INLS 500
Human Information Interactions
We interact with information all day, every day. We wake up, open our eyes, and the quality of light, and the temperature in the room tells us what kinds clothes we might need to wear that day. We go to the refrigerator and see that we are out of milk, so it’s just coffee for breakfast (again). Most of us go to work and interact with systems that other people have developed to help us manage our information throughout the day. We check our email. We look at Twitter. We “Google” for information – all the time! We set up and keep track of meetings with friends and colleagues on some sort of calendar. We look up recipes. We chat with friends. We learn how to do things. We remember how to do things. These are all examples of systems that manage our interaction with information. Some of these systems were created for our use (Facebook, Google, email, calendaring, the library catalog, etc.), some we create ourselves (how we “chat to friends,”), and some are a function of our lived biological experience (“open our eyes and judge the quality of light”).
Library and Information Science is fundamentally interested in how humans interact with information, specifically information within those formally created systems. People have information needs. They look for information. They use information. They organize information. They collect. Analyze. Judge. Our field functions to serve those needs, guide those interactions, and ensure a system’s utility and usefulness. This course provides a foundation for all other courses at SILS, introducing students to the core concepts in our field.
Assessment in this class was based on a semester-long project of developing a literature review on one particular user group’s needs. In the first semester students wrote a paper, in the second, they developed posters and had a poster session. More information about the poster session can be found in the Extras! page.
This course was based on materials developed by Amelia Gibson and Barbara Wildemuth