Courses are opened depending on the number of incoming students. Please always check, which courses are held in each particular semester in the Study Information System of the university (SIS). Most Erasmus Courses take place in the winter semester, in the summer semester our offer of courses is limited due to a significantly lower number of incoming students.

Dates, time and room numbers of the courses are always specified before the beginning of the semester in the Study Information System.

Do you need to consult a specific subject? Don’t hesitate to contact our teachers and use individual consultations on various topics in librarianship and information studies, book and manuscript studies or new media studies (see the full overview of teached courses).
Foreign students can also attend courses at other faculty departments and other faculties of the Charles University.

Dear incoming exchange students,  

We are pleased to welcome you to Charles University – the Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship at the Faculty of Arts. We hope that your Erasmus stay with us will make a valuable contribution to your academic achievements as well as to your personal development. 

Our institute opens at least 3 English courses each semester to all incoming Erasmus students of the Faculty of Arts. If you are required to fulfill more than 3 courses, you are welcome to choose from a broad menu of courses provided by other departments of the Faculty. Should your home university require only courses in the specialization of Library and information science, please, get in touch with the Erasmus coordinator of our institute (helena.lipkova@ff.cuni.cz).    

Below, you may find the list of courses we have prepared for you. Please, always check in the Study Information System (SIS) which courses are open in the particular semester of your interest.   

For up-to-date information, you may also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. 

Wishing you an inspiring and enriching time in Prague,

Helena Lipková, Ph.D. 

Coordinator of International Partnerships  

NEW!  In the winter semester of the academic year 2023/2024 we open the following courses:

• Media and Cultural Studies – Concepts, Traditions and Currents – Jiřina Šmejkalová – AISE00037
• Behaviorální ekonomie – René Levínský
• Introduction to Game Studies – Vít Šisler – AISE00031

Applied Project Management

The course is open exclusively to the exchange students coming to the Instititute of Information Science and Librarianship.

The aim of the course is to provide students with a practical and interactive hands-on training of fundamental project managment techniques. The main focus is put on the practical aspects of project management so that students are able to integrate fast into the project team environment in real life situations.

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

• understand and use basic project management terminology
• describe individual phases of the project life-cycle (project initiation, planning, execution, closure)
• distinguish roles and responsibiilities within the project team
• comprehend and use basic project management techniques (eg. change management, risk management, issue managment, earned value etc.)
• analyze case studies
• prepare their own small projects

Credit will be given based on final test results, completion of all tasks assigned and an active participation throughout the seminar.

Max. number of attendees: 12

Literature:

• KERZNER, H. Project Management, A Systéme Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. New York : Wiley, 1998. 6 Ed.
• Statistics over IT projects failure rate. The OASIG survey (1995). [online] IT Cortex. [cit 2009-11-03] Available at: http://www.it-cortex.com/Stat_Failure_Rate.htm#The OASIG Study (1995).

The Baroque Aristocratic and Bourgeois Libraries

The start date will be determined 

Place: The National Museum. The meeting point is the porter’s lodge at the staff entrance into the New Museum Building (Vinohradská 1, Praha 1- http://mapy.cz/s/5iOV – exact location of the entrance is marked with a blue dot). Please, wait there for my arrival.

In the beginning, the lecture will introduce the general cultural background of the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie of baroque Europe and formal as well as effectual position of the library in the system. Emphasis will be put on finding common signs of both the libraries of aristocracy and of bourgeoisie as well as their individual differences.

In case of the aristocratic milieu the focus will be put on the representative importance of the family libraries and realization of the renaissance concept of bibliotheca universalis. The bourgeois libraries will be presented with special respect to their exploitation in the owner’s profession and thence the differences in the topical structure of the profession libraries.

Ways of acquisition, possessor’s records and marks and their importance as research sources for the history of libraries will be discussed with respect to both the aristocratic and bourgeois libraries.
As an appendix to the lecture, the baroque passion for collections and collecting (Sammellust) and the phenomena of cabinet of curiosities (cabinet de curiosités, Kunstkammer) will be described together with relations and bounds between the art collections and the libraries themselves.

Behavioral economics

Blockchain and its world impact

Students get acquainted with the blockchain technology and its essential aspects – namely governance, security, monetary system and ecology.

• Week 1 – Cypherpunk and Bitcoiltalk.org
• Week 2 – Money: history and present
• Week 3-4 – Bitcoin: mining, ecology, security, characteristics and keywords
• Week 5 – Altcoins: -//-
• Week 6-7 – Scalability of Bitcoin
• Week 8 – Off
• Week 9 – Trading and price speculation

Book History and Digital Humanities

The aim of the course is to acquaint students with the research of book history in the context of digital humanities. In addition to introducing the theoretical aspects of the subject, the course will focus mainly on the presentation of older book culture in the digital environment, especially on the presentation of old media (manuscripts, incunabula, early printed books) as well as various research topics (provenance, materiality of books, etc.). It also points to new directions in old media research.

The course is taught in three blocks (2 hours lecture, 1 hour seminar). The lecture is based on the frontal instruction associated with the subsequent discussion. The seminar is based on individual analytical work of students with selected electronic resources, presentation of results of work and mutual discussion. Students will submit a seminar paper presenting the critical evaluation and comparison of selected projects to book history in the digital environment.

To gain an attestation, it is necessary to demonstrate the basic orientation in digital humanities and the presentation of book history in the digital environment. The overall evaluation will also take into account the submitted seminar paper.

Outline (syllabus)

Research of book history in the context of digital humanities.

• Book history: the nature of discipline and its methods.
• Main principles of digital humanities and book history.
• Data visualization in the field of book history.

Old media (manuscripts, incunabula, early printed books) in a digital environment.

• Digital libraries: descriptions of books and facsimiles.
• The use of bibliographic information in the research.
• Provenance research in book history.

New directions of old media research.

• Digital editions and “material texts”.
• Advanced image presentation.
• Contextualization of knowledge and integration of digital resources to book culture.

Contemporary Issues in Game Studies

The course provides deeper insight into the field of game studies and familiarizes students with its contemporary issues. The topics of the course include game design and development, persuasive video games, game industry in the 21st century, and relationships between video games, politics, history, and religion. The course aims to develop students’ deeper understanding of video games medium and the ability to design and develop serious games. The course is taught in English.

The course is suitable for exchange students (i.e. Erasmus) but only under code AISE00032. This is very important! Make sure you register to course under right code.

Digital Humanities

Game Theory

In the first part of the course, we will explore various theoretical approaches to individual decision making. Further we will introduce the concept of uncertainty and finally we will proceed to situations in which a number of individuals interact in a setting of strategic interdependence.

In the second part we will discuss all the theoretical results in the light of experimental findings. Finally, we will discuss all these approaches in a specific environments, as, e.g., financial markets. Here, we will explore the impact psychological factors (as, e.g., overconfidence) have on investors decision-making and market behavior. We will also discuss examples of market inefficiencies such as market bubbles etc.

Introduction to Game Studies

The course provides students with theoretical and methodological introduction to game studies. It critically analyzes video games and explore their broader cultural, social, and political aspects. The topics of the course include game studies theory, history of video games, methods of video game analysis, and social and psychological aspects of gaming. The course aims to develop students’ ability to critically reflect video games as a sociocultural phenomenon and conduct team-based research projects. The course is taught in English.

The course is suitable for exchange students (i.e. Erasmus+) but only under the code AISE00031. This is very important! Make sure you register to the course under the right code.

Introduction to Information Behavior Research

The aim of this course is to introduce the concept of information behaviour in its various manifestations, e.g. everyday life information behaviour, workplace information behaviour, collaborative information behaviour etc. We will focus on fundamental models of information behavior and research methods used to explore its different aspects. We will use interviews, diaries and other qualitative methods to explore information needs, information seeking and information use.

Media and Cultural Studies – Concepts, Traditions and Currents

This course is designed to introduce students to the analytical terms and research methods, as well as interpretive strategies employed in contemporary media and cultural studies in order to support their capacity to analyse and conceptualize critically the transformation of print and books in contemporary media environment. Among the questions addressed are the following ones: Can a process of contesting a society’s media representations produce significant social change? How does the central project of British Cultural Studies relate to orthodox Marxist scepticism? Moreover, what is the methodological legacy of British cultural studies in the process of studying and researching democratization and commercialization of culture in former socialist countries of East and Central Europe after the end of the Cold War? There is a special focus on interdisciplinary approaches which allow examining the ways in which cultural processes are produced, distributed, consumed, and responded to.

Students are to investigate varied dimensions of cultural production and reception; learn to comprehend them in their broader social, aesthetic, ethical, and political contexts. The course also aims at introducing the ideas of key scholars who have shaped the development of the field, including Stuart Hall, Raymond Williams, Richard Hoggart, Ann Gray, Paul Gilroy, Ien Ang, John Fiske; key figures upon whom CS has drawn (Karl Marx, Theodore Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci); and those who – more or less independently advanced some of its key impulses and challenges (Judith Butler, Edward Said, Robert Darnton).

The course is suitable for both, international/Erasmus students as well as the domestic ones who need to master the appropriate conceptual frameworks and linguistic competence that would facilitate their study abroad.

Psychological aspects of technologies

Research Data Management

The main goal of the course is to introduce students to basics of research data management on the example of their master thesis project. The course will be taught online and will include two online sessions and a Moodle course.

Topics

• Open science, open data – policies, good scientific practice
• Research data management – data life cycle, short term preservation, metadata and documentation, persistent identifiers, repositories and long term preservation
• Data management plans and DMP tools
• Legal and ethical aspect of RDM

Useful links for incoming students

• General information for exchange and visiting students
• Information for Erasmus+ students of Faculty of Arts
• Calendar for Exchange Students
• Erasmus Guide 2015/2016
• Full overview of teached courses at Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship

Erasmus+ Coordinator

PhDr. Helena Lipková, Ph.D.
helena.lipkova@ff.cuni.cz