Course offerings

Explore the evaluation, selection, and use of books and other media and materials to meet the needs of children and young adults.

In this course, you will gain exposure to legal reference questions and the reference interview, investigate legal research sources, and beome familiar with the methods and strategies for conducting legal reference and basic legal research.

With the ongoing evolution of digital technologies, the creation and sharing of scholarly knowledge continues to change rapidly. In this course, we will explore historical developments, current issues, and ongoing debates in scholarly communication. We will also examine the critical roles of academic libraries and library professionals in the complex scholarly communication landscape. As we learn about topics such as academic publishing, open access and open scholarship, peer review, metrics and impact, copyright and fair use, open education, library values, and social justice, we will consider challenges and opportunities for librarians engaged in scholarly communication. In addition to building a broad understanding of key issues and areas of scholarly communication, students will develop more in-depth knowledge of a scholarly communication issue.

Examine inquiry models and information-seeking theories relevant to K-12 teaching and learning. Explore tools and resources for student learning and strategies for teaching specific information literacy skills within the context of a research-based inquiry.

History and ongoing evolution of instruction in library and information service settings; conceptions of information literacy; learning theories and pedagogical approaches; instructional design principles, including backward design; and reflective teaching practice.

Introduction to the concepts of information organization, representation, and classification. Consideration of different traditions of practice and user concerns.

Philosophical and social context, objectives, and methodology of evaluating, selecting, and managing library materials.

Introduction to the theoretical foundations, history, principles, and research surrounding the representation of information, digital collections, and data with metadata, with emphasis on concepts of standardization, infrastructure, formats, and exchange. Major topics will include metadata types, value and content standards, formats, data interchange standards and protocols. The course introduces participants to the examination and analysis surrounding issues of effectiveness, economics, values and audience surrounding different types of metadata applications. Provides background for further studies in information organization, preservation, and database management.

Introduction to the issues and trends in digital asset management and digitization initiatives, including planning and project management, asset delivery and management systems, interoperability and the importance of standards, copyright, metadata basics, digital preservation, and specific digitization processes for documents, images, video, and sound.

This course explores the life cycle of a digital library/collection through various critical lenses and hands-on experiences. The objective of the course is for students to obtain a solid understanding of the theoretical frameworks, technical processes, and technologies needed to build meaningful, ethical, and reusable digital libraries.

Introduction to structures and practices within the rapidly-evolving field of librarianship. prepares students for their graduate work here.

This course examines key issues, challenges, and opportunities in the creation, management, and leadership of nonprofit organizations. Attention is given both to internal organizational issues and to nonprofits’ relationships with key external constituencies. Among the topics to be considered are nonprofit creation, mission management, organizational leadership, funding strategies, partnerships, and the impact of the public policy environment. Readings and discussion will examine nonprofits in varied fields of activity (such as human services and culture). Assignments and exercises will be employed to help develop presentation and grant writing skills. The course is organized in a seminar format and will employ exercises and cases to translate broad themes to practical issues related to nonprofit strategy and management. Guest speakers will periodically join us to share their own experiences building and running nonprofits (additional speakers may be added).

Disaster events, like floods and fires, can cause severe damage and loss in cultural heritage collections. How will you respond when disaster strikes? This course introduces students to the fundamental preservation concepts, planning strategies, and applied response techniques that make a difference. The class will evaluate the physical impact of fire, water, soot, mold, and insects on varied media, including books, flat paper, audiovisual materials, and other items. Disaster planning exercises model proactive methods to minimize damage. Hands-on response drills enable students to practice salvage techniques, and to triage and prioritize impacted materials.

The purpose of this course is to provide theoretical and practical foundations for information professionals who wish to design and evaluate search systems and services, taking user-centered approaches. This course explores search user interfaces, search behavior, search interaction, search user experience, search as learning, search for creativity, and research methods for understanding information behavior and evaluating search systems. Students will learn search behavior across various contexts, including academic and professional settings, everyday life, and digital learning environments. Students will gain insights into how people interact with, use, and evaluate information in a variety of application areas, such as web search engines, domain-specific search systems, digital libraries, social search platforms, and generative AI-based systems.

Foundations of evaluation, including using the logic model, program evaluation, data gathering, analysis and reporting. Examples of evaluation and assessment in public, academic, and special are explored, with an emphasis on how libraries use data and evaluation to inform decision-making and support advocacy.

Explores the role of library and information organizations in communities, with a focus on building community relationships, engagement, and outreach.

In this class, we will explore different strategies for including games in collections across libraries, archives, and museums using case studies of specific institutions. We will also address unique qualities of digital and board games that make them challenging to existing practice in the field. Students will have hands-on experience with games through the semester.

Learning key data wrangling maneuvers in abstract and implementations in SQL, Excel, R Tidyverse, and Python Pandas. Maneuvers in data transformations include Nest, Pivot, Mutate (inc. separate/unite), Group/Summarize and Rectangling. Projects include working with "wild caught" data datasets (usually CSV or JSON) and computational notebook environments (e.g., iPython, Jupyter, Rmarkdown, Quarto). Fall 2024 has changes from previous syllabus now that we have Database Design and Introduction to Programming. Nonetheless, the previous syllabus is still useful as it links to course materials that show the teaching approach and type of assignments. http://howisonlab.github.io/datawrangling/#Schedule_of_classes

Exhibits are a powerful way for libraries, archives, museums, and cultural institutions to engage the public with their collections. This course offers students the opportunity to plan and install an exhibit, focusing on objectives such as: crafting a narrative around physical objects; drafting exhibit text; accommodating media preservation issues; building basic display supports; and publicizing the exhibit. Students will learn about the historical origins of modern-day exhibit practices and will visit and evaluate current exhibits on campus and in the Austin area.

Designed for students pursuing Texas Education Agency (TEA) certification in school librarianship. Examine the philosophy, objectives, and management of the school library with an emphasis on standards and competencies, and the roles of the school librari

Designed for students pursuing Texas Education Agency (TEA) certification in school librarianship. Examine the philosophy, objectives, standards, and management of the school library with an emphasis on the roles of the school librarian as an instructiona

This course will develop your skills to effectively manage a library, or information organization. We’ll be looking at problems faced by many types of libraries: public, academic, school, special. We’ll examine staffing, budget, collection development, patron behavior, and managing the expectations of users.

Designed for students pursuing Texas Education Agency (TEA) certification in school librarianship. 160 hours of field work in varied school library settings under the supervision of a qualified field supervisor and site supervisor.Offered on the credit/no credit basis only. Participants will not ordinarily receive monetary compensation. Additional information about the Practicum in School Libraries can be found at https://ischool.utexas.edu/programs/school-librarian-certificate/practicum

Records Management is the “field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use, and disposition of records…” (ISO 15489). This course introduces the principles and practices involved in managing physical and digital records and information in private and public sector organizations.

Examines personal recordkeeping and information management to explore the creation, management, and preservation of digital information. Includes current developments in digital technology that affect recordkeeping.

Study of audio recording through a chronological examination of the development of recording; basic care and preservation of recordings; Preservation of audio archives; and stability concerns of audiovisual media.

Ever wondered how libraries and archives safeguard historical materials for future generations? Preservation is the answer. In this course, students learn collections care strategies that enable today’s information stewards to protect our growing cultural record. Scientific foundations and practical exercises will address common preservation challenges, such as environmental control, mold, insects, pollutants, and light damage. Modern topics in health, safety, and sustainability will highlight the developing nature of the field. Students will evaluate preservation risks for books, paper, electronic media, and other collections materials.

Basic techniques for care and handling of bound materials including but not limited to sewing structure, minor mends, and enclosures.

Universities are merging computer science, information science, and data science into schools of computing. This course argues that the merger joins three distinct ways of knowing, each with its own lineage, founding myths, and blind spots. We trace their history from Mesopotamian archives through the postwar Information Shock that forged all three, then examine how they built the internet, social media, and AI without agreeing on what those systems were for. Generative AI is the next shock: a machine that co-authors exchanges with people rather than producing documents. Students work with AI all semester, developing a capstone project in public through weekly vlogs and peer reactions.

Deception is a fundamental feature of human interaction, and contemporary technologies have reshaped how it is produced, spread, and detected. This course examines that shift. We begin by reviewing theories and concepts from psychology and interpersonal communication (e.g., Truth-Default Theory) on how deception works and how people decide what and whom to trust. We then turn to how the affordances of contemporary technologies alter or sustain these dynamics, drawing on cases such as scams, manipulated media, and deceptive online self-presentation. Throughout, the course considers populations that may be especially vulnerable and what can be done to build resilience. Students apply these concepts through in-depth case studies in class and complete an original case study of a form of technologically mediated deception in a domain of their interest.