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Assignment 6- Website

http://sites.google.com/site/hesheroeslis2600/
Enjoy.

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Week 10- Muddiest Point

How do search engines search for videos and images online?

Week 10- Reading Notes

David Hawking's Web Search Engines (part 1 & 2)
These articles gave an interesting look at how search engines function. I found the "crawling" process to be interesting and kind of tedious. There do indeed seem to be many issues with crawlers, as there are many traps, etc. I had also never considered that too many requests on a server by crawlers could be detrimental. Document partitioning was also interesting. It was nice to see another application for compression since we covered this earlier on.

Shreeves, Habing, Hagedorn, and Young's Current Developments and Future Trends
I think it's great that the initial researchers had open minds about how the Open Archives Initiative could be used and expanded their focus/audience to academia, museums, and libraries. The work to make a sheet music consortium was also quite interesting to me. It must be quite a challenge to classify musical notations into language computers can interpret.


Bergman's The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value
Almost everyone has experienced a futile and frustrating web search, in which the information is superficial and unhelpful. This article touts the Bright Planet system. I found it interesting that most internet searchers are unaware of exact "deep" Web addresses to glean information from. It also surprised me that "more than half of the deep Web content resides in . . . databases." And that "a full 95% of the deep Web is publicly accessible information- not subject to fees or subscriptions." Frustrations over inadequate searches have grown, perhaps due to user sophistication, and this reality simply highlights the need for and importance of qualified librarians to help patrons search for what they need in a timely fashion.

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Week 9- Muddiest Point

What are the names of the people who specifically led the computer scientists and librarians in their collaboration (and then their "combat" on NSF's DL Initiative?

Week 9- Reading Notes

Dewey Meets Turing
Apparently librarians and computer sciences had been preparing to work together on digital libraries before the advent of the internet. After this, hard feelings formed and there were many misunderstandings. There were even claims of misused monies.

Lynch's Institutional Repositories
This brought the plight of professors to my attention. I suppose I felt their efforts to maintain their own websites were their problem and had little to do with professional goals of advancement in their fields.

Mischo's Digital Libraries
I thought it was quite interesting how several different government agencies worked together on digital libraries. While the author praises the progress of availability of full journal articles online, I don't think the move to free, entire articles online has happened fast enough!

Comments on other blogs- Week 9 readings

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Week 8- Muddiest Point

Is pride/competition preventing the arrival of an uncomplicated "perfect" authorship system? Surely lack of technology cannot be the reason perfection has not been reached, but lack of collaboration, right?

Week 8- Reading Notes

Bryan's Introducing the Extensible Markup Language (XML)
I greatly appreciated this article and thought it was the most succinct of all of our articles. I really responded to the use of bullets and the author's effort to simplify this frustrating topic of XML. This article finally helped me better understand what the function of DTD was.

Ogbuji's A survey of XML standards: Part 1
It surprised me how controversial the subject of XML namespaces are among professionals. I detected much friction between the various schools of thought, and this surprised me. I also found canonical XML interesting.

Bergholz's Extending your Markup
I didn't get the use for empty element tags. If they're empty, why spend time adding them, especially if XML isn't spatial like HTML is. I appreciated the varying approaches related in this article. He (Bergholz) did a nice job of playing devil's advocate with himself.

www.w3schools.com XML Schema Tutorial
I appreciated the warning that almost isn't good enough with XML. Of course, this just stressed me out more. ;) I also appreciated explanations on what makes XML Schemas worth using. Not sure if it convinced me, though. Both XML and DTD are sadly over my head.

Assignment 5- Koha

http://pitt4.kohawc.liblime.com/cgi-bin/koha/bookshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=37

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Week 7- Muddiest Point

Are we not using Dreamweaver because of costs associated with it? One of my friends in a local library program used the free month membership to complete her classwork.

Week 7- Reading Notes

www.w3schools.com's HTML
This was a helpful introduction to HTML. I felt it made HTML more accessible and less scary. I found it interesting that HTML is not case sensitive. I also appreciate the explanation of the comment tags, since they can be used to document what you were intending in the event that something needs to be updated. I found it discouraging, yet understandable that "When you write HTML text, you can never be sure how the test is displayed in another browser." I also found the use of single quotations odd and opposite than typical English grammar rules.

www.webmonkey.com's HTML Cheatsheet
I liked that this document was broken down into sections. This made it easier to digest. It was simple and I'm sure will be a great help in our upcoming assignment.


www.w3schools.com's CSS
I think the creation of CSS's has made the lives of many programmers much easier. It seems like a great progression within this area. I'm sure they relieve a lot of frustration. I thought it was interesting that you can "use negative values to overlap content" when using margin properties. It was sobering to see how incorrect spacing between units and property values can mess up your presentation.

D. Goans, G. Leach, and T.M. Vogel's Beyond HTML
Unfortunately, I was unable to access this article. I attempted to access it through the Pitt remote library system, but was unsuccessful. I did not come up with anything when I used search engines either. A post of this problem can be found in the technical issues discussion board.

Assignment 4- Jing/Flickr

Jing video:
http://www.screencast.com/users/mls_pitt/folders/Jing/media/88d618f2-038c-4cbf-89d9-d10c5df72e5d

Flickr Screen Capture Images:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30638114@N08/2922490150/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/30638114@N08/2922498720/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/30638114@N08/2921651787/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/30638114@N08/2921654581/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/30638114@N08/2922504348/

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Week 6- Muddiest Point

I probably missed it, but I didn't find out who owns routers and actually maintains them. Individual companies? The Internet Society people?

Week 6- Reading Notes

Tyson's How Stuff Works
I think the explanation of NAPs and routers helped me understand the google illustration in which they displayed internet traffic better. I'd not thought of routers being computers themselves before. I suppose I thought they were more of a plug in device. I expected to be more confused while reading this article, but the explanations were pretty good and easily understandable.

Pace's Dismantling Integrated Library Systems
I don't understand why we don't have several viable and useful ILS options by now. It seems that teams of people should be solely dedicated to finding great systems for different types of libraries until real answers are found. I'm not sure that other "industries" would be as passive about it as we are.
I know I'm biased, but I still think libraries should receive price breaks for the inefficient technology they are being offered-- especially since library budgets typically shrink while IT companies' profits typically expand.

Brin and Page's Inside the Google Machine
The demonstrations about google use around the world were pretty interesting. I thought that their lack of affect on Africa was sad and somewhat telling of world affairs. I admit that I rarely think of google's attempts to keep up with their traffic load unless the site is down. It was revealing that only 30% of its traffic is from the United States. Google's 20% rule of doing what you wanted for 20% of your work schedule was so odd! I can't help but wonder how this is calculated exactly. I thought that their dust bar innovation was a wonderful idea, though- and loved its accessibility. Maybe the 20% rule works after all.

Assignment #3- Personal Bibliographic Management System

http://www.citeulike.org/user/antcomm

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Week 5- Muddiest Point

I had trouble with the difference between repeaters, hubs, and bridges and their operation in networks. Each time I thought I had deciphered the difference, I became confused again.

Week 5- Reading Notes

wikipedia.org: Local Area Network
I don't think I quite understood the twisted pair cabling technology.
The history of how LANs were used to cut down on costs was interesting. I think most LANS have firewalls now due to concerns about security.

wikipedia.org: Computer Network
It was helpful to realize that LANs are categorized by a variety of ways. I found it helpful to read that "the network topology" is not necessarily associated with the "physical layout of the network." I do not know that I would have considered a typical home workstation a LAN, so this definition surprised me. I found it odd that GANs have no universal definition. Perhaps as more people use and quantify this network, they can agree upon a definition.

youtube.com- Common Types of Computer Networks
This was a quick snapshot of the various kinds of networks used. I found the note about fiber optics used to produce networks interesting because I think this is what my college used to update our network a few years ago. They had to tear up the roads and grounds to lay the cables. It was annoying. I wonder if it was worth it or if this has become an outdated technology by now.

Coyle's Management of RFID in Libraries
It seems that RFID can be used for good or evil. Most people are familiar with implanting chips into pets in the event that they become lost. The illustration of using RFID in books to decipher whether or not they have been checked out or not when customers walk through the security gates of a library kind of gave me the heebie jeebies. It seems to me that the title of the books has to be obtained before one can tell if it has been checked out or not. It concerns me because I value patron privacy. I'm probably just being paranoid, though.

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Week 5- Reading Notes

Data compression:wikipedia.org
While data compression is extremely useful in many situations, I thought it was disappointing that compressed data can not be decompressed simultaneously- sometimes it takes quite a while for data to decompress. This takes time, which some say is more valuable than money (which one would presumably be saving by using less storage space by compressing data). The illustrations in this article were helpful to me. It totally makes sense that you can sort of take shortcuts with visual data since our eyes can play tricks on us and our brains fill in the missing pieces quite often. I also found it interesting that dvds use lossy compression.

Data compression basics: http://dvd-hq.info/data_compression_1.php
I thought the use of varying algorithms was interesting. It of course makes perfect sense that one formula wouldn’t solve the problem for both text and data, let alone different written languages. The information about pixels was also informative. I found it interesting how red, green, and blue are the colors used to cover the entire color spectrum. It was also interesting to read that each color is represented by three values, not just one. Sometimes a simple reorganizing of the information is all that is needed, not a shrinking of the data.

Galloway’s Imagining Pittsburgh
While initially this project sounded great and unifying, it quickly revealed some chinks in the armor. The various methods and procedures of the different collection entities made for an incohesive product for the customers. I was glad the collection agencies made efforts to cross reference the photos for easier locating by patrons. I’m glad they realized the importance of eventually adding dates and date ranges to the search fields. My experience at a national park service site opened my eyes to the many ways people catalog, classify, and describe information for posterity. Obviously no two people will describe a photograph the same way. Each individual will pick up on different information he/she feels is important and vital to the interpretation of the photograph. It appears the collecting facilities finally settled on using the Dublin Core elements to address this issue.

Webb’s YouTube and libraries
I thought this article was extremely interesting. I don’t know that the thought of adding youtube links to a catalog had ever occurred to me. I thought the after-hours “how to” video concept was a wonderful idea. I especially gravitated toward the idea of general tours and tutorials via youtube. I remember the strain that the college library staff was put under at the beginning of each year when we had to give tours to new freshmen. Yuck! Everyone was always stressed out because at the beginning of the school year, there are so many other tasks that need to be completed, and it seems that just when you get into a rhythm, you have to stop and give a tour. Using youtube could certainly lighten the load in situations like this. Most people don’t want a tour anyway. I did get an answer to a question I’d had about youtube for a while. I see that the max amount of time a presentation can last is around ten minutes. I always wondered why more full television shows/movies, etc. did not show up in their entirety on youtube.

Week 4- Muddiest Point

Forgive me- I'm always the slow one to understand things: so nothing is due on Mondays anymore? The responses are due on Tues.?

Week 3- Muddiest Point
I was unclear how to interpret Lucie's email. She didn't state the discrepancy between the syllabus and the notes. Are any of our assignments still due on Tues. at 3p.m.?
Posted by Alesha at 8:27 PM
1 comments:
Theresa said...
I think Lucie was clearing up a discrepancy with her email asking that we have everything posted on Monday before class. Assignments, like the Flikr assignment is due Tuesday by 3pm along with any blog comments that need to be made. The readings and postings need to be in sometime on Friday the same week we had class. So we had class on Tuesday, readings and postings on Friday, Tuesday before class assignment. I hope this clears things up for you!

September 13, 2008 7:34 AM
Post a Comment

flickr- assignment #2

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30638114@N08/

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Week 4- Reading notes

www.wikipedia.org-Database
I found the concept of database management systems interesting. I don't know that I knew that this organization was done by software. It is also interesting to know the roots of the word "database." America, as usual, was a step behind Europe in adopting the term. Talk of this makes me curious of what was used to describe this phenomenon before the language "database" was chosen as a standard. I am grateful that queries have been made user-friendly for everyday use by the average person. Instead of learning a special language or code, programs decipher our queries and display related topics so we can seamlessly search for information.

Gilliland's Introduction to Metadata
The meaning of the term metadata was vast enough to almost give me a headache trying to wrap my head around it. It is intriguing to see the concept applied to library systems. The bottom line is that metadata aids libraries in providing the public with information. Whether I fully comprehend all of the facets of metadata, it is crucial to our service of the world population (especially in the case of digital collections that can be accessed around the world-- etc.)

Miller's An Overview of the Dublin Core Data Model
The inherent problem of the vastness of the reality of metadata is addressed in the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative's labors to consolidate and agree on definitions across various disciplines. An example of their efforts is the Resource Description Framework for referring to phenomena connected and embedded in the internet. The importance of this consolidation is the amount of time that can be saved by using the same language and the elimination of misunderstanding.

Week 3- Muddiest Point

I was unclear how to interpret Lucie's email. She didn't state the discrepancy between the syllabus and the notes. Are any of our assignments still due on Tues. at 3p.m.?

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week 2- Reading Notes

1. Computer Hardware
I realize that I forget about the most common types of computers and have a tendency of immediately thinking about pc's when I hear the work "computer". I forget about the myriad of other common devices that have computers in them. I agree with the article that floppy disks are becoming more and more obsolete. I'm not sure if it is a reflection on the slowness of many libraries to come around to new technology or not, but the system I work in still sells floppy's to library patrons. Since these disks are so outdated, and our own library computers don't have a space for the floppy disks that we sell, we let patrons check out external floppy drives so they can use the disks we've just sold them. Odd, no? I have a friend who is obsessed with convincing the world that blu-ray discs are the better choice over dvd's. I see that the article tends to agree with her. I also think it's interesting that with the rise of webcams, my library does not have a policy about appropriate usage within the libraries. We have a system-wide policy of no cell phone usage in respect for customers who enjoy a quiet library experience, but not a policy on people conversing via webcam.

2. Moore’s Law
It is interesting to hear the theory that the original concept may have been somewhat triggered by a lecture from another engineer. It’s also interesting that while the transistor size continually gets smaller, the cost of producing the item gets bigger. I was encouraged by the part that says that bandwidth will continue to increase by “50%” each year. The video was nice- especially the illustrations using cars and the newspaper. Who wouldn’t like a car to perform better at a much cheaper price? We’d probably have flying cars by now. It was also cool that the computer industry as a whole considers Moore’s Law a kind of challenge to maintain quality and excellence within the field. While all good things must come to an end, which has been noted in this case by just about everyone it looks like, it is remarkable that this phenomenon exists in the computer world.

3. Computer History Museum
This fantastic site piqued my interest in the computer field more than I thought it could be piqued. It was revealing to see how the museum itself grew from sharing a space with a children’s museum to silicone valley. I was impressed with the museum’s commitment to stay relevant and up-to-date with current trends and important persons by holding events and by their publications. The pliability was refreshing – as most history museums are almost frozen in time and do not have new developments impacting their content on a regular basis. I noticed that a “sense of humor” was listed as a job requirement for a few of the open positions posted on the website. This museum is definitely not your typical one. I found the transformation from technical company ads to mass consumer marketing rather interesting as the way people viewed computers changed over the years. I also found the openness of the invitation to donate relevant artifacts to the museum novel and refreshing. The website was fun and not condescending.

Week 1- Muddiest Point

I am confused by the assignment due date vs. the very first Required Reading notes for week 2. I finally got it, but it took me awhile.

Week 3- reading notes

Garrels' Introduction to Linux: A Hands on Guide
It surprised me that Linux had been used to make popular movies like Shrek. It also surprised me (although I don't know why- it makes perfect sense) that it can be used with wireless portable devices as well.
It was interesting to read that Linux users were a little pompous to new users who didn't "get it" right away, until they realized that the best thing for the product was to create a more inviting atmosphere to new users and the public. Being snide wasn't helping it grow.
I had a boss who was very gun-ho on Open Office, and I can now see why. She went on and on about how it was free. I don't know that I knew it was a Linux product.

www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx
It was interesting to read that Bluetooth is being used for wireless mice and keyboards.
It was refreshing to see that Mac seems to have a good handle on composing text in different languages.
It was amazing how you can make an actual book from your photos for a fee. I thought that was cool. I never would have thought of that.
The measures to keep the computer's temperature cool were interesting. Mac's temperature sensors and nine fans make many PCs' 1 fan per unit seem pathetic. It is also nice that you can change the battery on a laptop without powering off the machine. I cannot tell you the number of problems we have had at various libraries over individuals losing their work due to batteries that died on our library laptops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X
Reading Rosetta was the translation component to the system was intriguing and made me understand where the software for Rosetta Stone most likely originated.
I was intrigued to find that Aqua was a Mac feature. The library system I work for just launched a new website and "aqua" in contained in the new web address. It's amazing to see how things are connected. It was good for me to see that both Windows and Macs have their individual issues. The section on misconfigured permissions opened my eyes. The fact that Bruce Tognazzini said that "Mac OS X v10.0 represented a step backwards in usability" just goes to show that it's impossible to make a perfect machine, but that it's always key to strive for perfection.

Thurott's An Update on Windows Roadmap
I was comforted in hearing that Windows XP is still available and about the downgrade rights that are an option for Vista buyers.
It surprised me that only 1 million attempts of pfishing are quelled each week by Vista. The number seems a little low. Out of all the people all over the world using this product, and all the efforts of hackers to access personal information, only one million protections a week seems a little ineffectual to me.
It was interesting that they admitted that XP is better for older systems than is Vista. I also found it interesting that most of Vista's kinks have been improved now to make it a good, viable system for most people.

Week 2- Muddiest Point

I'm sorry for being quite slow, but I was confused by the Discussion Point. I guess the discussion topic displays the readings for the discussion point, even though there are two different names for the assignment being used. The discussion topic isn't an assignment, though- right? It is just something you can do if you want to. Is that correct? But we put the responses in courseweb by Tues.- like we do for assignments, yes? Also, where should we post the digitation activity due on Tues.?

assignment #1

Lynch's Coalition for Networked Information
I thought that Lynch's view that it's not enough to learn how to operate technology, but everyone needs to learn why technology operates the way it does interesting, but somewhat immpractical from an administrator's standpoint. Staff is busy enough, and it's hard enough to find the time to adequately train people how to use things (especially in this fast-changing landscape), let alone attempt to explain how things work.


Vaughan's Lied Library at Four Years
I agree with Vaughan's acknowledgement that continual funding for constantly evolving technologies is difficult for local libraries. The system of libraries I work at only has laptops to check out at two of its branches, even though all or most of the branches were supposed to have laptops to check out by now. Also, playaways are only available at two branches, even though other branches might have higher "audio book" readerships. I have to admit that I'd never thought of the "warranties" on library purchases before. Once the warranty lapses, it's even more money libraries need to shell out.

I agree that the lack of space in library branches is also a big issue. Libraries that were built many years ago before the rise of personal computer systems struggle to accomodate patron's needs for access to convienient technology. I have heard the grumblings of staff members who struggled with re-organizing the layout of their libraries to make space for public computers.


OCLC's Content not Containers

I felt a constant inner struggle inside me while I read this article. My consumer side (give it to me faster and cheaper) warred with my librarian side (give it to me in a concrete, more established means of information and communication and give me a greater sense of job security) throughout the article.

The pull towards contextualizing information can be seen in many websites. The library where I work just unveiled a new website that attempts to better contextualize library catalog searches.
(www.kclibrary.org)

I found the quote from the Washington post stating a "phone is like a little person" humourous but valid. When you forget or lose your phone somewhere, you feel anxious and lost without it. Your whole world is wrapped up in it. Your pictures, emails and phone contact numbers are all wrapped up in one little device.

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