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.