Subject Specialist:
Statistics and Data
U.S. Government Documents
814-865-0665
e-mail: swoods@psu.edu
Subject Specialist:
Statistics and Data
U.S. Government Documents
814-865-0665
e-mail: swoods@psu.edu
Course Name:
L St 370: Research Methods for Law and Government Information Resources
Semester:
Fall
Campus:
University Park (UP)
Instructor:
Stephen Woods
Penn State University Bulletin course description for L St 370
Library Studies 370 : Research Methods for Law and Government Information Resources is about:
You will be evaluated on:
You will develop these skills and demonstrate your progress through:
Before you take this course, you should understand basic legislative, judicial, and administrative processes. If you are not familiar with these, you may need to do some supplemental reading in order to do well in this course.
The workload for this course is continuous and the deadlines are firm. Attendance is graded and is important in order to succeed in this course. Please be prepared when you come to class - you may expect no less of us. Class participation is important for understanding the material. Make-up exams or assignments will not be given except in the case of religious holidays, excused absences, or illness. If you must miss class, prior notification is required if coursework is to be made up.
In fairness to the others in this course, please do not ask us to make exceptions to these expectations.
Days/Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:45 - 11:00 am [fall semesters only]
Location: 203 Paterno Library [unless otherwise noted in the class calendar in ANGEL]
At the completion of the course you should be able to:
understand the relationship between the various types of legal and government information
understand the functions of the federal government and the information it makes available to the public, as well as the structure of the information sources and the relationships among them
realize the value of judicial, executive, and legislative branch publications as primary information sources for various academic disciplines
utilize, in appropriate ways, the bibliographic and electronic tools used to access federal and legal information
develop research methods for using judicial, executive, and legislative branch information sources to find information that is useful for addressing problems in your chosen area of research
recognize and critically evaluate types of sources and their value and limitations
Semester-Long Class Project
Goal: We want you to understand how you would use the information you will be finding in this course in your professional and personal life.
Assignment: Select a problem that you feel passionate about that should be addressed by law. This issue may or may not already been addressed by congress, but selecting a topic that has been passed by congress will make your task much easier. All topics must be approved by the instructor.
Throughout the semester, you will be researching your topic using the publications generated by the legal process (i.e. cases, statutes, regulations, and hearings) as well as the publications of government organizations. The course will focus on publications that fall under four broad categories: legislative, executive, judicial, and statistical. For each category, you will submit a set of PowerPoint slides and/or brief write-up about how those publications informed you about your topic. At the end of the semester, each student will use these slides to develop and present a 5-minute PowerPoint presentation for the class on their topic.
Readings and Quizzes
Readings will be distributed periodically to supplement the lectures. If you are not keeping up with the readings you will find both the lectures and the exercises difficult. We are not able to cover in class all the sources discussed in the readings — the readings provide additional insights to sources. The readings will help you better understand how to complete the exercises and to better understand lecture content.
Examinations
There will be four examinations, one for each of the broad categories of publications: legislative, executive, judicial, and statistical. The final will be a comprehensive exam.
Citation Style
All sources located and cited in your answers must use the bibliographic citation formats described in Citing Government Information Resources and The Bluebook (both listed below).
One final request: When preparing your papers and exercises, write clearly and carefully to organize your answer and ideas. In addition, present your information on the page and/or PowerPoint slide in a clear manner.
Grades will be calculated on a standard grade scale.
In fairness to those who complete their assignments on time, all assignments, including the final exam, will not be accepted after the date due without prior permission.
All Penn State University policies regarding ethics and honorable behavior apply to this course. Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception and is an educational objective of this institution. All University policies regarding academic integrity apply to this course. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person and/or work previously used, or tampering with the academic work of other students. For any material or ideas obtained from other sources, such as the text or information you find on the Web, in the library, etc., a source reference must be given. Direct quotes from any source must be identified as such. All exam answers must be your own, and you may not provide any assistance to other students during exams. Any instances of academic dishonesty will be pursued under the University policies and regulations concerning academic integrity.
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, contact the Office for Disability Services (ODS) at 814-863-1807 (V/TTY). For further information regarding ODS, please visit the Office for Disability Services Web site.
In order to receive consideration for course accommodations, you must contact ODS and provide documentation (see the Office for Disability Services documentation guidelines). If the documentation supports the need for academic adjustments, ODS will provide a letter identifying appropriate academic adjustments. Please share this letter and discuss the adjustments with your instructor as early in the course as possible. You must contact ODS and request academic adjustment letters at the beginning of each semester.
Forte, Eric J. et al.. Fundamentals of Government Information : Mining, Finding, Evaluating, and Using Government Resources
Garvin, Peggy. Real World Research Skills : an Introduction to Factual, International, Judicial, Legislative, and Regulatory Research
Elias, Stephen and Susan Levinkind. Legal Research : How to Find and Understand the Law
Robinson, Judith Schiek. Tapping the Government Grapevine : The User-Friendly Guide to U.S. Government Information Sources
Cheney, Debora, Diane Garner, and Diane Smith. The Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources : A Manual for Social Science and Business Research
Harvard Law Review Association. The Bluebook : A Uniform System of Citation
