This course examines the history and philosophy of books and printing from the origins of writing to the Internet, emphasizing the effects of changes in communication and information technologies. The focus is on the social, cultural, intellectual, scientific, and religious impacts of shifts in the media for preserving and transmitting information. This elective course in library and information science focuses on both scholarly and practical skills in the field of Book History. We begin with an overview of Book History as a sub-discipline of LIS. This course for librarians concentrates on the foundational terminology and techniques needed to prepare for roles in rare books and special collections in libraries and other institutions of cultural record.

This asynchronous online course in the historical and philosophical foundations of library and information science examines the idea of the library and the influence of librarianship and information science in intellectual and cultural history. We study the origins and development of libraries and related institutions (universities, archives, and museums) in light of revolutionary changes in communication and information media and technologies. The focus is on fundamental theoretical principles, ethics, assumptions, and values; the issues at the center of current debates in the literature; and the challenges and prospects for the future of the book, research, institutions, and the information professions.

This course in the emerging field of digital humanities (DH) focuses on issues at the intersection of information, the humanities disciplines, technology, and culture, as well as the contexts of the academy, libraries, archives, and museums. How is digital scholarship transforming humanities research and knowledge institutions in the era of “big data” and globally networked media and culture? Topics include theoretical frameworks and methods; approaches to meaning-making and interpretation; tools and techniques; digital storytelling; humanities informatics and data science; electronic texts and images, corpora, digital editions, archives, and image banks; text mining; corpus linguistics; geospatial analysis; visualization and simulation; games; and social media. Case studies from a range of humanities disciplines highlight the debates, and show how digital humanities techniques offer new ways to look at old problems, and open new research avenues that are not possible using traditional means.

This course is primarily designed for undergraduates in the teacher education program who seek to integrate technology into the curriculum. Attention centers on strategies for incorporating technology into learning and teaching to enhance “how” students think rather than “what” they think. The emphasis is on supporting higher order thinking and problem solving with technology.