Muddiest Point: Week 11

What is the practical application of XML over HTML coding? I feel as though everyone I've talked to has said that HTML would be preferred for coding their own sites.

Week 11: Digital Library & Web Search

(1) As technology continues to advance, it is becoming more and more prevalent that libraries, educational systems, and scholarly communities move beyond the hardbound books and journals into a more digital front. (2) Institutional repositories would allow researchers to manage and distribute their digital materials created within a specific institution or by its community members. (3) These repositories would help to ensure access to these materials, as well as preservation and organization.  (4) A repository should not be limited to only researching faculty members, but should also include students and the community.  (5) With the masses of information being poured on to the internet through various sources, such as these institutional repositories, the question of how these are indexed comes to the forefront.  (6) Indexing algorithms are used by search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft (GYM), to rapidly identify indexing terms in the documents that may contain a particular word or phrase that a searcher is looking for.  (7) I won't even attempt to understand how these algorithms work because I am extremely ignorant when it comes to these things.  But I know that search engines operate on query algorithms which searches online resources for the query key terms. (8) Many search engines have various ways of speeding these query searches along. Some of these include skipping, early termination, document numbers, and caching.  (9) The quality of these results may vary from user to user.  For example, one user may search for Pot Roast looking for the history of pot roasts, but get top hits of recipe and find that to be irrelevant when another user would be looking exactly for pot roast recipes.  (10) It is important to understand that no search query is perfect.  The more that users post on the internet and deposit into online repositories, the more information that will be available for search queries to scour and, hopefully, produce better results.

Muddiest Point: Week 10

Are there any elements of the XML lab that we missed from this week that would have been useful for Assignment 5?

Week 10: XML

(1) Extensible Markup Language, or XML, is allows a set of rules for encoding documents to be read by both humans and machines.  (2) XML has a series of entities that contain one or more logical elements, which are what mark the start and end of each of the parts of an interchanged document. (3) Document Type Definitions, or DTDs, allow users of XML to check that the document occurs in a valid place within the interchanged data stream, but are not required for XML. (4) XML was not designed to be a standardized coding system, such as HTML is.  (5) XML is a formal language that can be used to pass information about the component parts of a document onto another computer system.  (6) XML is different from other markup languages in the fact that it clearly identifies the boundaries of every part of a document. (7) An XML file typically consists of three different types of markup; an XML processing instruction, a document type declaration, and a fully-tagged document instance.  (8) The processing instruction identifies the version of XML being used, how it is coded, and whether there are external files.  (9) The document type declarations can either contain a markup declaration in an internal subset [between square brackets] or an external subset [referencing a file containing markup declarations].  (10) Finally, a document instance consists of a root element that matches the assigned document type in the document type declaration.  (11) If all three components are present, and the document instance conforms to the rules defined in the document type definition, the document is said to be valid.

Muddiest Point: Week 9

For A5 submission, will the URL we enter onto the Word document be the "http://www.pitt.edu/~PittAccount/"?

Week 9: Cascading Style Sheet

(1) Cascading Style Sheets, CSS, is a style sheet language used for describing the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language.  (2) A style sheet is a set of one or more rules that apply to an HTML document. (3) CSS allows a web designer to specify the various elements including font sizes and colors that would enable them to make their webpage unique. (4) CSS contains 'rules' that are statements about a stylistic aspect of one or more elements. (5) A rule will consist of two main parts: a selector and a declaration. (6) The selector is the link between the HTML document and the style. Selectors specify what elements will be affected by the declaration. (7) The declaration, then, is the part of the rule that states what the specific effect will be. (8) A declaration can be further broken down into two parts: a property and a value. (9) A property is the quality or characteristic that something possesses and the value is the exact specification of that property. (10) An example of CSS coding would be H1 {color: green}. This rule is stating that the heading will be in green font. Although it is not necessary for web designers to 'hand write' CSS codes or to memorize them, it appears that it is more common for them to do so.  'Hand writing' their own CSS codes for a specific webpage allows them to be able to design their webpage to be exactly what they want.

Notes from Required Readings:
1) W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/css/
2) CSS tutorial: starting with HTML + CSS http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss
3) chapter 2 of the book Cascading Style Sheets, designing for the Web by Håkon Wium Lie and Bert Bos (2nd edition, 1999, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-201-59625-3) http://www.w3.org/Style/LieBos2e/enter/

Muddiest Point: Week 8

Is it common for web designers to memorize all of the HTML coding?

Muddiest Point: Week 7

Since I wasn't in class this week (due to the Historic Pittsburgh Fair), I don't have a particular muddiest point.  Several of my peers filled me in on the information that was discussed in class and during the lab.  I also received my Koha username and password.

If I have any problems access the tools or questions regarding the PowerPoint slides, I'll be sure to post these in the comments of this post.

Week 8: HTML and Web Authoring Software

(1) Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, is a standardized system for tagging text files to achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects to create web pages.  (2) HTML has a short list of tags that are commonly used.  Once these HTML codes are understood, a creator would need to determine in which order to assemble the codes.  (3) Because there is often a lot of repetition with HTML coding (such as using "<p>...</p>" to create a define paragraph), properly coding can take quite some time.  (4) There are several tools available for novice HTML coders to utilize in order to make this process go much quicker and smoother.  (5) Sources, such as Webmonkey, provide users with cheatsheets to help those who have not yet memorized the codes.  (6) Many professional web developers and coders often prefer to create codes from scratch in order to get the page exactly how they intended it.  (7) HTML coding can be used for a large variety of tools while creating or editing a webpage.  Some of these include inserting images, changing background colors, inserting tables, hyperlinking webpages, or even adding hyperlinks for emails.  (8) A huge form that I did not know how to do prior to this, was inserting a HTML form in to a webpage.  After reviewing the HTML codes used for HTML forms, I believe that I could easily create a form that users could fill in for a webpage.  (9) One code that I have used in experiences (other than creating MySpace page layouts) was the first form control, or widget.  I've used this while at my internship when creating and updating LibGuides.  (10) Something I've learned while completing these readings is that HTML coding looks extremely complex, but is actually repetitive and relatively easy to understand.

Notes from Required Readings:
1) W3schools HTML Tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/
2) HTML Cheatsheet http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/html_cheatsheet/3) Pratter, F.E. (2011) Introduction to HTML, Chapter 2 of Web Development With SAS by Example, 3^rd Edition (Google Book) http://books.google.com/books?id=l_MFZYMv3YgC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=introduction+to+html+pratter&source=bl&ots=nXRgMFYZHz&sig=muV0UY1c_ePZO1pcdu8_V_IdbwQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Mvs4ULG9O4Gf6QG8h4GICw&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=introduction%20to%20html%20pratter&f=false
4) Goans, D., Leach, G., & Vogel, T. M. (2006). Beyond HTML: Developing and re-imagining library web guides in a content management system. Library Hi Tech, 24(1), 29-53.

Week 7: Internet and WWW Technologies

(1)The internet is a complex system of interconnected networks.  (2)The internet has a variety of elements that allow the internet to function in the manner that it does.  With so many users, devices, URLs, IPs, etc., I've always wondered how the internet was monitored.  (3)According to Tyson (2001), the Internet Society was formed in 1992 and oversees the formation of the various policies and protocols that define how users access, use, and interact with the internet.  Because the internet is so massive and, naturally, worldwide, there are a large variety of resources available to users of all sorts.  This is especially true for those in the information sciences, such as librarians.  (4)Google is a huge example of an online resource used by countless individuals and organizations across the globe.  (5)In 'The Genesis of Google' (2004), Brin and Page show that billions of inquiries are being submitted each second.  (6)However, for a variety of reasons, certain areas of the world are better equipped for Google inquiries than others.  (7)Although this video was created in 2004 and some of the information about is Google is dated, an interesting element discussed is the idea of AdSense.  This tool allows Google to generate advertisements for each user based upon the individual search inquiries.  Thus making advertisements relevant.  (8)Advertisements are important for Google because they allow the organization to make enough revenue in order to not accept payments for search results.  (9)Google is a great example of an internet tool for anyone to use, but Integrated Library Systems (ILS) are more tools specifically used for library services.  ILS allow libraries to track various elements of the library including books borrowed, orders made, bills paid, etc.  (10)Purchasing (or developing) and maintaining ILS take a lot of work and often cost a lot of money.  Pace (2004) states that even incremental improvements to systems are increasingly expensive for libraries.

Notes from Required Readings:

1) Tyson, Jeff. How Internet Infrastructure Works.  http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-infrastructure.htm

2) Andrew K. Pace “Dismantling Integrated Library Systems” Library Journal, vol 129 Issue 2, p34-36. 2/1/2004 http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2004/02/ljarchives/dismantling-integrated-library-systems/

3) Sergey Brin and Larry Page: The genesis of Google (Inside the Google machine). http://www.ted.com/talks/sergey_brin_and_larry_page_on_google

Muddiest Point: Week 6

Is there a specific way, using Google Scholar, that researchers can search specifically for Conference Papers?

Muddiest Point: Week 5

Would you prefer the weekly notes to be in essay format or with bullet points to make it easier to see what we've taken from each article?

Week 6: Computer Networks & Wireless Networks

LAN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network )

•          Local Area Network
•      Interconnects computers within a limited area

•        Initial driving force for networking was generally to share storage and printers
•          Small geographic area
•           Ethernet and WiFi are the two most common
•          Early LAN cabling had been based on various grades of the coaxial cable          
•     WiFi is now common for ‘cabling’
•        Supports easy access for laptops and smartphones
•          LANs can maintain connections with other LANs via leased lines, leased services, or the internet via the VPN

Computer network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network)

•          Allows computers to exchange data
•           The best known computer network is the internet
•           Support access to the www, shared use of application and storage servers, printers, and fax machines and use of email and instant messaging applications

o   Facilitates interpersonal communications

o   Allows sharing of files, data, and other types of info

•          Complex computer networks may be difficult and costly to set up
•           Network packets

o   Info in computer networks is carried in packets

o   Formatted unit of data (bits or bytes)

o   The bandwidth of the communication medium can be better shared  among users

o   Consists of two types of data:

§  Control information

·         Provides data the networks needs to deliver the user data

§  User data

Management of RFID in Libraries (http://www.kcoyle.net/jal-31-5.html)

•           RFID = radio frequency identifier
•           Like a barcode, but is read with an electro-magnetic field rather than a laser beam

o   Does not have to be visible to be read

o   Carry more complex messages than a barcode

•           There are hundreds of different RFID products on the market today

o   What varies is the amount of information the tag carries, the range in which it can be read, the frequency of its radio waves, its physical size, and the cost

-          Why RFID in libs?

o   Anyone managing an inventory of physical objects need to do item-level functions more efficiently and with less human intervention

o   RFID will probably continue to replace barcodes

•          In retail, RFID tags are used only once (placed on an item, sold, and discarded by the customer)

o   This would be more cost effective for libraries because the same RFID tag would be reused multiple times (because it would be placed on a book, borrowed, returned, re-shelved, borrowed, returned, etc.)

•           Security

o   Tags have ‘special security bit’ that can be switched from checked-in to checked out

§  Exit gates read each tag as users pass out of the lib

·         Sounds alarm if the bit is not in ‘checked-out’ state

o   Tags can be covered by Mylar, aluminum foil, or an aluminum gum wrapper

o   Tags are often found on the inside cover of a book, barely covered, and can be easily removed

•           RFID systems can read multiple tags at once

o   Allows the checkout of multiple books in one transaction

•          RFID could be used to gather statistics on re-shelving and completing inventory
•           Could potentially tell a user exactly where an item is located

Muddiest Point: Week 4

The SQL query is just the information that appears when the 'SQL view' is chosen?

Week 5: Metadata and Content Management

Although metadata - data about data - has been used for analog information, records, and documents, the digital age is calling for an even greater need for it.  More and more users are becoming aware of the uses of metadata in researching, designing, creating, and preserving information.  School age students, for example, are using metadata to help with their school work assignments, such as research papers.  As an archivist concentration in the MLIS program, metadata is a key element discussed in the majority of our classes.  Metadata allows users (both archivists and researchers) to have better accessibility and understanding of the information a particular record contains.  Various web sources, such as Mendeley, allow users to readily access the metadata for documents and books.  Users are able to use the metadata from a particular article to search for related documents and resources.  Mendeley is a great example of using data management sources for metadata purposes.


Notes from the following Required Readings:

Anne J. Gilliland. Introduction to Metadata, pathways to Digital Information: 1: Setting the Stage. http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/intrometadata/setting.pdf

Eric J. Miller. An Overview of the Dublin Core Data Model. http://dublincore.org/1999/06/06-overview/

Julie Meloni. Using Medeley for Research Management. http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/using-mendeley-for-research-management/25627

Muddies Point: Week 3

Is there a preferred site to obtain vector images?

Week 4: Database Technologies and Applications

Databases are excellent tools for users to create and organize their data.  Although there are various database software options available to both individuals and businesses, many personal users may implement the use of a spreadsheet as the preferred form of a database.  Personally, I've had some experience operating (but not creating) Microsoft Access databases for various institutions I've worked at.  I've never realized the amount of coding, data modeling, or applications that go into the regular maintenance of a database.  As technology continues to advance, I believe that it will become more and more essential for every day users to become knowledgeable in the creation, maintenance, and upkeep of databases for both personal and professional purposes.

Notes from Required Readings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity-relationship_model
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database

Muddiest Point: Week 2

Will the PPT slides for each class session be posted to the 'Course Documents' on CourseWeb?

Week 3: Multimedia Representation and Storage

The widespread usage of multimedia in today's society has led to the expansion of knowledge through various digital devices.  Websites, such as YouTube, have given users the opportunity to share their expertise on a multitude of subjects.  One such example, as provided by YouTube and Libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship, states that YouTube could be used by libraries as a means to showing instructional videos or introducing resources that are available on site.  Many schools and universities have done videos, such as these, as a means to help better acquaint users with their particular library system and allow them access to help when the librarians may not be available.  Digitization of photographs, films, books, articles, and more have allowed viewers to obtain a larger picture of the various people and events that were occurring at that time. The 2002 National Leadership Grant project conducted by the University of Pittsburgh allowed for the digitization of more than 7000 images from archives in the area.  Because of this digitization, more users were able to access and view these images and take an in-depth analysis of what Pittsburgh was like. With the digitization of text, images, and audio, however, come the issue of data storage.  One solution to this problem is by the use of data compression.  Data compression would allow for more information to be stored while taking up less space.  As librarians, archivists, businesses, government, etc. continue to digitize documents and resources, they must keep in mind that storage is finite.  Data compression, through either lossless or lossy compression, would help to remedy some spacial issues.

Notes from the following required readings:
1) Data Compression. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_compression 
2) Data compression basics (long documents, but covers all basics and beyond): http://dvd-hq.info/data_compression_1.php  
3) Edward A. Galloway, “Imaging Pittsburgh: Creating a shared gateway to digital image collections of the Pittsburgh region” First Monday 9:5 2004 http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1141/1061 
4) Paula L. Webb, YouTube and libraries: It could be a beautiful relationship C&RL News, June 2007 Vol. 68, No. 6 http://crln.acrl.org/content/68/6/354.full.pdf 

Week 2: Digitization

As technology continues to change and improve, so do the ways in which we access and utilize it. Recent strives to digitize countless books, have led to an issue of usability, access and, of course, funding. The idea behind digitizing these books is that they will become accessible to everyone in the world. No longer will a rare book need to be tracked down and visited in person. This is something that the modern generation, which expects information at their fingertips, will come to enjoy and rely on.  The issue becomes, how will these digitizations efforts be funded? Although various government initiatives have provided some fundings for the program, it is not enough. Private supporters, such as Google, are often willing to contribute towards digitization. However, these donors are frequently seeking personal gain or public acknowledgements. Some have discussed charging fees for various services or functions, such as viewing items in higher resolution. As digitization efforts continue, it will be necessary for organizations and libraries to be aware of where the funding is coming from and what stipulations are included on the fine print of each check.

Notes from the following required readings: 

1) Vaughan, J. (2005). Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still. Library Hi Tech, 23(1), 34-49. 

2) Doreen Carvajal. European libraries face problems in digitalizing. New York Times. October 28, 2007http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/technology/28iht-LIBRARY29.1.8079170.html

3) A Few Thoughts on the Google Books Library Projecthttp://www.educause.edu/ero/article/few-thoughts-google-books-library-project