Muddy Point 11/21:

How many muddy point posts are we supposed to submit for a 15/15 on courseweb?

Muddy Point 11/14:

What sites do you recommend for practice on css +html outside of the W3 sites? I want to play around with things like this in the future!

Week Eleven:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

Dewey Meets Turing: Librarians, Computer Scientists, and the Digital Libraries Initiative
by Andreas Paepcke, Hector Garcia-Molina, and Rebecca Wesley
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july05/paepcke/07paepcke.html

• The Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI) was launched in 1994 by the National Science Foundation.
• Combining the words 'digital' and 'library' defined three interested parties: librarians, computer scientists, and publishers.
• The impact reached past these three groups, as Google and its search engine emerged from funded work and changed the styles for all professions that involve computers.
• The initiative has reached the work of historians, anthropologists, political science and law professions.
• Uniting librarians and computer scientists occurred - but where does this place the publisher?
• For librarians, the Web was more difficult to integrate. 
• disruption to the library community occurred with journal publishers' charging premium for digital content.
• Digital library projects in the computer science realm relieved tension between conducting 'pure' research and impacts on day-to-day society.
• scientists had been trained to use libraries, so this provided an exciting new framework.
• Librarians that immersed themselves in the initiative understood that info technologies were important to ensuring libraries' impact on scholarly work.
• OPAC (online public access catalogs) constituted the entirety of digital facilities in libraries.
• The growth of the web changed many significant plans for the Digital Library Initiative - propelling computer scientists and libraries into new directions. 
• blurred the distinction between consumers and producers of information
• dispersed most items in the aggregate should have been collected across the world and under diverse ownership.
• Early results in the project demonstrated a nagging downside of the existing DLI research environment. 
• Environment was bound to special deals with publishers and communities were not able to share results. 
• Restrictions were serious because computer scientists traditionally make their systems functionally public.
• DLI researchers with results that were bound by per-project agreements with publishers realized they could only share a small teaser with colleagues. 
• working online removed these specific restrictions.

• The embrace of the Internet by computer scientists was natural also because of the information link that is a much employed concept in computer programming. 
• Accomplishments of the digital initiative has broadened opportunities to library science, rather than marginalized the field.
• Hubs - collections of web sites whose primary goal is to direct visitors to other web sites that specialize on the hubs topics.
• The computer was teaching and producing relevance to topics.

Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age
by Clifford A. Lynch
http://www.arl.org/storage/documents/publications/arl-br-226.pdf

• The fall of 2002 introduced the institutional repository, a new strategy that allows universities to apply serious, systematic leverage to accelerate changes taking place in scholarship and scholarly communication.
• Many technology trends came together to make the IR possible - online storage costs dropped and repositories are now more affordable.
• The development of free, publicly accessed journal article collections in discplines has demonstrated ways in which the network can change scholarly communication by altering access patterns 
• Separately, the development of a series of extraordinary digital works suggests the potential of creative authorship specifically for a digital medium to transform the presentation into scholarship.
•  Lynch defines institutional repositories in the academic setting as a set of services that a university offers to the members for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by that institution and its community members.
• Essentially it is an organizationl committment to the stewardship of digital materials, including long-term preservation where appropriate.

• At a basic and fundamental level, the IR is a recognition that the intellectual lif and scholarship of our institutions will be increasingly represented, documented, and shared in digital form - that is a primary responsibility of our universities, to exercise stewardship over these riches: to make them available and to preserve them.
• Scholarship and scholarly communication are changing and extending slowly to cultural changes at the disciplinary level.
• higher education has overlooked an opportunity to support our most innovative and creative faculty.
• Future developments in IR is covered, with suggestions that there are unexplored and interesting extensions that can be utilized in the public.
• Lynch has argued that IR is a powerful idea that serves as an engine for change in higher education.

Web Search Engines: Part 1 and 2
by David Hawking
http://web.mst.edu/~ercal/253/Papers/WebSearchEngines-1.pdf

• Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft are indexing almost a thousand times as much data for web users, providing reliable and sub second responses to around a billion queries a day in a plethora of languages.
• Part 1 covers behind the scenes look in this article, detailing the infrastructure, the algorithms, and part 2 details the algorithms and data structures required to index the 400 terabytes of a Web page text AND deliver high-quality results in response to the million queries each day.
• "crawlers" in reference to Algorithms that scale the networks and research.
• Limited space prevents discussion of the many aspects to the search engine operation. 
• high priority search engine operations monitor the search quality to ensure it does not decrease when the new index is implemented.

Current developments and future trends for the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting
by Sarah L. Shreeves, Thomas G. Habing, Kat Hagedorn, and Jeffrey A. Young
http://www.lib.umich.edu/files/services/dlps/Shreevesetal_5

• The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) has been adopted since its initial release in 2001.
• developed to federate access to diverse e-print archives through metadata and harvesting, the protocol has demonstrated its potential usefulness to a broad range of communities.
• Article details the overview of the OAI environment.
• Lit Review -  the mission is to "develop and promote interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content."
•  There are two focal points: Community- and Domain-Specific OAI Services.
• Ongoing challenges exist for the communities:
• Metadata variation -  the normalization of a subject element, with many different controlled vocabularies, are used by the different data providers. It is for most service providers, resource intensive.
• Metadata formats - many new formats including adding additional paths to the processing routines of data.
• OAI Data Provider implementation practices
• Communication Issues - loosely federated bunch, lacking general or technical skills within the group.
• The OAI community does have a future if the issues above have guidelines to deal with the problems.

Thoughts 

These articles are decent and interesting to a point, but it feels like there is a lot to know and not enough written. It is a vast topic with many points, but these readings cover the Digital Library quite well. I actually referenced the Lynch article for a paper that I wrote on Digital Humanities this semester. It's all pretty interesting to see how library science accommodates to e-science these days.

Muddy Point 11/7

In regards to Assignment 5, the 'third page' that is meant for us to describe our favorite things - did you want images or text descriptions of what we consider to be our favorites?

Week Ten:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

An Introduction to the Extensible Markup Language (XML)
by Martin Bryan
http://www.is-thought.co.uk/xmlintro.htm

• This site explains XML as a subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) defined in ISO standard.
• it makes it easy to interchange structured documents over the Internet.
• XML always clearly mark where the start and the end of a logical part [element] of an interchanged document occurs.
• XML defines how the Internet Uniform Resource Locators can be used to identify component parts of the XML data streams.
• This definition allows a Document Type Definition (DTD) to be defined in a formal model.
• Users can check each component of document occurrances in a valid place within the interchanged data stream.
•  Unlike SGML, XML doesn't require the presence of the DTD.
• XML allows users to bring multiple files together to form compound documents. It also:
• indentifies the location for illustrations to be incorporated into text files.
• provide processing control info for supporting programs
• add editorial comments to a file
• XML is not a predefined set of tags and is not a standardized template for production of particular types of documents.
• Basic components of XML include objects, elements, and attributes. the term XML refers to a documents composed of entities, so it differs from other markup languages in that it does not simply indicate where a change occurs.
• Systems that understand XML allow users to provide a list of elements that are valid at each point in the document. 
• elements and their attributes are entered between matched pairs of angled brackets, while entity references starts with an ampersand and end with semicolon.
•  Definition of personal tag sets and attributes of elements are described - with examples of the markup text.
• XML is capable of providing techniques for handling non-standard document elements. the coding of a scheme such as an illustration is different from the normal text contents.
• Data stored using non-XML notations need appropriate application software to process it, however the XML-coded file will correctly identify where each piece of data belongs in the completed document and where it has been stored to use previously.

Extending you Markup: a XML tutorial
by Andre Bergholz
http://xml.coverpages.org/BergholzTutorial.pdf

• This is an introduction to XML written for more general audiences rather than Bryan's article, which was geared towards an individual with a base knowledge.
• Bergholz offers a simple way of remembering DTD, XSL, RDF, and DOM when considering XML markup. 
• A well-formed XML document begins with a prolog and ends with one element.
• Stylesheets, XML Schema, and namespaces are examined and exemplified throughout the PDF.
• DTD's define the structure of xml documents - it allows users to specify the set of tags, the order of tags, and the attributes of each. ---> well formed is called valid.
• elements are either nonterminal or terminal in DTD. 
• terminal elements are declared as parsed character data or EMPTY.
• nonterminal contain sublements, grouped as sequences or choice. 
• sequence defines the order in which the subelements must appear.
• Explanation of the terms SGML and HTML to understand the influence and develpoment of XML - a semantic language that allows meaningful annotation of text.
• meaningful annotation is the essence of XML 

"XML Schema Tutorial"
http://www.w3schools.com/Schema/default.asp

• This tutorial, like the one on CSS and HTML, offers definitions, examples, quiz, and information on the XML markup in a web document.
• The introduction offers what it is, how it works, and a basic understanding refresher of HTML and DTD.
• There are examples and definitions of complex types, simple types, and data types for a user to better understand the components of XML.

Thoughts 

As I have stated previously, the W3schools tutorials do a good job of explaining each term, showing examples, and highlight key parts to each concept for people like me who have had little to none experience on the subject. Each topic has a variety of information and ways to practice, something I take into consideration when completing the assignments/labs. I have referred to these websites for information outside of these blog posts, I'm thankful they exist!

Muddy Point 10/31

For assignment 4, is there a way to copy a permalink for submission so that when you access my digital bookshelf, you do not require a log-in? Or is it okay that the URL I will have on my submission is a log-in required link?

Week Nine:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial
http://www.w3schools.com/css/

• This website provided good examples on CSS and how to control the style and layout of Web pages all at once.
• CSS - defined as how to display HTML elements on a Web page.
• Stands for Cascading Style Sheets
• Styles were added to HTML 4.0 to solve problems.
• External Style Sheets save work and are stored in CSS files.
• All browsers support CSS today. --> It defines how HTML elements are meant to be displayed.
• Much like the HTML page, the quiz was a helpful tool also for remembering various components of CSS and its' defining characteristics.
• The most helpful page on this site was the CSS Examples tab

CSS Tutorial: starting with HTML + CSS
http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss

• This tutorial is aimed for individuals looking to start using CSS, but have not written a CSS style sheet before.
• while it does not explain the components of CSS, it does explain how to create an HTML file, a CSS file, and how to make them work together.

•  This page takes the user through a series of steps that ultimately create an HTML page with the CSS style sheet. It walks you through step by step, adding colors, fonts, navigation tools, styling links, and external CSS.
• It was fun to create my first webpage through the tutorial!

"CSS"
Chapter 2 of Cascading Style Sheets, designing for the Web by Hakon Wium Lie and Bert Bos
http://www.w3.org/Style/LieBos2e/enter/

• This chapter in this book is also an introduction to CSS as it is an HTML element that enables Web page designers to mark up a document as to its structure.
• CSS puts the designer in the driver's seat. This chapter introduces the basics of how to write CSS and HTML work together.
• Two ways to create CSS are described:
• a normal text editor and writing the style sheets "by hand"
• a dedicated tool that supports CSS writing.
• It is recommended to write the CSS by hand so that the developer of a dedicated tool does not interfere with the style you intend for a page.
• A rule is a statement about one stylistic aspect of one or more elements.
• consists of two parts: selector and declaration 
• selector is the part before the left curly brace. selector { ... } - link between HTML and the style. it specifies the elements affected by the declaration.
• declaration is the part within the curly braces { declaration } - part of the rule that sets forth what the effect will be.
• has two parts separated by a colon: property - { color: green } COLOR is the property. value - { color: green } GREEN is the value.
• The selector is based on the type of the element. 
• A style sheet is a set of one or more rules that apply to an HTML document.
• There are many definitions provided within this chapter that give a good base knowledge of the CSS and HTML elements needed.
• It becomes very technical, describing common tasks, properties, and perspectives on the information provided.

Thoughts 

I found this information very useful, especially after reviewing the terms with the W3 School tutorials. CSS and HTML are very in-depth, but this website provides a great basic coverage and examples for someone like myself to understand. I can see this information being utilized in my future as an academic librarian because I will need to create webpages for students and faculty to access. I enjoyed learning so much about these correlating topics.

Muddy Point 10/24

I have no muddy point for this week actually, I feel pretty confident in what we are discussing because I have gotten a chance to work in HTML coding previously.

Week Eight:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

HTML Tutorial
http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/

• This website provided good examples on HTML and how to create my own webpage. 
• HTML - defined as the markup language for describing web documents.
• Stands for Hyper Text Markup Language -> a set of markup tags.
• HTML documents are described by HTML tags
• There were many easy to understand explanations and descriptions of HTML tags and the text that appears in webpage content.
• There have been many versions of HTML since 1991.
• The quiz was a helpful tool also for remembering various parts of the HTML process.
• many components such as how to italicize, how to break, how to create links, etc. were featured in the quiz
• The most helpful page on this site was the HTML Examples tab

HTML Cheatsheet
http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/html_cheatsheet/

• This webpage is definitely very handy as it contains the most common HTML tags available as well as the proper syntax to create them.
• I have printed this source out and plan to refer to it whenever I am in need of creating HTML.
• This information is also pertinent for when I will utilize libguides as a librarian.

Web Development with SAS by Example (3rd Ed.)
Chapter 2 - Introduction to HTML
books.google.com

• This chapter in this book is also an introduction to the hypertext markup language as well as formatting using style sheets.
• All markup languages use tags to annotate the document content.
• In HTML, there is a short list of standard tags that must be learned.
• Writing HTML can be tedious, as there is a lot repetition.
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the standard body responsible for using a stricter and cleaner reformulation known as Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML)
• XHTML is a family of current and future document types and modules that reproduce, subset, and extend HTML 4. 
• It must also conform to a Document Type Definition (DTD) for XML-based Webpages.
• Web browsers use the markup tags to determine how to display the document.
• This chapter examines the use of style sheets to create a uniform appearance for a Web site by separating the page content from the presentation.
• it also simplifies Web page maintenance.

"Beyond HTML: Developing and Re-Imagining Library Web Guides in a Content Management System"
by Doug Goans, Guy Leach, and Teri M.Vogel
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2234d9w2

• This is a case study that developed to report on the content management system designed to manage 30 web-based research guides developed by the subject liaison librarians at the Georgia State University Library
• Web development librarians with assistance from the web programmer designed a system using MySQL and ASP.
• liaison team gave input on the system through rigorous testing and assisted with the design of the templates that control the layout of the content on the guides.
• This paper as intended to contribute to a small, but growing collection of CMS (content management system) case studies.
• covers technical, functional, and managerial developments of a CMS while addressing the practical user factors that might get lost in the process.
• Web guides were diverse on visual levels. 
• each librarian used different colors, fonts, and layout designs.
• there was a lack of training among the librarians to address various web page and site-building skills
• A survey was conducted to note observations on web development, particularly to shift away from a static HTML content delivery system.
• In a CMS, the content is disconnected from the layout and design elements of the page.
• content may be defined variously in however the organization chooses.

• Some libraries adopt CMS technology because they want to reduce the 'gatekeeper' effect by eliminating barriers that limit library staff from contributing to the website.
• The continuation of this case study becomes a little foreign to me, as I continued to read, I wasn't sure what the most important aspects of the paper were pertinent to me as as student.

Thoughts 

All of the readings for this week provide very detailed information on HTML. This information seems useful as librarians are going to be expected to have new technological skills as the Library 2.0 continues to expand. I know that personally, in my placement this semester, I am required to learn the inner-workings of LibGuides. My classmate Mychele and I are required to learn how to edit and access HTML and other web-based information in order to correctly submit Libguides. HTML is definitely one of the most important aspects of Technology and information technologies.

Muddy Point 10/17

How specific are we able to get with the terms "library services" for the first essay? Do you mean technology-specific of just a service from the library and its staff?

Week Seven:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

"How Internet Infrastructure Works" by Jeff Tyson
 http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-infrastructure.htm

• The Internet is a global collection of networks, big and small. they connect in different ways to form the single entity known by interconnected networks.
• The Internet Society is a non-profit group est. in 1992 to oversee the formation of the policies and protocols of the Internet (how we use and interact)
• This article looks to define the basic underlying structure of the Internet [domain serves, network access points]
• Computers are connected to a network, via a modem - dials local number to connect to the Internet Service Provider (ISP). 
• work usually uses Local Area Networks (LANs) to connect to the ISP.
• Many large companies have their own Point of Presence (POP) to place local users to a company's network. 
• there is no existing overall controlling network, instead there are several networks connecting through the Network Access Points (NAPs)
• provides example of internet networking
• All networks rely on NAP, routers, etc to communicate. routers determine where to send information from one computer to another. they are specialized computers. there are two jobs for routers:
• it ensures information does not go where it its not needed. 
• makes sure that information does make it to intended destination.
• The National Science Foundation created the first high-speed backbone in 1987.
• NSFNET - T1 line connected to 170 smaller networks and was developed by IBM
• backbones are the most important feature of network communication
• All machines on the Internet has a unique identification #, IP Address. (internet protocol)
• IP addresses are normally expressed in decimal format. this is translated via binary code in the actual network.
• Any server machine makes its services available using number ports.

"Dismantling Integrated Library Systems" by Andrew K. Pace
 http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2004/02/ljarchives/dismantling-integrated-library-systems/

• Author claims the integrated library system has been dismantled since its evolution in the early 1990s. 
• "the old technology of the ILS clashed with new web technologies"
• Web creates opportunities and challenges that are fueling the changes in the ILS. -> new modules out of frustration are being built from the dismantling of the integrated systems.
• Much issue resides in the vendor's own modules and with a library's homegrown solutions.
• Maintaining a competitive advantage takes much work, such as continuing ILS software upgrades and fierce competition for new name sales.
• It is unrealistic to create a completely new ILS.
• Librarians are motivated for solutions because of healthy competition with peers. Libraries are forced to look at new technology to purchase a standalone product.
• "Innovation will have to come via integration with new technology"
• Libraries can benefit from new solutions in vendor markets.
• Vendors have two choices: continue to maintain large systems that use proprietary methods of interoperability and promise tight integration of services OR choose to dismantle their modules in a way that librarians can reintegrate their systems through web services and standards, combining new with old.

TED Talk: The Genesis of Google (Inside the Google machine) by Sergey Brin and Larry Page
http://www.ted.com/talks/sergey_brin_and_larry_page_on_google

• I really liked the behind the scenes look at how Google has morphed into this large system of integrated users. The dot process of when someone on Google conducting searches is pretty crazy, I am sure it is constantly on. 
• There was a lot of interesting information in this TED talk because Google has perfected that algorithm of networks and its related searches.

Thoughts 

Tyson's article was easier to read than I expected it to be, I enjoyed the lexicon and know this information will help me in my career as a librarian. Dismantling the library integrated system is complicated, but nonetheless an extremely important aspect of the changing library sciences.

Muddy Point 10/3

I just have a question about metadata schema. The idea of metadata having multiple views is a little muddy to me. Does this mean that this are different ways that data is able to be viewed? Or does it refer to how the data is interpreted?

Week Six:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

Local area network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Area_Network

• Defined as the computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a home, school, computer lab, or office building - using network media. 
• They include a smaller geographic area and non-inclusion of leased telecommunication lines.
• Ethernet over twisted pair cabling and Wi-Fi are the two more common technologies currently used to build LANs.
• An increasing demand and use of computers in universities and research labs pushed for a need to provide high-speed interconnections between computer systems. 
• Simple LANs consist of one or more switches. switches - connected to - router, modem, or ADSL modem - for Internet access.
• LANs can maintain connections with other LANs via leased lines, leased services, or the Internet

Computer network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network 

• Telecommunications network that allows computers to exchange data. (the best known computer network is the Internet)
• Networked computing devices pass data to each other along data connections. -- Data is transferred in form of packets. -- Connections (network links) between nodes are established using either cable media or wireless media. 
• Nodes - includes hosts such as personal computers, phones, servers as well as hardworking hardware. 
• Two devices are said to be networked together when one device is able to exchange information with the other device, whether or not they have a direct connection to each other.
• CNs support applications such as access to the world wide web, shared use of application and storage servers, printers, fax machines, use of email and instant messaging. 
• Computer networking is a branch of electrical engineering, telecommunications, and computer science.
• A computer network facilitates interpersonal communications allowing people to communicate easily via email, instant messaging, chat rooms, telephone, video telephone calls, video conferences. It also:
• provides access to information on shared storage devices is an important feature
• allows sharing of files, data, and other types of information giving authorized users the ability to access information stored on other computers on the network. 
• allows sharing of network and computing resources
• A network packet is a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-switched network. 
• control information and user data
• There are various networks: local area, home area, personal area, storage area, campus area, backbone network, metropoolitan area, wide area, enterprise private network, virtual private

"Management of RFID in Libraries" by Karen Coyle
http://www.kcoyle.net/jal-31-5.html

• RF stands for radio frequency. the ID is identifier. 
• tag itself consists of a computer chip and an antenna, often printed on paper or a flexible medium.
• RFID is an advanced technology compared to barcodes. the tag does not have to be visible to be read; instead it can be read even when it is embedded in an item.
• might carry a complex message - limited to an identification number
• chip is part of the RFID tag that can carry many bytes of information. 
• RFID is not a single technology. 
• RFID tags used for automated toll taking for cars (easy pass)
• located in car keys to gain entry into buiildings
• used to track animals on farms or lost pets
• Asks the question if libraries should use RFID technology. 
• libraries should use new technologies because the conditions in the general environment that led to the development of the technology are under the conditions in which the library operates. 
• Libraries look to RFID as a security mechanism. 
• facilitates security in a variety of ways. the tag used has a special "security bit" that can be switched from 'checked-in' to 'checked-out'.
• The tags must be durable because the items will be used frequently.

Thoughts 

So these readings were interesting to me because I actually understood most of it. I am familiar with the terms Local Area Network and Computer Network because of basic computing courses that I have taken since junior high. I really enjoyed the RFID article however because it was most relevant to the LIS program and it was written in a way for me to understand the technology. I definitely understand what RFID is and how it is utilized for all kinds of functions.

Muddy Point 9/26

For this week's muddiest point, I would say that I am still very confused on how the entity-relationship model in databases function but only because this is still all very new information and it looks like a foreign language to me.

Week Five:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

Introduction to Metadata, pathways to Digital Information: 1: Setting the Stage
Anne J. Gilliland (2008)

• The term "metadata" literally means "data about data" - is a widely used and frequently underspecified term in the professional communities that use information systems and resources.
• In the past 100 years, the creation and management of metadata is the responsibility of information professionals engaged in the fields of CATALOGING, CLASSIFICATION, and INDEXING. This is changing as information resources are becoming put online by the public.
• College students are taught in information literacy courses to look for the metadata such as data information to determine where or not a source is authoritative from the Web. 
• It is important for information professionals AND creators and users of digital content to understand the roles of different types of metadata in ensuring accessible, authoritative, and record-keeping systems.
• Metadata was used by communities involved with the management of data and systems maintenance.
• it is the sum total of what can be said about any information object at any level of group.
• This means anything that can be addressed and manipulated as a discrete entity by a human being or an info system.
• object may comprise a single item, an aggregate of items, or an entire database.
• All information objects have three features: content, context, and structure.
• content relates to what the object contains or is about. (intrinsic)
• context indicates who, what, when, where, and why associated with object's creation (extrinsic)
• structure refers to formal set of associations within or among individual information objects. (can be both intrinsic and extrinsic)
• Library metadata development provides intellectual and physical access to collection materials. Includes indexes, abstracts, and bibliographic records such as the Library of Congress system.
• Created by humans but also in automated ways such as metadata mining, harvesting, and Web crawling.
• An emphasis on structure of information objects in metadata development has been less overt in past years.
• In an environment where a user can gain unmediated access to information objects over a network, metadata:
• certifies the authenticity and degree of completeness of the content
• establishes and documents the context of the content
• provides a range of intellectual access points for an increasingly diverse range of users
• Acquisition records, exhibition catalogs, licensing agreements, and educational metadata are examples of other kinds of metadata.
• User-created metadata has also been gathering momentum in varieties of venues on the Web. Uploading personal videos and photos to YouTube and Flickr dives into the business of creating, sharing, and copying metadata.
• folksonomies - created using specialized tagging tools in various Web-based communities to share, identify, retrieve, categorize, and promote web content. 
• Varying types of metadata include administrative, descriptive, preservation, technical, and use. Primary functions may be:
• creation, reuse, and re-contextualization of information objects. 
• organization and description
• validation
• searching and retrieval
• utilization and preservation
• disposition
•  Metadata is important because it increases accessibility for items. it allows for searches to reach across multiple collections at once. It plays a crucial role in documenting and maintaining important relationships.
• expanding use of digital information systems
• learning tool
• document changing uses of systems and content - turn feedback into systems development decisions.
• allows repositories to track many layers of rights, licensing, and reproduction information
• preservation and persistance
• system improvements and economics

"An Overview of the Dublin Core Data Model" by Eric J. Miller
http://dublincore.org/1999/06/06-overview/

• Shows the personal view of the relationship between a RDF (resource description framework) and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiatives data modeling activity. Not completed as of June 6, 1999.
• describes the effort to create a consensus across disciplines for the discovery-oriented description of diverse resources in an electronic environment.
• DCMI defined the DCES (Dublin Core Element set) which was intended to support cross-discipline resource discoveries. 
• the article provides "a general overview of these function requirements as well as an introduction to the supporting data model and syntactic representation".
• I couldn't understand the majority of this article, it was a lot of technical jargon that I was unfamiliar with. :(

Using Mendeley for Research Management by Julie Meloni
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/using-mendeley-for-research-management/25627

• This article explains the program Mendeley, a software program that organizes, shares, and discovers research articles. 
• It's core functions are to organize and index PDF documents into a concise bibliography - all while gathering details to allow users to search, customize, and cite from materials. 
• it serves as a social network, where groups and fellow researchers are able to collaborate online. 

Thoughts 

I liked the introduction article in metadata. I have always been a little intimidated by the term metadata, but this first reading assigned to us was a helpful tool in identifying what the term means and how it is used in the information professions. The detailed report from 1999 was ineffective to me as a student. I didn't understand the premise and I wish that when I was reading it, that I had been familiar with the subject. I have no previous experience with information technologies so it was a useless article for me.

Muddy Point 9/19

The third reading for our blog was very difficult to understand. I realize that the site is temporarily down, but the cached version did not provide the images that were important to the article. In the introduction, it explicitly states that the author hoped to use graphs, pictures, and tables to illustrate the terms and process that was described throughout. However, without these images, I was really lost. I hope our lecture next week will cover this information.

Week Four:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

Database (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database

• Defined as an organization collection of data. It is organized to model aspects of reality that supports processes requiring information. (example of being able to find a hotel with vacant rooms on a website)
• The term "database" refers to data itself and its supporting data structures. They are created to operate large quantities by storing, retrieving, and managing information.
• DBMS - database management systems - are designed to interact with users, applications, and the database system itself to analyze and decipher data. General purpose DBMS allow definition, creation, querying, updates, and administration of databases. (Oracle. Microsoft Access. FileMaker Pro.)
• There are four different types of databases: Operational, Specific, External, Hypermedia.
• Database servers are multiprocessor computers with a lot of memory and RAID disk arrays for storage. (RAID is the recovery tool for data)
• Commonly used to hold administrative information and specialized data (engineering data, economic models) --> computerized library systems are database models
• Humanities focus on general-purpose DBMS - aims to meet the needs of as many applications as possible. AS OPPOSED TO special-purpose databases such as an email system. 
• Current database systems are based on an original model, called the relational model, proposed in 1970 by Edgar F. Codd. Today's dominant database language, standardized SQL for the relational model, sets a precedent for other data models.
• Can be classified by their content, such as bibliographic, document-text, statistical, or multimedia objects. May also be classified by application area: accounting, compositions, movies, banking, insurance. ALSO can be classified by technical aspect (database structure).
• Various characterizations of databases include -
• in-memory database: primarily resides in main memory, backed up by non-volatile computer data storage.
• active database: event-driven architecture to respond to inside and outside the database.
• cloud database: information held in a virtual network. cloud computing
• data warehouses: archived data from operational databases. also from external sources
• deductive database: combining logic programming with relational databases
• distributed database: both data and the DBMS span over multiple computers
• document-oriented database: designed to store, retrieve, and manage document information
• embedded database: system where DBMS is tightly integrated with application software
• end-user databases: data developed by individual end-users. examples include collections of spreadsheets, documents, presentations, and multimedia. 
• federated database: handled as a single database by a federated database management system.
• graph database: uses graph structures to represent and store information.
• hypermedia database: any word or text representing an object can be hyperlinked
• knowledge base: special for knowledge management, provides means for a computerized collection and retrieval of knowledge.
• mobile database: carried on or synchronized from a mobile computing device
• operational database: stores detailed data about operations of an organization. customer databases
• parallel database: looks to improve performance for loading data and evaluating queries.
• spatial database: stores data with multidimensional features "where is the closest hotel to me?"
• terminology-oriented database: customized for a specific field

Entity-relationship model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity%E2%80%93relationship_model

• This is defined as a data model for describing the data or information aspects of a business domain. It lends itself to being implemented in a database. basically, it is the things and the relationships that exist among them and databases.
• Developed in 1976 by Peter Chen. 
• described as a systematic way to describe and define a business process. Modeled as components (things) + linked through relationships to express dependencies and requirements between them. 
• ER models are implemented as a database. There are THREE levels of ER models to develop:
• Conceptual data model - highest level of ER model. establishes the overall scope that is to be included. defines master reference data entities that are commonly used by the organization.
• Logical data model - does not require a conceptual ER. contains more detail than the conceptual. developed independent of technology into which it is implemented.
• Physical data model - normally developed to be instantiated into a database. used to design modifications to the relational database objects and to maintain structural metadata.
• Entity is defined as the thing capable of an independent existence that is uniquely identified. may be a physical object, an event such as a sale, or a concept. 

Database Normalization Process
http://www.phlonx.com/resources/nf3/

• This is a guide for beginners who are looking to grasp the concept of database normalization process.
• Uses the example of an invoice to level it to the Third Normal Form. also constructs an entity relationship diagram (ERD) throughout the tutorial.
• Normalization is a natural way of perceiving relationships between data and no special skill in mathematics or set theory is required.
• Three normal forms of database construction:
• No repeating elements or groups of elements.
• groups of rows are called a database row. 
• atomicity - the indivisibility of an attribute into similar parts.
• database columns are referred to as attributes
• a primary key is a column, or a group of two columns, that uniquely identify each row.
• two columns that uniquely identify each row are used as the table's primary key. although they are in different columns, they are treated as a single unit. called concatenated
• No partial dependencies on a concentrated key.
• this means a table that for each table that has a concatenated primary key, the column in the table is not part of the key must depend on the entire concatenated key for existence.
• No dependencies on non-key attributes.
• foreign key restores relationships in an orders table. essentially, it is the column that points to the primary key in another table.

Thoughts 

The terms from this week were very complicated to me because I have very little understanding of information technology. However, I think Wikipedia's definitions and examples have helped me to better understand what a database is and the entity-relationship model. It's definitely a very boring topic, but I was surprised to see how many different databases exist. As a student, I'm really only familiar with the campus computing database and I think that this has been most challenging so far this year. I do not feel that our third assigned reading, the database tutorial, was helpful. A lot of the information are terms that I have never worked with and I had a hard time connecting to the information.

Questions 
 
1. What types of databases would a student in higher education come into contact with?

Muddy Point 9/12

I am a little unclear on assignment one. Do you want us to have practice by choosing ten images and then only uploading two, or did you want us to be turning in all ten images? Also, the third part of assignment one states to "Create a table to list out at least two devices’ components" ... did you want two separate tables or just one big one that compares the two?

Week Three:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

Data Compression (Wikipedia)

• Involves encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Also known as data compression, source-coding, or bit-reduction. Proves useful because it helps reduce data storage space or transmission capacity.
• this is the process of reducing the size of a data file
• bits - defined as the basic unit of information in computing and digital communication.
• Two major types of compression: Lossy and Lossless
• Lossy -  most commonly used to compress multimedia data (audio, video, and still images), and most especially in applications that stream media.
• Lossless - used in many applications such as ZIP file formats, text documents, image file formats, and source codes. Most commonly used for archiving or production purpose.
•  Compressed data must be decompressed to use. It is subject to a space-time complexity trade (algorithm)

Data Compression Basics (DVD-HQ)
http://dvd-hq.info/data_compression_1.php#Comparison

• Article on data-compression with a focus on media (images, audio and video). 
• Advantage of data compression is the allowance of storing more data in one space while also allowing you to transfer the space in less time with less bandwidth.
• Idea behind Data Compression is to take a given representation of information and replace with a new representation that takes up less space.
• lossless data retrieves exactly identical information from the original source
• lossy data retrieves information that is not guaranteed to be exactly identical.
•  Run-length encoding replaces a sequence of identical characters with one single character, followed by number of characters in the sentence. It has an advantage of being simple and fast to execute.Very important for image data (BMP, PCX)
• Discussion on algorithms such as the Lempel-Ziv compressor
• Entropy coding, encoding, is a technique that assigns codes to blocks of data (symbols) in such a way that the length of the code is inversely proportional to the statistical probability of the symbol.
• it assigns shorter codes to common data blocks while assigning longer coeds to rarer data blocks
• Huffman coding - generates codes that a code for one symbol is never identical to the start of another code.
• eliminates the need for a special marker, relatively simple and quick. popular

 

"Imaging Pittsburgh: Creating a shared gateway to digital image collections of the Pittsburgh region"
by Edward A. Galloway
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1141/1061

• Paper focuses on the 2002 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded to the University of Pittsburgh
• proposed to create a shared gateway to visual image collections in Pittsburgh regions.
• focused on the Archives Service Center at Pitt, the Library & Archives division of the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
• grant began on November 1, 2002 and was completed on October 31, 2004.
•  Focus was to create a single web gateway for public access to thousands of visual images from the photographic collections held by the Archives Service Center of Pittsburgh University.
• partners were responsible for selecting images and determining which collections to represent
• Benefits for users working with the collection:
• ability to obtain wider picture of events and people as well as localities, infrastructure, and land use.
• important because of the different perspectives of the city throughout time
• Web gateway was able to be accessed through keyword searches, browsing images, exploration of collections, and order of image reproductions
•  Dated article - april 2004

"Youtube and libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship" by Paula L. Webb
http://crln.acrl.org/content/68/6/354.full.pdf

• Dated June 2007, this article examines the possible relationship between YouTube and libraries, noting that YouTube at this time is one of the most popular internet sites and utilizing it as a librarian can entice patrons with information about said library.
• Can be used as storehouses for instructional videos
• used as a method of introducing resources that are available on campus
• create tutorials to teach students how to use databases and software

Thoughts 

The recommended readings for this week are very heavily focused on information on compressed data. We see with the Wikipedia article and the very helpful tutorial that data compression is a very involved field, but as information specialists we are faced with using them every day. The manual was very helpful and explained a lot of information in a language that I understood. The two final articles that focus on photo collections and YouTube as a tool for advocacy were interesting to me as a student and a patron. I briefly browsed the University's Archives Center website for the LIS2000 class (my group was researching special collections in state archives). It was extremely accessible and much better suited for our technological advances since 2004.

Questions
 

1. How do librarians and information specialists use the processing of encoding and data compression? Where does these fields come into play for students and faculty as well?
2. Does YouTube actually offer patrons of libraries extra information, or has this role been taken over by Facebook and Twitter?

Muddy Point 9/5

I'm not sure if I was supposed to post a muddy point for week one, but after reviewing all the articles, I don't have anything to note as we did not have a traditional lecture class and everything was discussed on our blogs. Sorry it's a day late (if this was due).

Week Two:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

"Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still"
Jason Vaughan (2005)

• CASE STUDY: A collection of experiences that span over four years discussing challenges associated with technology management in an academic library setting.
• Created in order to allow a means of understanding the rate that technology is growing in library systems.
• Article details the beginnings of the Lied Library at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Campus - cutting edge online collection storage in 2005, four years after opening
• Describes the many programs offered in 2005 that were up and coming - Safari is mentioned
• Discusses issues that arise when considering new tech systems - cost is usually a major reason for lack of funds. 
• balancing computer use
• lack of productivity software
• connectivity issues
• space managment
• software glitches
• Since the publication of this article, many factors should be taken into consideration. Much more GB room, external hard-drives, wi-fi, software and mal-ware programs
• Writes in favor technologically enhancing a library system, writes to address common problems. However this is dated.

"A Few Thoughts on the Google Books Library Project" by Charles Edward Smith
http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EQM0812.pdf

• personal views expressed by author on the Google Books Library Project. recalls being able to print a story right from the San Fransisco Chronicles webpage back in 1999. "And I had the information [I needed] in my hands without a trip to the library"
• Positive view on digitization - claims Google Books Library will make information more widely available, will ultimately help. 
• viewed a nineteenth century book by Justice Story Smith via Google
• "Books and other printed material would quickly reach obsolescence if not easily accessible through digital technology"
• Studies have been conducted to show how academia has positively worked with accessible technologies such as JSTOR database.
• Published in 2008, slightly dated, but offers insight on how digitization is positive.

"European libraries face problems in digitalizing" by Doreen Carvajal
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/technology/28iht-LIBRARY29.1.8079170.html

• Based in Paris, dated in October 2007, this article covers the issues that many museums, film institutes, and national libraries have faced in preparation of digitizing materials with private companies. 
• Unfortunately, even after $85 million being distributed to develop a digital library system, Europe has yet to launch the process. (This might not be the case by now)
• Highlights an alternative to how Google is digitizing material, showing the European Digital Library as a possible competitor with Google Library 

Thoughts 

All articles look to highlight various aspects of digitization in the academic and professional realms. The case study was quite outdated, but offered most information on the issues that many institutions face when digitizing. The realistic outcomes are referenced in the article by Carvajal in Paris, France.

Questions

1. Is digitization worth it? 

I believe digitization is worth it in the long run. I agree with many of the short points that Charles Edward Smith made, particularly mentioning that Google allows anyone to access the materials, growing a much larger audience than if it were sitting on a library shelf. While it is expensive, it is our eventual future and I think should be encouraged! (that being said I'm still Team Tangible Book)

Digitization, while expensive, has the opportunity to adjust with up-coming and current programs that encourage technology as an effective tool in research methods. I honestly would not have finished as many research papers as I did in my undergraduate career without the amazing and wonderful JSTOR, which provided me (as a student) the access to many journal articles I would never have been able to read otherwise. 

2. Private companies a good solution? Problems?

I would say that working with private companies might hinder the process because digitizing items and materials is a very costly production that often takes much cooperation and negotiation with the stakeholders and fundraisers.

In regards to the statement by the European Digital Library system, I do not think it is a valid concern. America and its' library systems are not looking to seek domination in what the future will hold, but I do think it is important for all people and all nations to take the step towards preserving history through digitization. There are many alternatives to libraries, such as museums, archives, and special collections that all cultures and governments should consider when looking to store information and materials that will last the test of time. 

Week One:

REQUIRED READING NOTES

OCLC Report: "2004 Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers"
http://library.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p267701coll5/id/291

• In an 18 month period, trends of new content were found to be increasing in library collections. This new content were items such as books, journals, and CD's. All items had a significant impact on the search and obtain process.
• "Digital content is often syndicated instead of being packaged and distributed, and access is provided on an as-needed basis to the information consumer by providers outside the library space (OCLC)
• Article was created to update predictions of format trends for material collected by libraries over time. Authors take a look at growing phenomena of content being published and shared outside of the traditional library setting.
• Users are becoming less format-dependent to access content. Process of acquisition and delivery of content need to accommodate the expectations of the upcoming communities.
• "56 million American adults are wireless ready" in 2004!
• Self-publishing is rising while print publishing is down. E-books are becoming much more prominent.
• Discussion of how to meet the rising challenge of the e-book leads to the authors asserting that librarians need to pay attention to how content is found, created, and used by consumers and producers.
• Marshall McLuhan "the medium is the message" in 1964. interpreted as technology being a driving force in the change of pace.
•  Convergence of technologies is very significant to the delivery of content and how it is woven in people's lives.
• Addresses the use of blogs, stating percentages of people who find blogs extremely useful and honest (circa 2004)
• E-books, online journals, digital titles, DVDs by mail or self-viewing service are forcing objects such as CDs, DVDs, and books obselete.

Vocabulary
format agnostic - content consumers do not care which container- book, journal, blog, webpage - information comes from.
premium content - the entirety of an article that might require registration and/or payment to view.
data mining tools - increasingly sophisticated search engines that help in the discovery process of items.

"Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture" by Clifford Lynch
http://old.cni.org/staff/cliffpubs/info_and_it_literacy.pdf

• personal views expressed by author on the subject of a call to study information technology literacy. published 1998
• Information literacy deals with content and communication, including authorship, information retrieval, and organization of the research process. Information analysis also assesses data and evaluates it.
• Content is found through forms of texts, images, video, computer simulations, and multimedia works. serves many purposes such as news, art, entertainment, education, research, adverts, politics, commerce, documents, history, etc. 
• information technology shapes publication, access, and dissemination of technology - intends to enable communication and information access.
• Two general perspectives when discussing information technology. 
• emphasizing skills in use of word processing, spreadsheets, computer tech, and web browsing. 
• understanding how technologies and data systems work, on a more technical level.
• Author feels strongly on inclusion of fluency of software tools, grasping principle designs for researching, and understanding current authoring technologies
•  "As computer-based searching has become increasingly central to information finding and research, an understanding of how searching systems work, and the interplay between indexing techniques... searching, and information accessibility is becoming essential"

Thoughts 

These articles are outdated, but provided an interesting look at some of the work conducted by a few upcoming researchers and advocates for digitization in the library system. Now that we are ten years past the OCLC report, it is interesting to read how fast the digital world was growing even though the internet was still a fairly new concept. Much of the data reflects the impact that digital collections were making back then. They show that these ideas to convert the physical library to a digital are still significant today, with many libraries taking the digitized approach to much of their collections. 

I liked Clifford Lynch's article on Information literacy because it was written in a way that someone who might not be familiar with the subject could understand. He writes passionately on the subject, noting such important things as general perspectives on the topic and also defining terms that are pertinent to the topic. I agree with his sentiment that grasping principle designs for online research would positively enhance the information science field. It's amazing that this was written in 1998, as it seems very relevant to our more advanced information culture now in 2014.

Questions

1. What are the currently reported trends of the past four years by the OCLC? Do specific trends appear significantly enough to record?
2. Is digitization enough to save the modern library? These reports are outdated and suggest that digitizing would be most effective, but are there alternatives to digitizing content?
3. What is the role of information literacy today? Is it still as effective as Lynch believed it was in 1998?