The collections of theses and reading courses taken by students in the Master of Library and Information Studies and Master of Information Management programs are organized according to the following taxonomy of research areas. This taxonomy was developed originally by the Association of Library and Information Science Education a number of years ago. While this taxonomy is valid in its own right, it may not fully reflect the areas of interest of the two SIM programs. The goal of this reading course is to develop a SIM taxonomy by which to organize the School’s collection of reading courses and theses. The student will:

• Conduct a literature review on existing taxonomies or vocabularies that reflect the information management field
• Conduct an analysis of the titles and abstracts of the collection of SIM reading courses and theses to extract key concepts and areas of study
• Analyse the existing taxonomy in light of steps (a) and (b) above
• Interview SIM faculty and staff about concepts to be included in the taxonomy
• Create a final taxonomy to be reviewed by SIM for official use.

This reading course will contribute to student learning and experience related to:

• Literature search skills
• Structure and development of taxonomies and controlled vocabularies
• Client engagement

Term: Winter, 2014

Interested students should contact Dr. Louise Spiteri