Preliminary schedule

	Date	Lecture topic	Assignment due
1.	January 24, 2006	Introduction and summary
2.	January 31, 2006	History	Past predictions
3.	February 7, 2006	Technology	Google book search
4.	February 14, 2006	Services*	Evaluation
5.	February 21, 2006	U. S. digital library projects	Sign up to describe a project
6.	February 28, 2006	Economics: in library	JSTOR and PLOS
7.	March 7, 2006	Economics: dot-coms	Your project idea
	March 14, 2006	No class; spring break.
8.	March 21, 2006	International DL projects	International sign-up
9.	March 28, 2006	Law: copyright	Argue Google case
10.	April 4, 2006	Law: privacy	Your project
11.	April 11, 2006	Digital preservation	Practical conversion
12.	April 18, 2006	Languages, Images
13.	April 25, 2006	Visit to Scholarly Communication Center 9am
14.	May 2, 2006	Collaborations and Futurism
15.	May 9, 2006	Student projects	Sign-up

* This lecture will be cut short so that LIS 556 can meet at Ocker & Trapp that afternoon.

The above list of topics is a guide; I seem to run a week or two late by the end of the semester. I would also like to arrange a visit to the Scholarly Communication Center in Alexander Library.

There is no textbook. If there is any class where reading from the Web ought to be enough, this should be it. If you feel that you would like a book, you can of course look at my own book: Understanding Digital Libraries (Morgan Kaufman, 2004; second edition of 1997 book). Other people have presented a different view of the subject, of course. For something more expansive see Bill Arms' Digital Libraries or for more technical detail read How to Build a Digital Library by Witten and Bainbridge. Chris Borgman's From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure is more international and people-oriented; Ann Bishop's recent Digital Library Use: Social Practice in Design and Evaluation has a variety of articles on how to evaluate digital libraries, but little on what you learn by doing these evaluations.

The grades will be half based on weekly assignments and half on a term project. Projects can be either a proposal to build a digital library or a proposal for a research project. Proposals to build a library will be encouraged to prepare a specific plan for using $2500 to buy scanning or conversion. See more at this assignment. Assignments may be turned in either on paper or via email.