PREREQUISITES:
MAS students: Completion of the MAS Core courses, plus permission of the instructor.
MLIS and Dual students: Some electives can be taken in conjunction with the MLIS Core courses; consult with the MLIS Program Chair for recommendations.
GOALS:
- Explore and integrate relevant theories, models, and academic/professional research about information seeking and use in diverse environments and/or with specific groups of people.
- Promote learning and reflection, and an evidence-based orientation to understanding and evaluating user needs.
- Foster an understanding of the theoretical and applied nature of human information interaction in relation to your future endeavours as information professionals.
OBJECTIVES:
Upon completion of this course you will be able to:
- Identify, analyze, and assess the information needs and practices of individuals, communities and organizations through research literature, primary source materials, and interactions with a research participant
- Apply an understanding of human information interaction to how information resources, services and systems are designed, used and evaluated, both within and beyond memory institutions
- Synthesize the research and professional literature to identify and analyze significant theoretical and practical questions in the area of human information interaction
- Design and execute a small research project informed by relevant theory, methods, and prior research
- Exemplify principles of ethical conduct in the design and conduct of a research project that involves a human participant
- Communicate your research project in an oral or poster presentation and journal article-style report
CONTENT:
- Human information interaction
- Constructs, models, theories, and approaches in human information interaction
- Information needs
- Strategies for interacting with information (e.g., browsing, searching, encountering)
- Information needs, behaviors and seeking of individuals and user groups
- Assessment and evaluation of information needs, seeking and use
- Human information interaction and the design of services, programs and systems
On this page