This course reviews the principles of ordering and describing information and knowledge - archival, bibliographic, and object description, with emphasis on national and international standards and the problems relating to the methods of navigating digital resources to retrieve information and knowledge.

10 x 2 hour seminars over 10 weeks and 4 x 1 hour seminars, as scheduled on My Campus

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Assessment 1: Catalogue Project and Critical Reflection (60%) 2,000-2,500 words

Assessment 2: Peer Review Assessment (40%) 1,500 words

This course aims to:

■ Introduce the principles of ordering and describing information and knowledge across archival, bibliographic, and object description contexts

■ Examine relevant international and national descriptive and authority standards across library, archival, and museum contexts and assess how these standards relate to one another in professional practice

■ Analyse the challenges relating to navigating digital resources and retrieving information and knowledge using current and emerging methods

■ Develop students' capacity to critically evaluate descriptive and cataloguing practice in relation to professional standards

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Critically analyse the theory and application of tools and techniques used to organise and retrieve information and knowledge

2. Evaluate the principles and practice of archival, bibliographic, and object description, and apply appropriate ordering and descriptive methods

3. Identify and assess relevant international and national descriptive standards, authority files, and thesauri, including those used across archival, library, and museum contexts

4. Demonstrate practical skills in indexing by planning and completing indexing work to professional standards

5. Critically evaluate how descriptive and catalogue information is displayed and navigated online, and assess how different user groups engage with and use this information