Spring Courses to Fit Your Schedule

Librarians are offering two courses in the spring that might be a good fit for your interests and your schedules.

Anna Hulseberg is teaching NDL 201 – Reading Workshop is a .25 credit pass/fail course that meets during the first half of spring semester on Wednesday afternoons, from 2:30 – 3:50. Students read and discuss a book together, read a book of the student’s choice, write a review of their chosen book to share, and reflect on their personal reading tastes. The purpose of this course is to enjoy reading and to prepare students to choose their own reading material after college as part of lifelong learning and personal identity. This spring, Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother will be the common reading. This book about “extreme parenting” raises questions about how families interact, what the role of parents should be, and cultural differences that shape family dynamics. It’s a funny, sometimes disturbing, tender, and controversial book about “a mother, two daughters, and two dogs” and “a bitter clash of cultures.” It should provide interesting fuel for discussion.

Barbara Fister is teaching NDL 301 – Information Fluency (note that the link is from last spring) is a .5 credit course that meets on Tuesday afternoons from 2:30 to 4:20 throughout the spring semester. This course gives students interested in going to graduate or professional school—or who simply want to know more about research—an immersion in the structure of the literature of their chosen field and exposure to research tools and collections. Students conduct a literature review on a topic of their choice and analyze aspects of their discipline’s traditions, compare them to traditions in other fields, and explore the social and ethical dimensions of research. This course pairs well with other research-intensive courses for which you will be conducting a literature review. It is discussion-based and hands-on and has always been surprisingly fun. If Tuesday won’t fit your schedule, contact Barbara to see about a course by arrangement.

photo courtesy of frankfarm.