Assignment 6

 My Web page.

http://www.pitt.edu/~bcm30/index.html

Week 12 Comments

http://maj66.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-12-readings.html?showComment=1290825559829

http://acovel.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-11-reading-notes_25.html?showComment=1290826360580

Week 12 Reading Notes

Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program: Sharing knowledge to better serve patrons

I think libraries using wiki’s is a great idea. It gives them the ability to share knowledge and work collaboratively in one space. It also eliminates the very annoying multitude of emails about one topic and the dreaded reply all. I find that wiki’s are very useful and would allow for library staff to better manage library information.

Creating the academic library folksonomy: Put social tagging to work at your institution

This article basically reviews tagging apps like Zotero or CiteULike. I like social tagging for research purposes. It completely beats having a huge list of bookmarks, I just wish that Zotero was set up a little bit better, and had more controls. I don’t really like having everything that I’m finding out there for the web to see, but if I could set up controls that some of it could be out there and the unfinished research was still hidden I would like that. 

Weblogs: their use and application in science and technology libraries

Overview of the history and development of blogs. Reiterated many of the things we have already covered in class and through our own blogs, such as there are blogging communities of which many individual blogs are part of.

Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia

I found this video to be very informative. There have been discussions in other classes as to just how Wikipedia’s internal structure worked, and now we know. This clip was filmed in July 2005 and not much seems to have changed regarding Wikipedia’s internal structure since then.

At the time Wikipedia had 600,000 articles written in English, 2 million articles total, and I know that those numbers have grown exponentially. I think it is amazing that as of 2005 Wikipedia had just one full time staff member and it got 1.4 billion page views monthly. That it was (and probably still is) more popular than the New York Times, and that from its mostly volunteer staff comes extensive and accurate knowledge. I feel that even without Jimmy Wales stating that Wikipedia’s internal structure was well organized, that it was obvious; no website like Wikipedia could exist without an extensive and well run internal structure.

I was shocked at how little it cost to keep Wikipedia up in 2005, at $5000 monthly it seems as if the world is getting a major deal when it comes to Wikipedia, and I personally feel that in some ways people need to stop bashing Wikipedia and embrace it. It is just as accurate as other Encyclopedia’s and as such it is a reliable source.

I find it humbling that Jimmy Wales started this project so that everyone will one day have free access to the sum of all human knowledge, to me that is what humanity should be striving for.

11/22 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point for this week.

Comments Week 10

http://christyfic.blogspot.com/2010/11/reading-notes-week-10-nov-15-2010.html?showComment=1289499211793

http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-10-reading-assignments.html?showComment=1289500040736

11/8 Muddiest Point

I was just wondering if there were any more websites/books/other resources that you would recommend for references and help for Assignment 6?
I'm ok with HTML but I would like some reliable sources to reference for questions that may come up.

Week 10 Reading Notes

Digital Libraries: challenges and influential work

This article was very informative. It was nice to learn where the funding for such projects comes from and I thought it was interesting (and surprising) to learn how early DLI projects were thought of and initiated. I guess I just always assumed that they were started later in the 1990’s after the explosion of the internet and Microsoft and Internet Explorer, I thought it was really cool that organizations were interested in DLI much earlier. 

Dewey meets Turing: librarians, computer scientists and the digital libraries initiative

This article was interesting, the conflicts described between computer scientists and librarians, which, while not a new topic, made understanding some of the problems that exist in DLI easier to understand. It was also informative to note that both sides get aggravated with each other for what they see as either moving too fast or being too stuck in their ways.

I also found it helpful that the authors point out that while traditional librarianship may be reduced, the skills needed for it, (the organization of information, and its collation and presentation) are still very much a part of digital libraries, they just happen in a different way. 

Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age

This article brought up many of the issues we have been reading about and discussing in our classes. The author notes the problems that occur when Institutional Repositories do not exist, or are not sufficient, at an institution. He also notes many of the issues, such as preservable formats and document rights, which we have discussed before in other classes. I think the article can be easily summarized into one sentence, that institutional repositories, “If properly developed, it advances a surprising number of goals, and addresses an impressive range of needs.”

Assignment 5

http://upitt01-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=111

username: bcm30

name of bookshelf: appraisal

Week 8 Comments

http://sarahwithtechnologyblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-8-reading-notes.html?showComment=1288235576044

http://grammarcore.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-8-readings.html?showComment=1288235788338

10/25 Muddiest Point

I'm wondering if HTML is still widely used or if XML has taken over as the main programming language? Or is there another programming language that is the most used, like java or C++? Also, what are the differences between programming languages, why is XML said to be better than HTML, etc?

Week 8 Reading Notes

W3schools HTML Tutorial

I loved this tutorial. I made learning HTML not only easy, but it was cool to see what something will look like when you add or change it almost instantly. I also like the quiz; it was nice to see how easy it is to pick up on HTML once you just start doing it.

HTML Cheatsheet 

A great free resource, it has all the basics for HTML up there, I don’t really have much more to say about  it though.

W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial

I found CSS to be more difficult than HTML. For me at least, HTML was very straight forward, whereas CSS took more time for me to be comfortable with it. I will say that I also found it to be more annoying to work on than HTML, just because it is more specific than HTML and you have to make more decisions regarding type face and size right from the start. 

Beyond HTML: Developing and re-imagining library web guides in a content management system. 

I find it a little shocking that the librarians and staff were given such control over the website, especially at an academic institution, and I won’t say that I am surprised that there was a huge security lapse either. Giving lots of people access to a websites administrative area is never a good idea, and I think it was a little ridiculous how much access they had to the website.  I completely believe in CMS and limited gatekeeping because of the problems that are created when people with little background in website design or management get access to entire websites. I also feel that CMS helps websites to not only be aesthetically pleasing but also to have a sense of continuity and it helps them to be more navigable because everything is consistent.

Assignment 4

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

Week 7 Comments

http://saralis2600.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-comments-for-1025.html?showComment=1287856444171

http://gemma2600.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-7-readings.html?showComment=1287856824038

Week 7 Reading Notes

How Internet Infrastructure Works

I thought this article clearly explained how the internet is set up. Before this article I knew about IP’s and LAN, but understanding POP’s and Network Access Points are key to understanding how the internet is set up.

I also found the discussion of how the internet works, from access points to Domain Names and URL’s to be very helpful towards understanding how the internet works in order to pull up the webpage you request.

Lastly, I found it interesting that the NSF funded the creation of the first high speed backbone for the internet based on the discussions we had in LIS 2000 this week.

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems

I guess I’m kind of shocked (even though I probably shouldn't be) that Integrated Library Systems were able to control the market for as long as they have. It surprises me that libraries were not trying to make their systems interoperable until now. It just seems like ILS was the more expensive route to go and knowing how little money most libraries have it just seems foolish that they were so reliant on such technology, and that only now that a plateau of innovation has been reached in ILS is anything being done to improve library systems.  I think that in the end more money will be spent to integrate these systems than would have been had libraries just embraced interoperable systems earlier on, their reliance on overpriced vendors would have been reduced for years had they embraced technological innovations such as interoperable systems earlier.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page on Google

This video was great. The video had lots of interesting information and had me laughing through most of it. I love graphics so the world graphic of where Google was being used was great.

Week 7 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point for this week. Everything from the lecture to the readings has been really clearly explained and well written, at least for me. thanks!

Jing Assignment

Video:

http://screencast.com/t/Upr0Rkbc

Photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54302191@N04/5074136998/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54302191@N04/5073544337/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54302191@N04/5074147146/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54302191@N04/5073556687/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54302191@N04/5074160244/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54302191@N04/5073567501/

Week 6 Comments

http://archivist-amy-in-training.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-6-computer-networkswireless.html?showComment=1286557584049

http://guybrariantim.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-for-fasttrack-weekend.html?showComment=1286557974960

10/4 Muddiest Point

Some of the lecture on metadata and databases went over my head. Its not a problem with Prof He's explanation, which was quite detailed. I just think databases are very confusing for me and I'm not sure how to make it so that I can understand them better.

Week 6 Reading Notes

YouTube:

Awesome explanation. I watched this first so the Wikipedia LAN article was a repeat for me. This video was a great overview of the types of networks that exist. 

Wikipedia: Local Area Network

Clearly describes how LAN works and how it was developed. The history of LAN was interesting, and I was surprised that it was developed so early; I assumed that it was a development of the 1980’s and 1990s. the rest of the article was pretty much an overview of the YouTube video, but it was helpful to read about LAN's as well.

Wikipedia: Computer Network

Computer networks began with ARPANET and were developed in the 1960s. I understand the descriptions of the wired technologies, wireless technologies, and connection methods. I really appreciated the description of the wireless technologies because this was a little confusing in the LAN article.

I found this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NETWORK-Library-LAN.png to be very helpful in helping me to understand how larger networks, such as library networks, actually work. I think this picture could be applicable to school networks and other similar system.

After reading the article, I think a review of network topology would be helpful. I also think a review of overlay networks would be good, because I really had a hard time understand how they work, even when I know how to use P2P file sharing.   

Management of RFID in libraries

RFID’s right now are not exactly the perfect fit for libraries. With budget cuts and all of the other economic conditions of the times it is not exactly prudent for libraries to invest in an expensive technology that may or may not work as well as advertised. There is also the issue of being able to make the RFID tag non-readable with essentially a metal gum wrapper; this could easily lead to theft of books.

As RFID’s are tested in a larger scale and they are able to be used on more media than just books, they may be a perfect fit for libraries. Until then the cost of having to maintain more than one checkout system makes the RFID system not such a good fit for libraries right now. I think it is important for libraries to pay attention to this technology and to wait for the proper technological advances in order to implement this in a timely and cost effective manner for their library.