My site:
http://www.pitt.edu/~marcross/
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Reading
This will be very short this week.
The first reading wasn't coming up for me, and the youtube link was taken down due to copyright violations!
The second reading was interesting in a scary way. I read through a lot of it, and clicked through many of the links. If I'm reading it right, it pretty much says that you are never anonymous on the internet, and your activity can be tracked for no reason. I guess I knew that all along though. We were one of the first families that I knew of that had internet access, because my always loved computers and networking. Even in the early 90's though, he taught me that you really shouldn't say anything on the internet that you wouldn't say in real life, because even if you hide your name, you're never anonymous. The scary part is that the government can and does track your information.
*puts on tin foil hat*
The first reading wasn't coming up for me, and the youtube link was taken down due to copyright violations!
The second reading was interesting in a scary way. I read through a lot of it, and clicked through many of the links. If I'm reading it right, it pretty much says that you are never anonymous on the internet, and your activity can be tracked for no reason. I guess I knew that all along though. We were one of the first families that I knew of that had internet access, because my always loved computers and networking. Even in the early 90's though, he taught me that you really shouldn't say anything on the internet that you wouldn't say in real life, because even if you hide your name, you're never anonymous. The scary part is that the government can and does track your information.
*puts on tin foil hat*
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Comments
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-11-reading-notes.html?showComment=1290116901895#c7215778184269620794
http://bds46.blogspot.com/2010/11/reading-notes-week-11-reposted.html?showComment=1290117056891#c2169880429915727658
http://bds46.blogspot.com/2010/11/reading-notes-week-11-reposted.html?showComment=1290117056891#c2169880429915727658
Readings
I had a bit of trouble finding the first reading of the week. I'm not sure why the link provided said Pitt didn't have full text access. Perhaps I'll report that to someone in the collections department....
Anyway, much like other readings we've done this semester, the Web Search Engine reading really shed light on how search engines actually work. We've all been talking about what is wrong with library searching, and how Google is able to do such a good job with searching and providing relevant results, but until this reading, we really haven't covered why Google is able to do such a good job, and fully realize the amount of work that goes into indexing websites. I can't say that I fully understand all that goes into making a search engine work, but this two part article made me realize that it really is a complex system.
The second article Current developments and future trends for the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting, went back to the earlier themes of the class: how the library can work together with computer scientists to create a better way of searching and indexing. The OAI community is trying to make things easier, but because of the way metadata works, is running into troubles. One of the biggest troubles is, again, the difficulty in creating a standard vocabulary for inputting that metadata. Another problem that they are facing is that the task is just too big for one group, a relatively scattered group at that. It seems like they want to be an almost "informal" group, but in doing so, they are really crushing their chance to even begin to make a dent in the problems they face.
The first thing I thought of while reading “The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value," was the idea that the more a journal article is cited, the more reputable it becomes. This article is almost saying the opposite, if I'm understanding it correctly. (I know they are talking about websites, rather than scholarly articles, but bear with my metaphor.) Web crawlers such as Google, find websites to index based on how many times that site is linked with another site. So, the more a site is linked and clicked on, the more likely it will get indexed by a search engine, and the higher it will be on a result list. The article seems to be saying that it is sometimes the more important sites that get skipped, and un-indexed. That is an interesting thought. It makes you think, that perhaps Google is doing more harm to the internet than good.
Anyway, much like other readings we've done this semester, the Web Search Engine reading really shed light on how search engines actually work. We've all been talking about what is wrong with library searching, and how Google is able to do such a good job with searching and providing relevant results, but until this reading, we really haven't covered why Google is able to do such a good job, and fully realize the amount of work that goes into indexing websites. I can't say that I fully understand all that goes into making a search engine work, but this two part article made me realize that it really is a complex system.
The second article Current developments and future trends for the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting, went back to the earlier themes of the class: how the library can work together with computer scientists to create a better way of searching and indexing. The OAI community is trying to make things easier, but because of the way metadata works, is running into troubles. One of the biggest troubles is, again, the difficulty in creating a standard vocabulary for inputting that metadata. Another problem that they are facing is that the task is just too big for one group, a relatively scattered group at that. It seems like they want to be an almost "informal" group, but in doing so, they are really crushing their chance to even begin to make a dent in the problems they face.
The first thing I thought of while reading “The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value," was the idea that the more a journal article is cited, the more reputable it becomes. This article is almost saying the opposite, if I'm understanding it correctly. (I know they are talking about websites, rather than scholarly articles, but bear with my metaphor.) Web crawlers such as Google, find websites to index based on how many times that site is linked with another site. So, the more a site is linked and clicked on, the more likely it will get indexed by a search engine, and the higher it will be on a result list. The article seems to be saying that it is sometimes the more important sites that get skipped, and un-indexed. That is an interesting thought. It makes you think, that perhaps Google is doing more harm to the internet than good.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Muddiest point
As I said in an earlier post, I was worried about XML. I actually think the lectures and reading really helped to alleviate that fear! No muddy point after all!
Comments
http://marclis2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/readings_10.html?showComment=1289768668550#c6478091807552569764
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-10-reading-assignments.html?showComment=1289768907783#c4451493092676032128
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-10-reading-assignments.html?showComment=1289768907783#c4451493092676032128
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Readings
This week's readings were interesting, because they went against some of the stereotypical thoughts about librarians. They showed that librarians acknowledge the need for change, and that they were and are willing to adapt to the new online informational world.
The first two articles describe how librarians came to understand the future of online information. These were two really great articles about the history of libraries moving into the digital age. I had no idea that there was a great national push by librarians and computer scientists alike to move information into digital formats. I always assumed, that like many of the ideas and reforms that libraries come up with, they were just following the trends of the times, and working hard to keep up. The second article, "Dewey Meets Turing: Librarians, Computer Scientists, and the Digital Libraries Initiative" did have a really great quote though, about the conflicting nature of computer science people and librarians:
Some librarians had expected DLI money to flow into collection building. Instead, they perceive, computer
scientists have hijacked the money and created an environment whose connection to librarianship is unclear. Some felt that their fast moving computing enthusiast partners too thoughtlessly dismissed important functions, like collection development, as quaint.
The impatient among computer scientists in turn could not understand why librarians are so annoyingly deliberate about metadata, spending years arguing about structures that the computer scientists felt would be replaceable by just another clever search algorithm improvement. Most of all, some computer scientists couldn't understand why librarians couldn't be, well, normal computer scientists.
This quote shows why much work is still needed to be done before libraries and technology can truly live together peacefully. Librarians want money for collection development, computer scientists want librarians to understand the importance of digital collections.
The third article was promising in the sense that it was written for the Association of Research Libraries, and acknowledged the need for digitized information. The author stresses the need for both librarian and computer scientist input into library resources. The author also mentions that Universities as a whole must support these kinds of programs, otherwise they will be a waste of time, money, and information.
The first two articles describe how librarians came to understand the future of online information. These were two really great articles about the history of libraries moving into the digital age. I had no idea that there was a great national push by librarians and computer scientists alike to move information into digital formats. I always assumed, that like many of the ideas and reforms that libraries come up with, they were just following the trends of the times, and working hard to keep up. The second article, "Dewey Meets Turing: Librarians, Computer Scientists, and the Digital Libraries Initiative" did have a really great quote though, about the conflicting nature of computer science people and librarians:
Some librarians had expected DLI money to flow into collection building. Instead, they perceive, computer
scientists have hijacked the money and created an environment whose connection to librarianship is unclear. Some felt that their fast moving computing enthusiast partners too thoughtlessly dismissed important functions, like collection development, as quaint.
The impatient among computer scientists in turn could not understand why librarians are so annoyingly deliberate about metadata, spending years arguing about structures that the computer scientists felt would be replaceable by just another clever search algorithm improvement. Most of all, some computer scientists couldn't understand why librarians couldn't be, well, normal computer scientists.
This quote shows why much work is still needed to be done before libraries and technology can truly live together peacefully. Librarians want money for collection development, computer scientists want librarians to understand the importance of digital collections.
The third article was promising in the sense that it was written for the Association of Research Libraries, and acknowledged the need for digitized information. The author stresses the need for both librarian and computer scientist input into library resources. The author also mentions that Universities as a whole must support these kinds of programs, otherwise they will be a waste of time, money, and information.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Koha Assignment
My BookShelf
http://upitt01-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=99
Username: MARCROSS
List Name: Star Wars
http://upitt01-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=99
Username: MARCROSS
List Name: Star Wars
Readings
This will be another quick post, not because of the ease of understanding, but the opposite. For some reason, I can't seem to grasp what makes XML so great, and more importantly, easy. The articles mention that XML was created to make things easier, but I just don't see it. The third reading for this week, "Extending your Markup: a XML tutorial by Andre Bergholz" tried its best to explain XML, and it was probably the best written article I've read about XML, but it still seems like it adds steps to your work, rather than streamlining it. And, just as last weeks reading, the W3School's website was very informative, except this time I didn't really come away with more understanding.
I have a feeling that I'll have to watch next weeks lecture a few times to really get the hang of things....
I have a feeling that I'll have to watch next weeks lecture a few times to really get the hang of things....
Muddiest points
No muddy points this week. Will probably change next week with our discussion on XML. Not looking forward to that!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Comments
Comments from this week, maybe a bit late:
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-7-muddiest-points.html?showComment=1288548418904#c1670622886336089087
http://iandtupitt.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-notes-for-111.html?showComment=1288548668466#c2415067922999300795
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-7-muddiest-points.html?showComment=1288548418904#c1670622886336089087
http://iandtupitt.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-notes-for-111.html?showComment=1288548668466#c2415067922999300795
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Reading
As the first 2 readings covered basically the same ideas, this will be a short entry.
These were some of the most useful readings so far. Sadly, I know very little about HTML, and creating websites. The first two readings helped me a lot. I know HTML when I see it, and knew how to do the little things, like inserting links and images, but these were very informative. On top of being informative, they were very easy to read and understand. I liked that we could follow each lesson and try it ourselves.
The second reading was a bit more difficult to understand, mainly because I have no experience having to use CSS. The guide was very informative though, and will stay in my bookmarks so that I can go back to reference it in the future.
I'm trying not to use the tools in blogger to change font sizes, I'm trying to use my new HTML skills.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Readings
The howstuffworks.com reading was actually very interesting to me. A lot of us take for granted that the internet "just works." We often don't think about how or why it works. I've learned what all of the acronyms (HTTP, IP, DNS, URL, etc.) stood for long ago, but I've forgotten them as the years have gone by. As our last set of readings showed us, networks are everywhere now, and are completely simple to set up in one's own home. This reading reminded me what a network really was, and what it really takes to make it work.
The ILS reading was interesting for me, as a library employee. I've had experience working with a few of the ILSs that the article mentions, Sirsi Dynix and Millenium. Right now I work a lot with the Voyager ILS. The article is correct in that librarians often don't think about the ILS, because it is generally not viewed by the public. Most of the librarians in the library that I work for wouldn't even know how to use one, to be quite honest. They have, for the most part, very ugly GUIs and aren't very flexible. But, I do think that they do the job that are tasked to them. They make MARC records very easy to read, and make editing and adding/subtracting record easy as well. I don't know enough about the innovations in the ILS world to comment on that part, but I do understand the need because, as I said, they are very clunky and unintuitive.
The Brin and Page talk was very interesting to listen to. Probably the most interesting part to me though, was thinking about how much has changed in the last 6+ years that this was filmed. Google was a relative baby in the internet game at this point, but was already huge. I'd like to see an updated version of a talk with the two founders.
The ILS reading was interesting for me, as a library employee. I've had experience working with a few of the ILSs that the article mentions, Sirsi Dynix and Millenium. Right now I work a lot with the Voyager ILS. The article is correct in that librarians often don't think about the ILS, because it is generally not viewed by the public. Most of the librarians in the library that I work for wouldn't even know how to use one, to be quite honest. They have, for the most part, very ugly GUIs and aren't very flexible. But, I do think that they do the job that are tasked to them. They make MARC records very easy to read, and make editing and adding/subtracting record easy as well. I don't know enough about the innovations in the ILS world to comment on that part, but I do understand the need because, as I said, they are very clunky and unintuitive.
The Brin and Page talk was very interesting to listen to. Probably the most interesting part to me though, was thinking about how much has changed in the last 6+ years that this was filmed. Google was a relative baby in the internet game at this point, but was already huge. I'd like to see an updated version of a talk with the two founders.
Comments
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-7-readings.html?showComment=1287709547654#c4927098265106678477
http://elviaarroyo.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-7-internet-and-www-technologies.html?showComment=1287709791357#c1885491082640374191
http://elviaarroyo.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-7-internet-and-www-technologies.html?showComment=1287709791357#c1885491082640374191
Assignment 4
My CiteULike link:
http://www.citeulike.org/user/mer7/library
OE: Online Education
GS: Google Scholar
CUL: CiteULike
http://www.citeulike.org/user/mer7/library
OE: Online Education
GS: Google Scholar
CUL: CiteULike
Monday, October 11, 2010
Assignment 3
Jing Video:
http://www.screencast.com/users/mer7/folders/Jing/media/fca7c9dc-18ec-4177-b995-558ce32560b5
There is a little bit of audio, but too quiet and distorted to really understand. The idea that I was going for was to show the user how to access Pitt's online resources from a home computer. In order to do that, one has to first sign in through the sremote service. After that, you can access any of the databases. I chose Academic Search Premiere to show off. I also showed how you can limit your search results within Academic Search Premiere.
Screen Captures from Flikr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5072914189/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5072914259/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5072914299/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5073512350/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5072914403/
http://www.screencast.com/users/mer7/folders/Jing/media/fca7c9dc-18ec-4177-b995-558ce32560b5
There is a little bit of audio, but too quiet and distorted to really understand. The idea that I was going for was to show the user how to access Pitt's online resources from a home computer. In order to do that, one has to first sign in through the sremote service. After that, you can access any of the databases. I chose Academic Search Premiere to show off. I also showed how you can limit your search results within Academic Search Premiere.
Screen Captures from Flikr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5072914189/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5072914259/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5072914299/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5073512350/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/5072914403/
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
comments
http://pittlis2600.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-six-reading-notes.html?showComment=1286382788067#c296791945062445939
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-6-readings-computer-networks.html?showComment=1286382518750#c3241731895482378828
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-6-readings-computer-networks.html?showComment=1286382518750#c3241731895482378828
Readings
There really isn't much to write about for this week's reading assignment.
I became familiar with local area networks many years ago, for its great use in gaming. In high school, some of my friends and I had "LAN parties" almost every weekend. We would all get together and log in to the common network and played computer games. Nerdy, I know, but it introduced me to a lot of networking skills. I've since lost a lot of those skills because everything is so automated today. Just plug your ethernet cord into the cable modem, and you're good to go. I've helped some friends set up their wireless networks, but even these are super automated and simple now.
The various computer networks described in the second wikipedia article and the youtube video were very interesting. I didn't really know the history of networks and networking, so it was a good introduction to that. The "hardware components" section of the second wikipedia article was the most unfamiliar thing for me in this week's readings. I have heard of many of these things, but never really knew what each one did.
It is interesting to think about how far networking has come in just the last few years. It is now possible for a person to stream content from their computer to a TV that is equipped with internet access. I have my computer streaming music, movies, and pictures to my TV through my Playstation3. All of this can be done with a simple wireless router.
I became familiar with local area networks many years ago, for its great use in gaming. In high school, some of my friends and I had "LAN parties" almost every weekend. We would all get together and log in to the common network and played computer games. Nerdy, I know, but it introduced me to a lot of networking skills. I've since lost a lot of those skills because everything is so automated today. Just plug your ethernet cord into the cable modem, and you're good to go. I've helped some friends set up their wireless networks, but even these are super automated and simple now.
The various computer networks described in the second wikipedia article and the youtube video were very interesting. I didn't really know the history of networks and networking, so it was a good introduction to that. The "hardware components" section of the second wikipedia article was the most unfamiliar thing for me in this week's readings. I have heard of many of these things, but never really knew what each one did.
It is interesting to think about how far networking has come in just the last few years. It is now possible for a person to stream content from their computer to a TV that is equipped with internet access. I have my computer streaming music, movies, and pictures to my TV through my Playstation3. All of this can be done with a simple wireless router.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
comments
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-4-reading-notes.html?showComment=1285786901999#c8496775235201159024
http://kel2600.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-notes-september-28-2010.html?showComment=1285787267898#c7951621806788323927
http://kel2600.blogspot.com/2010/09/reading-notes-september-28-2010.html?showComment=1285787267898#c7951621806788323927
Readings
These readings seemed to follow a natural progression as well....
The wikipedia entry about databases was very interesting. I never really thought about the differences between databases, and what purpose they served. I always just thought about them in the "library" sense: a system used to store and search a large volume of information. While there are many uses for databases, some more complex than others, it seemed to me that the most important part of the database entry, as it concerns librarians and information seekers, is the indexing aspect of a database. The indexing section described in simple terms what it takes to make a working, fully search-able database that can be useful for libraries.
The second reading gave a really good history of metadata. Again, I always thought of metadata as only a "library" term. This article went into great detail about how metadata is used by many professions and how it can be helpful, or confusing because of how many people input their own metadata.
The Dublin Core article kind of tied the three together. As I talked about with indexing, it is important for all information to be easily searchable and accessible. Metadata is required to do this, but a big problem with metadata is the wide variety of terms that are used to make up metadata. Dublin Core seemingly solved this problem by creating a standard set of terms to be used when describing works on the web. Dublin Core is still not perfect, as it requires English to be the standard
The overarching theme of the readings this week seem to deal with how difficult it is to find information based on the way metadata is currently inputted into databases. Maybe Dublin Core can be the savior in this, but maybe something else needs to come along.
The wikipedia entry about databases was very interesting. I never really thought about the differences between databases, and what purpose they served. I always just thought about them in the "library" sense: a system used to store and search a large volume of information. While there are many uses for databases, some more complex than others, it seemed to me that the most important part of the database entry, as it concerns librarians and information seekers, is the indexing aspect of a database. The indexing section described in simple terms what it takes to make a working, fully search-able database that can be useful for libraries.
The second reading gave a really good history of metadata. Again, I always thought of metadata as only a "library" term. This article went into great detail about how metadata is used by many professions and how it can be helpful, or confusing because of how many people input their own metadata.
The Dublin Core article kind of tied the three together. As I talked about with indexing, it is important for all information to be easily searchable and accessible. Metadata is required to do this, but a big problem with metadata is the wide variety of terms that are used to make up metadata. Dublin Core seemingly solved this problem by creating a standard set of terms to be used when describing works on the web. Dublin Core is still not perfect, as it requires English to be the standard
The overarching theme of the readings this week seem to deal with how difficult it is to find information based on the way metadata is currently inputted into databases. Maybe Dublin Core can be the savior in this, but maybe something else needs to come along.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Assignment 2, Flickr
Here's my photostream from Flickr. I took these pictures last weekend, during the Penguin's first day of training camp.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40907783@N03/
Muddy points
No real muddy points from the last lecture. I became pretty knowledgeable about a lot of these things the last few months. My computer crashed in August and I had to figure out how to fix/install things on my own as it was out of warranty. I guess that was something good that came from a horrible experience!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
my comments
http://tabialibrarian.blogspot.com/2010/09/muddiest-point-9202010.html?showComment=1285180347418#c5827101076663367420
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-4-readings-corrected.html?showComment=1285181223695#c787048034759650238
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-4-readings-corrected.html?showComment=1285181223695#c787048034759650238
Unit 4 Reading
I'll have to admit that a lot of the readings about digital compression had me confused and totally lost. The Wikipedia entry was easy to follow, but the http://dvd-hq.info/data_compression_1.php article was very difficult to follow.
I'm no audiophile, so I never really paid attention to descriptions of music on file sharing sites, (you know, when I'm just browsing file sharing sites, not actively participating in them), so I never really had any idea what lossless audio meant. I'll have to find a track that is listed as "lossless" and compare it to an .mp3 to see if I can notice any difference.
The article that Ed Galloway wrote is very interesting because it combine a few of the things that we have been talking about so far this semester. Digitizing the images themselves is difficult because of the money and time involved, but beyond that, it is hard to categorize a digital collection. He mentions that it was difficult starting the project because there were so many hands in on it. It seems as though different people may have wanted the collection for different reasons, so they had to adhere to the Dublin Core standardization of inputting metadata. This is yet another aspect of digitization that need to be sorted: as items become more accessible, what do they mean to different people?
I'm no audiophile, so I never really paid attention to descriptions of music on file sharing sites, (you know, when I'm just browsing file sharing sites, not actively participating in them), so I never really had any idea what lossless audio meant. I'll have to find a track that is listed as "lossless" and compare it to an .mp3 to see if I can notice any difference.
The article that Ed Galloway wrote is very interesting because it combine a few of the things that we have been talking about so far this semester. Digitizing the images themselves is difficult because of the money and time involved, but beyond that, it is hard to categorize a digital collection. He mentions that it was difficult starting the project because there were so many hands in on it. It seems as though different people may have wanted the collection for different reasons, so they had to adhere to the Dublin Core standardization of inputting metadata. This is yet another aspect of digitization that need to be sorted: as items become more accessible, what do they mean to different people?
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Comments
http://jrm170.blogspot.com/2010/09/920-reading-notes.html?showComment=1284666314046#c2523158196230719769
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-3-reading-notes-software.html?showComment=1284668127329#c5342705687627710512
http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-3-reading-notes-software.html?showComment=1284668127329#c5342705687627710512
Week 3 Reading notes
This weeks notes were more technical in nature. Although I have a bit of experience with all three of the operating systems that we read about, I had never really read about the differences of each. It is interesting to note how each operating system works, not just on a technical level, but on a social level as well.
I have to agree with the Linux manual that it is the least user friendly in its command line form. I've installed a few different versions of Linux (Fedora and Ubuntu). These are a lot more friendly in terms of GUI, they are actually a lot like Windows.
Because I like to tinker with my gadgets, I think that Linux is more suited for my needs. The Linux manual points out that a 'con' facing an open source platform is that there is little in the way of technical support. To me, this is actually one of the biggest 'pros' for Linux. I love that there is such a huge community of users out there that are willing to help one another any time there is a problem. For the other operating systems like Windows or OSX, while it is possible to find help online, it is expected that you call some type of corporate helpline to sort you out. While they may be able to fix your problem quickly, for some people, it is better that they actually learn the steps to a solution themselves so that they can go back and fix it again if something breaks again.
I have to agree with the Linux manual that it is the least user friendly in its command line form. I've installed a few different versions of Linux (Fedora and Ubuntu). These are a lot more friendly in terms of GUI, they are actually a lot like Windows.
Because I like to tinker with my gadgets, I think that Linux is more suited for my needs. The Linux manual points out that a 'con' facing an open source platform is that there is little in the way of technical support. To me, this is actually one of the biggest 'pros' for Linux. I love that there is such a huge community of users out there that are willing to help one another any time there is a problem. For the other operating systems like Windows or OSX, while it is possible to find help online, it is expected that you call some type of corporate helpline to sort you out. While they may be able to fix your problem quickly, for some people, it is better that they actually learn the steps to a solution themselves so that they can go back and fix it again if something breaks again.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Second Week's Reading
The reading for the second week focused on the history of computing and what components are involved in computers.
Probably the most that I took away from the readings were just how quickly things move forward, and how accurate Moore was in this prediciton. How could anyone have guessed over fifty years ago that I would be able to carry a 1Ghz processor around in my pocket (in the form of my android phone). Moore knew what the future of computing was huge, but it is crazy to look back on it to see that he was correct.
The other big point that I took away, and one that is important to our discussion of digitizaiton, is that because of Moore's Law and its accuracy, obsolescence is a huge problem. A file type, or a drive that is capable of accessing that file today, might not work a few years down the road. If this continues throughout the digital age (and we have no reason to believe it isn't going to) then all of the digitization efforts might be for naught.
Probably the most that I took away from the readings were just how quickly things move forward, and how accurate Moore was in this prediciton. How could anyone have guessed over fifty years ago that I would be able to carry a 1Ghz processor around in my pocket (in the form of my android phone). Moore knew what the future of computing was huge, but it is crazy to look back on it to see that he was correct.
The other big point that I took away, and one that is important to our discussion of digitizaiton, is that because of Moore's Law and its accuracy, obsolescence is a huge problem. A file type, or a drive that is capable of accessing that file today, might not work a few years down the road. If this continues throughout the digital age (and we have no reason to believe it isn't going to) then all of the digitization efforts might be for naught.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
First Readings
The three required reading for the first week follow a natural progression. The first article "OCLC report: Information Format Trends: Content, Not Containers" details the changing format of information. In the past, students and other information seekers went directly for scholarly journals and books. This changed over time as students moved away from physical media and into a digital world. The change in information delivery has seen its most drastic change over the last few years however, and it is no longer important for many students that their information come from a journal or book. Now it is acceptable for people to get their information from social media, be they blogs or wikis or one of many other forms. The "containers" of information is not the most important aspect of research. It is the idea that the information is current and easily accessible that most. This seems to be very true to most students I deal with day to day. I spend a fair amount of time at Pitt's reference desk, and students seem to be surprised that their are sources of information out there other than wikipedia or the huffingtonpost. For better or worse, this seems to be the way many students get their information.
The following article, “Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture”details what this change in information distribution means for students and instructors. Because information is found in new places, students must be made to be aware of this. Information literacy may be one of the most important areas of study and instruction as time passes. Computer skills are almost a requirement for everyday life so libraries and other institutions must be prepared to help train this new generation of scholars. This is one of the most important issues, to me at least. The age of digitization was supposed to bring information access to everyone. But what of the people that don't have the internet, or even computers? The library system must be willing to train and give guidence to these people. The blind or otherwise physically handicapped issue is very large as well.
The third article, "Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still" describes the culmination of the previous stories. Lied Library not only understood the changing views of research, they embraced it. Computer terminals were added, laptops are being loaned out, and students have access to the wireless network. All of these things are necessary in the new world of information seeking. There are also many more ways for information to be accessed. The library joined a number of consortia to make sure various types of information would be quickly and readily accessible, even if it is not on site locally. It is great that this library was able to adapt and embrace the new roles that libraries need to have. But I worry that many libraries wouldn't be able to afford all of the things that Lied Library did in its upgrade. This is a big concern in the new digital world: that updating and upgrading may be cost prohibitive.
The following article, “Information Literacy and Information Technology Literacy: New Components in the Curriculum for a Digital Culture”details what this change in information distribution means for students and instructors. Because information is found in new places, students must be made to be aware of this. Information literacy may be one of the most important areas of study and instruction as time passes. Computer skills are almost a requirement for everyday life so libraries and other institutions must be prepared to help train this new generation of scholars. This is one of the most important issues, to me at least. The age of digitization was supposed to bring information access to everyone. But what of the people that don't have the internet, or even computers? The library system must be willing to train and give guidence to these people. The blind or otherwise physically handicapped issue is very large as well.
The third article, "Lied Library @ four years: technology never stands still" describes the culmination of the previous stories. Lied Library not only understood the changing views of research, they embraced it. Computer terminals were added, laptops are being loaned out, and students have access to the wireless network. All of these things are necessary in the new world of information seeking. There are also many more ways for information to be accessed. The library joined a number of consortia to make sure various types of information would be quickly and readily accessible, even if it is not on site locally. It is great that this library was able to adapt and embrace the new roles that libraries need to have. But I worry that many libraries wouldn't be able to afford all of the things that Lied Library did in its upgrade. This is a big concern in the new digital world: that updating and upgrading may be cost prohibitive.
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