MA / MSc in Information Management in the Cultural Sector
Course content for 2010 entry
6 core modules
Click on a module title to display key features.- Cultural portfolio: critical immersion and professional development
- Critically understand and reflect on the rationale for specific activities or products delivered by a range of cultural organisations
- Critically assess the quality of an organisation's delivery in relation to the sector itself
- Critically understand and use appropriately the various conventions and languages for different art forms
- Critically understand the theoretical and professional underpinning of CPD
- Culture, policy and management: frames of reference
- Critically assess current definitions and practices of culture, policy and management
- Understand and evaluate critical issues pertinent to culture, policy and management.
- Critically understand and evaluate the main theories that shape and inform cultural policy and management
- Demonstrate analytical skills necessary to critically engage with the issues and debates
then, either..
- Digital Information Technologies and Architectures
- Use computers to manage data effectively, through appropriate digital technologies and techniques, to support a wide range of information related tasks
- Employ established and evolving standards to create data that explicitly represents information in unambiguous, inclusive and useful ways
- Describe, assess and exploit recent advances in information and communications technology to work with proficiency and efficiency in an online digital environment.
- Digital Libraries
- Use a range of information retrieval systems and services to resolve information needs
- Evaluate information retrieval systems and services, by using appropriate methodologies
- Understand the nature and significance of digital library, in both technical and service aspects
- Appreciate the significance of digital library developments for the library profession
- Information Resources & Organisation
- Principles of knowledge organisation: metadata, classification and taxonomy, subject headings and thesauri, folksonomy and tagging, abstracting and indexing, construction of controlled vocabularies
- Library & Information Science Foundation
- Basic principles, theories and models of the library and information sciences
- Appreciate how these underlie the operations of library and information services in a variety of environments
- The roles of various types of libraries and their place in society, professional appreciation of the role of libraries and librarians
- Assess and evaluate the significance of new developments - both professional and technical - affecting libraries and librarians
or..
- Independent Study
- Gain an in-depth understanding of principles and practice in a specialised aspect of the library and information sciences
- Be able to analyse and evaluate aspects of professional practice, and the underlying knowledge base
- Be able to carry out independent learning as part of professional development
- Information Management and Policy
- Gain an in-depth understanding of function and value of information within an organisation; identify types of information resources with an organisation and consider techniques for their effective management
- Understand the role of an information professional within an organisation and the sets of skills and competencies that information professionals require in different organisational settings; recognise and be able to apply the studied concepts in own professional setting
- Develop skills of critical thinking, evaluation, effective use of literature, effective communication (written, oral, within a team).
- Libraries and Publishing in an Information Society
- Consideration of the ways in which the publication of recorded information is changing
- The impact that these changes could have on libraries and information services
- Factors for change
- What is the 'information society' and what are the practical implications for library and related services ?
- Research, Methods and Professional Issues
- Research activity in terms of the effectiveness of its approach and implementation
- Understand and apply a range of research methodologies such as inductive and deductive reasoning, explanation and prediction in the evaluation of published research
- Recognise and use a range of secondary data sources when performing a research task
- Communicate effectively with individuals and groups using a range of media
- Evaluate the legal, ethical and professional dimensions of typical information professions and information industry practices
choose 2 elective module(s) from the following list:
Click on a module title to display key features.- Audiences and marketing
- Develop competent marketers, equipped with the knowledge and understanding required to operate effectively in a marketing role in cultural sector organisations
- Provide an understanding of the relationship between the theory and practice of marketing management in a variety of creative and cultural organisational contexts
- Examine key concepts and strategic issues (structural and environmental) in the marketing of these organisations and relevant marketing techniques and tools
- Examine the relationship between cultural sector organisations and their external constituencies
- Communication, Fundraising and Advocacy
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of communication, advocacy and fundraising theories, concepts and definitions
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of diversity in and between constituencies and cultures
- Demonstrate a critical understanding how the media works and evaluate its impact
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of policy and decision making in local and central government and how to influence it
- Demonstrate an in depth understanding of funding sources and how to asses and evaluate their aims and objectives
- Comparative international models of cultural policy
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of differing national cultural policy systems and how history and accumulated practice influence implementation
- Critically understanding the positive and negative aspects for cultural policy at the level of Europe and internationally
- Critically understanding and assess the changing roles being applied to cultural policy by governments and public authorities
- Understanding the international legal and regulatory frameworks which affect the sector
- Contemporary UK cultural policy
- Acquire an understanding of the development of UK cultural policy and its modes of implementation
- Appreciate the values considered to be at the heart of cultural policy
- Comprehend the nature of the relationship between subsidized organizations and government
- Become familiar with the relative freedoms and constraints within which organizations operate
- Analyse key documents and identify the underpinning issues that both strengthen and weaken the argument
- Identify and critically use key research materials and sources pertinent to the areas discussed
- Currents of criticism
- Critically understand some prevalent ideas informing current debates on culture and criticism
- Situate art and /or cultural forms in current debates
- Be conversant be conversant with recent thinking about art and cultural production together with formative critical concepts
- Critically understand and evaluate relevant literature
- Critically understand complex ideas and values that give culture and the arts importance and to show that these are part of a wider system of ideas and values
- Education and learning in the cultural sector
- Recognise and critically understand the discourses that surround the role of education within cultural organisations and culture within education
- Critically understand how education programmes are developed in response to diverse audiences' needs and learning styles
- Understand and assess the importance of management and leadership in developing quality education services and learning opportunities
- Understand the differing perspectives on education provision from different stakeholders including teachers, artists and motivate and work with teachers and artists
- Evaluation, Politics and Advocacy
- Critically understand current cultural policies and evidence-based policy-making, in local, regional and central government
- Critically understand and evaluate key current cultural research and reports
- Have knowledge and assess different quantitative and qualitative methodologies
- Understand concepts of monitoring, evaluation and impact in culture
- Financial planning and entrepreneurialism
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of the financial framework in which cultural organisations exist
- Understand the legal framework in which cultural organisations manage their finances
- Critically understand the methods and format of annual accounts
- Understand risk and its management in the context of the cultural sector
- Understand entrepreneurship and its manifestations in both a private and public organisation
- Managing organisations
- Critically appreciate and develop a strategic approach to management of organisations in the cultural and creative sector as appropriate
- Discern how arts and complex cultural management practice and traditions relate closely to the cultural, economic, political and legal environments in which they operate
- Apply appropriately specific terminologies used in management in the sector
- Show awareness of management and creativity priorities, constraints and practice in a variety creative and cultural organisational contexts (variety as defined mainly by size and cultural form)
- Managing people
- Understand the complex contribution of the human resources and their performance to the overall performance of the cultural/creative organisation
- Understand and be sensitive to the fact that the success of any kind of organisation or 'enterprise' depends on the people who work there
- Recognise what motivates people to work and to perform
- Analyse/characterise an organisation's HR situation or strategy
- Be competent in managing personnel of all kinds: managerial, artistic/creative, operational and an understanding of all the aspects involved
- Plan strategically on the basis of analysed data/information
- Post-colonial agendas: the other, identity and the culture of politics
- Understand notions of the Other and the processes through which it is arrived at
- Be aware of the ways in which ideas of the Other can be interpreted emphasizing the relationship between these and the institutional frameworks, in which they are articulated, installed and used
- Critically understand the ideas and values that give Culture and the arts importance and to show that these are part of a wider system of ideas and values
- Programming and its management
- Recognise and be critically aware of the role of programming in audience development and the techniques for evaluating audience responses
- Be critically aware of key strategies for programme building
- Critically understand the dynamics and tensions in the relationship between management priorities and artistic policy in cultural organisations