UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – MILWAUKEE
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES
Digital Libraries
682 Fall 2011
______________________________________________________________________
Instructor: Iris Xie, Professor
Office: Bolton Hall Rm530
Phone: 229-6835 Fax: 229-6699
Email: hiris@uwm.edu
Office Hours: By Appointment
Teaching Assistant: Ed Benoit
Office: Bolton Hall Rm581
Phone: 229-3492 Fax: 229-6699
Email: eabenoit@uwm.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Course Description: An interdisciplinary study of fundamental issues, problems and
approaches to the creation and maintenance of digital libraries.
Emphasizes the new approaches and techniques of collection building,
organization, storage, and access of digital material and the evaluation of
digital projects.
Prerequisite: Junior standing
Objectives: This course will enable students to:
Understand the evolution, nature and different contexts of digital
libraries
Gain competencies with varied techniques for collection building
Understand the strength and limitations of current approaches in
organizing digital materials
Become familiar with the technologies for storing, delivering and
disseminating digital materials in networked environment
Evaluate digital libraries by applying various usability and
performance criteria
Explore social and economic issues of digital libraries and explore the
limitation and trend of future digital libraries
Communication: Students will use the D2L site created for this class to view class slides,
presentations, discussion and communicate class related questions and
suggestions to the professor and classmates.
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Method: Lecture/Discussion/Hands-on Exercises/Reading
If you are a student of special need, feel free to contact the instructor.
Required Textbook: Lesk, M. (2004). Understanding Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed. Amsterdam:
Morgan-Kaufmann.
Course Schedule and required readings
Week 1 Introduction, syllabus review, and what are digital libraries?
Required readings
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 1: Evolution of libraries & Chapter 13: Scope of digital
libraries. In Understanding Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp. 1-30, 361-374). Amsterdam:
Morgan-Kaufmann.
Bearman, D. (2007). Digital libraries. Annual Review of Information Science and
Technology, 41: 223-263
Additional readings
Kahle, B. (2008). Brewster Kahle builds a free digital library. TED Partner Series.
Retrieved from:
http://www.ted.com/talks/brewster_kahle_builds_a_free_digital_library.html
Candela, L. et al. (2007). Setting the foundations of digital libraries: The DELOS
Manifesto. D-Lib Magazine, 13 (3/4). Retrieved from
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march07/castelli/03castelli.html
Kresh, D. (Ed) (2007). The Whole Digital Library Handbook. Chicago, IL: American
Library Association. Chapter 1, Definitions.
Week 2 Digital library initiatives and international projects
Required readings
Cathro, W., Ball, R., & Savenije, B. (2009). Digital library economics: International
perspectives. In Baker, D & Evans, W. (Eds.), Digital Library Economics: An
academic perspective (pp. 119-159). Oxford, UK: Chandos.
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 12: A world tour of digital libraries. In Understanding Digital
Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp.321-360). Amsterdam: Morgan-Kaufmann.
Additional readings
Digital Libraries Initiative site (UIUC)
Summaries of projects
http://dli.grainger.uiuc.edu/national.htm
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Carnegie Mellon University
Informedia Digital Video Library
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu
David Rumsey Map Collection
http://www.davidrumsey.com/
Europeana
European Information Society i2010 Initiative
http://europeana.eu/portal/
The Library of Congress
American Memory Project
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
The Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org/
Muslim Philanthropy Digital Library
http://www.aucegypt.edu/research/gerhart/MPDL/Pages/Home.aspx
NASA Images
http://www.nasaimages.org/
Polona National Digital Library
http://polona.pl/dlibra
Rare Book Room
http://www.rarebookroom.org/
The Universal Digital Library
http://www.ulib.org/
The University of Waikato
The New Zealand Digital Library
http://www.nzdl.org/cgi-bin/library.cgi
Virtually Missouri
http://www.sos.mo.gov/mdh/
Wisconsin Heritage Online
http://wisconsinheritage.org/
World Digital Library
http://www.wdl.org/en/
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Week 3 Digitalization: Forms and processes
Rebecca Hall from SOIS on image optimization
Required readings
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 2: Text documents & Chapter 3: Images of pages. In
Understanding Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp. 31-90). Amsterdam: Morgan-Kaufmann.
Additional readings
Landon, G. V. (2009). Toward Digitizing All Forms of Documentation. D-Lib
Magazine, 15(3). Retrieved from: http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/edoc/aw/d-
lib/dlib/march09/landon/03landon.html
Kenney, Anne R. Moving Theory into Practice: Digital Imaging Tutorial. Retrieved
from: http://www.library.cornell.edu/preservation/tutorial/toc.html
Digital Imaging: Imaging and imagebases (comprehensive resources on imaging).
Stanford University. Retrieved from: http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bytopic/imaging/
Besser, H. Introduction to Imaging. Getty Research Institute. Retrieved from:
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/introimages/index.html
Week 4 Collection development
Required readings
Chowdhury, G.G. & Chowdhury, S. (2003). Chapter 5: Collection management. In
Introduction to Digital Libraries (pp. 89-102). London: Facet Publishing.
Additional readings
Saha, N.C., Debnath, K., & Das, T.K. (2010). Implications of selection & collection
policies for e-resources: With special reference to Visva-Bharati Library. INFLIBNET
Convention Proceedings, PLANNER 2010. Retrieved from:
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/dxml/handle/1944/949
Dalbello, M. (2009). Cultural dimensions of digital library development, part II: The
cultures of innovation in five European national libraries (narratives of development).
The Library Quarterly 79(1): 1-72.
Dempster, S. & Grout, C. (2009). Digitisation: Trends in the economics of retro-
conversion. In Baker, D & Evans, W. (Eds.), Digital Library Economics: An academic
perspective (pp. 177-191). Oxford, UK: Chandos.
World Digital Library. (2009). World Digital Library Content Selection Guidelines.
Retrieved from: http://project.wdl.org/content/contentguidelines.html
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University of South Carolina, University Libraries Digital Collections (2008). Selection
criteria for digital projects. Retrieved from: http://library.sc.edu/digital/dacselect.html
Murray, K., & Philips, M. (2007). Collaborations, Best Practices, and Collection
Development for Born-Digital and Digitized Materials. Presented at DigCCurr2007,
an international symposium on Digital Curation, April 18-20, 2007. Retrieved from:
http://ils.unc.edu/digccurr2007/papers/murrayPhillips_paper_9-3.pdf
National Information Standards Organization. (2007). A Framework of Guidance for
Building Good Digital Collections. 3rd Edition.
http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/framework3.pdf
Week 5 Techniques and technologies for multimedia storage and access
Required readings
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 4: Multimedia storage and retrieval. In Understanding
Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp. 91-116). Amsterdam: Morgan-Kaufmann.
Additional readings
Neumayer, R. & Rauber, A. (2009). Map-based user interfaces for music information
retrieval.. In Then, Y.-L., Foo, S., Goh, D., & Na, J.-C. (Eds.) Handbook of Research
on Digital Libraries: Design, Development, and Impact (pp. 321-329). Hersey, PA:
Information Science Reference.
Casey, M.A., Veltkamp, R., Goto, M., Leman, M., Rhodes, C., & Slaney, M. (2008).
Content-based music information retrieval: Current directions and future challenges.
Proceedings of the IEEE, 96(4): 668-696.
Enser, P.G.B. (2008). Visual Image Retrieval. Annual Review of Information Science
and Technology, 42(1):1-42.
Enser, P. (2008). The evolution of visual information retrieval. Journal of Information
Science, 34(4): 531-546.
Frank, J., Lidy, T., Peiszer, E., Genswaider, R., & Rauber, A. (2008). Ambient music
experience in real and virtual worlds using audio similarity. In Proceedings of SAME
’08, Vancouver: ACM. Retrieved from:
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1461912.1461915
The Informedia Project.
http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu/
Variation 3 – An Integrated Digital Library and Learning System for the Music
Community
http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/projects/variations3/index.html
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Digital Projects and Developing Technologies in Music & Media – University of
Washington Libraries
http://www.lib.washington.edu/Music/projects.html
Week 6 Organizing digital materials: metadata standards
Required readings
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 5: Knowledge representation schemes. In Understanding
Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp. 117-152). Amsterdam: Morgan-Kaufmann.
The Dublin Core Home Page: http://dublincore.org/
Additional readings
Witten, I.H., Bainbridge, D., & Nichols, D.M. (2010). Chapter 6: Metadata: Elements
of organization. In How to Build a Digital Library (pp. 285-339), 2nd ed. Amsterdam:
Morgan Kaufmann.
Chudamani, K.S., & Nagarathna, H.C. (2009). Metadata Interoperability. In Then, Y.-
L., Foo, S., Goh, D., & Na, J.-C. (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Digital Libraries:
Design, Development, and Impact (pp. 122-130). Hersey, PA: Information Science
Reference.
Turvey-Welch, M.R. (2009). Metadata Systems 2004-2006. Association for Library
Collections & Technical Services.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/resources/org/cat/research/metadata06.cfm
Baca, M., Gilliland, A.J., Gill, T., Woodley, M.S., & Whalen, M. (2008). Introduction
to Metadata: Online Edition, Version 3.0. Los Angeles, CA: The J. Paul Getty Trust.
Retrieved June 16, 2011 from:
http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/intrometadata/index
.html
Gartner, R. (2008). Metadata for digital libraries: State of the art and future directions.
JISC Technology & Standards Watch. Retrieved from:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw_0801pdf.pdf
Week 7 Interface design and evaluation
Required readings
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 7: Usability and retrieval evaluation. In Understanding
Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp. 185-216). Amsterdam: Morgan-Kaufmann.
Additional readings
Witten, I.H., Bainbridge, D., & Nichols, D.M. (2010). Chapter 3: Presentation: User
interfaces. In How to Build a Digital Library (pp. 73-126), 2nd ed. Amsterdam: Morgan
Kaufmann.
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Buchanan, S. (2009). Evaluating the usability and usefulness of a digital library.
Library Review 58(9): 638-651.
Jeng, J. (2009). Usability evaluation of digital library. In Theng, Y.-L., Foo, S., Goh,
D., & Na, J.-C., (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Digital Libraries: Design,
Development, and Impact (pp. 278-86). IGI Global.
Comeaux, D. J. (2008). Usability Studies and User-centered Design in Digital
Libraries. Journal of Web Librarianship, 2(2):457-475.
Week 8 Digital archiving and preservation
Required readings
Harvey, R. (2010). Digital Curation: A How-To-Do-It Manual. New York, NY: Neal-
Schuman. Chapter 13, Preserving Data.
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 9: Collections and preservations. In Understanding Digital
Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp. 233-260). Amsterdam: Morgan-Kaufmann.
Additional readings
Conservation Online: Resources for conservation professionals. Preservation
Department of Stanford University Libraries. http://palimpsest.stanford.edu
Dow, E. (2009). Chapter 8: The future curators, archivists and digital collections. In
Electronic Records in the Manuscript Repository (pp. 137-144). Lanham, MD:
Scarecrow Press.
Strodl, S., Becker, C., & Rauber, A. (2009). Digital preservation. In Then, Y.-L., Foo,
S., Goh, D., & Na, J.-C. (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Digital Libraries: Design,
Development, and Impact (pp. 431-440). Hersey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Kresh, D. (Ed) (2007). The Whole Digital Library Handbook. Chicago, IL: American
Library Association. Chapter 7, Preservation.
Moss, M. (2008). Chapter 4: Opening Pandora’s Box: What is an archive in the digital
environment? In What are Archives? Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives: A Reader
(pp. 71-87). Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Ross, S. (2007). Digital preservation, archival science and methodological foundations
for digital libraries. Keynote address at the 11th European Conference on Digital
Libraries (ECDL), Budapest (September 17, 2007).
http://www.ecdl2007.org/Keynote_ECDL2007_SROSS.pdf
Pymm, B. (2006). Building collections for all time: The issue of significance. AARL
37(1), 61-73. Retrieved from:
http://www.alia.org.au/publishing/aarl/37.1/collection.buildings.pdf
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Week 9 Access issues: information retrieval and reference services
Required readings
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 8: User needs. In Understanding Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed.
(pp. 217-232). Amsterdam: Morgan-Kaufmann.
Additional readings
Geeson, R. (2011). Virtual advice services. In Dale, P, Beard, J., & Holland, M.,
University Libraries and Digital Learning Environments (pp. 87-103). Surrey, UK:
Ashgate.
Dollah, W.A.K.W., & Singh, D. (2009). Reference services in digital environment. In
Then, Y.-L., Foo, S., Goh, D., & Na, J.-C. (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Digital
Libraries: Design, Development, and Impact (pp. 412-420). Hersey, PA: Information
Science Reference.
Buckland, M.K. (2008). Reference library service in the digital environment. Library &
Information Science Research, 30(2): 81-85.
Liu, J. (2008). Digital library and digital reference service: integration and mutual
complementarity. Policy Futures in Education, 6(1): 59-76. Retrieved from:
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/freetoview.asp?j=pfie&vol=6&issue=1&year=2008&a
rticle=7_Jia_Liu_PFIE_6_1_web
Nicholson, S. & Lankes, R.D. (2007). The Digital Reference Electronic Warehouse
(DREW) project. Reference and User Services Quarterly 46(3): 45-59.
Week 10 Social, economic and legal issues in managing digital libraries
Kathy Bowes from E-Reserve., Golda Meir Library
Required readings
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 10: Economics & Chapter 11: Intellectual property rights. In
Understanding Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp. 261-320). Amsterdam: Morgan-
Kaufmann.
Additional readings
Copyright, Intellectual Property Rights, and Licensing Issues:
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Copyright/
Look, H. & Wise, A. (2009). The economics of copyright. In Baker, D & Evans, W.
(Eds.), Digital Library Economics: An academic perspective (pp. 265-289). Oxford,
UK: Chandos.
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Dalbello, M. (2008). Cultural Dimensions of Digital Library Development, Part I:
Theory and Methodological Framework for a Comparative Study of the Cultures of
Innovation in Five European National Libraries. The Library Quarterly, 78(4): 355-
395.
Eschenfelder, K. R. (2008). Every library’s nightmare? Digital rights management, use
restrictions, and licensed scholarly digital resources. College and Research Libraries,
69(3): 205-225.
Hirtle, P. B. (2008). Copyright Renewal, Copyright Restoration, and the Difficulty of
Determining Copyright Status. D-Lib Magazine, 14(7)
http://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/10884/6/Copyright_renewal_final.pdf
Samuels, E. (2002). The Illustrated Story of Copyright. New York: Thomas Dunne
Books. Online edition available at
http://www.edwardsamuels.com/illustratedstory/index.htm
Week 11 Evaluation of digital libraries
Required readings
Saracevic, T. (2009). Introduction: The framework for digital library evaluation. In
Tsakonas, G. & Papatheodorou, C. (Eds.), Evaluation of Digital Libraries: An insight
into useful applications and methods (pp. 1-13). Oxford, UK: Chandos Publishing.
Additional readings
Zhang, Y. (2010). Developing a holistic model for digital library evaluation. Journal of
the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(1): 88-110.
Monopoli, M. (2009). Examining how end users use and perceive digital libraries: A
qualitative approach. In Tsakonas, G. & Papatheodorou, C. (Eds.), Evaluation of
Digital Libraries: An insight into useful applications and methods (pp. 235-252).
Oxford, UK: Chandos Publishing.
Xie, H. (2008). Users’ evaluation of digital libraries (DLs): Their uses, their criteria,
and their assessment. Information Processing & Management, 44(3): 1346-1373.
Fuhr, N. et al. (2007). Evaluation of Digital Libraries. International Journal on Digital
Libraries, 8(1): 21-38. Retrieved from: http://www.is.inf.uni-
due.de/bib/pdf/ir/Fuhr_etal:06.pdf
Week 12 Thanksgiving and Group work
Week 13 Digital libraries: e-books, social media, profession, problems, limitations, and
trends for the future
Required readings
Kresh, D. (Ed) (2007). The Whole Digital Library Handbook. Chicago, IL: American
Library Association. Chapter 5, Tools.
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Vassiliou, M. & Rowley, J. (2008). Progressing the definition of “e-book.” Library Hi
Tech 26(3): 35-368.
Lesk, M. (2004). Chapter 6: Distribution & Chapter 14: Future: Ubiquity, diversity,
creativity, and public policy. In Understanding Digital Libraries. 2nd Ed. (pp. 153-184,
375-386). Amsterdam: Morgan-Kaufmann.
Additional readings
Landoni, M. (2011). E-Books in digital libraries. In Iglezakis, I., Synodinou, T., &
Kapidakis, S. (Eds.), E-Publishing and Digital Libraries: Legal and Organizational
Issues (pp. 131-140). IGI Global.
Chakraborty, A. K. (2010). Web 2.0 and social web approaches to digital libraries. In
Ashraf, T., Sharma, J., & Gulati, P. A. (Eds.), Developing Sustainable Digital
Libraries: Socio-Technical Perspectives (pp. 108-132). IGI Global.
Chowdhury, G. (2010). From digital libraries to digital preservation research: the
importance of users and context. Journal of Documentation, 66(2): 207-223.
Hazan, S. (2010). When is a library not a library? In Verheul, I., Tammaro, A.M., &
Witt, S. (Eds.), Digital Library Futures: User Perspectives and Institutional Strategies
(pp. 61-78). Germany: De Gruyter Saur.
Verheul, I. (2010). The digital library futures conference and the future of digital
libraries within IFLA. IFLA Journal, 36(1): 74-84.
van der Velde, W. & Ernst, O. (2009). The future of eBooks? Will print disappear? An
end-user perspective. Library Hi Tech 27 (4): 570-583.
Warren, J. W. (2009). Innovation and the future of e-books. The International Journal
of the Book 6(1): 83-93. Retrieved from:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/reprints/2009/RAND_RP1385.pdf
Library of Congress (2008). For the common good: The Library of Congress Flickr
pilot project. Retrieved from: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/flickr_report_final.pdf
Kresh, D. (Ed) (2007). The Whole Digital Library Handbook. Chicago, IL: American
Library Association. Chapter 8, The Future.
Pomerantz, J. & Marchionini, G. (2007). The digital library as place. The Journal of
Documentation, 63(4): 505-533.
Week 14 & 15 Final project testing (Dec. 5-7) and presentations (Dec. 7-14)
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Course Requirements and Evaluation
The following lists of course assignments under 2, 3 and 4 will be due by the 11:59 pm (your
local time) on the due date in the D2L dropbox.
1. Readings
For each week, students must read the items listed under required readings. Additionally,
students should read at least two of the items listed under additional readings. This arrangement
allows students the opportunity to explore one or more topics in-depth within a subject area.
2. Hands-on Exercises
Points Start Date Due
Digitize, compress, and edit images 12/100 Sep. 19 Sep. 25
Analyze digital collection 14/100 Sep. 26 Oct. 2
Create multimedia file 12/100 Oct. 3 Oct. 9
Create metadata 12/100 Oct. 10 Oct. 16
Create collection for CONTENTdm 25/100 Oct. 17 Oct. 30
Design Dreamweaver interface 25/100 Oct. 31 Nov. 13
Detailed instructions and requirements will be distributed in class.
3. Evaluate an existing digital library project
Students need to develop a set of evaluation criteria to evaluate an existing digital library
project. (Due on Nov. 20)
Detailed instructions and requirements will be distributed in class.
4. Final Project
Students form their own project teams to create a digital library. Each team will create a
digital collection, organize it for access, and design an interface for it. Students will
make a formal presentation of their projects to the class at the end of the semester.
Students should include in their presentation a discussion of how the digital library will
be accessed and managed. If a student decides to work on the final project by himself or
herself, that is also acceptable.
All projects must be sufficiently justified and approved in advance by the instructor. A
plan for the evaluation of the usefulness and effectiveness of the digital library must be
included with each project, although students are not expected to actually conduct the
evaluation research in this course. (Due on Dec. 14)
Detailed instructions and requirements will be distributed in class.
5. Class discussion
Participation in class discussion is expected of all students. Such discussions will
analyze, criticize and synthesize the readings, lectures and relevant experiences. Students
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need to view/read the slides and video lectures as well as the readings for each week
before you participate in the discussion. You also need to read other students’ postings.
Students are encouraged to communicate with the instructor and other students within the
framework of online courseware. Participation is an important part of the learning
experience and is a factor in assessing class performance.
Requirements for participation
To get full credits for class participation, each student needs to participate in at least
twice but no more than four times in the specific forum. You can post four times in the
forum, but your credits will be deducted if you post more than four times unless you are
requested to answer questions by your classmates or the instructor.
More important, each student needs to read/view the required readings, class slides, audio
lectures, and other students’ postings, before posting his/her messages.
Instructions for constructing messages
To get full credits for class participation, the quality of the message each student posts on
the Bulletin Board is also considered. To make the discussion more efficient, each
message you post on the forum is limited to 500 words. More important, you need to
relate the content to your own context, experiences, and readings.
Due Date
Each week’s forums will be locked (you can view the forum, but cannot post any
messages) at noon the Monday (at 12:00 pm central time) after that week.
Submission of Assignments:
Written assignments are due on the specified date. Grades will be reduced for late papers (one
full grade for each week or part thereof). Written assignments are to be typed, preferably word-
processed. Papers are to be double-spaced using a 12-point font with 1 inch margins. You may
not resubmit work that has already been used in fulfillment of the requirement of this or any
other course. Rules of academic conduct require that you not use the work of others without
clearly indicating it as such. Academic misconduct may result in a lowered grade, no credit for a
given assignment, or removal from the course.
It is expected students will consult and appropriately cite the research and professional literature
where merited. Grades will also be reduced for papers that include irrelevant content to “fill up
space” to meet the length specifications for a paper. Please rely on a commonly used style
manual for your submissions (e.g. Turabian, Chicago, APA, MLA). These are available in the
Library or UWM Bookstore or may be purchased through online book vendors. If you are
uncertain about how to cite electronic sources, consult one of the many electronic guides to
citing electronic sources available on the net. Minimal reference content includes: author (if
known), date (if given), title, URL, and date accessed.
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Grading:
Graduate Student Undergraduate Student
Hands-on exercises 35% 40%
Evaluation project 15% 10%
Final project 30% 35%
Class Participation 20% 15%
Grading Scale:
96-100 A 74-76 C
91-95 A- 70-73 C-
87-90 B+ 67-69 D+
84-86 B 64-66 D
80-83 B- 60-63 D-
77-79 C+ Below 60 F
Required Software: Students will need access to the following software: Adobe Photoshop;
Adobe Dreamweaver; and Adobe Acrobat. All of these programs are available through the SOIS
virtual computer lab. For more information on how to access and use the virtual lounge, consult
the instructions on the D2L coursesite.
Frequently Asked Questions: Students should review the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
document listed under content on the D2L coursesite prior to contacting either the professor or
TA with assignment questions.
UWM AND SOIS ACADEMIC POLICIES
The following links contain university policies affecting all SOIS students. Many of the links
below may be accessed through a PDF-document maintained by the Secretary of the University:
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf. Undergraduates may also find the Panther
Planner and Undergraduate Student Handbook useful
(http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/OSL/DOS/Handbook2005-06.pdf). For graduate students, there are
additional guidelines from the Graduate School
(http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Grad_Sch/StudentInfo/), including those found in the Graduate
Student and Faculty Handbook: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Grad_Sch/Publications/Handbook/.
Students with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in order to meet any of the
requirements of a course, please contact the instructor as soon as possible. Students with
disabilities are responsible to communicate directly with the instructor to ensure special
accommodation in a timely manner. There is comprehensive coverage of issues related to
disabilities at the Student Accessibility Center
(http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/DSAD/SAC/MainOffice.html ), important components of which are
expressed here: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/DSAD/SAC/SACltr.pdf.
Religious observances. Students’ sincerely held religious beliefs must be reasonably
accommodated with respect to all examinations and other academic requirements, according to
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the following policy: http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Badmin_policies/S1.5.htm.
Please notify your instructor within the first three weeks of the Fall or Spring Term (first week of
shorter-term or Summer courses) of any specific days or dates on which you request relief from
an examination or academic requirement for religious observances.
Students called to active military duty. UWM has several policies that accommodate students
who must temporarily lay aside their educational pursuits when called to active duty in the
military (see http://www3.uwm.edu/des/web/registration/militarycallup.cfm), including
provisions for refunds, readmission, grading, and other situations.
Incompletes. A notation of “incomplete” may be given in lieu of a final grade to a student who
has carried a subject successfully until the end of a semester but who, because of illness or other
unusual and substantial cause beyond the student’s control, has been unable to take or complete
the final examination or some limited amount of other term work. An incomplete is not given
unless the student proves to the instructor that s/he was prevented from completing course
requirements for just cause as indicated above
(http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Badmin_policies/S31.pdf).
Discriminatory conduct (such as sexual harassment). UWM and SOIS are committed to
building and maintaining a campus environment that recognizes the inherent worth and dignity
of every person, fosters tolerance, sensitivity, understanding, and mutual respect, and encourages
the members of its community to strive to reach their full potential. The UWM policy statement
(http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Badmin_policies/S47.pdf) summarizes and defines
situations that constitute discriminatory conduct. If you have questions, please contact an
appropriate SOIS administrator.
Academic misconduct. Cheating on exams and plagiarism are violations of the academic honor
code and carry severe sanctions, ranging from a failing grade for a course or assignment to
expulsion from the University. See the following document
(http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/OSL/DOS/conduct.html) or contact the SOIS Investigating Officer
(currently the Associate Dean) for more information.
Grade appeal procedures. A student may appeal a grade on the grounds that it is based on a
capricious or arbitrary decision of the course instructor. Such an appeal shall follow SOIS
appeals procedures or, in the case of a graduate student, the Graduate School. These procedures
are available in writing from the respective department chairperson or the Academic Dean of the
College/School (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Badmin_policies/S28.htm).
Examinations, Finals. The Secretary of the University is authorized to prepare the final
examination schedule. The time of the final examination for an individual or a class may be
changed only with the prior approval of the dean or director of the respective college/school. The
change will involve a postponement to a later date. For individuals with exam conflicts, a
separate week at the very end of the exam week will be reserved to take one of the conflicting
exams (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/acad%2Ba
14