions of the readings and
the Chronicle of Higher Education.
All final papers must be handed in by
the last day of class, although students will be asked to make weekly reports
on their papers and to provide a final summary at the end of the course. No
incompletes will be given.
THE COURSE
Week One (August 29, 2006)
Week Two (September 5, 2006)
Jaroslav Pelikan, The Idea of the University: A Reexamination
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992).
Why do you want to prepare for a
career as an academic? The place to
start is with considering the mission of the university and its historical
place in society. John Henry Newman, the
English convert from the Anglican to the Catholic Church, served as rector in
Week Three (September 12, 2006)
John R. Thelin, A History of American Higher Education (
When one joins a faculty, he or she
becomes part of an institution with both a rich past and broad popular
perceptions of its role in society. Colleges and universities, like any
institutional form, have a history. They
were not immediate successes, and they have gone through many changes and faced
many challenges. Historian Thelin
provides an overview history of American higher education, considering the successes
and failures of these institutions and providing a foundation for understanding
the current debates about the university. Thelin considers the ongoing debate
about what should be taught in the university, the tensions between liberal
arts curriculum and professional training, government influence on the nature
of higher education, the role of private foundations, and the perceptions of
higher education through American culture such as films and popular magazines.
Week Four (September 19, 2006)
Donald Kennedy, Academic Duty (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997).
So, what does a faculty in a university do? Do they teach a little, but mostly engage in
important research and scholarship? Do
they have bosses, in the sense that most people in corporations and other
institutions do? Or, are faculty members
more like independent entrepreneurs?
Many outsiders such as policymakers and media pundits, as well as
parents often paying the bills, have questioned just what is happening with the
modern university. Friends and foes
alike want to know more about what is being taught, how efficiently the
university is being run, why costs seem to be out of control, and just how
practical or useful is the research being done by universities and their
faculties. Kennedy, the former president of
Week Five (September 26, 2006)
David F. Labaree, The Trouble with Ed Schools (
What does it mean to be a professor
in a professional school in the university?
Although one of the hallmarks of the rise of the modern university in
the past century has been the creation of professional schools and the
development of disciplines, the professional schools have often had a tenuous,
stormy relationship to the university.
Labaree, a sociologist, provides a candid analysis of one of these kinds
of professional schools, schools of education.
Labaree examines their poor reputation, lack of respect, a divided
loyalty between working practitioners and the demands of the research
university, their mission, and the challenges facing them – all relating to
issues faced by other professional schools such as in library and information
science. Understanding the position of
these schools in the university is critical to an individual preparing to be an
academic in a professional school.
Discussion with Dean Ronald Larsen
about changes in LIS education in general (especially the “I-School”
movement) and the
Week Six (October 3, 2006)
Derek Bok, Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher
Education (Princeton:
Studies and polemics have poured
from the presses decrying the takeover of the modern university by the
corporate mindset, where students become customers, everything is for sale, and
the financial bottom line is the critical metric for evaluating the state of
higher education. Regardless,
universities have to pay their bills, and the financial structure of higher
education has become more uncertain with declining government support and
greater competition for career training.
Bok, the former president of
Week Seven
James Axtell, The Pleasures of Academe: A Celebration and Defense of Higher Education
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998).
Many critics of higher education
attack faculty about their research activities, either blasting faculty for not
teaching enough or for engaging in research and writing that is incoherent,
jargon-laden, and irrelevant to modern life.
Axtell, professor of humanities at William and Mary, focuses on the
values of research as a central function of university life and faculty
responsibility, with, as the book’s title suggests, a keen eye for the joys of
being an academic. Axtell, among many
issues, considers the dangers of a creeping vocationalism throughout all of
higher education, a perspective suggesting some interesting challenges to
faculty residing in professional schools, the cradle of vocationalism in the
university. Axtell helps the reader,
especially one considering an academic life, to consider the forces that pull
in or push out someone from heeding the call to be a professor.
Discussion with Associate Dean
Martin Weiss about developing and using metrics for evaluating faculty
performance.
There will be no class on
Mark Edmundson, Why Read? (
Higher education has become
dependent on the World Wide Web and, as one result, the art and understanding
of the value of reading seems to have fallen by the wayside. Faculty members browse through the Web
looking for materials to use in lectures or to adopt as inexpensive, convenient
readings for students. Students search quickly
and often sloppily for materials to use in papers or PowerPoint
presentations. And, because of such
activities, reflection and learning are adversely affected. Some, especially those in library and
information science schools, defend the move from books and reading as due to
the decline of the importance of print, the creation of a new virtual library,
and the demands of teaching practical skills to individuals who will function
as information professionals. Yet,
reflective reading is critical to any individual who strives to be a scholar
and to function as an academic.
Edmundson, an English professor at the
Ken Bain, What the
Teaching is often something taken for granted, as a task anyone can do and anyone with a research agenda and accomplishments will be successful in doing. Yet, teaching is a complicated, time-consuming responsibility where there have been more failures than successes and, just to make it all that greater of a challenge, where one often has little sense of whether they have succeeded or failed. Fortunately, we are seeing more studies and descriptions of the characteristics of good teaching. Bain’s study of one hundred college teachers deemed to be successful provides a window into what characteristics enable a faculty member to engage students, capture their interests, and actually help them to learn. Bain, a historian of American foreign policy, helps anyone to understand why university teaching is not something to be seen as a burden or dismissed too lightly but rather that it is at the heart of the academic’s work and calling.
Frank L. Cioffi, The
Imaginative Argument: A Practical Manifesto for Writers (Princeton:
More than ever, the academic life is the writing life. Professors daily write memoranda, reports, grant proposals, study papers, and position papers, as well as scholarly and professional essays and books. One’s success in the university depends on the quality and quantity of writing. Cioffi, who has taught writing at a number of colleges, offers his book as a “manifesto for the protection, for the nurturance, of this endangered species” – the “written argument, which logically explains and defends a controversial idea.” He describes the process of writing essays, identifying and targeting audiences, planning the writing project, developing a thesis for the essay or monograph, being creative in the research paper or essay, and the importance of style, all focused on the “academic argument,” the prevalent form of nonfiction writing. Unlike other advice books on writing, Cioffi’s stresses the importance of imagination, including drawing on personal insight and feelings, to write lively and persuasive essays. Given the general sterility of writing in the information professions, looking for inspiration anywhere to improve one’s writing is an important activity. And, for anyone contemplating an academic vocation, reflecting on his or her own commitment to writing is an essential task.
William Germano, From
Dissertation to Book (
Every doctoral student, successful ones at least, will write a dissertation. The quality of the dissertation, not only its ability to demonstrate research competence, but its relevance to the profession and its potential for publication, will make or break a fledgling academic career. Since graduate schools and advisors spend little energy in explaining what to do with a dissertation once it is done, Germano (vice president and publishing director at Routledge) wrote this book. It offers advice on figuring out the marketplace, identifying what a broader readership means and revising for it, working with an editor and publisher, helping the beginning scholar understand why the dissertation is not yet a book, determining whether a dissertation should be expanded into a book, the basic common weaknesses to revising dissertations into books (audience, voice, structure. length), and planning and carrying out the revision. Germano offers this general advice and commentary about the nature of scholarly writing and publishing: “Scholars who write and publish are probably happier than those who don’t. This is a completely impressionistic take, I admit, and there are doubtless deeply depressed academics who nonetheless publish furiously. But like physical exercise, writing is the tiring thing that gives you more energy after you’ve done it. Writing is a risk, and risk is exciting, and excitement is something you will fight to sustain in your professional life as you age and your student don’t.” One’s commitment to writing for publication is something that anyone contemplating an academic career should contemplate as carefully as possible, since “Writing is a lifelong occupation, an avocation, a battle, and in it we find out what we think and who we are. Learn to practice the habit of writing. Set aside daily writing time and make the lined pad or the desktop screen your regular companion. Let it become your devotional exercise, even if it is the only devotional practice in your life. Your career as an employed scholar depends on it, though I think the rewards – for you, for the rest of us – are more important than that. What you write is a part of who you are, and in that sense every volume of your writing is a piece of autobiography.”
The Irony of LIS Schools in the University: Threats to Intellectual Property and Free Speech
Corynne McSherry, Who
Owns Academic Work? Battling for Control
of Intellectual Property (
Intellectual property has become one
of the great contested issues for librarians, archivists, and other information
professionals. It may seem ironic that
one of the hottest parts of the battlefields is right in the university itself. As faculty in these schools strive to
introduce students to the parameters and perils of intellectual property
issues, they may as well discuss their own work, labor that their university
may claim it owns. What happens to
lectures posted on the Web, distance education courses offered online, faculty
work-for-hire, and the notion about whether academic work is something that
should be owned at all? Examining the
law, historical cases, and interviews and other research, McSherry looks at how
universities are throwing up more controls over what it contends is its
property, the knowledge of the faculty the academy employs.
Donald Alexander Downs, Restoring
Free Speech and
Historically, the library and
archives professions have advocated for free and open access to
information. On one hand, university
faculty, including those at library and information science schools, have
become accustomed to ready access to information, much of it free to the
faculty member and certainly representing a much greater pool of information
than the normal citizen. On the other hand,
universities have become the site of speech codes and other restrictions on
free speech, intended to encourage diversity but often hindering speech, civil
liberties, and other traditional beliefs in academic freedoms. Downs, Professor of Political Science, Law
and Journalism at the University of Wisconsin, Madison examines such
restrictions through a number of cases primarily from the 1980s and 1990s that
have handicapped the free exchange of ideas essential for the university to
meet its historic mission. Respect and tolerance were weakened and an education
where ideas could be freely explored was often the casualty, suggesting an
environment that is challenging for faculty educating future information
professionals.
Week Fourteen (December 5, 2006)
ACADEMIC
As noted above, all students also
should be aware of the School’s Academic Integrity guidelines regarding this
and all other matters concerning grades. These guidelines are available
at http://www.sis.pitt.edu/academics/integrity.html.
Students with disabilities who
require special testing accommodations or other classroom modifications should
notify the instructor and the office of Disability Resources & Services (
Students who must miss an exam or
class due to religious observance must notify the instructor ahead of time and
make alternative arrangements.