Assignment 5: Collection Building in Koha

Here is the URL for my list in Koha. It is called "Redwall Books" as I searched for books in the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. URL: http://upitt04-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=33

Unit 9: Muddiest Points

I had no muddiest points for this week.

Unit 9: Reading Notes

Introduction to the Extensible Markup Language (XML)

While reading this article it finally sank in that languages such as HTML and XML truly are just like other languages. These particular ones take words, grammar, and symbols from the English language and create a language to bridge the gap between human and machine. I'm not sure why this revelation took me so long, but it helps me study and absorb the languages now that I'm thinking of them as though I'm learning a foreign language very similar to English. That being said, I can't imagine having a language other than English as my native language, and needing to become semi-fluent in English in order to write HTML or XML. so far XML seems more complicated and/or confusing than HTML. I'm hoping the tutorials will shed some light as it sounds like knowing XML will be necessary for building digital databases.

A survey of XML standards: Part 1

This article honestly just confused me and made me nervous. It talked about the different languages that are called XML. Basically it seems as though there is a specific format for every specific need that could arise. The confusion and nervousness came from the multitude and complexity of XML. It would take a lot of time to understand and utilize it fully.

Extending Your Markup: An XML Tutorial

Yay! This article began by reassuring me that thinking XML is simple then discovering it's really not is typical and okay. The reassurance made me want to read the article. Things are still a bit hazy, but I'm starting to get a better grasp of how XML works just by understanding its syntax a little better.

XML Schema Tutorial (W3 Schools)

This tutorial was not as useful as the HTML one last week. I kept expecting them to let me try XML myself, but this interactive feature was missing to my dismay. I am beginning to see better how XML can help define relationships within a database. I hope our lecture makes things a little more clear though.

Unit 8: Comments

I posted comments on: Jon Webser's blog at: http://jonwebsterslis2600blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-8-readings.html#comments and on Suzy Deucher's blog at: http://suzydeucher2600.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-8-readings.html#comments

Week 8 Muddiest Points

I had no muddiest points for this week.

Unit 8: Reading Notes

W3schools HTML Tutorial

This tutorial was very interesting, but also a tad overwhelming. There is just so much to remember, and I could easily see spending a few semesters just learning and memorizing how to use html. The interactive "try it yourself" sections were the most useful parts of the tutorial, as I got to experiment, and see what worked and what didn't. My favorite one was changing the colors of text and backgrounds. I kept guessing which colors it would recognize and was pleasantly surprised that turquoise was on the list, and also that I could spell it correctly. As you may notice, I played around a bit with what I learned in my blog.

HTML Cheatsheet

This was very nice to see after going through the html tutorial. Now I know I don't have to memorize all the codes, I can just look at this page or search for another list to job my memory.

W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial

The take-home-message from this one seems to be that CSS can save you time as long as you don't mess up anything small. I found it interesting that different web browsers have different issues reading mistakes. This never occurred to me before reading through this tutorial. Again I liked the "try it yourself" parts, though in this tutorial they were a bit longer and more complex than in the html tutorial. I found this one more overwhelming in fact.

Beyond HTML

This was a very long article to take in at once, but it also brought up some important points about librarians collaborating in building web sites. Standardization of formats is key, as is pre-planning the scope and layout. I don't think that any one program for helping librarians with CMS stood out. It probably depends on what kind of library you are running as well as how much money you have to spend, what part of the world you live in, and what your patrons want. I would like to play around with FrontPage. It's been so long since I've used Dreamweaver that I should probably have a refresher course in that as well.

Assignment 4: Jing

Here is the link for my video: http://screencast.com/t/59sZjZ0nn I call it Microsoft OneNote for Students. I absolutely love OneNote, and can't believe more students aren't using it. If you want to give it a shot this just shows how to make a notebook for one semester. Hopefully it is useful to someone out there. Here are my links to my screen captures: http://screencast.com/t/MEfYjg8wZ http://screencast.com/t/4diEvLHxAGb http://screencast.com/t/pT9iWW3O http://screencast.com/t/RKejzt2t http://screencast.com/t/yAvBfy2bDbq

Week 7 Comments

I posted comments on Jenn Chaney's blog at: http://jennchaney.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-7-reading-notes.html#comments and also at Sarah's at: http://2600infototechnology.blogspot.com/2009/10/6th-readings_09.html#comments

Week 7 Muddiest Points

Two unrelated questions: 1. Are fiber optic cables more or less easy to repair than other types of cables? 2. Is an intranet still called an intranet if people can access it remotely? Basically I'm wondering whether this categorization has to do with location or just the ability to access materials.

Week 7 Reading Notes

How Internet Infrastructure Works This was a very nice summary of what the internet is and how it works. It makes it all seem so simple, yet it really is complex. It's pretty amazing that we can get so many people and companies with different interests to compromise and work together to build the internet. Wow! The moving illustrations on this site were nice too. Dismantling Integrated Library Systems What a chore it must be to try to coordinate multiple programs from many sources! This article made it sound as though past librarians were duped by vendors into buying programs too quickly without considering how specific pieces would fit together. Then there's the question of how much to build yourself and how much to buy? I'm not even sure how to answer that myself. I agree with this article's point, but it doesn't seem to offer much in the way of a step by step evaluation/integration process. That would be more helpful I think. Inside the Google Machine This was fun to watch. It makes me want to work for Google though. I wonder if they need any help with their book project? Some highlights: the world spinning around with all those lights shooting up. It was very pretty and also shows how much people all over the world really do have in common. Also I liked the concept of having 20% of your work time to do things you think are important. Even if you had a mind numbing job you'd still get to feel like you were making a difference in your own personal way.

Assignment 3: Personal Bibliographic Management Systems

Here is the URL for my CityULike library: http://www.citeulike.org/user/Rachelius The three topics I found articles for were: Sylvia Plath, Digital Copyright, and Children's Libraries. Another useful assignment. I think I might like Zotero more than RefWorks as it's free and much easier to use off campus. Plus it's easier to use in my opinion.

Week 6 Comments

I commented on Rachel Cannon's blog at http://knivesnmatches.blogspot.com/2009/10/readings-for-oct.html#comments and on Christie Graci's at https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4008293954130468690&postID=3639486811724805746

Week 6 Muddiest Points

I know you can rasterize vector images, but is there any technology that can convert raster graphics into the mathematical formulas of vector images? Has anyone experimented with this? It seems as though this could be a really useful tool, even if it would be expensive to design.

Week 6 Reading Notes

Week 6 Reading Notes Local Area Network Wikipedia Article I found it funny that people kept predicting the year of the LAN. It's odd that it got a name and an acronym before it was even officially invented/perfected. I didn't realize how much work went into its creation, I always kind of assumed local area networks arose spontaneously when more computers were used. Computer Network Wikipedia Article This article was very useful. I liked the fact that it defined many terms succinctly. It will be a good resource to go back to in order to brush up on my terminology and understanding. One thing I learned was the term internetwork. I never realized the internet is just one form of internetwork. I've always just thought of it as THE INTERNET, something that just exists. It's interesting to look more in depth at it, and to actually realize that people created it, it's not really a "living" entity. It's a relief to hear that the terminology for the hardware components of networks as they make logical sense. A bridge bridges gaps, a repeater repeats a signal, and a router routs information. I wish other sciences could use common English words instead of making up new terms for everything. For example, why can't biologists just call mitochondria "Producers" to signify that they produce ATP? You Tube: Common Types of Computer Networks Just another review of Computer Networks. It was comforting to hear that I'm not the only one who has trouble remembering/translating acronyms. Management of RFID in libraries What a great informative and interesting article. A few points though, I've tried the RFID's in credit/debit cards and so far they don't seem to work very well. This will need to be remedied. I also disagree that checking books out is mindnumbingly dull work. That was alwasy one of my favorite jobs since I got to be in direct contact with patrons. Therefore I agree with those who worry about getting rid of the human interaction with patrons. Still, I suppose if you provided the option of desk vs self checkout many people would still prefer the human contact just like at grocery stores with self-checkout options. I don't quite understand why privacy would be more of an issue than with bar code checkout. In all actuality it might encourage shy library users if they don't have to show anyone what they are checking out. Sometimes you just don't want to be questioned or explain your reading taste, you just want to run in and run back out to your busy life.