Experiential, participatory workshop to integrate the skills, perspectives, and knowledge introduced in the other core courses. The intention of the workshops is to broaden your exposure to other areas; we encourage students to go outside of their comfort zone. Students will be working in groups.

An introduction to management for information organizations, and the role of effective administration in the provision of information services through selected theories, principles, and techniques of administrative science, library and information science, information systems, and archives. Familiarizes the student with the realities of participation in the management of organizations that primarily focus on managing, producing, and distributing information services.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Managerial" Professional Requirement.

Focuses on developing an understanding of appropriate quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and relevant descriptive and inferential statistics for the investigation of both practical and theoretical problems in the information professions. By considering the nature, concepts, and logic of the research enterprise, permits a critically informed assessment of published research, including data gathering and data analysis procedures.

The objectives of this course are to (1) provide students with an overview of the information professions and the disciplines of library and information science; (2) present and critically reflect on the core assumptions, principles and values that inform the library and information science professions; and (3) introduce the students to the major current issues in library and information science and provide them with tools to make informed choices regarding current and emerging practices.

An introduction to the relationship between users and recordable information. Origin, evaluation, and use of general information sources in print and electronic form; principles of information service; acquisition, collection and exploitation of information resources in local and national institutions.

Within the context of human activity, both individual and institutional, an exploration of epistemological and ontological approaches to creating, organizing, preserving, and accessing information and knowledge. The design and evaluation of tools and techniques used in support of curatorship, stewardship, discovery, and use of cultural artefacts and their records.

Librarianship is a service profession that conceives of knowledge, in all its aspects, as fundamental to the human condition. People and communities exist at the heart of the discipline and at the heart of professional practices. They are the focus of our research and the clients of our practitioners. They come to us as unique individuals at any point along the life course seeking knowledge, and in communities (both large and small, formal and informal) working to achieve a common end. These social interactions bear the imprint of the professional values, core assumptions and principles upon which our discipline is founded. Some of these values include intellectual freedom, diversity, a respect for privacy, human rights, social justice, equal and open access without barriers, compassion, and empathy. Further, a commitment to these values demands knowledge of and participation in the public policy arena where decisions around the social, economic, cultural, and political implications of innovating information and communications technologies and their distribution are debated. Then there are the information professionals whom we work with and for; they are the communities of practice of which we are a part.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Professional Values" Requirement

INF1323H focuses on identifying and understanding what is “informational” in any setting. Students will develop sharpened vision to discern informational patterns, that is, an ability to trace what Bates (1999) calls the “red thread of information” pervading life. This metaperspective is unique to the academic discipline of Library and Information Science (LIS) and brings information resources, structures, systems, and behaviours into focus to enable and improve information provision. Each semester the aforementioned information phenomena will be critically examined in social contexts germaine to LIS, such as: reference service, readers’ advisory, scholarly knowledge production, and hobby careers, among others. Theoretical and methodological tools will be introduced to help participants understand these information environments as socially-constructed, patterned, knit-together, and dynamic. As the semester unfolds, students will refine their observational and analytical skills by conducting an exploratory Research Project about the information experience within a setting or population of personal interest or career relevance, which can serve as the starting point for lifelong learning and a concatenated research career.

Infrastructures are ecologies of numerous systems, each with unique origins and goals, which are made to interoperate by means of standards, socket layers, social practices, norms, and individual behaviours. This course examines how information infrastructures form, how they change, and how they shape (and are shaped by) social and cultural forces. Particular focus is paid to libraries, archives, scientific research practices, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and cyber-infrastructures. The course includes an examination of the role of standards, such as library catalogues, classification systems, TCP/IP, HTML, and metadata standards, and changing social structures and knowledge practices, such as scientific disciplines, professional societies, and universities. Finally, the course engages with broad theories of infrastructure and foreground the usually hidden aspects of infrastructures, be they material, informational, or structural.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Critical Perspectives" Professional Requirement

This course focuses on the principles and methods of information retrieval through academic and professional database searching. Characteristics of database organization, structure, content, question analysis, search development and translation, and database selection are investigated.

The course will include a critical examination of major vendors and their systems. Emerging themes and issues relating to online information retrieval will be addressed. Note: Weekly in-class activities require use of a laptop.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Technical" Professional Requirement.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the key concepts and issues associated with archival theory, methodology and practice. The course is organized around three broad themes: the nature and purpose of archival documents and archival aggregations; contexts of creation and preservation; and professional development.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Professional Values" Requirement.

The goal of this course is to provide students with the theoretical and methodological knowledge necessary to arrange and describe archival documents. Topics include the principles and methods underlying the arrangement of archival documents as well as the description of archival materials and the establishment of name access points according to standards adopted by the archival community.

This course will examine the basic ideas of computational thinking. In particular it will focus on principled thought processes, approaches and principles that guide computational analyses, from problem formulation all the way to effective and efficient problem solving. It will contain an introduction to algorithm building and their complexity, basic data structures used in computational solutions as well as the use of necessary tools to tackle large-scale problems in a variety of domains. The course will also discuss the application of computational thinking in different areas such as the humanities, social sciences and the arts, potentially looking into the impact it may have on them. Finally, it will serve as a necessary preamble for students who will follow a more technical career, especially in the area of Information Systems and Applied Data Science.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Technical" Professional Requirement.

In this course, we use a programming language to look at the design and implementation of algorithms that are relevant to Data Science tasks. The students will look into the specifics of a programming language and extend them with libraries and exercises that will add to their background in Data Science. The exercises will deal with the analysis of data sets and alternative solutions will be discussed for their processing and evaluation of the results.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Technical" Professional Requirement.

Multiple methods for modelling and analyzing information systems in their application contexts. Systematic techniques for representing and analyzing process and data, use cases and scenarios, stakeholder goals and relationships. Requirements exploration and definition. Operational and strategic perspectives.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Technical" Professional Requirement.

This course discusses designing information systems in the face of competing goals from multiple stakeholders, e.g., efficiency, cost, reliability, security, privacy, usability, adaptability, reusability, time-to-market. Systematic techniques and models for identifying and evaluating alternatives. Non-functional requirements and architectural design. Organizing design knowledge for reuse.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Technical" Professional Requirement.

The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to databases by analyzing their structure, content, and measurement and by applying principles governing data modeling, database design and production with an emphasis on modeling, design and representation of content, decisions and tradeoffs involved in modeling, design and creation, and issues of standardization, security and emerging trends.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Technical" Professional Requirement.

This course will provide students an introduction to statistics and statistical methods. It is intended and designed for students who have little or no familiarity with statistics in the Master of Information program so that their knowledge base is built on a solid foundation, which will prepare them for advanced data science courses in the program. This course emphasizes the application of statistical concepts and methods. This course will help students develop the ability to use quantitative methods to describe real world situations and to make ethical inferences and decisions based on the statistical results. Students will strengthen critical thinking skills to assess the value and limitations of measures and statistical estimates. This course will help students learn to construct reports that include meaningful charts, tables, and graphs for various audiences and that provide text that is appropriate for different audiences. The course will have lab sessions throughout the semester. The purpose of the lab session is to provide students with hands-on experience with data handling and regression analysis.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Technical" Professional Requirement.

This course introduces ideas, readings, and research approaches that will help students examine the nexus of culture and technology. The course functions primarily as an introduction for students in the Culture & Technology concentration of the Master of Information program, but it provides knowledge and skills for any students exploring fields such as science and technology studies, critical media studies, digital humanities, media archaeology, cultural studies, and other established and emerging approaches to culture and technology. Readings and lectures will provide critical perspectives on received concepts such as technology, culture, and information, drawing on philosophical, sociological, anthropological, historical, literary, artistic, or other relevant approaches for these topics.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Critical Perspectives" Professional Requirement.

In-depth exploration of student-selected issues at the intersection of culture and technology, using the philosophical, critical, and methodological skills, knowledge, and techniques developed in INF1501H Culture & Technology I. Students will identify a topic on which they have educational and/or professional background, and explore the socio- technical consequences of that issue’s transformation in virtue of the development of computing, digital technologies, and information systems, services, and practices. Affiliated with the McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology, a program of the Coach House Institute (CHI).

This course has a pedagogical and experimental focus, exposing students to different forms and practices of creative work at the intersection of culture and technology. The course will be structured around a variety of materials/formats/processes that demonstrate the connection between thinking and making. Students will be exposed to an overview of creative-scholarly research processes including critical fabulation, speculative design, and research creation, with examples of work by scholar-makers and creative professionals serving as models throughout. Additionally, students will be given access to demonstrations and practice of different forms of making and material practice, to help resource them for their final project and Studio II. Such material experiences may include podcasting, filmmaking, data visualization, printmaking, repair and maintenance, using microcontrollers, and other hands-on forms of studio work. The final portion of the class will assist students in reflecting on different forms of value associated with the results of making and related processes. Through this course, students will be encouraged to consider their own creative aspirations and the tools, methods, and practices they will need to develop to realize them.

This project-based course will serve as the keystone experience for the C&T concentration. In this course, students will develop a detailed proposal and plan for an individual creative-scholarly project relating to the digital contemporary, then execute their plan. Students might produce work in a wide range of media including podcasts, art installations, digital stories, textile fabrications, physical computing projects, games, books and/or publications, creative non-fiction or essay writing, poetry, fiction, and inter-artistic or inter-disciplinary creations. Sessions will be devoted to mutually supportive co-working in a studio environment and to peer and instructor feedback. The students will work together (in consultation with the instructor) to curate and design in an exhibition and/or showcase of projects to complete the course.

The course will also address the demands of hands-on studio work by incorporating project management skills including prototyping, iteration, and process documentation.

The capstone KMD project gives students the opportunity to shape their own learning by planning and executing a major KMD project that contributes to KMDI, FI, the University or the wider community. In this year-long course students work in diverse ‘collaborative’ teams to execute a major KMD project.

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of User Experience (UX) and User Experience Research (UER). The course covers a series of methods and tools in three areas: research, design, and evaluation. Methods and tools to conduct and analyse research data may include interviews, observations, questionnaires, secondary research, affinity diagrams, thematic analysis, stakeholder maps, empathy maps, and personas. Method and tools to design may include requirements analysis, use cases, scenarios, sketching, prototyping toolkits, and sequential storyboards. Method and tools to evaluate designs may include heuristic inspections, walkthroughs, usability testing, analytics, predictive models, and lean validation. More practical topics may include design thinking, UX strategy, UX ethic, agile and Lean UX, building a UX portfolio, and institutionalization of UX.

This course introduces the theoretical foundations of cognition, human-computer interaction, and ethical design while establishing the laws, models, paradigms, and processes that underpin UXD. Core principles of human participant research (i.e., ethics, sampling, bias, significance, experimental design) are introduced through historically significant case studies.

Students examine the historical roots of design and its evolution in response to technological advancement through the lenses of accessibility, innovation, power, and impact. By focusing on critical analysis and the role of design within social and political structures, this course prepares students to examine and direct the cognitive, ethical, and societal impacts of design.

This course introduces students to the practical tools and methods of UX design in three main areas: discovery, design, and evaluation. Students work on an end-to-end design thinking project in a studio setting, in which they engage in active learning, peer critique, storytelling, and collaboration.

Tools and methods for discovery may include competitor analyses, requirements gathering, interviews, surveys, thematic analysis, personas, and empathy mapping. Tools and methods for design may include sketching, ideation, task and user flows, wireframing, and prototyping. Tools and methods for evaluation may include task analyses, usability testing, observation, and expert review.

Lenses and approaches may include ethical research and design, Lean UX, exploration and refinement, strategy and prioritization, design fidelity, storytelling and presentation, portfolio building, and UX professional identities.

A reading course in a special field to be carried out under the supervision of a member of the faculty (With the permission of the Graduate Coordinator).

A reading course in a special field to be carried out under the supervision of a member of the faculty (With the permission of the Graduate Coordinator). This course code is used for those students who have already done a Reading Course under INF2010H and wish to do a second reading course.

This elective course covers the nature of projects, project management tools, techniques and organizational and interpersonal issues in project management within the context of the different types of projects in the information profession. The course will cover project management principles in general, project scope, organizational, leadership, interpersonal and political aspects of project management, and tools and techniques to support planning, budgeting, resource allocation and other technical aspects of project management.

This course can be used to fulfil the "Managerial" Professional Requirement.

Librarians engage in pedagogy in various settings for different purposes whether it be teaching a class on information literacy, instructing a workshop on a new tool, or training new staff in their job. This course introduces basic learning theories and pedagogical approaches from the education field that have emerged or are emerging in the library and information science (LIS) profession. In addition, the course takes an applied approach to learning the relevant and current theories and teaching and learning strategies with hands-on exercises and assignments.