LIS 599 - Directed Study

Course Outline:

Calendar Description:

Further study of special topics and issues, based on knowledge acquired in previous courses or on significant prior experience. Topics must be approved by the School.  Examples of previous projects include:

• Internet Privacy
• Critical Theory & LIS
• Knowledge Management
• An Exploration of the Role of Social Responsibility in Librarianship
• Children's Book Illustration
• Collection Development for Special Libraries
• Research in Academic Librarianship
• Competitive Intelligence 

Guidelines:

1. Areas generally deemed appropriate for Directed Study include: 
2. Further study in an area in which the student is interested, provided no other suitable course is available. 
3. Preliminary study or investigation designed to lay the groundwork for the student's thesis or non-thesis research project. Such a study must in itself produce tangible results. 
4. Methodologies appropriate to master's level thesis or research project work (e.g. testing of hypotheses, qualitative approaches, statistical inferences, systems analyses, historical analyses, qualitative analyses) are also deemed appropriate to the Directed Study.  
5. The results of the Study may be presented in the form of an essay, a report, a seminar, an analytical or descriptive bibliography, an annotated bibliography (providing it explores a new area or substantially updates a prior work), audiovisual presentation, or other format deemed appropriate.  
6. The Study should be carefully delimited to accord with its weighting (3 credits). Normally, a maximum of two Directed Studies (6 credits) may be taken as part of the MLIS degree program.  
7. The LIS 599 Course Supervisor must be a continuing full-time faculty member of the School of Library and Information Studies. All LIS 599 options depend on a faculty member's agreement to supervise the course.  A librarian or other information professional or another faculty member may also participate as a co-supervisor at the discretion of the LIS 599 Course Supervisor.

Procedures:

1. A student wishing to undertake Directed Study should approach her/his Program Supervisor or the proposed Course Supervisor for initial discussion of the suitability of the proposed study in light of the student's total program.  Interested students may also want to consult the University of Alberta, Industry Liaison Office's publication A Guide to Intellectual Property for Graduate Students.  
2. The Request for Approval  for the Directed Study must be submitted to the Course Supervisor prior to the term in which the Study is to be undertaken. Please state a condensed title of a maximum of 19 characters that can appear on your official transcript.  
3. Ethics review requirements as outlined in the Faculty of Education's Research Ethics Documents must be followed.  
4. The student's performance in the Directed Study will be evaluated and graded on the letter grading scale by the Course Supervisor.  
5. A copy of written work produced for the Directed Study will be kept on file by the Course Supervisor.

Course Relationships:

Pre-requisites: LIS 501, LIS 502, LIS 504, LIS 505, plus 4 electives.