Continuing Education Courses

What am I Supposed to Do with This (Taxonomy) Now?

3:00 - 4:45 pm ET each day

SLA Member Price: $149
Non-Member Price: $249 - comes with a complimentary one-year SLA membership!*

Content Level: Advanced
Total Number of Instructional Hours: 7-8
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Taxonomies are a great intellectual exercise and can be the basis for the entire Knowledge Organization System for a body of knowledge or the organization's collections and staff. The promises are great but the implementation is frequently fraught with missteps. Managers may see it only as a "library or information center" project. What else can you do with a taxonomy and how do you get it implemented in search or on the web site? How can it be enabled in commercial transactions and orders? How are taxonomies used as descriptions of products and services the company has for sale or to auto-index special collections? How can taxonomy be used as a way to identify personnel with shareable areas of expertise or as a way to monitor trends in an industry? What are some of the myriad of things taxonomies are used for? The variety of people working with taxonomy or taxonomy-adjacent work need to know what to do after those initial steps of understanding and building a taxonomy. Assuming the role of taxonomist allows wide influence and affects the organizational perspective. This course will cover these topics in the context of what you can do with your taxonomy and how to implement it.

Intended Audience: Taxonomists who have been working on taxonomies as their primary focus for two or more years. This course assumes basic knowledge of what a taxonomy/thesaurus is.

Instructors: Marjorie M.K. Hlava, President, Access Innovations, Inc., Heather Kotula, VP of Marketing and Communications, Access Innovations, Inc.

Chemical Information Sources, Requests, and Reference

Oct 20, 4:30 - 6:30 pm ET
Oct 22, 4:30 - 6:30 pm ET
Oct 24, 2:00-4:00 pm ET

SLA Member Price: $99
Non-Member Price: $199 - comes with a complimentary one-year SLA membership!*

Content Level: Fundamental
Total Number of Instructional Hours: 5-6
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The course takes a hands-on approach to introduce learners to the types of questions that chemical researchers ask and reference sources that can be used to answer them. It will provide an overview of the structure of the chemical literature, types of reference sources in the chemical sciences, unique access points for chemical information, and strategies for an effective search. Informal lectures, interspersed with hands-on reference questions, will compare and describe the major chemical information resources.

Intended Audience: Information professionals, with either new or continuing responsibilities for chemistry reference work, who have some familiarity with the language of chemistry. The course is also suitable for those who desire to update or augment their knowledge of both classic and newer chemistry reference sources.

Instructors: Judith Currano, Head, Chemistry Library, University of Pennsylvania, Dawn French

Ten Lessons for the Age of Disinformation

Oct 25, 26, 27, 28

12:00 - 2:00 pm ET each day

SLA Member Price: $149
Non-Member Price: $249 - comes with a complimentary one-year SLA membership!*

Content Level: Intermediate
Total Number of Instructional Hours: 7-8
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Ten Lessons for the Age of Disinformation will provide pedagogical techniques to teach SLA members how to cope with our current environment, which the author calls the “Age of Disinformation.” It provides a multifaceted approach in which each facet reinforces the others: (1) characteristics of the Age of Disinformation; (2) the varieties of false information; (3) knowledge, opinion, and second-hand knowledge; (4) deception and self-deception; (5) psychological factors for the acceptance and perpetuation of fake news; (6) cognitive authorities, such as the Washington Post or Fox News; (7) intellectual freedom, freedom of expression and social media; (8) information ethics, media ethics, digital ethics and the violation of ethical principles; (9) logical fallacies in disinformation campaigns; and (10) the benefits and limitations of information literacy, media literacy and digital literacy. Each lesson outlines the key ideas for each lesson and provides exercises to confirm the key points. There will be suggested exercises to do before the class begins (e.g., identifying fake news sites), discussions in which to engage and online exercises to do as the class progresses, such as identifying violations of ethical or logical principles or discussing kinds of cognitive authorities, such as the New York Times or Fox News, and their influence.

Intended Audience: Anyone interested in the diverse aspects of the Age of Disinformation and strategies to cope with them.

Instructor: Thomas J. Froehlich, Professor, Kent State University

Introduction to Systematic Reviews: Opportunities for Librarians

October 27, 28, 29, 30
12:00 - 1:00 pm ET each day

SLA Member Price: $99
Non-Member Price: $199 - comes with a complimentary one-year SLA membership!*

Content Level: Fundamental
Total Number of Instructional Hours: 4 hours
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The systematic review method is an important and effective research tool that is being adopted across the spectrum of academic disciplines, from the hard sciences to the social sciences and education. Sometimes called a “study of studies,” the systematic review uses rigorous and transparent procedures to find, evaluate, and synthesize the results of relevant research to answer a specific research question. The method can be used by researchers and information professionals to sum up the best available research on a specific question. This course will provide a strong foundation to the method and describe opportunities for librarians in providing patron services.

Intended Audience: Librarians or administrators interested in learning about systematic reviews and services for clients.

Instructors: Margaret Foster, Systematic Reviews & Research Coordinator, Texas A&M University, Carolyn Jackson, Agriculture & Life Sciences Librarian, Texas A&M University

*Complimentary one-year membership for non-member registrants is available for new members only.