INFO - Information Studies

This course will provide a foundation for understanding critical issues in our information-centric society by exploring the role of information in society, politics, economics, and cultural environments. Students will explore such topics as misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, information overload, accessibility, information use, control, and ownership.

Students will engage with various resources in order to dissect complex issues regarding the historical, modern, and future information landscape. The course investigates the historical impact of information and information technology on access to and use of information and the changes that this development causes in the structure and operation of society.

This unique course draws from the fields of memoir, information studies, archival studies, and records management in addition to utilizing service learning. Students in this course engage with a Middle Georgia community as they learn two contrasting means of documentation: participatory/autobiographical and formal records management. By the end of the course, they will understand how to perform analyses on the way information is communicated in order to tailor their own information management strategy. They’ll also leave the course with a valuable practical skill: introductory records management skills.

This course aims to uncover the many layers of information filters we experience in this country. Some, like policymakers and media conglomerates, are probably obvious, others – like search engine developers and archivists – are probably less so. What kinds of bias gets introduced by these groups, and can we ever access information in its neutral form? A better question might be, "Does information even have a neutral form at all?" Other topics we’ll address will be who gets access to information, and how information poverty divides us, both nationally and globally.

Course topics will include users of digital cultural heritage information, systems used to make cultural heritage available online, and the preservation of digital cultural heritage. Students will participate in both institutional-based and community-based activities to collect and preserve digital cultural heritage as part of this course.

This course will explores collective memory through the lens of popular culture, memorials, monuments, museums, and personal stories. Students will have the opportunity to discuss and analyze the reasons for silences, contradictions, and power relationships within collections and articulate how these may impact the value of the source and the research process.

This course will look at how the environmental shifts around us are affecting our cultural heritage sites, and how sites are responding – or choosing not to respond. The course will also cover the topics of disaster preparedness and response. By the end of this course, you should understand how cultural heritage sites prepare for sustained environmental changes over time and one-time natural disasters.

Exploring and analyzing the vast amount of information, misinformation, disinformation, rumors, and propaganda surrounding times of crisis is vital to the well-being of society. This course will explore how accurate and inaccurate information is distributed through specific types of information systems via their role in public health emergencies, natural disasters, wars, and civil unrest. Students will critically examine how misinformation and disinformation campaigns and the like impact communities, individuals, and themselves during times of crisis. Most importantly, students will learn from the past to prepare for a more informed future by examining and evaluating both primary and secondary sources about an event.

This course will help students to understand the social construction and political aspects of libraries and information. By problematizing the information ecosystem, students will have an opportunity to critically evaluate the forces that shape information production and dissemination and become empowered to make informed decisions about their own information habits

The internship will provide students with an opportunity to gain knowledge and skills from a planned work experience in the student’s chosen career field or a field of interest. This experience allows students the opportunity to practice the application of theory and apply the knowledge acquired through academic preparation, while learning the skills of an entry level practitioner in an information field.