Thursday, January 7, 2010

Tara
David
Faith
Family
Church
Friends
Dickinson College Library
Stacks Manager
M-DIV
Pitt
East Carolina
Bruce Springsteen
Sports
Working Out
Wii
Reading

Friday, November 7, 2008

Reading Assignement #10

Web-Search Engine Article: Povided a pretty good overview of the history of search engines and how things work.

--It was realy interesting to see how the "curtain" is again pulled away on how things work. It's more than just type in a word and hit enter that is for sure.

--The term "Politeness" made me smirk, because it (for lack of a better phrase) It is what it is.

--Interesting to see that Spammers aren't out to just annoy poeple but there is a good peice of change to be made of off web-sites if a person is smart/shrewsd enough to work the system.

--I used to think that a web-counter didn't serve much of a prupose...was I wrong about that.

O-A-I Article: Nice overview article about the Open Archives Initiative.

--One phrase that stood out to me was, "No one service provider can serve the needs of the entire public." For some reason I thought (sarcastically), "That is going to come as such a shock to Microsoft."

---It was interesting to see how the universities came together for the Sheet Music Consortium.

--While reading ERRoLs it was interesting to see XML pop up foro time to time, but then all those abbreviations once again made my eyes start to cross.

Bergaman Article: Until I read this article I had no clue what the deep web was.

--The opening illustration was pretty accurate and alson when you think about it when we search for something on-line we are casting out a net opening to catch something of value in it.

--Lots of good illustrations helped me make sense of what I was reading.

---Never fully realized how complex the web really was.

--When reading the distribution of deep sites by subject I was surprised to see that humanities was the highest ranked one. I thought for sure it would be politics...I guess coming out of the election season will do that to one's way of thinking.

Muddy Point: In the OAI article on the bottom of pg.582 & the top of 583 it mentions the "Future work." My question is has there been any progress made in any of these areas? Is there anyway to find out about any follow-up work that has been done?This article is over 3 years old and with the way technology moves forward so quickly sometimes it would interesting to see how this work is progressing.

Blogs where I have posted:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5477147704203276697&postID=6855452384905862491&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4527425204800506090&postID=5897482492346367573&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1306183455487090817&postID=6406286438303441296&page=1

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Reading Assignment #11

Reading Assignment #11

Digital Libraries: The article gave a good overview of the “behind the scenes” dealings concerning digital libraries.


--I hadn’t really thought about all the different ways the “information environment” was populated until the intro spelled it out for me. The illustration was a nice touch.

--Interesting to see that the Government got involved in this in 1994 no one really seemed to do much, but in 1998 when DLI-2 got going it seemed like everyone wanted to get involved.

--It was the work that was done in 1994 that set the ground work for everything. Interesting because at times it seems like once something has ceased everyone moves onto something else. In this case that started in 1994 still carries some influence despite the fact DLI-1 had ceased.

--I was hoping to read up on NISO Metasearch Initiative at the link that provided. This is what I got though: The page you were looking for (http://www.niso.org/committees/MetaSearch-info.html) is no longer available.

Dewey meets Turing: Liked that this article dealt with more of the (for lack of a better term) the human side of the DLI (Librarians & Computer Scientists). This article also shows that what looks good on paper doesn’t always translate well into reality.

--Enjoyed reading about the expectations of both sides involved. That Computer Scientists felt a sense of relief from tension of “pure” research & impacting day to day society while Librarians saw a good partnership with computer scientists.

--I agree that the DLI has really broadened Library Sciences. As information specialists we are on the threshold of seeing this field open up in ways that could never have really been though possible say 15-20 years ago.

ARL: Bimonthly Report: Provided a good and easy to follow framework on what at times can be a difficult and tedious subject.

--I was somewhat surprised that we hadn’t read more about MIT until now.

--Appreciated that Lynch noted a “mature & fully realized institutional repository” will not only involve faculty but students as well. What I appreciate is that he is seeing a big-picture aspect that patrons/users are not just scholars and instructors but students have an important voice to contribute as well.

--I agree with Lynch that research libraries need to “establish new collection development strategies”, but that they should also keep their patrons informed as well. After all we are here to provide a service of getting our users in-touch with the best information possible and I feel they have a right to know how that process works. It helps establish a level of trust among us and them.

--After reading about the concerns Lynch has I wonder how many have come to pass. Or are on the verge of coming to pass?

--I can’t quite put my finger on it but when Lynch mention Public Libraries possibly joining forces with local Governments, why does that make me uneasy? Everything else he mentions I can see happening and feel comfortable with…why does the Government make me nervous?

Muddy Question: In the first article we read about the 6 universities being involved in DLI-1, and throughout this course we have read about other Universities being in other studies as well. My question how is a University chosen to be a part of a study like DLI-1 or any of the others we have read about? I think it would be very interesting if we were involved in one, or if anyone knew of a University being involved in one.


Blogs where I have posted concerning these readings:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4181925387762663697&postID=6937882616450900868&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1952905712855777154&postID=215049025112592889&page=1

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Web-Site Assignment

http://www.pitt.edu/~jpm73/

Okay let's try this one more time.

Hope you enjoy it.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Reading Assignment #9

Reading Assignment #9

An introduction to the Extensible Markup Language: At first I was able to follow the article along but then midway through a lot of the technical jargon really began to throw me.

--It was interesting to read that there it is impossible to devise a single coding scheme. Maybe someday we might see a universal coding system for all computers.

--As much as I still enjoy the whole “pulling the curtain away” aspect of computers this article just really had me confused for a while.


A survey of XML standards: Pt. 1. This article I found a little easier to follow along with.
-- I appreciated that it would mention something like XML 1.0 for example and if there was a change to it then it would discuss XML 1.1.

--I also liked that they included references and tutorials to follow along with for further reading on a subject.

--It was interesting to read about the Internet Engineering Task Force and the other groups who are pushing for standardization.

Extending your Mark-Up: This article actually helped me understand the first article much better.

--The examples made a lot more sense to me having them off to the side instead of within the text made it flow much better for me.

--The fact that this article helped show a lot of the differences between HTML and XML was big help.

--The goal of XML is to replace DTDs. It seems as though XML is easier to follow along with (Figure 8-9)

--The article at the end mentions developments to watch for I wonder what progress has been made in these areas of development?

XML Schema Tutorial: This tutorial like the previous tutorials from this web-site really was insightful. Although usually I like to print things out and read along with them, for some reason I found this one easier to read of off the screen.

--The differences between XML & DTDs were much easier for me to see in this article.

--Interesting to read about the restrictions for Datatypes. How everything has to be just so otherwise everything falls apart.

--Lots and lots of information to keep track of. I am looking forward to hearing the lecture on this material to help me further understand these concepts and hearing them put into some context.

Muddy Point: The tutorial went into great detail about the differences between XML and DTD and how much more XML can do than DTD, my question is…will the average computer user be able to tell the difference between DTD and XML? Someone who browses the web on a weekend for example.


Blogs where I have posted:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4181925387762663697&postID=6088639436438282257&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4527425204800506090&postID=4204912504825876593&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1475137707322366107&postID=351362268738673599&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1491308052360981630&postID=7743144313058728680&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5477147704203276697&postID=2847749487420259130

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Reading Assignment #8

Reading Assignment #8

W3 Schools HTML: Again I love peeking behind the curtain and seeing how things work. For some strange reason putting together my own web-page seemed kind of intimidating, but after reading this material and getting to “play’ with some of it I am actually starting to look forward to it.

--I was a little surprised to see that I am using some of the codes when I post on some of the message boards that I post on from time to time.

--I did enjoy the background color section and playing with it. Changing the colors really helped me start to feel more comfortable with what I was doing. Although seeing the color codes displayed made me glad we don’t have to memorize them.

--This is interesting because on some level it seems so easy but if you are not careful it can mess everything up very quickly.

--While I am feeling more comfortable with all of this I can see the HTML Quick-List being very near when we start work on our web-page.

HTML Cheatsheet: To quote the late Pope John Paul II, “It is what it is.” I like the fact that it is very easy to follow along with, and this too will also probably be nearby when we start work on our web-page.

W3 CSS Tutorial: Like the HTML tutorial I enjoyed getting to “play” with it as well. It started getting a little too technical for me in some areas but overall it didn’t go too far over my head.

--For some reason I enjoyed learning about the fonts and texts. I have no idea but I spent a good chunk of time just going through those sections not because I had any trouble with them but they just interested me. Probably because those sections reminded me of my TV days when I had to play with the character graphics programs for the station.

--The Border & Margin sections seemed to be the most complex for me with so many different things to keep track of.

Goans, Leach & Vogel article: Enjoyed going through this one because I am currently involved in a task force re-designing our data-base page. I can see a lot of similarities between what they went through and what we are going through.

--Reading about the mess that they had before the re-imagining was just nuts. It was almost like leaving the kids in a classroom by themselves and telling them, “Okay make sure you learn something and don’t mess it up.”

--I have had to deal with “Dreamweaver” before I can’t exactly remember where, but somehow I don’t think it was a real positive experience.

--The fact that they are willing to discuss things that went wrong along the way and the survey at the end says a lot about the overall process. That there are no quick-fixes and not everyone is going to be satisfied.

--They mention that plans were underway for further enhancement and migrating content. I wonder how that has worked out?

--.We just finished going through the “What works and what doesn’t work anymore stage” with plans to get the new page up and running by start of the next semester.

Muddy Question: Concerning the Goans, Leach & Vogel article. I read that a reason that they considered open-source as an option, but decided against it because it would mean “Frankensteining” several products together. What does that look like? What exactly is that process like?


Blogs where I have Posted:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4181925387762663697&postID=6842639853632380331&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4527425204800506090&postID=3067842006156590515&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1475137707322366107&postID=4121584976152778791&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1491308052360981630&postID=1218234815049789241&page=1

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4736393327020365268&postID=226318181535505953&page=1