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This module explores the concept of information and its relation to data and knowledge, examining the past, present and future of associated institutional repositories and collections (libraries, archives, museums, galleries, data vaults etc.) as well as different forms of information sources (tangible and non-tangible). The module contains both practical and theoretical components: students receive software training in Open Refine and work on a group data curation project in collaboration with The British Library, as well as working on an independent creative project to produce an animated GIF using digital archival content; while lectures/seminars cover topics such as information ethics (AI and algorithms, intellectual freedom, open access), records and collections, fake news, classification and taxonomies, forbidden archives, lost libraries etc. The module aims to engage students in a critical, interdisciplinary examination of the role institutions and collections play in validating and verifying information and information sources, and scrutinises the interplay between audiences, politics, aesthetics, material forms and the socio-economic, technological and socio-cultural elements in which information is situated.

The module assessments include:

1. Students working in groups on a digital scholarship project, choosing an institutional dataset (supplied by the British Library) which they will assess and improve, using data/metadata cleaning processes and knowledge gained in lectures/seminars and software training sessions.

2. Independently, students work on an individual project which draws on an institutional digital archive collection to create an animated GIF (using digitised archival data content) which is creatively transformed by the student to deliver a specific informational concept or idea.

3. A 1750 word essay on a subject or theme of student’s own choice: basing the thematic selection on any one (or more) of the topics covered during the module.

Teaching Delivery

This module is taught in 10 weekly lectures.

Indicative Topics

The module aims to engage students in a critical, interdisciplinary examination of the role institutions and collections play in validating and verifying information and information sources, and scrutinises the interplay between audiences, politics, aesthetics, material forms and the socio-economic, technological and socio-cultural elements in which information is situated.Ìý

Module aims and objectives

Upon successful completion of the module students will be able to:

1. Understand concepts, practices, standards and frameworks used in the information studies field, including those used by libraries, archives and museums.
2. Create, use and develop systems that assist in organising knowledge, information, records and archives, which support processes applied in the life cycle management of knowledge, information, records and archives.
3. Understand the conceptual, practical and cultural approaches to developing collections of resources and of the processes of planning, resources selection, acquisition, appraisal, selection, and de-selection.
4. Gain an awareness of the appropriate tools for organising, describing, retrieving, providing access to and exploiting resources, including training in data cleaning software (Open Refine) and the ability to apply this awareness in the use of the Open Refine tool to organise resource data.
5. Understand the conceptual, practical and cultural approaches to developing collections of resources and gain an awareness of the cultural, ethical, economic, legal, political, security and social issues surrounding the use of knowledge, information, records and archives by individuals and groups in organisations and society, at local, regional, national and international levels.Ìý