Course Description:
Information resources and services of the United States government,
their nature, use, acquisition and organization. The course will include some study
of the information resources and services of municipal and state governments, specifically
Texas.
Introduction to the Course:
This course is designed to provided students
with a fundamental understanding of the sources and bibliography of United States
government information. Many issues related to public information will also be
considered, including management of depository libraries, electronic dissemination of
government information, government information policy, and freedom of information and
security of government publication and research. Course methods will include
lecture, discussion, readings, problem sets, class presentations, and laboratory
work. Two major projects will be completed during the class. Each student will be
assigned to a group to prepare a report on a federal government agency. The final
report will be presented to the class by the group members. Each student will also
be required to prepare a legislative history on any legislation related to information
services, telecommunications, or libraries that was introduced and passed during the past
ten years. Other reports will also be assigned during the course.
Course Goals:
To establish government bodies as major and
unique publishers and to prepare students to access, select, use, organize, and administer
government publications in depository and non-depository libraries.
Course Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, students should know:
- The organizational structure of the Federal Government.
- The background and present responsibility of the Government Printing
Office and the Superintendent of Documents in government
publishing, in sale and distribution of public documents, and in the compilation of
catalogs and indexes of publications.
- The functions and relationships between selective and regional
depositories.
- The mechanics of administering separate or integrated public document
collections in depository and non-depository libraries.
- The principal tools and procedures for use in selecting documents.
- The importance of federally sponsored technical support literature,
much of which is exempt from depository distribution.
- The retrospective and current publications which are produced by the
Legislative Branch of the federal government.
- The various publications which are generated by the Presidency.
- Significant publications and types of publications which emerge from
the departments and agencies in the Executive Branch.
- The publications of the judiciary and the most important reference and
research aids for legal research.
- The role of the Internet in the electronic publication and
dissemination of government information.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able
to:
- Define, characterize, and give typologic descriptions of Federal
government information.
- Discuss Federal government information sources relative to the
structure and functions of the Federal government.
- Demonstrate knowledge of Federal government distribution services and
products.
- Identify and use appropriately major information sources for citation
verification, provision of lists of citations and provision of answers
to specific questions or requests for information, including selected computer-based
retrieval systems and the Internet.
- Describe methods and discuss problems in selecting, acquiring,
organizing and using Federal government information sources in information centers
and libraries.
- Analyze or evaluate services provided in the use of Federal government
information in any given environment.
- Utilize the publications of the judiciary and perform basic legal
research.
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GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION & ACCESS SERVICES
chandler@lis.admin.unt.edu