Week 8 Lab

URL to webpage: http://pitt.edu/~mar189/index.html

Week 8 Reading Notes

W3schools: CSS Tutorial

• Is CSS a markup language? Different than HTML? Under the HTML umbrella? It looks more confusing but the ability to create a more attractive end product. Which is easier to use while still creating an attractive website: HTML or CSS?
• So, what I’m getting so far is that HTML is your most basic markup language, and CSS works within HTML to provide easier formatting.
• Thinking about HTML and CSS as any other language, CSS provides the adjectives that define the HTML-created nouns (which makes sense since adjectives always precede nouns). However, the CSS doesn’t just describe the website’s text/image content, but also the website itself.
• Style sheets provide a sort of shortcut, which is great because writing the markup language for websites can take a long time. In the case of libraries, though, will a “webmaster” be in charge of the website, will an outside organization/company be in charge of the website, will it fall on the librarian, or will the library use a website program that doesn’t require HTML or CSS (like Wordpress)? It must differ from library to library, but I just wonder what is the case for most libraries (or based on the kinds of libraries—large academic vs. corporate vs. small public, etc.).
• Something to remember: there seem to be a few (many?) special cases for CSS markup language depending on the Internet browser (Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc.).

W3: Starting with HTML + CSS

• I know this website encourages people to use a simple text editor, and I did use TextEdit to work on the HTML lab, but my partner suggests downloading and using Text Wrangler. It highlights your tags in a different color, which makes it easy to separate from your text, and he says that if you have issues in your HTML code, it will detect them for you.
• When using TextEdit, it’s important to save your file as “plain text” the very first time you save it. Very, very important. Otherwise you have issues with changing it to an html file.
• While the W3schools tutorials provide a plethora of tutorials, this source seems more useful for people who are just beginning to work with HTML and CSS.

W3: Cascading Style Sheets

• This appears to be a really detailed dissection of CSS—perhaps redundant with the other resources we have, but useful nonetheless.
• Perhaps this resource is outdated since the three browsers it mentions are Explorer, Navigator, and Opera. Now, I feel that more people use Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.
• Important to note that when two rules are in competition, the more specific rule with override the more general one.

Week 7 Lab

URL to webpage: http://pitt.edu/~mar189/index.html

Week 7 Reading Notes

W3schools: HTML Tutorial

• I already love this site and will permanently bookmark it. The initial example is great for just warming up to HTML and playing around with it (at least a little bit).
• What’s the difference between italicized text and emphasized text? The end result looks the same to me. The same goes for the seemingly lack of different between bold and strong.
• Also, if you want to format your text smaller than normal, this is how you might write it in HTML: <p><small>This text is small.</small></p>
• For fonts, I wonder how many different fonts HTML recognizes. Or if it depends on the website and/or software you’re using?
• I really appreciate the tables of tags and their descriptions—extremely useful.

Wired: Webmonkey HTML Cheatsheet Guide

• Very, very useful. PDF is saved and page is bookmarked. I can’t wait to use these resources when using HTML.

Beyond HTML (Goans, D, Leach, G, Vogel, T M)

• Without creating too much work for web development librarian, would it be possible for various staff members to submit the content they want published on the website to the librarian who’s in charge of the website? That way the content gets published and there is greater consistency in the website? Even when guidelines are written out, there is often plenty of room for confusion or miscommunication.
• Do free Wordpress accounts/websites/blogs count as one type of a CMS because one doesn’t need to know a markup language in order to create content, and once items are uploaded, they are saved in a “library” that is linked to the account?
• Question: Are there effective open source CMS options? Oops—asked the question too soon. Granted, better OS options may have been created between 2005 and now.
• Very important for old websites to be archived once something new is used. I think Barry Chad at CLP (he also teaches Adult Services/Resources) created a page on the interview project he had back in the day, but I don’t think that webpage exists anymore since CLP grew out of their old website.
• If/When CMS options become more popular and effective, how useful will it be for future librarians to learn HTML?

Week 6 Lab

MARC record:

Barcode: 94539663

Week 6 Reading Notes

How Internet Infrastructure Works (Tyson, J)

• Somehow I am surprised that the Internet is monitored and maintained by a non-profit group (Internet Society). With (American) capitalism and emerging potential legislature, it’s just hard to believe that it isn’t controlled by either a corporation or government entity.
• I’ve often gotten routers and modems confused, and I felt like this article did a great job of explaining the difference: your computer uses the modem to connect to the Internet, while the router controls your Internet information flow.
• If there are almost 4.3 billion possible IP address combinations, what happens when the demand surpasses the supply? Or are scientists already planning and preparing for that?

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems (Pace, A)

• I feel like the rental car metaphor is a poor one. Yes, a four-door sedan will get you anywhere, but maybe that’s not what you want (maybe you want something more snazzy). Or maybe it’s not what you need—what you actually need is a truck that hauls stuff. That’s the beauty with ILS competition and new open source ILS and the web—it provides libraries with the options they want and need.
• Completing a completely new ILS is NOT unrealistic—it’s happened, and it’s happened successfully. Georgia PINES Libraries created Evergreen from scratch, and it’s proved to be one of the most successful and popular open source ILS.
• Both open source software and open access journals have shown that better does NOT have to cost more.

TED Talks: Sergey Brin and Larry Page on Google

• Africa doesn’t light up at all on the image of people using Google around the world—need to work on providing power and the Internet (equalizing or imperial colonialism?).
• Wanting to make the world a better place through the Google Foundation and Google Grants—how do they choose what non-profits and charities to support?
• Very interesting that Brin and Page both attended Montessori school—this type of education isn’t necessarily thought of as creating hugely successful corporate leaders.

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

• I agree that Google Books will make information more widely accessible via the Internet, but the scans aren’t always of the highest quality.
• Also, as we’ve learned by using OCR, when an item is scanned, it doesn’t necessarily create the best digital document/item.

Week 5 Lab

Task 1:

• Screencast shot: http://screencast.com/t/3DkFaFYi
• Image: 

Task 2:

• URL: http://www.pitt.edu/~mar189/index.html

Week 5 Reading Notes

Wikipedia: Local Area Network

• My first thought: are local area networks a sort of primal Internet (or Internet-like) connection? But after looking at the Wikipedia article for Internet, it appears that local area networks are simple one of many types of networks that come together to create the Internet.
• Interesting to note: even though the Wikipedia article says Cambridge Ring was never developed into a successful commercial product, if you select the hyperlink, you learn that Apple actually copied and used the technology’s (unpatented) architecture.
• On a side note, I like the idea of “tunneling across the Internet.” Feels very Doctor Who-esque, though that could be because I’m currently re-watching Doctor Who episodes.
• Question: are there standards that differentiate a local area network from a metropolitan area network from a wide area network? Specific measured standards?

Wikipedia: Computer Network

• Question about “Internet map” image: is this a physical or theoretical image?
• I would be interested to know for what/whom and where Thomas Merrill and Lawrence Roberts created the first wide area network.
• I found the “library network” image to be very useful.
• Who/What owns networks? If I get my Internet from Comcast, would Comcast own the network? Or is there some “greater” (or lesser?) force?
• Is it just me, or is it off-putting that it appears that the US Department of Defense is a key player in the Internet’s technology history? It all seems very “Big Brother” and against what sort of privacy ideals we librarians should hold dearly.
• In simple terms, this is how my partner explained computer networks to me:
• A bunch of computers connect wired or wirelessly to a switch, which is much like a splitter for telephones.
• That switch allows the computers to talk to each other locally.
• If they want to go to the Internet, they go through a router, which takes all the traffic from the switch and sends it out through a single line.
• That line goes to a modem, which is what converts the data from Ethernet (local networking cable) to cable/satellite/phone line.
• That goes to your Internet service provider, then from them to other providers, through routers all over the world depending on where your info is going to/coming from.
• The language they (computers, switches, routers, access points, everything on the network) talk to each other in is TCP/IP (transmission control protocol and internet protocol).
• That data is sent in little containers. Chopped up into pieces on one end and reassembled in the other. The pieces are stored in containers called packets.
• As for virtual private networking, it’s a virtual secure connection to a local network over the Internet. It’s like running a cable from your computer to your school (Pitt).

Management of RFID in Libraries (Coyle, K)

• I find RFID tags fascinating! Here’s the “Top 10 Reasons Why Canadian Public Libraries Implement RFID.” Also, an ALA TechNotes article titled “RFID Technology for Libraries.”
• I did not know that RFID tags can be shielded by aluminum foil. This should be addressed before too many libraries adopt this technology.
• When I worked on a bookmobile, one of my more time-consuming tasks was to scan every single book on the truck one day because over the year we had trouble with the scanner (things weren’t always being properly checked out or checked in). Having RFID tags would’ve made this much less time-consuming (and not as unbearably hot since it was during the summer).
• Also, having RFID tags would allow libraries to explore different ways to categorize/organize the tagged items.
• In response to some libraries wanting to become 100% self-check-out: is this something the patrons would want? Both options should be available since patrons may vary in their desires (the quick and dirty self-check-out or also needing to ask a question while checking out materials).

Week 4 Lab

Task 1

• Command: SELECT * FROM isi_jcr_report_isls WHERE jcr_year = 2007
• Screencast shot: http://screencast.com/t/FhJn7JlHz8

Task 2

• Command: SELECT j_abbr, j_if FROM isi_jcr_report_isls WHERE jcr_year = 2008 and j_if > 1
• Screencast shot: http://screencast.com/t/6iuJ5QYTD