Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
5-1-2022
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The paper sheds light on the strategy opted to sharpen the skills of the Library and Information Science Students in Colon Classification Scheme (6th Ed.). A few topics, namely Notational System, Main Class, Facet Formula and Postulates & Principles have been sliced here. Understanding the need and purpose of the said topics are a must for the freshers. The freshers should make their foundation as strong in the Normative Principles. Dr.S.R.Ranganathan (1967) insisted that the Colon Classification (6th Edition) techniques need to be taught to the students in the classroom with the help of Postulates and Principles. Students have had their sessions where enough exercises were worked out by them to gain more skills in the said topics. The strategy opted by the course teacher to sharpen the students’ skills and the outcomes have been measured using the six levels of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. The strategy enabled the course teacher to capture a clearer picture of the students’ capabilities and their progress ranges in the select topics. The students’ classroom activity encompasses multiple exercises along with the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy levels, and some scoring indicators. Students were instructed to process the exercises at regular intervals, and in final, based on their skill levels they were directed to revise the topic or move to another topic. The classroom exercises encompass both the theory (Course Code: 19LISC103) and the practice (Course Code: 19LISC202) performed by the students are screened here for better understanding. The Main Class related exercises were performed by the students during the end semester (Course Code: 19LISC202). For illustrative purpose, two students’ outcomes are vouched here where a fast learner [Student-1 and Annexures-i & iii] performance covers all the topics (one exercise from each topic), and one topic, namely Rounds and Levels performed by a slow learner [Student-2 & Annexure-ii] have been extracted. The learning techniques opted by the students in the classroom to sharpen their skills in Notation types, Main Class, Facet Formula and Postulates & Principles enabled them to gain progress [See Annexures-i, ii & iii] in the selected topics. Further, the structured exercise formats let the course teacher to evaluate the strength and weakness of each student’s skills in the same fields. The topics encompass Notation types, Main Class (BCN to BC, BC to BCN and BC & BCN), the Postulates namely, Postulate of Basic Facet, Postulate of Isolate Facet, Postulate of Rounds and Levels, Postulates for Facet Sequence, and the Principle related to Wall-Picture concept. Further, the Facet Formula related practice also has been given to raise the students’ skills in making possible arrangements among the identified facets. Who Knows? Today they are learners and may become an expert tomorrow when they acquire adequate knowledge and expertise in Colon Classification. The students reflected over-whelming responses while they practice the exercises in the classroom using the structured formats. Adequate charts have been generated to detect the students’ skills and progress in each level as well as the overall level in a crystal-clear way. The fast learner performance is given in the Annexure-i while the slow learner performance can be traced from the Annexure-ii. A few sample titles and practice format are given in the Annexure-iii. The general format of student performance evaluation report is at Annexure-iv. For illustrative purpose, this paper screens the fast learner performance report. The students feedback form for the said course is at Annexure-v.