Week 4 Reading Notes

-          YouTube and Libraries

I really like the idea of integrating YouTube into the array of services already offered by libraries. I think this could easily be applied to archives and it could be equally as helpful. Many people are visual learners and when they watch the video they would learn and retain more from it than from an instruction sheet. I think another use for YouTube could be to introduce the library staff to new students, new patrons, etc. Once you know who someone is it is far easier to approach them for help. This could help bridge the divide that sometimes exists between librarians and patrons.

I also like the idea behind instructional videos for software that new students may be using, but I feel like the company that makes the software may have an instructional video as well, and this creation may be futile. There could also be many copyright issues the library would have to contend with. 

-          Data Compression – Wikipedia

In my life I have found data compression to be very useful when moving files from one computer to another. I understand why data compression may not be a desirable method to use for archivists and librarians who are trying to keep things in their original born digital or digitized formats, but for a regular person data compression is very helpful. I don’t mind using lossy compression just because what I am moving is not necessarily important to anyone other than myself, where as I can see why a company/library/archive would invest the time and money into a lossless compression system. 

-          Data Compression Basics

Part 1: essentially from this I understand that compression is the breaking down and slight change, of a file into smaller parts that are easier for the computer to store, and that by doing this it makes the file itself smaller to store. I found some of the details, such as prediction and error coding, a little difficult to understand.

Part 2: Decompressing and compressing the same data multiple times will result in a loss of data. Digital data does not degrade due to copying, but it does degrade due to compression and decompression. After reading this entire part of the article, I am still a little confused as to how lossy data compression works. I understand that it removes part of the data but I’m confused as to how it knows what to remove, and I think I will understand lossy data compression when it is reviewed during next week’s lecture. 

Part 3: Video compression is similar to image compression. I think that a review of MPEG’s in class will help me to better understand video compression.

-          Imaging Pittsburgh

This article shows some of the difficulties, and all of the details that have to be put into digitization projects. From copyright issues, website challenges, to the challenge of working with multiple partners, this article shows that digitization is more than just scanning images/documents to a website.

I do have to say that I think online databases, such as the one discussed in the article, are great, and they are a huge advantage over having to travel to multiple sites to see the same images you can see all in one place on the website.