INF 7885: Cultural Heritage

3 Credits

Course Description, Learning Outcomes, Policies

Course Description

Many archivists, librarians, historians and other information professionals find employment in a broad range of public history institutions, such as museums, archival repositories, not-for-profit organizations, educational institutions, and government agencies. This course explores the breadth of activities and functions of cultural heritage organization/historical institutions that are part of the expanding information sciences profession. It focuses on the functions and the management of cultural institutions.

Course Objectives

To introduce students to:

1. The breadth of cultural heritage/historical institutions.
2. The variety of functions of those institutions
3. The administration and management of institutions
4. Community engagement of the institutions
5. Historical content and controversies in the field
6. Fiscal management including grant writing, and fundraising
7. Career development within historical agencies
8. Ethics of the collection and presentation of historical resources

Learning Outcomes

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

• Demonstrate an acquaintance with distinct types of cultural heritage organizations/historic agencies and their roles in society
• Understand the role of administration in defining and implementing policies within an agency
• Demonstrate an acquaintance with organizational planning
• Identify funding sources relevant to cultural heritage organizations
• Understand the principles of program development and marketing
• Understand the importance of historical content in the collection and presentation of historical information
• Understand the role of community and the importance of community engagement
• Understand the role of government in historic agencies

Textbooks, Readings, and Style Manual – Read carefully

For this course, there is one required textbook (below). There are also a number of required and recommended resources in a variety of formats that are listed in our course space on Canvas.

I have provided links to some of the Readings and Resources but there are others that you will need to track down for yourself. In most cases, I require you to use the Wayne State University Libraries to access material. As students in a Library and Information Science program at a School of Information Sciences and a Public History program it is important to familiarize yourself with the online tools and resources for accessing material in our library collections. These are tools that you will use as professionals and tools that you may be asked to evaluate or redesign in your roles as working information professionals.

Required Textbook

Genoways, Hugh H., and Ireland, Lynne M.. 2016. Museum Administration 2.0. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Available as an e-book from the Wayne State University Library, https://elibrary.wayne.edu/record=b5543299~S47

Style Manual

The School of Information Sciences requires students to learn and use APA for all work.

The following resource from the Purdue University Writing Lab includes the latest version of APA. I urge you to bookmark it, https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Updated 5/24