http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/07/15FE-cloud-computing-reality_1.html
Cloud Computing - multiple definitions: 1. an updated version of utility computing (virtual servers available over the internet) 2. anything you consume outside the firewall (including conventional outsourcing)
Types of Cloud Computing:
SaaS - ex. salesforce.com - delivers a single app through a browser to customers using a multitenant architecture. No upfront investment required of customers; low cost for providers.
Utility Computing - offers storage and virtual servers that can be accessed on demand. (I don't really understand the difference between this and SaaS).
Web services in the cloud
Platform as a service - you can build your own apps that run on the providers infrastructure.
Managed Service Providers - an app exposed to IT rather than to end users (ex. virus scanning service for email).
Service Commerce Platforms - hybrid of SaaS and MSP
Internet Integration - ex. OpSource - serves SaaS providers
http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120
I don't know about this "ultimate form" of communcation the author is pondering. This article seems a bit of a mess to me. It is interesting to conceptualize books as a form of technology with a limited life span, but their life span has obviously been vast thus far and even despite the multitude of benefits of technology to information seeking, books have their place... even if that means the definition of book has to be re-thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg&NR=1
Cloud computing permits individual usersto access files from any device and allows businesses to lower the cost of investment in storage space.
Closely associated with web 2.0 - emergence of apps - SaaS (software as a service) - google docs is an example.
HaaS (hardware as a service) - Amazon has elastic compute cloud, Google has app engine
Cloud computing may allow centralization of information.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Week 14 Reading Notes
http://www.noplacetohide.net/
None of this is new to me, really, but it is such a daunting thing that it is easy to ignore. As O'Harrow puts it, "where one effort ends, another begins, often with the same technology and aims." Its hard to keep track of the numerous ways information is being collected about us every second. I have always felt that many of America's post-9/11 'security' efforts have been reactionary and inefficient, and this 1984-like world we live in now is just another example. Its like a bad relationship with no boundaries. If you are completely open with your significant other, give them your bank records, email and facebook password, etc., even the most secure foundations of trust will become shaky, and your partner will find whatever it is they want to find - whether it actually exists or not.
http://epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/
The first thing I notice is that most of this stuff is from 2005 or earlier - is there nothing more recent?
http://greatlibrarynews.blogspot.com/2008/09/myturn-protecting-privacy-rights-in.html
This sounds like a sticky situation - it comes back to knowing the laws and your library's policies, but also understanding the basic rights afforded to citizens (and children, who seem easy to overlook in terms of rights).
I feel like this blog would be more useful with some context (for this class).
None of this is new to me, really, but it is such a daunting thing that it is easy to ignore. As O'Harrow puts it, "where one effort ends, another begins, often with the same technology and aims." Its hard to keep track of the numerous ways information is being collected about us every second. I have always felt that many of America's post-9/11 'security' efforts have been reactionary and inefficient, and this 1984-like world we live in now is just another example. Its like a bad relationship with no boundaries. If you are completely open with your significant other, give them your bank records, email and facebook password, etc., even the most secure foundations of trust will become shaky, and your partner will find whatever it is they want to find - whether it actually exists or not.
http://epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/
The first thing I notice is that most of this stuff is from 2005 or earlier - is there nothing more recent?
http://greatlibrarynews.blogspot.com/2008/09/myturn-protecting-privacy-rights-in.html
This sounds like a sticky situation - it comes back to knowing the laws and your library's policies, but also understanding the basic rights afforded to citizens (and children, who seem easy to overlook in terms of rights).
I feel like this blog would be more useful with some context (for this class).
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Week 13 Reading Notes
https://courseweb.pitt.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/2124_UPITT_LIS_2600_SEC1090/Blossom_Content_Nation_7_Secrets_Social_Media.pdf
Social Media defined as "anything that helps individuals to publish influentially;" "any highly scalable and accessible communications technology or technique that enables any individual to influence groups of other individuals easily."
Interesting points about social media not eliminating human nature - collaboration will not necessarily be easy just because the tools and circumstances under which we can collaborate are easier to manage. This is definitely true of online learning!
I also found secret #5 to be quite interesting:
"SOCIAL MEDIA SECRET #5: Social media has a production model, but its goal is
not mass production from a handful of huge factories, but mass contextualizalion
in millions of small factories to create and aggregate content again and again in
constantly renewable and useful contexts."
https://courseweb.pitt.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/2124_UPITT_LIS_2600_SEC1090/Using%20a%20wiki%20to%20manage%20a%20library%20instruction%20program.htm
This is a nice look at wikis - I use a wiki at my library and found many parallels between our processes. We have delegated sections to maintain, and it is helpful especially because we all work at different locations. Now, users across town can have access to the same resources I know about for children, and my users can get more thorough resume help from the expert in Germantown. It is very useful as a resource.
One problem I have is that formatting is very limited. For a kid's site, I'd like it to be able to be more interactive, but it is very hard to integrate text and graphics in a cohesive way on a wiki.
http://www.mendeley.com/research/creating-academic-library-folksonomy/?mrr_wp=0.1
Social Tagging sites:
de.li.cious - http://delicious.com/
tags.library.upenn.edu/
www.connotea.org/
www.citeulike.org/
Particularly useful paragraph:
"Del.icio.us allows you to forward links to another user, meaning that a curator who created his or her own account can forward links to the main library site. This requires a Webmaster who can then move these links onto the librarys del.icio.us homepage. Alternatively, you can give subject specialists the password for the librarys account. If librarians without specific subject knowledge have the responsibility to choose and tag resources, they can mine sites like the Librarians Internet Index (lii.org) or the C&RL News Internet Resources columns These sites provide quick ways to fill out your site with quality Web sites to get the program off the ground and show its value to the library community. There are, of course, a few risks and issues to consider when implementing social tagging in your library, especially if the site is open for all library patrons to update. One is the wonderfully named spagging, or spam tagging. Users with bad intentions can tag unsuitable sites for their own profit or simply to create havoc. Another issue is the inevitable variation in tags and the varied degree of user understanding of how to choose keywords. Is it englishliterature, englishliterature, english, literature, or books?"
http://www.ted.com/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia.html
neutral POV policy - social concept of cooperation surrounding neutrality. Doesn't use the word "truth" because it is too subjective. Keeps the info quality up.
Edits by "anonymous" users - controversial because credentials can't be checked, but only 18% of posts are anonymous, and it hasn't posed much of a problem to quality thus far.
I will be excited to hear more about "freely licensed text books" alluded to at the end of the video.
Social Media defined as "anything that helps individuals to publish influentially;" "any highly scalable and accessible communications technology or technique that enables any individual to influence groups of other individuals easily."
Interesting points about social media not eliminating human nature - collaboration will not necessarily be easy just because the tools and circumstances under which we can collaborate are easier to manage. This is definitely true of online learning!
I also found secret #5 to be quite interesting:
"SOCIAL MEDIA SECRET #5: Social media has a production model, but its goal is
not mass production from a handful of huge factories, but mass contextualizalion
in millions of small factories to create and aggregate content again and again in
constantly renewable and useful contexts."
https://courseweb.pitt.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/2124_UPITT_LIS_2600_SEC1090/Using%20a%20wiki%20to%20manage%20a%20library%20instruction%20program.htm
This is a nice look at wikis - I use a wiki at my library and found many parallels between our processes. We have delegated sections to maintain, and it is helpful especially because we all work at different locations. Now, users across town can have access to the same resources I know about for children, and my users can get more thorough resume help from the expert in Germantown. It is very useful as a resource.
One problem I have is that formatting is very limited. For a kid's site, I'd like it to be able to be more interactive, but it is very hard to integrate text and graphics in a cohesive way on a wiki.
http://www.mendeley.com/research/creating-academic-library-folksonomy/?mrr_wp=0.1
Social Tagging sites:
de.li.cious - http://delicious.com/
tags.library.upenn.edu/
www.connotea.org/
www.citeulike.org/
Particularly useful paragraph:
"Del.icio.us allows you to forward links to another user, meaning that a curator who created his or her own account can forward links to the main library site. This requires a Webmaster who can then move these links onto the librarys del.icio.us homepage. Alternatively, you can give subject specialists the password for the librarys account. If librarians without specific subject knowledge have the responsibility to choose and tag resources, they can mine sites like the Librarians Internet Index (lii.org) or the C&RL News Internet Resources columns These sites provide quick ways to fill out your site with quality Web sites to get the program off the ground and show its value to the library community. There are, of course, a few risks and issues to consider when implementing social tagging in your library, especially if the site is open for all library patrons to update. One is the wonderfully named spagging, or spam tagging. Users with bad intentions can tag unsuitable sites for their own profit or simply to create havoc. Another issue is the inevitable variation in tags and the varied degree of user understanding of how to choose keywords. Is it englishliterature, englishliterature, english, literature, or books?"
http://www.ted.com/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia.html
neutral POV policy - social concept of cooperation surrounding neutrality. Doesn't use the word "truth" because it is too subjective. Keeps the info quality up.
Edits by "anonymous" users - controversial because credentials can't be checked, but only 18% of posts are anonymous, and it hasn't posed much of a problem to quality thus far.
I will be excited to hear more about "freely licensed text books" alluded to at the end of the video.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Week 12 Reading Notes
Current developments and future trends for the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
Mission of OAI – “to develop and promote interoperability standards that aim to faciliatet the efficient dissemination of content.”
- Developed the Protocol for Metadata Harvesting – a tool that “facilitates interoperability between disparate and diverse collections of metadata through a relatively simple protocol based on common standards.”
OAI world = data providers and repositories – they make their metadata available through the protocol.
Mission of Open Language Archives Community (OLAC) is to create “a worldwide virtual library of language resources through development of community-based standards for archiving and interoperability and a network of interoperable repositories.”
- Uses OAI Protocol to provide access to metadata harvested from 27 data providers
Sheet Music Consortium – group of 4 academic libraries (UCLA, Johns Hopkins, Indiana, Duke) that are building a freely available collection of digitized sheet music.
National Science Digital Library (NSDL) provides access to collections of science-based learning objects.
- Again, OAI protocol is primary means of aggregating the metadata describing this content.
Comprehensive, searchable registry of OAI repositories being developed by UIUC
ERRoLs = Extensible Repository Resource Locators – ERRoL Resolution service automatically extends features to any OIA repository in the UIUC registry instead having to change repository by repository.
Web Search Engines: Part 1
Hundreds of thousands or servers needed for larger search engines.
I never really understood how spamming worked until I read this. Really interesting that spammers create invisible content.
Web Search Engines: Part 2
Inverted file = a concatenation of the postings lists for each distinct term. Two phases to creation – scanning and inversion.
Search engines assign a popularity score to pages based on frequency of clicks and other factors.
Avg query length 2.3 words
BrightPlanet is the only search technology that can make dozens of direct queries simultaneously – ie can organize and retrieve both “deep” and “surface” web content.
Deep web sites tend to be narrower with deeper content than surface sites.
95% of deep web is publicly accessible.
Search engines w/largest # of websites indexed (Google, Northern Light, etc) index no more than 16% of the surface web!
Deep web is 500x larger than surface web
“These observations suggest a splitting within the Internet information search market: search directories that offer hand-picked information chosen from the surface Web to meet popular search needs; search engines for more robust surface-level searches; and server-side content-aggregation vertical "infohubs" for deep Web information to provide answers where comprehensiveness and quality are imperative.”
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Week 11 Lab
For Web of Knowledge, I used the following query:
"digital library" in topic AND virtual reference in topic AND 2008-2012 in year published, or Topic=("digital library") AND Topic=(virtual reference) AND Year Published=(2008-2012).
"digital library" in topic AND virtual reference in topic AND 2008-2012 in year published, or Topic=("digital library") AND Topic=(virtual reference) AND Year Published=(2008-2012).
For Google Scholar, I used the following query:
virtual OR reference "digital library" between 2008 and 2012.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Week 11 Reading Notes
“there is a huge difference between providing access to discrete sets of digital collections and providing digital library services.”
I find it interesting how Google fits into all this – I personally think Google, for general search on the web, lacks a real competitor (I would never use anything else). I find Google scholar to be quite cumbersome, however. I wonder if this has to do with something in this article which I didn’t understand: “metadata searching vs. full-text searching.”
- Does this simply mean the searching of metadata vs. the searching of metadata + the rest of the information source in full?
- Does Google Scholar perform a metadata search or full-text?
1994 National Science Foundation launched Digital Libraries Initiative.
Brought together librarians and computer scientists
“While information accession now rests on a highly technical infrastructure, the core function of librarianship remains. The information must be organized, collated, and presented.”
Interesting that Computer Scientists now seem to count on librarians for publishing and organizing of their scholarly material, and that this may be the road for other disciplines.
“The development of free,
publicly accessible journal article collections in disciplines such as high-energy
physics has demonstrated ways in which the network can change scholarly
communication by altering dissemination and access patterns; separately, the
development of a series of extraordinary digital works had at least suggested
the potential of creative authorship specifically for the digital medium to
transform the presentation and transmission of scholarship.”
DSpace is a model institutional repository system
This is exciting to me as a student and library professional in general, but I wonder how it applies to public libraries…
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Week 10 Reading Notes
XML = Extensible Markup Language; markup language you can use to create your own tags
XML simplifies data interchange, enables smart code, and enables smart searches.
XML Elements can’t overlap
Like HTML, must have end tags, but unlike HTML IS case sensitive.
Based on SGML
XML Schemas are the Successors of DTDs, they support data types, use XML Syntax, and secure data communication.
I, personally, will be thrilled when we move on to something other than webpage design stuff. I find this to be not particularly applicable to the library profession, and would be grateful to anyone who wouldn’t mind enlightening me as to why we are bothering to learn this?
All of this stuff makes perfect sense if I am following the tutorials step-by-step, but I can’t imagine memorizing it all, especially considering how infrequently I’ll use it.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Week 9 Reading Notes
HTML5 is…
- the fifth revision of HTML. It includes all the features of HTML4, XHTML 1 and DOM Level 2 HTML. “the new standard”
- meant to also run on low-powered devices like smart phones and tablets.
- Still a work in progress
- A cooperation between W3C and WHATWG
- Meant to reduce the need for external plug-ns
New features include <canvas> element for 2D drawing, <video> and <audio>, and content-specific elements like <article>, <footer>, etc…
I am most excited about potentially not needing a million different plug-ins for each browser that I have to update constantly and keep up with. It is definitely more of a problem on networked computers like at my work than at home, but both will be made more convenient.
I don’t like the geolocation feature – is this why Google maps is always trying to ask my current location? I don’t want that kind of info out there – its too far. Really freaky stuff… especially for computer illiterates whose privacy may be compromised without them even being aware of it.
Application caches sound interesting, but I am not sure I fully understand what they do. How can you browse a web page without being connected to the internet?
"XHTML is a stricter and cleaner version of HTML"
I don’t understand why it is bad to have errors in HTML code if the browser still displays them properly…
I also don’t understand why we should bother to learn it if HTML5 covers it and more.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Week 8 Reading Notes
CSS = Cascading Style Sheets
Styles saved in external .css files – External Style Sheets enable you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in a web site by editing one file.
{ and } used to define declaration groups
CSS declaration always ends w/semicolon ex. {color:green; text-align:right;}
I don’t quite understand comments – will they display on the web page, or are they just for use in editing code?
3 ways to insert a style sheet: external, internal and inline
External = style applied to many pages
Internal = used when a single doc has unique style
Inline = mixes content w/presentation – has highest priority inside an HTML element
There are many background and text-formatting options – I wonder whether people can really use this so often that they memorize it, or if they always use code sheets!
Interesting to learn which fonts are easier to read…
The quiz is helpful in trying to apply this stuff – but it is disappointing that when you review your answers is doesn’t display the choices, correct answer, and your answer. That would make it easier to know what you need to learn.
This seems simple enough. Again, it would be nice to have a simple code sheet on hand – so I don’t have to search through a tutorial to create meaning from all this nonsense code.
This seems to repeat a lot of what I already read in the first two pages. I understand how the code works, and I am not going to memorize it because I won’t use it enough right now to make memorizing it useful, so it seems silly to re-read another explanation of how the code works.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Week 7 Reading Notes
Learning HTML is a great deal more simple than I imagined. This tutorial is super clear and easy to follow, and the wired.com cheat sheet is good to have for reference. I used to get overwhelmed when looking at HTML - but now I can tell what it all means and not get so anxious about all the weird brackets.
I do wonder about upper and lower case letters, though – why does the W3C require lowercase? Perhaps if I learn more complex HTML this difference will make sense to me.
Beyond HTML: Developing and re-imagining library web guides in a content management system
By: Doug Goans and Guy Leach
Seems a useful case study for a library seeking to work with such a CMS…
I don’t have much of a basis for this information, so it doesn’t seem relevant to me (except that I am now aware of the existence of CMS and how the language differs from HTML).
Friday, February 10, 2012
Week 6 Notes
“Every computer that is connected to the internet is part of a network.”
“The internet is simply a network of networks.”
POP = Point of Presence
NAP = Network Access Point
Routers determine where to send info from one comp to another – it makes sure info doesn’t go where its not needed, and that it does go where it is needed.
ISP’s connect their users w/other ISP’s users through NAP’s, and routers keep our stuff safe in the process of all this sharing??
And, is a backbone something each ISP has of its own?
What does “the default network” (as referenced during the section about reserved IP addresses (0.0.0.0.)) mean?
You used to have to provide the IP address of any computer you wanted to establish a link with. DNS is necessary b/c now there are too many computers and IP addresses to manage. DNS “maps text names to IP addresses automatically.”
DNS allows for web addresses to have words instead of IP addresses (decimal numbers)
Domain name = .com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov, or howstuffworks.com
Left most word in a URL is the host name.
“All of the machines on the internet are either servers or clients.”
Machines that provide services = servers; machines used to connect to services = clients
I’d like a more thorough break down… like, what is (physically) a NAP or Backbone? Do most ISP’s use existing phone/cable lines for their services? What is it that they are actually providing? It seems to me like it is way overpriced if much of the infrastructure already exists.
Because my experience in a traditional library setting is limited, I don’t have much experience w/ILS. I know the Free Library of Phila uses Sirsi, and that there is some kind of cool semantic mapping that happens when you search the catalog… but that’s about the extent of my knowledge.
Reading this made me understand why certain systems lack interoperability though – I hadn’t really realized before that there were even often 2 different systems working (as in the peoplesoft example).
With my limited knowledge in mind, take my opinion lightly, but I have to say it anyway – sometimes starting over from scratch is a lot easier.
“If they can’t obtain something via keyboard, it may as well not exist.”
I think this sentiment is apt to describe the changes of the ‘internet generation.’ And I think this author makes a good point for digitization – the parallel he draws to loss hits home for me. As society becomes more and more accustomed to the internet and some of the sophisticated search abilities now available, those resources that aren’t digital will likely get lost in the abyss of information. If someone types in any word in Google, they are going to get some results – probably thousands. So, if there is this much to sort through already without leaving the house, why bother going to find some book? Librarians probably cringe at the thought of this, because they know that it isn’t all good information. But, most people don’t, and that’s the way it is. I don’t think this will be as much a problem in academia in general, really – but for the general population, perhaps digitization is a good thing. And, for academics, it could potentially save them a lot of research money – they may not have to travel in order to get resources. But, what information they would have come by in their travels are they missing b/c of that conveniently scanned article? I’m not against digitization, but I do think that everyone should be urged to seek out books and paper every now and then, regardless of whether it is a perceived need.
Google answers is new to me – really cool that you can pay a reasonable amount of money to have someone go research whatever you think is important! I wonder though, what the rights would look like after.
I also love the 20% idea (that Google wants their employees to spend 20% if their time doing whatever they think is most important) – perhaps if librarians were able to do this, ILS would be better, among other things.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Week 5 Notes
“local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer lab, or office building.”
WAN = Wide area network
LANs have higher data-transfer rates, a smaller geographic area, and don’t need telecommunication lines than WANs. (LANs can use Ethernet and Wi-Fi to connect).
What I am still confused about is – is a LAN something that allows multiple computers to connect to the same internet, or is it something needed with or without the internet factor? The definition says it is a “computer network.” When I think of a networked computer – I think about the computers I have at work – where 4 computers are connected to one server, and I can (from the main computer) access the files from all of the computers in that network. This doesn’t have anything to do with internet – so how is LAN related?
The description of a computer network in the second Wikipedia article doesn’t really clarify this question for me. It defines a network as “a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels…” So, in my case (above), the communication channels are wires that work with or without internet. But, say I remote over to the other server, then I am using the internet to do the same thing. My understanding based on the above is that a network doesn’t require the internet as a communication channel, but it can be used in different ways if the internet is used as a channel of communication. So, does LAN refer to only the type of computer network that is using internet as a communication channel?
Management of RFID in Libraries
By: Karen Coyle
RFID = radio frequency identifier
RFID is like a barcode that is read w/an electromagnetic field. It carries more info than barcodes and doesn’t have to visible to be read (an can be embedded in an item).
Hundreds of different RFID products on the market – EZ tags, card keys, animal tracking chips, etc.
In libraries, RFID can be used for inventory purposes, and for circulation and security.
-Ex “checked-in” vs “checked out” state of a book going through security gate.
As with most library security measures, RFID would only be a “social deterrent” as opposed to an actual preventative measure. The real value is in the fact that one RFID tag can be used for many different purposes (and the security isn’t any worse than any other measure).
I think anything that lessens the need for staff to do dull tasks like running a circulation desk is probably something to consider. I also realize that not everyone would consider this task “dull,” and that there is an opportunity present for someone who wants a low-stress job in circulation. At the same time, I think in this day and age having staff replaced by technology is inevitable to some extent. I don’t think that means fire your circulation staff, but it would give them an opportunity to utilize other skills and spend some time doing other things (that are also super important and perhaps not replaceable by technology). RFID seems to be a fairly cost-effective technology, and also seems to inspire new ideas about what patrons value and how staff time is best spent.
Week 4 Lab
In the screen shot below, I used the query: SELECT j_abbr, j_if FROM isi_jcr_report_isls WHERE jcr_year = 2008 AND j_if > 1. The results indicate that there are 27 journals with impact factors higher than 1 in isi_jcr_report_isls.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Week 4 Reading Notes LIS 2600
Though I am super familiar with databases, the differentiation between a database, a database management system, and a database system is new to me.
Database = data and their supporting data structures; an organized collection of data; not generally portable across different DBMS
Database Management System (DBMS) = software package w/computer programs that control the creation, maintenance, and use of a database.
Database System = database data collection + DBMS; “implies that the data is managed to some level of quality.”
“In software engineering, an entity-relationship model (ER) is an abstract and conceptual representation of data.”
- A way to model databases
- Doesn’t show single entities or instances of relations, but sets.
I found the pictures very helpful in conceptualizing the structure of a database, and the relationships between data.
Entities = nouns
- Every entity must have “a minimal set of uniquely identifying attributes, which is called the entity’s primary key.”
Relationships = verbs
1. No repeating elements or groups of elements
2. No partial dependencies on a concatenated key
3. No dependencies on non-key attributes
The invoice>spreadsheet vs. database example is really clear, and helped me understand the “normalization process.”
Tuple = database row
NF1 addresses:
1. That a row of data can’t contain repeating groups of similar data
2. And that each row of data must have a primary key
NF2 addresses the fact that there can be no partial dependencies on a concatenated key
2 different table columns treated as a single thing = concatenated
NF3 addresses that there can be no dependencies on non-key attributes
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Week 3 Reading Notes LIS 2600
I have to say right off the bat that this week's readings were particularly dry and difficult for me to remain engaged in. I think metadata, while important, is probably the least appealing aspect of a library career for me. My notes will thus be equally dry, so please forgive me.
-Describes metadata as “the sum total of what one can say about any information object at any level of aggregation.”
-Defines information object as “anything that can be addressed and manipulated as a discrete entity by a human being or an information system. The object may comprise a single item, it may be an aggregate of many items, or it may be the entire database or record-keeping system.”
- - 3 features: Content, Context, Structure
o Argues that all 3 of these should be reflected through metadata
For librarians, metadata is the “value-added” info they create to “arrange, describe, track, and otherwise enhance access to information objects and the physical collections related to those objects.”
Interesting criticism that hierarchical metadata aids only the scholarly user. Online situations will need a more accessible structure b/c they won’t be mediated by a reference librarian.
I like the idea of user-created metadata – tagging. While quality control is an issue, I feel like (especially in a digital environment), if someone knows what they are looking for, an object that has every possible tag will make it easier to retrieve. If someone does not know what they are looking for, multiple tags will be useful in a different way because a useful object will show up in the results despite a perhaps otherwise ineffective search term.
DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative) seeks to foster consensus across disciplines “for the discovery-oriented description of diverse resources in an electronic environment.”
- Primarily been focused on semantic clarification of the Dublin Core Element Set and id of common cross-domain qualifiers to support richer descriptive requirements.
This seems like an interesting initiative, but I am not tech-savvy enough to understand the implications of it. I think anything that looks for the common ground across disciplines is useful though, because if people need information about a certain subject they are unlikely to look in any other subject, despite the fact that there is much important cross-over...
EndNote X5: Introduction:
EndNote is a bibliographic software program
Can be used to search for literature, develop a personal library of references, and create citations for papers/publications.I find it annoying to try to learn software that I don't own - I learn more easily by messing around with it. Watching videos and reading about how to do things I can't do isn't useful to me.
It would be helpful to have a better introduction to things like this - perhaps Zheu could write a line or two about what we should be trying to gain from looking at these tutorials, and to what in our future as librarians this knowledge would apply.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Week 2 Reading Notes LIS 2600
I am already familiar with hardware – the physical parts of a computer, and software – the programs on a computer. I did not know that the term software also encompasses film, tapes, and records when associated w/computers, as Wikipedia suggests. It is also interesting to note that “elements of computing first considered to be software, [now] join the ranks of hardware,” and that computers did not used to come with pre-installed software. It seems like now computers come with a ton of pre-installed software, and you can also download software from the web for free with a few clicks of a mouse.
I understand the skepticism with allowing a private (huge) company like Google take over the digitization of hundreds of thousands of historical materials. As the Stephen Bury, head of European and American collections at the British national library was quoted in the article, “the commercial companies are obviously in it either for shareholder profit or doing it to get a public feel-good factor.” These companies don’t necessarily have the best interests of the public in mind, and they aren’t dedicated to providing a balance in materials (ie – what is considered important in terms of context and perspective may not be the things that will make money). But they have the dinero.
While in some ways this is an unfortunate situation, this article points out the benefits of being realistic about digitization, and negotiating partnerships. Google is a brilliant beast of sorts, but I am sure that libraries and other organizations who take them time to talk with them about business models and digitization efforts are doing two things: slowly pulling Google out of the tunnel, and inheriting some smart ideas about budgeting. The perk to having two institutions on opposite ends of a spectrum – one who saw an opportunity to capitalize on digitization, and one who saw an opportunity to preserve the world’s knowledge store – is that they will (hopefully) even each other out, and find balance.
It pleased me to read that most organizations mentioned in the article are not accepting “conditional” money from Google or other private companies. They are forming partnerships, sharing ideas, and rearranging models accordingly. I think libraries have to acknowledge the power of companies like Google, and sometimes (while not ideal), it is better to join them than to be defeated by them.
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