TEACHING ACTIVITY
Updated April 2021
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Since arriving at Southern Miss in 2013, I have taught or supervised as many as seventeen different courses in the School of Library and Information Science’s degree and certificate programs. Three were undergraduate courses; the remaining fourteen were graduate courses in the Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) and Graduate Certificate in Archives and Special Collections programs. Course subjects have included library management, archival studies, special collections, information technology in libraries, the history of the book, the history of libraries, and research methods in LIS.
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Undergraduate courses:
LIS 415 Rural and Small Public Libraries, LIS 433 History of the Book, LIS 457 Information Technology in Libraries
Graduate courses:
LIS 533 History of the Book (Part1 & Part 2), LIS 557 Information Technology in Libraries, LIS 580 British Studies: Studies in Librarianship, LIS 587 British Studies: Research, LIS 605 Library Management, LIS 631 History of Libraries and Librarianship, LIS 636 Foundations of Librarianship, LIS 646 Introduction to Archival Theory and Practice, LIS 647 Introduction to Archival Organization, LIS 648 Archival Practicum, LIS 668 Research Methods in Library and Information Science, LIS 689 Library Practicum, LIS 691 Special Topics: Digital Humanities, LIS 692 Special Problems: Library Design.
Since 2013 I have created new courses, revived old courses and significantly modified existing courses. The significant modification was of LIS 636, previously known as “The Library in American Society” but is now “The Foundations of Librarianship.” By modifying some of the original assignments and substantially changing the schedule of weekly topics, I re-plotted the course into a more issues-based program of study that mixes historical information with current events. The two new graduate courses include: LIS 691, a directed study course about librarianship and the digital humanities; and LIS 692, which explores library planning and design and covers the basics of arranging public, academic, and school library spaces. In the summer of 2016, I revived LIS 433 and 533 (undergraduate and graduate courses, respectively), which cover the history of the book from ancient times to the present (as well as basic bibliography); and in Spring 2019, I redeveloped LIS 415 (formerly a course about library management) into a course about Rural and Small Public Libraries. In Spring 2021, I launched another new course, LIS 631 History of Libraries and Librarianship, which examined the history of libraries in the Western world.
GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
In addition to teaching introductory courses in library and information science, I serve as one of the Program Advisers for the school's Graduate Certificate in Archives and Special Collections.
The program, which is available to MLIS and non-MLIS graduate students, introduces the fundamentals of archival science and practice. Courses cover introductory material such as: the archival profession's mission, ethics and values; the processing, organization, and description of materials; approaches to preservation; digitization and metadata; and digital libraries. For more information about the program's content or admission requirements, please contact me using the information on my Faculty page.
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BRITISH STUDIES: THE LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE STUDY-ABROAD PROGRAM
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I served as co-supervisor of the LIS British Studies courses (LIS 580 and 587) in Summer 2014 and 2015. The British Studies program in LIS is a month-long study abroad program hosted by The University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Library and Information Science. It takes students on guided, behind-the-scenes tours of libraries, archives and special collections in London, Oxford, Greenwich, and Edinburgh and connects them with many distinguished British librarians, archivists, and curators. The program carries six hours of credit from The University of Southern Mississippi.
In recent years, students have visited the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Shakespeare’s birthplace at Stratford-upon-Avon (where they also see a Royal Shakespeare Company performance), the British Museum Archives, the British Library, St. Paul’s Cathedral Library, the London Archaeological Archive and Records Center, the Barbican Centre Library, the National Maritime Museum Library and Archives in Greenwich, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens Art Library and Archives, the National Portrait Gallery’s photographic archives, the Maughan Library at King’s College, the University of Edinburgh’s New College Library Rare Book Collection, the Royal Geographic Society, Edinburgh’s Central Library, and the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. There are often optional day trips to places like Stonehenge, Winchester, Dover, the Houses of Parliament, and across the English Channel to Paris. Harry Potter fans are especially delighted to visit the Elephant House coffee shop in Edinburgh and Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford.
Students demonstrate their learning through several course assignments tailored to their experiences abroad, among them a reflective blog and a research paper on an approved topic related to British libraries, archives, special collections, or services.
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