In this intro-level class, we will examine the myriad different ways of understanding the contemporary information universe. As you'll see in perusing the syllabus, we cover a broad range of issues, from privacy and intellectual property to business and cultural issues. By completing this, you'll not be an "information professional," but you will know what that involves and you'll get a solid foundation for navigating and getting empowered in our information-driven world. Note that this home page will change throughout the semester to give updated information and current announcements. Feel free to bookmark it for easy access. Also note that this site will be used instead of UM CourseTools to communicate with the class. Note, however, that we do use the drop boxes provided by CTools for you to submit your assignments. Finally, there are no texts to be purchased for this course[!]—all assigned readings are on this Web site. You should also be aware, of course, that this course is listed both in Sociology as well as in the School of Information. If you're considering going into the Informatics concentration, you should perhaps enroll under the SI listing.

Class Schedule

The course lectures will be from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, in 2260 USB (University Science Building).

Discussion sections are as follows:

• Section 002: Wednesdays, 12:00 to 1:00 pm - 706 BMT (Instructor: Colleen Theisen)
• Section 003: Wednesdays, 1:00 to 2:00 pm - B134 MLB (Instructor: Colleen Theisen)
• Section 004: Thursdays, 4:00 to 5:00 pm - 2402 MLB (Instructor: Miquelle Milavec)
• Section 005: Thursdays, 5:30 to 6:30 pm - B103 MLB (Instructor: Miquelle Milavec)

A Friendly Note:

You may have arrived here looking for a quick bit of info about texts we're using in the course. The good news is that you don't have to buy any books for this course. All of the readings are online, accessible through this site. At any time, please feel free to offer your feedback on the course, anonymously or in person. Finally, though perhaps off-topic for some of you, we are happy to announce the emergence of a Museum Studies minor. It's a new and innovative program, and you might want to check it out. Perhaps more relevant to this course and quite exciting as well is the recent establishment of an Informatics concentration (major). Check it out, as it's one of the hottest, most innovative programs in the country!

One More Thing…

You will often need the help of a reference librarian in this course, and you can do that easily by just using their chat reference services. Who knows?--you might just hear the voice of our own Miquelle Milavec!