Assignment 6

I hope I get a good grade on this. My head almost exploded trying to figure out how to upload images from OfficeShare to Pitt. LOL

http://www.pitt.edu/~daa45/

Finished with Muddiest Points, Reading Notes, and Comments

I have fufilled my obligation of posting at least 10 comments, 10 muddiest points, and 10 reading notes.

Appich- 11/27 Reading Notes

Weblogs: Their Use and Application in Science and Technology Libraries

It was interesting to learn about how blogs are used in S&T libraries environment. I definitely think libraries could utilize blogs more. However, my one beef with blogs is that they are currently being over-utilized to the point where many people don’t care about them anymore, so libraries would need to be careful about how they use them in the future, in my opinion.

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

I love this idea! Who doesn’t love wikis? I am glad that libraries have found a way to utilize them in a way that serves their patrons. I like this idea for libraries much better than the idea about blogs. Wikis allow EVERYONE to be involved in the dissemination of knowledge, whereas blogs are usually only run by one person.

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

I like this idea, too. Tagging could really be helpful for library users and allow them to find information that they might otherwise overlook.
Jimmy Wales: “How a ragtag band created Wikipedia”

Jimmy Wales is my hero. Not only did he create such a brilliant digital community, but he did it without “selling out”. There are no advertisers or spyware on Wikipedia, which shows that he cares more about the dissemination of knowledge than making a profit.

Comments for 11/27

http://acovel.blogspot.com/2010/11/unit-11-reading-notes_25.html#comments

http://akulp2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/11-29-reading-notes.html

Muddiest Points for 11/26

None this week.

Notes for 11/20

Web Search Engines

Like my fellow classmates, I loved this article. Since it talked about the history of search engines, it really gave me flashbacks. I don’t think most people realize how long search engines have really been around. I remember using search engines as early as the mid-1990’s. I remember using SE’s in the 1990’s such as DogPile, LexusNexus, AltaVista, AskJeeves, and more. But none of those search engines were ever as efficient as Google, hence the reason most of them are out of business while Google is still going strong today. Anyways, this article was a great trip down memory lane and reminded me of my own unique history with web search engines.

The Deep Web and the BrightPlanet Project

Like my fellow classmates, I was also shocked by the statistics presented in this article. The deep web is huge! I can’t believe that it is 400-550 times larger than the surface web. To be honest, I didn’t even know the difference between the Deep Web and the Surface Web before I read this article.

OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
The OAL Protocol for Metadata Harvesting was interesting to learn about. I learned that it is used to collect metadata descriptions of records in an archive. That must be a very tedious task. To think, people actually used to do this task manually!   

Comments for 11/20

http://maj66.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-11-readings.html#comments

http://pittlis2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-eleven-reading-notes.html#comments

Muddiest Points for 11/19

I have no muddiest points this week.

Notes for 11/13

Digital Libraries: Challenges and Influential Work

This library was great because it essentially talked about the evolution of libraries and how the dissemination of information has changed since many of us were children. Contemporary digital libraries are interesting because they are user-friendly and easy-to-use

Dewey Meets Turing

This article talks about the DLI (Digital Library Initiative) and how it changed information retrieval, and eventually ended up spreading to other groups. This initiative has been successful due to the explosion of the World Wide Web. This article was informative to me because I did not know that this DLI started in 1994, even before the World Wide Web become a prominent part of culture.

Association of Research Libraries

This article talks about the digital revolution and how it has changed the development and sharing of information. The article specifically talks about universities and how they are responding to this revolution. It discusses how universities have been taking an active role and publishing journals online as opposed to relying on print publishers, as they have in the past. Some of the reasons cited for this change in scholarly publishing is cheaper costs, as well as greater storage space. I liked this article because this topic was something we discussed in great detail in LIS 2000 and it's a topic I am very interested in. Information that was once difficult to find is now available at the tip of your fingertips in digital libraries.

Comments for 11/13

http://sherry-lis2600introinfotech.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-10-reading-notes.html#comments

http://lis2600racheln.blogspot.com/

Muddiest Points- 11/12

When will we get grades for Assignments 3 and 4?

Appich- Assignment 5

Here's my URL:

http://upitt01-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl

My username is DAA45

The title of my collection is Washington Redskins

Notes for 11/6

Introduction to XML

With this introduction, we learn what XML is and how it differs from language like HTML and CCS. Basically, XML translates different mark-up languages so that computers can read them. In order to translate, XML uses lots of tags and other data. I liked this article because it was easy for me to understand and did not  go into too many complicated details. It was a simple but thorough introduction.

 

Survey of XML Standards

 Here, we basically learn the standards for XML, such as Namespaces and Bases.  It makes sense that there are rules and standards for XML, and it was interesting to learn what they are and their specific functions.

Extending Your Markup: An XML Tutorial

 In my opinion, this was the best XML tutorial out of all the tutorials for this week. It talked about how XML influenced HTML, which was interesting to learn about. We also learned about how we can use stylesheets to convert XML into HTML. This was the most informative article out of all the articles for this week!

 

XML Schema Tutorial

  I did not enjoy this tutorial as much as the others. It was very complicated, and felt like it was geared for users who are experts at XML. I definitely would not recommend this tutorial for beginners like myself. 

Comments for 11/6

http://rjs2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/readings-for-11-8-11-13.html#comments

http://deyslis2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-9-readings-post.html#comment-form

Muddiest points for 11/5

I have no muddiest points this week.

Comments for 10/30

http://deyslis2600.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-8-readings-post.html#comments

http://gvbright.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-8-readings.html#comments

Notes for 10/30

1) W3schools HTML Tutorial
    I wish HTML were as easy as this tutorial made it sound. Having used HTML in the past, I can tell you it is not this easy! Still, this is a fun tutorial with some useful information. I definitely see myself using this tutorial to help me the next time I try to set up a webpage.

2) HTML Cheatsheet
 

This is basically a dummy's guide to HTML. I actually like this better than the tutorial because it does a better job of simplifying HTML without being misleading to the viewer. My problem with the first tutorial is that I feel it is a little misleading as to what HTML really is and how to use it. 

3) Beyond HTML: Developing and re-imagining library web guides in a content management system. 
      
Like others, I also do not understand why libraries are trying to limit their staff accessing/contributing to the website. Can someone please explain this to me?

4) W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial

   It looks like CCS is a lot easier to use than HTML. I definitely would like to have more hands-on experience with CCS as I think it is a much easier and much more efficient way to create web pages. 

Muddiest Points for 10/29

I have no muddiest points this week.

Appich- Assignment 4

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

10/23 notes

Brin and Page

The Brin and Page talk was okay, but a little outdated. Technology has changed a lot in 6 years. In 6 years, Google has evolved from a fledgling search engline to a corporate giant. I just heard a news story on the radio last week that stated Google is now experimenting with A.I. cars that are able to drive themselves without human operators. There is no way that Google would have been doing that kind of stuff 6 years ago. I think that Brin and Page should do a new interview where they talk about how much Google has changed and how it has branched out into other business ventures.

ILS

The ILS article was good. I do not have any experience working with ILS, so it was great to learn about it. I think the ILS is under-utilized in libraries due to the fact that it is difficult to use. However, it has the potential to become a larger factor in libraries as the years go on, so it is important that future librarians know how to use it. 

howstuffworks.com

I loved the howstuffworks article. It really taught me a lot about the history of the Internet, such as HTTP and URL. In my opinion, too many people log on to the Internet every day without having any idea how it works or the history behind it, and this article explains a lot of that in Layman's terms that are easy to understand.