A foundational course covering theory, standards, and application of metadata creation, library cataloging, access, and ethical considerations. The course applies to all information environments, providing a survey of metadata and encoding standards for general applicability and also environment-specific applications.  Module topics include theory on information, human-information interactions, information searching, seeking, and retrieval, representation, categorization, and classification theories, representing knowledge and information, knowledge organization systems (verbal and notational), social KOS, metadata models and standards, implications of IO, and ethics in information and knowledge organization.

Focusing on library cataloging, specifically resource description, modules cover a history of standards development, theoretical foundations, conceptual modeling, standards and their application (cataloging using RDA), access, authority work and control, records structures using different systems (e.g., MARC, MODS, MADS, BIBFRAME), and overviews of linked data. ethical consideration, AI and other automated processes, and data processing (including the use of MarcEdit to manipulate data) are also covered. 

The focus of this course is subject representation, analysis, and access. An overview of knowledge organization systems (KOS) and relevant theoretical concepts are covered. Various subject vocabularies, genre terminologies, and classification schemas, general and domain-specific are discussed and their use is practiced. Ethical concerns in subject representation and access, including the implications of trends, technologies, and societal movements are explored. 

This course covers the main theoretical traditions, concepts, and in-depth understanding of international librarianship, library communication on global issues), and comparative librarianship through the study of international cooperation, influences, development aid, the publishing industry, copyright, international organizations and associations, differences, major issues facing library and information services within their socio-economic, political, and cultural contexts, and innovations to solve these issues across the world.