Week 4 Reading Notes

Wikipedia: Database

• The only database I know by name is Microsoft Access, which I remember learning how people rarely use Access because it is difficult to learn how to use and those skills must be maintained (“use ‘em or lose ‘em”). Instead, most people choose to use Microsoft Excel to serve their “database” needs (even though it’s technically not a database application).
• Most people refer to digital databases, and in the “History” section, the term’s concept was formed during the 1960s, while creating complex “information systems” (I take it this means computers?). However, the core definition of a database is simply an organized collection of data, which means this may take a physical or digital form.
• If the World Wide Web can be considered a database, I would label it a poor one. While Google can usually help us find what we want, I think it’s safe to assume that given the gargantuan amount of information on the Internet, most of what’s out there is unknown to nearly everyone.
• The piece about databases requiring built-in security reminds me of something I learned during my research on open source software: supposedly open source software can be easy to hack, so protecting patron information if your library uses open source software is important to remember in regards to network, software, and/or website security.

Wikipedia: Entity Relationship Model in Database

• I remember doing a sort of “fill-in-the-blank” activity for entity-relationship diagrams during one of the LIS 2005 reading summary presentations.
• I may be incorrect, but it appears that this is a sort of near-mathematical way to describe/display information in a database.

Phlonx: Database Normalization Process

• This shows exactly how readily people turn to Excel for their database needs (including myself), yet it may be difficult (or perhaps even impossible?) for Excel to perform complicated tasks with our data sets.
• I find this article extremely useful because my Microsoft Access skills are quite rusty/nonexistent (especially since I no longer have the application on my computer). However, it might be very useful to have an explicit tutorial on Access and/or other databases we might find useful.

Week 3 Lab

CiteULike library: http://www.citeulike.org/user/mackross5/library

Week 3 Reading Notes

Introduction to Metadata (Gilliland, Anne J.)

• I’ve heard about the content vs. the container, but this three-pronged feature of information (content, context, and structure) is new to me. With the example of a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the content would be the story, the structure would be the physical copy of the book (or digital e-book), and the context would be any events, experiences, or items that could be associated with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (such as the renewed zombie phenomenon and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice). Perhaps this is different when referring to metadata?
• This article points out the argument that “there is no single metadata standard that is adequate for describing all types of collections and materials.” Is this then a major flaw rather than benefit to the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative—it’s too encompassing? Should different fields and disciplines have different metadata standards?
• Information science professionals need to achieve two main goals when describing and organizing information: a) describing and organizing the information that does that item justice and b) describe and organize the information in a way that most users understand. With the Internet allowing users to generate their own metadata, this allows information professionals to learn how the public wants to organize information.

An Overview of the Dublin Core Data Model (Miller, Eric J.)

• Questions: How prevalent is Dublin Core in the information science field? Is it generally used or generally not used? Since it’s supposed to “support cross-discipline resource discovery,” are professionals in a variety of disciplines queried when creating/revising Dublin Core?
• I feel that because Dublin Core allows for broader concepts that many fields can use (the articles points out that it uses the term “contributor” rather than “painter”), it will allow/does allow for it to be used across many disciplines.
• DCMI encompasses the “work smart, not hard” belief by drawing on vocabularies that have already been created (such as the Australian Government Locater Service vocabulary).

Working with Endnote

• EndNote claims that it saves the hyperlinks that lead you to the references you’ve downloaded into your EndNote library, but how well would this work with Pitt’s remote access to ULS and other resources that require a log-in (such as many of CLP’s resources)?
• Does EndNote truly succeed in correct formatting? I’ve used RefWorks and had to re-format the citations page manually.
• While the EndNote tab that can be added to Microsoft Word does appear to be very handy, and granted I’ve never worked with EndNote, I don’t see how this is any more useful and/or time-saving than my current method (creating a document of notes that includes paraphrases and direct quotes from each source I’ve researched and the bibliographic information for each of the sources). I might be more open to using EndNote with a bibliographic style of which I am less knowledgeable, but then I wouldn’t be able to tell if any edits needed to be made manually (as was my issue with RefWorks).

Week 2 Lab

Jing video on Screencast: http://screencast.com/t/IKrdDDQMZS0r

Jing screenshot on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74071112@N04/6730749461/

Week 2 Reading Notes

Wikipedia: Computer Hardware and Computer Software

• Based on the Wikipedia readings, it sounds like the main difference between computer hardware and software is that hardware makes up the physical aspects of the computer, whereas software are more like conceptual programs that allow computers to, for lack of better terms, do things for us. Does this sound right?
• I’d be curious to know more about problems in regards to the need for standards in computer software.
• What about some of the connections between hardware and software? This comparison is purely based on brand names, but Apple is known for creating software that is only compatible on Apple devices.

Digitization (Lee, Stuart)

• One important aspect to consider in regards to digitization is the sacrifice in quality. For example, while digital music files are highly convenient, the quality in sound has highly decreased since the days of vinyl albums. This same compromise is also seen when preserving books (whether through digitization or using microfilm/microfiche).
• With the high cost of digitization and preservation in general, it will be up to archivists and preservationists to decide which items should be digitized/preserved at any given point in history. Is there a set of guidelines archivists and preservationists generally use?

NY Times: European Libraries Face Problems in Digitalizing

• Libraries partnering with for-profit corporations poses the problem of having to work with and/or around for-profit goals. However, libraries are often sponsored by for-profit entities in order to make large-scale events available to the public. As long as libraries collaborate with corporations and organizations that also have a vested interest in a particular project and create contracts that both parties must abide by, it’s a way for the government to stretch out their funds.

A Few Thoughts on the Google Books Library Project (Smith, Charles Edward)

• I have a number of complaints about some of the arguments in this article.
• One, Smith talks about the Internet and the digital form as if it will last forever. Just as humans have furthered technology so that other forms may become obsolete, the same may become true about the Internet and digital objects. While we see it as impossible to imagine a world without Internet access, it could very well become the truth.
• Two, how can one argue that there is only one way to truly learn how to use a research library?! Everyone learns differently, and there is no one way to learn anything.

Week 1 Reading Notes

OCLC report: Information Format Trends

• In regards to not having full access to book content on Amazon’s website—it’s not the same experience as if we were to shop for a book in a Barnes and Noble store. However, by using Amazon or any other online seller, we’re sacrificing full content of any particular object for access to a larger number of books that might not be available in a physical bookstore.
• Smartphones not only affect how people search for information, but how they’ve come to expect to get any information a) anywhere and b) anytime. Searching and finding information can take longer than desired at the library—how can we remedy this and make our information retrieval faster? Or is this even a goal we want to achieve?
• Many libraries are now offering “ask-a” services in a variety of contexts (reference librarian in-person, via e-mail, through instant messaging, or by text), which then reaches a variety of patrons in a variety of situations.
• Blogs are not the first way the ordinary person has been able to self-publish. Zines (self-published and self-created personal mini-magazines) were around long before blogs. It’s largely because of the Internet’s ability to reach such a large percentage of the population that blogs have become more mainstream, whereas blogs remain as a sort of underground form of communication.
• Is it that teens believe reading print newspapers is “nerdy” because they are in print or because they are newspapers? What would they say about reading print magazines?

Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy (Clifford Lynch)

• A 14-year-old paper about technology would normally be outdated, but because the claim is to focus on information technology literacy in a broader sense, educating about understanding technology as a whole rather than focusing on specific technological devices or systems, this article stands the test of time.
• One way high schools might be able to provide information technology literacy to their students is to offer a science class where students get to take apart various technological and/or mechanical devices and begin to learn exactly how they work. However, the American education system is currently in a crunch—not only because of a decreasing amount of government funds, but also because of the increasing focus on standardized test scores.

Lied Library @ Four Years (Vaughan, J)

• In the OCLC report, it touched on how more people may use their phones and e-mail to send and receive information rather than USPS and inter-library loans because the phone and web fees are hidden. Rather than charging UNLV students for printing, a flat fee could be added to the cost of attending the university (which, I believe, is what Pitt does for the first 900 pages/semester a student prints).
• While UNLV has been lucky enough to have funds that cover software and software support, the growing trend of open source software may decrease this cost as we move into the future.