Muddiest Points

There are no muddiest points for this week.

Jane Austen exhibit

Here's the article that a friend sent me about a new Jane Austen exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. It looks to be an interesting exhibit :)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8340749.stm

Comments

Ashley's Blog: http://laine05.blogspot.com

Veronica's Blog: http://infinitetechnology.blogspot.com

Assignment 6

Website: http://www.pitt.edu/~nem36/

Comments

Belinda's Blog: http://bombrisk-lis2600.blogspot.com
Steph's Blog: http://lis2600sj.blogspot.com

Muddiest Points

I have no muddiest points for this week.

Week 12 (?) Comments

Steph's blog: http://lis2600sj.blogspot.com/2009/11/readings-week-12-1117.html?showComment=1258347011610_AIe9_BHqPKbZJssYuswvikOhSECYdJWvkFwQcagBOz8SAwFmB44RUABkGtiXcVJbX-VJhNMUc3Onk33IZPj6d86ODfuxAlj1yxoPfT6_l3xpIpQGz2pDXfU-hmxlDr36mhVP_HY-QGX5D5t2-wdfQdb2A4TV4DCJQBHX248D2kbYWRFFxvM4q58_PEUIbhALySEyZaDM8iYkkFoVc_6GoY93NMFUK1sef94tgmwXCA9p4PQSGRyqtwc#c3985152949846513689

Ashley's blog: http://laine05.blogspot.com/2009/11/reading-notes-for-1117-class.html?showComment=1258347462533_AIe9_BE32c5X_U-waZp98G1ygSHDWoYPWV8QwldnHlNkYb8E0uyGcFcbD83KHMU_UsWVeyrK4DDU-SjEUskCgTSXGQJZgaS_84NeUQQP9rZZcjPQNxEE6M8TqYwH7Vh1-NEmaCieWaIoCohkhLDAn9nNbzWJW3NaP4k3sYj4asEWTu0gaOGFClRG4g1papWsgXJpYK8TJ9k9p7rSEVNcB2W4ziWhSTLHlCEePal2lzJRK9yWf7Msn9g#c84877927942510849

Readings

Digital Libraries: Challenges and Influential Work
-Search and discovery is always difficult
-There is a difference between providing access to discrete sets of digital collections and providing digital library services - But what is that difference? I don't feel it was really addressed.
-There were early federal research projects that led to the digital library of today.
-This research led to many new developments, such as digital copies of journals and Google.
-There have also been digital library technologies that have come from non-federally funded projects, such as Yahoo, D-space and XML.

Dewey meets Turing: Librarians, Computer Scientists and the Digital Libraries Initiative.
-Digital Libraries Initiative brought librarians and computer scientists together.
-Analogy of the two disciplines being brought together and then having to deal with an undisciplined teenager (a.k.a. the World Wide Web).

Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age
Developments
-Repositories are now more affordable as it costs less for digital storage.
-Many universities look to MIT and their DSpace program as a model.
-Lynch thinks repositories should have the work of students and faculty.
-He stresses that there is a difference between scholarly publishing and scholarly communication.
3 Main Cautions about Institutional Repositories
1. I.R.s that try to exert control over faculty and student work will probably fail.
2. Don't put too many policy restraints on the I.R.
3. Institutions shouldn't create an I.R. hastily just because it's popular. They need to realize the commitment it takes.

Muddiest point

There is no muddiest point for this week.

Comments

Katie's blog: http://katiezimmerman2600.blogspot.com/2009/11/week-9-reading-notes.html?showComment=1257742439835#c1922096054515813164

Steph's blog: http://lis2600sj.blogspot.com/2009/11/week-10-1110-reading-notes.html?showComment=1257742305412#c8069133439318029251

Week 10 Readings

Web Search Engines - This was an interesting article, and I learned some new stuff about web search engines. Like the fact that crawlers need to deal with all sorts of issues - speed, politeness, excluded content, duplicate content and spam rejection. The main thing I took from the 2nd part was the fact that the web's vocabulary numbers in the hundreds of millions. This is due to the different languages, the new acronyms and the fact that people make up words all the time.

Current developments and future trends for the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting - I had never heard of the OAI (Open Archives Initiative) Protocol before this article. It seems to be a great idea though. As the article puts it, this initiative was started as a way to federate the access to different online archives. The article focused on three archives in particular that are still in development:
1. Open Language Archives Community
2. Sheet Music Consortium
3. National Science Digital Library
Each of these archives is unique in it's scope and mission and they all have their own problems to deal with when it comes to open access. The two main issues that affect the OAI itself are that of completeness and discoverability. They want to make it easy for users to navigate between the different repositories and they also want as much information available to the user that they can.

The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value - I admit I found this to be the most interesting of the three readings. This article stated that most search engines such as Google and Yahoo are only searching the surface of the information available on the web. Apparently there is 7,500 terabytes of information in the Deep Web and there is one service that will search through all of it - that is Bright Planet. I still don't know what to think of this assertion. Would searching the deep web make the results more relevant to the user, or will it simply dilute the rest of the information on the surface?

Week 9 (?) Comments

Belinda's blog: http://bombrisk-lis2600.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-9-notes.html?showComment=1257137487693#c6371203937583308756

Veronica's blog: http://infinitetechnology.blogspot.com/2009/10/reading-notes-for-week-9-or-10.html?showComment=1257137864569#c513764084847408086

Week 9 Readings

I'm going to address all of the readings at once rather than breaking them up as I usually do. This is because they all dealt with the same information, to the point that once I got to the last reading I felt there wasn't much new to learn. They all covered aspects of the XML system and each seemed to offer a similar explanation of it. I learned that XML is good because for storing documents into databases as well as transferring across hardware and software. This is a good attribute to have, as digital technologies are constantly changing. All in all, the readings were good sources of information; they provided examples and links to further instruction.

Assignment 5

Here is my Koha link:

http://upitt04-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=29

Muddiest point for week 8

There are no muddiest points for this week.

The Jing Assignment

Here is the URL for my video explaining how to use the quick edit function on Pixlr.com:
http://www.screencast.com/users/natalie.marlin/folders/Jing/media/bbf99a6f-ad46-4b15-9ea5-b1a0e8b8e4f9

I decided to explain the features of Netflix.com for my annotated screen captures:
Screen 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliespics/4006277571/
Screen 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliespics/4006277651/
Screen 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliespics/4006277771/
Screen 4: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliespics/4007043668/
Screen 5: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliespics/4006277909/
*You can make the images bigger by clicking on the "all sizes" button above the image.

Week 7 Comments

Katie's Blog: http://katiezimmerman2600.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-7-readings.html?showComment=1255316303516#c7721894248663734346
Michelle's Blog: http://mdelielis2600response.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-7-reading-responses.html?showComment=1255316667032#c8732077028598357106

Week 7 Readings

1. Dismantling Library Systems - this was an interesting article, as the author was very direct and opinionated about his subject. He states that current library systems are not interoperable, despite predictions that they would be. He claims that trying to layer new technology on top of old systems is more costly and difficult. His answer is to dismantle the systems entirely to allow for building up systems that are interoperable. The question I have is who's to say that option isn't costly as well? Is this the only way to make these systems interoperable?

2. How Internet Infrastructure Works - this article was informative, if a bit dense for me. There was a good portion that Dr. He had already covered in class regarding routers, IP addresses, and networks. I got particularly bogged down with the section on DNS servers - maybe Dr. He will cover that in class.

3. Talk on Google with Larry Page and Sergey Brin - this was a fun and interesting video to watch, as I had never seen the creators of Google before. I especially like the projection of the world with the indicators of how many people were accessing Google at that time. There was some awkwardness in the delivery of the speech, but I assume that just because these guys created Google, that doesn't mean they don't get nervous with public speaking. I was impressed with how much room they offered their employees for working on their own projects. Actually, I was just impressed with the overall treatment of their employees, which is something I didn't expect with such a large company. I love the fact that Google changes their logo so often to reflect important aspects of the world's history and culture. I also like that they have a sense of humor - just the other day I was informed that I needed to type in "find Chuck Norris" into the Google search bar and press the "I'm feeling lucky" button. If you haven't done this already, give it a shot - it's fun :)

Week 6 Muddiest Point

There were no muddiest points for this week.

Assignment 3

CiteULike Library: www.citulike.org/user/nataliemarlin

I had trouble with importing my Zotero files and no matter what I did, I always lost one of my moving image archives articles. That's why there are 9 instead of 10.

Week 6 Comments

Ashley T's blog: http://laine05.blogspot.com/2009/09/reading-notes-for-week-6.html?showComment=1254539003611#c351682382747336502

Katie Z's blog: http://katiezimmerman2600.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-6-readings.html?showComment=1254539400405#c1591242477666556810

Week 6 Readings

1. Local Area Network(LAN)
This reading was pretty straight-forward, though it got a bit dense toward the end there. I recognized the two most commonly used ones: Ethernet and Wi-Fi. It did make me wonder, however, if we would ever get to the point of complete wireless-ness. Or have we gotten to that point already, with PDAs and cell phones with internet?

2. Management of RFID in Libraries
This was an interesting read, as I had never heard of these devices before. It stands for radio frequency identifier and is comparable to a barcode. The article mentioned that it can be used within library books to serve as an alert system if someone is leaving without checking out a book. It made me remember when I was in undergraduate school, as we had a similar system with our library. The only problem was that books that were interlibrary loaned didn't contain the same device, or model and the alarm would go off every time I went through those security gates. The librarians paid no notice as they knew what the reason for the alarm was, but it still was embarrassing to be the cause of a loud commotion in a quiet library. I wonder if we would ever get to the point that all libraries used the same sort of chip. We might be on to the next new technology by that point.

3. Computer Network
This wiki was very informative to me as I had always wondered what the differences were between the "alphabet" terms for networks. There are wired networks (twisted pair, coaxial cable, fiber optic) and wireless networks (terrestrial microwave, communications satellites, cellular and PCS systems, wireless LANS, etc). Bluetooth is another network that I hadn't considered before. I'm glad that they organized the different "area networks" according to scale, so that I could get a better understanding of the concept.

4. Common Types of Computer Networks
This link was dead, as Youtube said the video was malformed. I went ahead and put in the title to the search box and watched the two minute video from Relativity. It was good, but it basically repeated the information from the Computer Network wiki.

Week 5 Muddiest Points

I didn't have a muddiest point for this week.

Comments

http://laine05.blogspot.com/2009/09/reading-notes-for-week-five.html?showComment=1253928340429#c3228274316717589613


http://lis2600sj.blogspot.com/2009/09/readings-week-5.html?showComment=1253927447034#c6600934859103160097

Week 5 Readings

We had four readings for this week, two of which dealt with data compression while the other two addressed issues of putting library content on the web.

The website for the data compression basics was a good place to start, as there was a more informal tone to the reading. It was also apparent that the author wanted to make the information as understandable as possible - something I appreciated greatly. I was pretty much ignorant in the ways of data compression before now, as I've never had to deal with it in any great capacity before. This reading helped me to recognize the differences between lossless data compression and lossy data compression. I didn't get as much information about the lossy compression, though, because I couldn't click over to Link 2. The minute logistics of how it works is still lost to me, but I feel I now have a basic understanding of the different compression types and how they work.

I tackled the data compression wikipedia page next, and it offered me an opportunity to learn more about which data compression techniques are used in which circumstances. For example, you would want to use lossless compression when dealing with spreadsheets where information needs to stay exactly as it was. You can use lossy data compression with visual and audio files because there are certain variances in color or sound that the human eye or ear can't pick up. This enables the compression to change certain aspects of the data to better compress the file.

The next article I looked at was Youtube and libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship - by Paula L. Webb. She had a good idea in my opinion, which was to utilize the wide scope of Youtube in library services. She gave some examples of what this could be used for:
-Informing patrons of different library services
-Video of how to find the reference desk
-Teaching students how to use certain databases in the library system
She ended the article with the encouragement to think about using this service as it will help with "keeping up with the 21st century".

The final (and I must admit, favorite) article of the group was Imaging Pittsburgh: Creating a shared gateway to digital image collections of the Pittsburgh region, by Edward A. Galloway. I really enjoyed learning how this collection evolved and the challenges that were involved. I appreciated that the author freely admitted the problems they faced, and those that were unexpected. It helped me to understand the difficulty that comes from working with different institutions to put their images online. These difficulties come in the form of communication problems, selecting controlled vocabulary, and even examining the different metadata that institutions use. This was a good article that helped me to realize that there is much more to think about when it comes to digitizing records that simply what database to use and how to present the metadata.

Week 4 Muddiest Points

I did not have any muddiest points for this week's lecture.

Comments

I commented on Stephanie's blog at:
http://lis2600sj.blogspot.com/2009/09/readings-week-4.html?showComment=1253293619012#c6782534814037181485

and Katie's blog at:
http://katiezimmerman2600.blogspot.com/2009/09/week-4-reading-notes.html?showComment=1253293931700#c6968453003071428587

Week 4 readings

So this weeks readings were all new and a bit confusing at times for me. I am more of a visual or hands on learner, so reading articles about databases and metadata would be better if they had some real time examples. They were still informative nonetheless.

Databases
This wikipedia article was helpful in that I had never considered the different types of databases that there are. I do wish they had given more real life examples of what situations these databases are used in. For example, the in-memory databases are used for 9-1-1 emergency systems, which makes sense.

Intro to Metadata - Setting the Stage by Anne J. Gilliland
The biggest thing I took away from this article was that metadata doesn't have to be digital. I had always thought of it in digital terms and honestly the concept was a bit abstract until she mentioned file labels and card catalogs. Now I understand it a bit better.
I also hadn't considered user created metadata. So if I post a message on facebook about a Youtube video, is that creating metadata or is it just copying it? I'm a little confused on that point.

Dublin Core Data Model
This article helped bring home the fact that I need to become more versed in the different programs for metadata, whether that be this one or MARC. I have come to this program with no library experience and I'm afraid that is going to hurt me when I graduate. I hope that I can find a field placement in the summer that will involve one of these types of models.

Week 3 Muddiest Points

I am still confused as to what command line user interface is. We went over graphical user interface in depth, but not command line.

Comments

I left comments on Veronica's blog at:
http://infinitetechnology.blogspot.com/2009/09/week-3-reading-response.html?showComment=1252778280194#c3789551620539893499

and Stephanie's blog at:
http://lis2600sj.blogspot.com/2009/09/readings-week-3.html

Muddiest Point - Week 2

I'm afraid there weren't any muddy points for me from this week's lecture. I have a basic knowledge of computers that this lecture complimented so there was no point where I was lost.

Week 3 Readings

You know, I don't have a whole lot to say about this week's readings as I was already familiar with the Mac and Microsoft operating systems. I did, however, learn a lot with the reading on Linux because before now I have been completely ignorant about the system. Gathering from what I read, it seems that Linux is a good system that will soon be competing with Macs in popularity. I'm wondering how much the "con" of the system being confusing to beginners will cost the system. I don't know about other users, but I can become easily intimidated and/or discouraged if a new system is hard to grasp. Basically, when it comes to computers I am lazy and I fear change :) I like to stick with what I know and I am not very adventurous, and I can guess that there are a few others out there that share my condition. Is that the reason that Microsoft remains the most popular of systems - because people likely started with that system and don't want to change? I know that's part of the reason I'm still a Windows user.

Assignment 2

Here is the URL for the flikr sight with the Assignment 2 pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliespics/?saved=1

Week 2 Readings

Personal Computer Hardware
This was helpful in understanding the inner workings of the computer. I learned all of this back in junior high, but it has faded since then.

Moore's Law
Now this was something I had never heard of before. I found it interesting that the law became a self fulfilling prophesy as manufacturers strove to fulfill the expectations of increase in processing power. I wonder if we would have made the same amount of progress without this law - would manufacturers have worked so hard and been so competitive otherwise? And the predictions for how long it's going to last are so varied - will we have a decade longer to grow or will it be hundreds of years? It will be fun to find out.

Computer History Museum
I wasn't sure what I was supposed to read as the link took me to the general website so I just poked around a bit and read about some of the different exhibits on computer history. I particularly like the "This Day in History" for today - in 1980 the last STRETCH supercomputer was shut down. I also liked the section on the advances in computer chess from 1945 to 1997 when Deep Blue defeated the World Champion Chess Player.

Muddiest Point - Week 1

The only thing that confused me about the lecture this week were the graphs that measured the size of the Internet. I don't really understand what a terabyte is and I suppose the term is a bit abstract for me. I think I could understand it more if there were some real world comparisons to it. I also had the same problem with the Internet Domain Host Size graph.

Week 1 Readings

Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture - Clifford Lynch
This was the first reading I tackled for this week, and I have to admit that I found it to be the most obscure for me. Maybe it's just me, but I found I had to fight through the technical language to get to the gist of what the author was trying to say. What I think he was trying to assert was that Information Literacy was about the information itself that people come searching for when they visit a library or get on the Internet. Its the actual content present in the bound books or the web pages or e-journals. The information could even be the content of emails sent or the comments on a blog.
Information Technology Literacy, on the other hand, is understanding the vehicle by which this information is disseminated. That understanding could be general, such as how to make a spreadsheet or how to craft a blog. It could also be complex, and include how to deal with debugging a program.
Mr. Lynch seems to advocate a thorough education in both of these areas for the modern technology user to be up to date. Maybe the fact that I had trouble understanding his article is good supporting evidence.

OCLC: 2004 Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers
This provided interesting reading, and raised just one issue with me. This report states that if libraries want to stay current with the consumer of today, then they need to reconsider how they package their information. This asserts that consumers don't care how their information is presented, whether it be in digital or physical format. Web services are not a consideration, but are rather "imperative" for libraries. I agree that there is a demand for libraries to offer web services, but I take issue with the assertion that consumers don't care how they read - simply that it be presented to them. As a book lover myself, I much prefer the physical act of holding a book while reading than to reading a book off of a computer screen.

Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still - Jason Vaughan
This article offers an interesting inside view of how major academic libraries work and the issues that are dealt with in the struggle to stay at the forefront of technology. This article would be a good model for anyone wanting a basic overview of some of the issues libraries have to deal with: replacing computers, space maintenance, glitches, theft and viruses, and balancing computer use between different types of patrons. One subject of interest to me was the issue of computer access to both students and community patrons, as I have experienced this from both perspectives. They obviously viewed the students time as more valuable since the students were most likely researching for papers or studying for finals. I agree that during the finals week or when a paper deadline is looming up, not having access to a computer can be frustrating. I disagreed with one of their tactics that they plan on using, however, which was to restrict the access of certain Internet sites to community users. This would, in their estimation limit the amount of time community patrons could spend playing games, checking email, etc. I have been a community user as well and have been frustrated by the inability to access my email when there was an important email I was looking forward to viewing. There were times when my boss preferred to message me on Facebook rather than sending me an email. I couldn't check it, however, because that was one of the restricted sites we weren't allowed to use. I think there are better ways to balance time between users than to restrict the community users access. The Carnegie Library, for example, has a base time of 30 minutes for computer use. If there are still terminals open when you near the end of your time then they will add another 15 minutes. This way everyone has an opportunity to use this resource - a resource that shouldn't be solely for one type of patron.