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Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies
Department of Library and Information Science

17:610:580: Knowledge Structures and the Information Professions
Fall2004
Instructor: M. Dalbello

Oral Presentation (due as scheduled, October 11-November 29)

Two or three students will choose a book from the list and prepare a group presentation that will last 30 minutes, in which they will present the main arguments of the work, with a few minutes for questions after each presentation. They will integrate their own view of the material with other sources (reviews, critical essays). The students should collaborate on this project and present evidence of that collaboration (all of them should present material); they will be graded separately if the evidence of the collaboration is not clear to the instructor. The presenters will write an essay to accompany the talk, and hand it in on the day of their scheduled presentation.

The presenters will craft a series of questions (5-10) to initiate the discussion with the class following the presentation; the questions and the slides should be handed in to the instructor on the day of the presentation. Although the speakers are encouraged to use multimedia if needed to efficiently convey their ideas (this may range from web installations, PowerPoint, sound and video clips, to transparencies and handouts), they should not read from the text of the presentation.

Each student will take on a role of the presenter, and be active discussant of the presentations throughout the semester.

Guidelines for Preparing a Presentation:

1. After you have selected the monograph you will present, read the monograph and record your own impressions. Also, find the various reactions and reviews of this work, using both print and Internet sources, which you will summarize as you discuss the reception of the work. To find the reviews, you should use Book Review Index (it is available online as a DIALOG file).

2. Write an essay (4-6 pages) in which you will outline the following:

• summarize the work in an expository fashion: how is it structured, what are the main arguments and how are they related to each other (1 page)
• what is the theoretical basis for this work & who is its primary audience; what are its implications for understanding information work (1 page)
• present your own interpretation and reactions to this work; be evaluative and critical but be sure you are constructive in your critique (1-2 pages)
• how is this work addressing the distinct aspect of knowledge structures (the issues of knowledge and power, multiculturalism, the discourses of science & technology, etc.) (1 paragraph)
• what was the contemporary reception of this work (give a brief overview of the number of reviews; where they appeared: type of journals and their inter-/multi-disciplinary nature; what are the reviewers' assessments of this work and how does that relate to your own (1-2 pages)
• prepare a bibliography of reviews and possibly other relevant literature that you have consulted in preparing the presentation. (Format the bibliography using a style manual (e.g.) Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style.)

You will hand in two copies of your essay to the instructor.

3. Structure your presentation as a talk to give orally, and prepare a draft outline that you will submit to the instructor (on the day of your talk).

4. You may prepare handouts, transparencies or web-based visuals (or use the PowerPoint software) for your presentation but this is not as crucial as the clarity of your arguments in your essay and your talk. Note that your colleagues will also evaluate you as you speak, using a comments sheet that will be distributed in class.

Schedule of Presentations:

Week 5 (October 11)

deCerteau, Practice of Everyday Life

Week 6 (October 18)

Said, Orientalism

Foucault, Madness and Civilization

Week 7 (October 25)

Bijker, Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs

Hess, Science & Technology in a Multicultural World

Johns, The Nature of the Book

Week 8 (November 1)

Freccero, Popular Culture

Week 9 (November 8)

Raber, Librarianship & Legitimacy

Week 10 (November 15)

Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations

Week 12 (November 29)

Douglas, How Institutions Think

Connerton, How Societies Remember

Fentress & Wickham, Social Memory