Correction on the muddiest point....

Actually, I do have a muddiest point... why does the calendar and clock seem to be off on my blog? I just posted my comments and muddiest point and blogger wrote an incorrect date and time. It is now Monday November 29, 2010 at 5:37pm. Watch blogger disagree with me. What is the deal? Can I fix this?

Muddiest Point for November 29th class

I have no muddiest point for this week.

Week 13 Comments

Here are my comments for Week 13, December 6, 2010.

http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-13-reading-notes.html?showComment=1291070101944#c6611539124977214063

http://megrentschler.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-12-muddiest-point-112910.html?showComment=1291069853829#c2846766013048517482

Reading Notes- Week 13, Dec 6, 2010

No Place to Hide website

This website clearly has a lot of material on it, so I just poked around and read a couple of reviews. The website itself is something I'd like to go back to and peruse further when I have more time, and I'd really like to read this book when I get a chance (winter break maybe?). Privacy issues are a major concern nowadays. I remember at the end of high school I said I would never get Facebook just because I was disturbed by the thought of putting that much personal information out there on the web within easy reach of whoever wanted it. But, due to the relentless efforts of friends, I gave in. With all the recent uproar over the new body scans and pat downs at airports across the country, privacy issues are making headlines on a daily basis. Sometimes I feel like reality is turning into some sort of science fiction novel. Any thoughts?

TIA and Data Mining

So there's a long going on on this site too, but long story short... The government has access to way more information than most people probably want them to have access to. I should probably just stop writing now... the government may be reading this blog as I type... (dun dun dun *scary music*). If they're interested though, that's cool. Feel free to leave a nice comment, big brother.

Privacy issues is a pretty big umbrella, so I'm just going to narrow this down a bit... what methods can be taken to ensure the privacy of library patrons? I'm sure some of you who have worked in libraries and archives before have dealt with this. What can libraries do to protect their patrons' personal information? What types of information needs protecting?

Youtube video

When I clicked the link for the Youtube video, I got this message "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Viacom International Inc." Anyone else face the same problem?

Week 12 Comments

Here are my comments for week 12, November 29th.

http://att16.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-12-social-software.html?showComment=1290522760847#c2701905369596225051

http://kel2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/reading-notes-november-22-2010.html?showComment=1290522546144#c2134633679180877974

Muddiest Point for November 22nd class

I have no muddiest point this week.

Reading Notes- Week 12, Nov 29, 2010

Weblogs: their use and application in science and technology libraries

It was very interesting to read about the development of blogs. I had never thought of their evolution before. Blogs are a great way to share information because as the article said, it's a "bottom up" form of communication. So this allows anyone to start a blog and start sharing their ideas with the rest of the internet. I had also never thought of using blogs in the library setting to communicate with coworkers and such. This article focused on science and technology libraries. But what about other libraries? Does anyone think that blogs would be used any differently in say, a university library, or a public library?

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

Like the first article, I found the use of communication technology in this article interesting. The librarians were using wikis to collaborate on course content. I have never used a wiki, but taking into consideration all the praise they get nowadays, I'm assuming I will sometime in the future. I actually really want to use on. I think it might make group projects easier. Or at least sharing information about what each person is working on easier. It would cut back on the constant flooding of everyone in the group's inbox with project updates. Has anyone used a wiki before? Did you love it/hate it?

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

I think tagging in libraries sounds really cool. Sometimes you know that the information you want is out there, but you are just thinking of it in a different way than how it was cataloged. What do you think of opening up tagging to library users? Would it help in this manner? Or would it just put too much information out there?

How a ragtag band created Wikipedia

I think that Wikipedia has really transformed the way people think about information, both where to find it, and their role in creating and editing it. It allows people to have a much more participatory role in information.I think what really impresses me about Wikipedia is that people are so willing to spend their free time creating content. They're not getting paid, but they see benefits in what they're doing. I think that libraries could make a wikipedia type thing for their users. Like you could have pages about how to use different databases (some are sort of finicky, so it could be a place where you could add advice on how to adjust search terms for instance), how to find certain things in the library, etc. What do you think?

Assignment 6- My Website- Due Dec 6, 2010

Hi all,

Here is my website!! Feel free to check it out. If you notice any problems or anything not working, please let me know. I would appreciate it!

http://www.pitt.edu/~cmf68/

Week 11 Comments

Here are my comments for Nov 22nd.

http://jobeths2600blog.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-11.html?showComment=1289873272994#c3646130006955890561

http://acovel.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-11-reading-notes.html?showComment=1289873119013#c5823521273240565772

Muddiest Point for November 15th class

I have no muddiest point this week.

Reading Notes- Week 11, Nov 22, 2010

Web Search Engines: Part 1 and 2

The links for Part 1 and Part 2 about search engines led me to the homepage for Computer, the flagship publication of the IEEE Computer Society. I searched for both the articles within the journal and found them, but couldn't access to them. All I could see were the abstracts. So I went to the ULS website and found them by looking through the electronic journals. Just thought I'd throw that out there in case anyone else was having trouble accessing the articles from the links provided.

I thought these articles provided a good overview of how search engines and web crawlers work. I had never heard of the "politeness delay" Hawking mentions in Part 1, but it makes sense because I guess overworking the machinery would put too much stress on it. Also, I liked the term "politeness delay." Considering how many steps go into crawling web pages, I am amazed at how fast you get search results back. It's hard to believe all that is going on in a fraction of a second. I am just so impressed by how quickly and efficiently search engines work. With all the junk out there on the web, I might expect to get a lot more hits that were irrelevant, but clearly a lot of thought has been put into designing these search engines, and they generally do a good job.

Current developments and future trends for the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting

The Open Archives Initiative sounds really interesting. It seems to allow various groups to collect their own metadata and then share it through service providers. But toward the end of the article the authors described how even through everyone's using Dublin Core, there are still differences in how data are being entered. Will our field ever be able to reach a standard for interoperability? Or are there just too many archives and too many libraries out there with too many diverse and unique collections to make this possible? Maybe that's not even the problem. Is communication between different institutions the issue?

The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value

I am constantly amazed by how large the internet is. And I feel like because it is so gigantic I can't even imagine how gigantic it is. According to this article, when people use search engines, they are only searing 0.03 percent of the internet. That's crazy! How many pages are out there that you might want to see but never will? The article states: "Traditional search engines can not 'see' or retrieve content in the deep Web — those pages do not exist until they are created dynamically as the result of a specific search. Because traditional search engine crawlers can not probe beneath the surface, the deep Web has heretofore been hidden." It was interesting to read how the web has evolved and how search engines have evolved with it. Does anyone have any future predictions for the future of internet search engines? Will they ever penetrate the deep web?

Week 10 Comments

My comments for Week 10, Nov 15th, are below:

http://bds46.blogspot.com/2010/11/muddiest-point-118.html?showComment=1289274488305#c8845671163837204619

http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-10-reading-assignments.html?showComment=1289274196514#c8175607923355329919

Muddiest Point for November 8th class

XML sounds like it's really flexible and can do a lot. In what situations wouldn't you use XML?

Reading Notes- Week 10, Nov 15, 2010

Digital Libraries: Challenges and Influential Work

It sounds like there are a lot of interesting projects going on in digital library land. The article gave some examples but didn't really go too in depth about the different projects. Has anyone used any of these before? What did you think of your digital library experience?

Dewey Meets Turing

This article clearly laid out the sometimes complicated relationship between computer scientists and librarians. There was a lot of discussion about one group or the other worrying about getting their toes stepped on. I can understand these concerns. But I think that there will always be rooms for both groups because they do different tasks, have different focuses, and different skill sets. Does anyone think that these two groups might one day merge though? Will librarians of the future have to have the technical knowledge of computer scientists?

Institutional Repositories

This article details the challenges and benefits of institutional repositories. One thing that stuck out to me in light of conversations we've had in LIS 2000, was the chance that it might shift control of what scholars publish from scholars to institution. The issue of control popped out to me, since in 2000 we've talked so much about digital repositories being open access and giving authors more freedom to publish what they want.

Week 9 Comments

Here are my comments for Nov 8th.

Zach's LIS 2600 blog

http://pittlis2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-nine-reading-notes.html?showComment=1288659674811#c1926928485211520581

James McNeil's blog

http://jrm170.blogspot.com/2010/11/118-reading-responses.html?showComment=1288659755871#c8157705901944824138

Muddiest Point for November 1st class

I am confused about how Jeipu got to the Notepad document so that he could type in HTML commands and then make it a web page. Do you just create a new text document? And then... how do you export this or something so that it becomes a website? I didn't understand that step. Thanks!

Reading Notes- Week 9, Nov 8, 2010

Introducing the Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Is the link that's posted in CourseWeb for the correct site? When I clicked on this one I was taken to a page entitled "The Brighton University Resource Kit for Students" written by a man named John English. But I guess I can briefly comment on it... I think the idea of providing free information for the purposes of education is really admirable. Textbooks are so expensive. And, in this case, the internet used to be really expensive. Providing students with free resources, I'm always a fan of that. Furthering education will only lead to positive things for the individuals who are learning, and the society that they are able to impact with what they've learned.

A survey of XML standards: Part 1. January 2004

The article says that the current version of XML was translated into English. What does this mean? Is it explained in simpler terms somewhere? XML is based on SGML and is supposed to be a simplified version of that. All of the links to tutorials and other sources look extensive. I like that the author didn't try to reinvent the wheel, but just led you to tutorials and instructions that already exist. I might have missed this, but XML sounds a lot like HTML to me...what is the difference? I'm sure we've covered this in class or somewhere before, but they're both markup languages. Does it have to do with compatibility?

Extending your Markup: a XML tutorial by Andre Bergholz

This article maybe answers my questions from the above article. It says that XML lets you "meaningfully annotate text." I see under "addressing and linking" some specific differences are listed. You can do certain things with XML that you can't so with HTML. The article explains XML in depth. But I think I still don't really see the differences between HTML and XML. Maybe it would help if I saw someone actually using it instead of just the figures shown in the article.

XML Schema Tutorial

Just like the tutorial we looked at last week from W3schools, this one looks very comprehensive. I don't really know what else to say about it except that it looks thorough and like a good resource for anyone interested in learning about XML and seeing lots of examples.

Assignment 5- Koha- Due Nov 8, 2010

Hi all,

My "virtual bookshelf" on Koha is called "Ethnicity and Festivals." The books are ones I used for my senior thesis which I wrote on a Hungarian festival. My username is cmf68. Here is the direct link:
http://upitt01-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=42

Christy

Week 8 Comments

Here are my comments for Week 8, November 1st.

BarbCMBlog

http://barbcmblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-8-reading-notes.html?showComment=1288275985848#c6452390558516673425

Megan's LIS 2600 blog

http://megrentschler.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-8-reading-notes-11110.html?showComment=1288275744736#c1693838146472555349

Muddiest Point for October 25th class

In all of our classes we keep talking about information and the internet growing exponentially. Will we ever get to a point where the internet stops growing at such a high rate? Will things level off? Will the internet ever drastically decrease in size?

Reading Notes- Week 8, Nov 1, 2010

W3schools HTML Tutorial

This website seemed to have everything you need to know to learn HTML and make a website. I am not sure how much I trust it that "HTML is easy to learn - You will enjoy it." That sounds like a big promise to make. If HTML was that easy to learn, I think more people would know it. And, as far as me enjoying learning HTML, that remains to be seen. But, maybe the website knows me better than I think. I guess if I'm ever going to build a website I will definitely go back to this page. I even saw a link on the bottom that takes you to wix.com to start building your own site. If these sites make it a step by step process, I would be interested in learning how to make a website because I feel like that's really useful. I have friends back home that are like "If you learn anything in that IT class like how to make a website, remember it because I want to make one and then you can show me how!" I found it interesting how W3 offered "online certifications" for things like XML, CSS, and Java. Are these legitimate? Is this something that you could really show a potential employer and be like "Look, proof that I can do this"? Because if so, that would be helpful.

HTML Cheatsheet

This website was less extensive that W3, but I liked that they had all the links posted. You could just copy and paste them into your own website. That would save you from having to remember all of them (because there's so many that'd be difficult). It does half the work for you. All you have to do is pick the color of your font.

W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial

I tried some of the examples where you can edit the background and text, and it was so cool! With the structure already in place, just altering the url for the background image wasn't hard. And I saw where I could change the text to say what I wanted. This was pretty neat. As far as something like editing the background image, or putting up headings or images on a web page, can you use images that don't already exist on the internet? Like a photo you've taken? Or some graphic you've created? Because is it against copyright law to just snatch images from across the internet and make them your website background? Does anyone know about this?

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

This article shows how important it is to have everyone at your institution on the same page. People were just creating web pages linked to the library's site, if I understand this correctly, but they weren't consistent. This makes things look weird and confuses users. This article described a lot of solutions to this problem that would be helpful to other libraries facing the same challenges.

Week 7 Comments

Here are my comments for this week.

Lorraine in LIS 2600:

http://lehlis2600.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-comments-week-7.html?showComment=1287330518519#c1886097221914211612

Aimee's Blog LIS 2600:

http://acovel.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-7-reading-notes.html?showComment=1287330719454#c7935787640309348235

Reading Notes- Week 7, Oct 25, 2010

Jeff Tyson-- How Stuff Works "How Internet Infrastructure Works"

The internet began in 1969. Each computer with internet access is connected to a network which is connected to another network and so on. The internet is a network of networks. Large networks connect to each other through NAPs, network access points. This allows employees of large companies to connect to their companies' networks in any city where the company has a POP, point of presence. Routers are used to send information where it needs to be and keeps information from being sent where it doesn't belong. In this way routers connect networks by passing information back and forth between them. Every machine on the internet has a unique identifying number called and IP address. The IP stands for Internet Protocol, which is the language computers use to communicate over the internet. With the growth of the internet, no one was going to be able to remember all the different IP addresses out there, so domain names were created. Howstuffworks.com is an example of a domain name.

Andrew Pace, "Dismantling Integrated Library Systems"

Basically what I took away from this article was that by getting rid of old systems which lacked flexibility, libraries are able to create custom programs for their institution's specific needs. One downside the article pointed out seemed to be cost. Adding on different modules or whatever you want to call them is more expensive than just having a standard ILS according to the article. I think though that this could be an interesting way for libraries to go though. Maybe there were parts of the old software system they weren't using or didn't really need. This way they can pick and choose modules that they like and that work for their institution. The only thing I might worry about would be interoperability. Would all these modules work together? If they were all being produced by the same company that wouldn't be a problem, but if there are competitors, it might be an issue.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, "Inside the Google Machine"

I thought it was really cool how in the beginning of this video they had a virtual model of how many people were using Google at one time and what languages they were searching in. It was also really neat how they tracked the number of searches they got, and how they worked on getting people to perform more searches. They mentioned that one of their engineers created a social network. I have never heard about this before. Does it still exist? Is it only for Google employees? I was also surprised to learn that the US only accounts for 30% of Google search traffic. I thought it would be more. I liked how they encourage their employees to spend some of their work day being creative and working on projects they think will improve Google. I think this is awesome because it gives people a break from what they have to do and lets them work on what they want to do. It probably makes employees feel like they're having a real impact on the company. But probably the best part of Google...they have washing machines at work, so you can do your laundry AT WORK. And you can also bring your dog. Can you bring cats? If you can bring cats, this sounds like the perfect place of employment. I kind of really want to work for Google now...It sounds like the coolest place ever.

Muddiest Point for October 15th (fast track weekend) class

DSL and cable are the two main ways to get internet now. Are there other options out there? Are there any emerging internet technologies that might replace these two in the future?

Assignment 4- CiteULike- Due Oct 25, 2010

Hi everyone,

Here is the URL for my CiteULike library:

http://www.citeulike.org/user/cmf68

Just a note on tags--When I imported the tags from Zotero into CiteULike, the individual words of the tags got separated. So my tags from Zotero are supposed to be "open access," "oral history," "photography" and "Google Scholar." Hopefully that will make things more clear when you're looking at the articles.

Week 6 Comments

Here are my comments for this week.

Zach's LIS 2600 blog:

http://pittlis2600.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-six-reading-notes.html?showComment=1286394989329#c5188302685877998912

B.T. Miller's blog:

http://the2600.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-6-musings.html?showComment=1286395228097#c624098524009019257

Muddiest Point for October 4th class

We talked a lot about databases in class this week, but are we ever going to get to use them? I keep hearing and reading about MARC and EAD and I see in a lot of job descriptions that they would like people to know how to use them. Will we get the opportunity to learn that in this class or in another class in upcoming semesters?

Reading Notes- Week 6, Oct 12, 2010

Local Area Network-- Wikipedia

LAN is the network type that most people are probably familiar with because it connects computers and devices in a small area such as your home, office, or school. Ethernet and Wi-Fi are the two most common types today. LAN came about in the 1970s due to universities and research labs wanting to connect multiple computers. LANs can be connected to other LANs.

Common Networks-- Wikipedia & Youtube video

There are many different types of networks out there, but they all do the same thing--allow the connected computers and devices to share resources and information. This includes having multiple computers hooked up to the same printer and having a network drive that can be accessed from any computer on the network. Networks can be classified based on the hardware and software used to connect the individual devices. But networks are commonly classified by their size, or scale. LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), MAN (metropolitan area network), and CAN (campus area network) are some of the most common ones. Something such as a MAN stretches across a huge geographic area (a city for instance) while a PAN (personal area network) is used for communication among devices close to one person.

Management of RFID in Libraries

This article made a very good case for the use of RFID technology in libraries. It would allow staff to accomplish some tasks more quickly and efficiently thus saving labor, time, and money. Someone's got to like that (even if it's just the library director who is trying to cut budgets). It might even allow patrons to check out their own books. But on the flip side this would also decrease personal interaction at the library. And personally, one of the things I like most about libraries is that personal interaction you have with staff behind the circulation or reference desks. So I think RFID might be a great loss while at the same time offering great gains.

Assignment 3- Jing- Due Oct 12, 2010

Hi all! Here is my video that I made using Jing. It is a tutorial on how to use cool features on Google Maps. Enjoy!

http://www.screencast.com/users/cmf68/folders/Jing/media/bf6b1d91-bf2e-477a-9042-c1b340e1797e

And here are the 5 annotated photos that I took with Jing.

Courseweb

http://www.screencast.com/users/cmf68/folders/Jing/media/88328908-1566-4ddf-b141-5f3a55666927

Worldcat

http://www.screencast.com/users/cmf68/folders/Jing/media/0f16ebfd-bac5-426e-8a1e-25105a00fd79

weather.com

http://www.screencast.com/users/cmf68/folders/Jing/media/af6365a3-72da-41c6-93ec-1a249a338117

Google Maps photos

http://www.screencast.com/users/cmf68/folders/Jing/media/c6903a2a-0ba1-4b2d-9490-945dc72abcb9

Port Authority Trip Planner

http://www.screencast.com/users/cmf68/folders/Jing/media/0187450b-33cb-42ad-a00d-e84307dcc34c

Week 5 Comments

Here are my comments for this week.

Archivist Amy in Training

http://archivist-amy-in-training.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-5-databases-and-metadata.html?showComment=1285789382025#c5186372381802320037

Caitlin Stalker's blog

http://cstalkerlis2600.blogspot.com/2010/09/unit-5-information-organization-by.html?showComment=1285789744342#c5846553565079273929

Reading Notes- Week 5, Oct 4, 2010

Database-- Wikipedia

This might just be me, but I never knew there were so many different classifications of databases before-- operational database, warehouse database, analytical database, end-user database, hypermedia database... I will never be able to keep them all straight. Databases index data just like paper indexes, but probably more effectively for the user because they can just type in a keyword and something will pop up. Will we learn how to make databases, at least in a program like Microsoft Access?

Introduction to Metadata

Metadata is data about data. Information objects, like articles for example, all have content, context and structure. The metadata reflects this so that the object in question will be easier to find. Each branch of information professionals from archivists to museum registrars has its own way of encoding metadata. But metadata isn't just for information professionals anymore. Now with sites like Flickr anyone can create their own metadata. The general public is becoming more aware of how information can be organized because they are doing it themselves. But something that worries me on the professional side of things is that there are so many programs you can use to deal with metadata....MARC, EAD, and others. Will we get to learn how to use any of these? Because I feel like we keep reading about them in our classes, at least references to them, but I am confused about what they look like and how they actually work. And I feel like that would be a good skill to have for the job market.

An Overview of the Dublin Core Data Model

All I took away from this article is that this model supports "richer" description in metadata. But I wasn't sure if the author was saying this means there should be greater specificity within individual fields for describing things, or if there should be more general vocabulary used. Any thoughts?

Muddiest Point for Sept 27 class

We talked a lot about digital photo files this week, so my question is about that. When you take a picture on your digital camera, is it automatically a jpg file? Or is this just how it reads the file when you put it on your computer?

Week 4 Comments

Here are the links to my comments for this week.

Katie's blog

http://jonas4444.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-4-reading-notes.html?showComment=1285192244377#c2715550487681656778

Michele F's blog

http://mfarina.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-4-notes-multimedia-representation.html?showComment=1285192482367#c6554035949790074262

Reading Notes- Week 4, Sept 27, 2010

Data Compression (Wikipedia and Data Compression Basics)

These articles were both lengthy, so I will just try to summarize. If I understand correctly, compression works by breaking data down into fewer bits and then you have to unencode it to open it up again. It is particularly useful for large files such as photo files. There are two types of compression the articles discussed- lossless compression and lossy compression. With lossless compression, it just gets rid of repeats in the data, but you don't actually lose any data, whereas with lossy compression, you have to sacrifice the quality of your information for the sake of compression. I think that this is unfortunate and it almost makes me wonder why would you compress it into that form if it won't be as good anymore. If the data was important enough to be there to begin with, shouldn't it stay there? But, I guess depending on what you're compressing perhaps the loss of data wouldn't be significant enough to impact your experience.

Imagining Pittsburgh: Creating a Shared Gateway to Digital Image Collections of the Pittsburgh Region

I thought this article was very cool. It was very balanced and expressed the challenges and benefits of working with several diverse organizations on a joint, yet customizable, project. I didn't visit the website with the photos on it, but it was neat how the author described they set up the database interface so that it would have one general appearance for the whole, but each institution could alter the interface on their specific part of the website to best suit their collections since each collection was different. I also liked how they opened up sort of a preview version of the website for the public to view so that they could submit feedback. I think this is important because after all, if your users are confused by the website and can't find what they're looking for, no matter how many photos you upload, it won't do them much good! But I could also see this as opening some sort of Pandora's box where users submit so many ideas for changes the project team just becomes inundated with ideas they really don't want to put into action, thus possibly disappointing users who assumed they were having an impact on the website design.

YouTube and Libraries

I never thought of starting a YouTtube account for a library before, but the article really opened my eyes to all of the possibilities this forum would provide. Many people spend a lot of time on YouTube anyway, so clearly it is a format they are comfortable with. From all of the readings and class discussions we've had in our different courses this semester, I am noticing a trend of libraries reaching out to users in their familiar territory. I could imagine some users being intimidated by a library website, catalog, or database options. A lot of library sites have so much information on them, sometimes it is hard to know where to start. By posting library information on YouTube, it would narrow the amount of information available, and maybe present it in a format users are comfortable with. This could lead to more use of the libraries resources and services.

Muddiest Point for Sept 20 class

This probably doesn't matter because no one uses DOS anymore, but I was just wondering....DOS was an operating system just like Windows or Mac OS X is an operating system? I remember using it when I was very young, but...it's been awhile, and I don't remember much about it. Was DOS just a line-command operating system as opposed to Windows which is a GUI operating system?

Assignment 2- Flickr- Due Sept 27, 2010

This is the URL for my flickr photostream. If you notice it's not working, please let me know!

cmf68 flickr photostream 

My username on flickr is cmf68 if you want to find me that way. Enjoy the photos!

Week 3 Comments

This week I commented on the following blog entries:

Emily Davis LIS blog

http://emilydavislisblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-3-computer-software.html?showComment=1284647167977#c1280249139236152656

John Seberger's LIS 2600 Weekly Blog

http://jsslis2600.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-3-reading-notes.html?showComment=1284647595872#c599928759411935491

Muddiest Point for Sept 13 class

In class, when we were talking about storage on a computer, the cache was mentioned. Is the cache in the CPU related to the cache that you can clear from your internet browser? Or was that one named after the cache in the CPU because it is the memory of what sites you visited on the internet like the cache in the CPU is the memory of what's on your computer?

Reading Notes- Week 3, Sept 20, 2010

Introduction to Linux

So this entire post will probably make it relatively apparent that I'm no computer wiz, but I can explain (or at least give an excuse). My dad was always very into software and he worked for Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies, so I just always let him handle my computer needs. I know nothing about Linux, but section one of the guide by Machtelt Garrels did make it sound very interesting. I can see why programmers and people who want a very customized computer experience would choose Linux. It is very versatile, and it's free. I like the part about it being free because no other operating system is! Linux gives users the option to alter their system as to their whims and I think this would make it easier to keep up with the quick pace of computer technology. My laptop is going on 5 years old now and man do I feel behind the times. But with Linux, there would be no need for that because you could just add on some new features to your liking and it'd be fresh. I have never been attracted to using Linux because it's been talked up to be such an imposing system. Although maybe I will be inclined to poke around with it in the future, since Garrels did say there are efforts underway to make the system more user friendly for beginners.

Mac OS X

The Wikipedia article and "What is Mac OS X?" both gave a great overview of this operating system. I can't say that I was that interested in it mostly because I don't care for Macs. I don't even have an iPod. I'm sure some people will *gasp* at that one. But again, I blame my dad. I asked for an mp3 player for Christmas, and despite the market being glutted with iPods, he comes back with a Creative Zen. It works fine, but I feel like the kid left of the kickball game. I know this is a source of heated debate- which is better Macs or PCs- and I don't intend to get into it. I'm just used to PCs so that's what I like, but to each his own. In the article "What is Mac OS X?" the writer stated that the article was intended for users who weren't familiar with the system, yet I felt so bogged down in all the Mac related names and terms he was using that I couldn't really get into the article. Some interesting points from the Wikipedia article that I took away were that all the releases of Mac OS X are named after large cats. I wonder why they decided to do that. Mostly the article discussed how Mac OS X was an improvement upon previous Mac operating systems and versions of itself. Not being a big Mac user, I wouldn't know the difference, but I have had friends who were super excited when Leopard came out a few years ago, so Wikipedia is probably onto something.

An Update on the Windows Roadmap

This article was a few years out of date, but it showed how much faith the company had in Vista. I've never used Vista except on a couple of my friends' computers. My laptop that I got before going to college has XP and I never upgraded. So, yes, if you're wondering, I still have XP! I never felt like I was at a loss because everyone always told me how much they disliked Vista, but I feel so behind the times now with the new release of Windows 7. Anyway, back to the article- many people complained about Vista a lot. The article stated that "Vista was a very ambitious release" and maybe this was part of its problem. However, Vista did address some of the initial issues by supporting more components over time.And Windows 7 is supposed to really have revamped things in response to user feedback.

After reading about these three operating systems, I have reached the conclusion that I am not motivated enough to change operating systems. Every time I use a Mac, I am confused by the fact that you can't "right click," among other differences I can't remember now, but that bug me at the time. I guess it all just depends on what you're used to. I must admit that I am not completely satisfied with Windows. Has anyone else experienced the "blue screen of death" where one day you wake up and turn on your computer only to see this horrible blue screen that tells you Windows has crashed? Senior year, fall semester, finals week. That was painful. I have heard that Linux and Macs are less susceptible to crashing and other unfortunate business, so in that respect, I can definitely see the advantages. I think that there are benefits and disadvantages to all these systems, and like with all things in life, it just depends on which quirks you are willing to put up with!

Reading Notes- Week 2, Sept 13, 2010

"Computer Hardware"- Wikipedia

This article offered a good basic overview of the parts of a computer. I don't know all of the different names of the different parts of my computer, but if I ever needed to, this article would be a good place to look. On the other hand, it's very basic and straightforward, probably too basic for most people actually.

"Moore's Law"- Wikipedia and Video
According to the Wikipedia article, Moore's Law is basically: "The number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years." This allows for faster computers with more storage space. I found it interesting how Moore's Law has changed from serving as a prediction to serving as the industry standard; companies are now striving to achieve this rate of progress. I really enjoyed watching the video "What is Moore's Law" with Christie Nicholson from Scientific American because her explanation was simple and concise. Her comparison of transistor technology with that of automobile technology was really helpful because, although I don't know much about cars, I do know that we don't have cars that can get 100,000 miles to the gallon. Her description of Moore's Law was clear and accessible.

Computer History Museum- Website

Despite the museum's ongoing physical construction, the museum's website has many online exhibits which are a great way to reach out to those who are unable to make the trip out to Silicon Valley. Online exhibits really extend the reach of educational institutions such as museums and it is clear that they are becoming very popular for museums as well as libraries and archives. I think that the museum would be of interest to people of all levels of computer proficiency and technological literacy. Computers have revolutionized our world; the ways we communicate, learn, conduct business, shop, and more are forever altered. Thus, visitors with diverse interests would surely find something applicable to their use of computers in this museum.

Reading Notes- Week 1, Aug 30, 2010

"2004 Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers"

One of the most interesting points in this article was that most users no longer care how information is transmitted to them; they just want the information. People want their information to come to them quickly and cheaply. This made me think of fast food chains like McDonald's- you expect your food to be cheap and come out of the kitchen quickly. But fast food is not the highest quality food, and sometimes when you're pressed for time and cash, you don't care about quality as much. Will this happen with information? Will people become so concerned with getting whatever information they can as fast as they can that they will stop to care about the quality of that information?

The author writes, "Social publishing is essentially open content unfettered by licenses or firewalls...It needs no other distribution channel other than the internet. The individual is at the center of social publishing, not institutions" (6). Everyone now has the opportunity to be an author. No longer is there a need to go through a publishing house, maybe with the help of an agent, to get your opinion out to the world. This transformation of distribution is breaking down barriers of class, levels of education, and social status. There's the saying "It's who you know," but with formats such as wikis and blogs, you don't need to know anyone important in the field of publishing to be a successful author.

"Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy..."

Lynch believes that in order to succeed in life, it is crucial for people to learn both different technological skills as well as how different technologies work. He writes that students today do not often get the opportunity to be exposed to the latter and they suffer for it. While I agree with Lynch that it would be helpful if we could all learn how the various technologies available to us today are interrelated and exactly how they function, I think that logistically this would be hard to accomplish. In most high schools there aren't enough computers for every student. And with the many requirements in states' curricula, most students can't fit in a technology class. Maybe at a college level there could be a chance to require students to take a technology class as a requirement for their Associate's or Bachelor's degree, but each institution has their own way they want to work things, so that might not be effective either.

"Lied Library @ four years..."
This article showed just how much changes in four years. The replacing of computers, redesigning of offices, installing of new software. Sometimes I find it hard to notice how much has changed because if you're living through it, it's more gradual. The main takeaway point from this for me was that no matter how up-to-date an institution is upon its opening, it will have to continually work at remaining up-to-date. Lied Library didn't slack off. They were consistent in their attempts to upgrade their systems to optimize their users' experiences. This article successfully summarized many factors necessary in keeping a library running at its full potential.

Muddiest Point- Week 1, Aug 30, 2010

I have two muddiest points from this week's class.

We didn't discuss FastTrack Weekend in this class but we have to attend sessions during that weekend for some of our other classes. Do we have a session for this class during FastTrack Weekend. If so, when and where are we meeting?

Also, on CourseWeb, under the tab "Assignment Grades," the due dates are listed for the year 2008. Was the year a typo and those are the due dates, or are the due dates different than the ones listed?