Week 13 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.

Week 12 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.

Week 11 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.

Week 10 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.

Week 9 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point.

Week 9 Readings

All of the assigned articles dealt with the archival side of digital libraries.  "The Open Archive Information System Reference Model" went into great detail about how an OAIS-compliant system should be set up and function.  I personally appreciated not just the easy to follow explanations, but also the real world examples given in each section.

"Actualized Preservation Threats" and "Research Challenges in Digital Archives" delve into another side of this issue.  As implied by their titles, digital libraries and archives have some kinks that need to be managed and worked out.  "Research Challenges" covers the broad overview of problems including how digital collections are large and full of a variety of items, making preservation and organization difficult.  "Actualized Preservation" is more of a case study, following a particular digital library and the problems its staff encountered.  These, by the very nature of the article, tend to be narrower in scope than "Research Challenges."  Threats cited in this article included media, hardware, and software failures along with human errors.

"Preservation Management of Digital Materials" is an extensive handbook that seems to include all of the concepts and issues presented in the other readings.

Week 8 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.

However, I am curious to know how the Hurricane/Frankenstorm Sandy might affect the FastTrack weekend.  I'm flying in from Virginia and I keep hearing that major prolonged power outages are expected for even Pittsburgh.

Week 8 Readings

Taking these readings as a unit, the Lynch article on the history and background of Z39.50 would be helpful to read first as the concept is referenced in several of the other readings.  The language of this article is fairly simple and easy to follow, however, there are several points where the author interjects his opinion rather harshly.  This startles the reader out of their rhythm and, for a beginner especially, it is hard to figure out how in proportion these opinions are to the related community.

As for the other readings, "The Truth About Federated Searching" was particularly interesting in that I still hear some of these myths nine years after this article was published.  "OAI for Beginners" is a great resource actually written with beginners in mind - except for a few technical sections here and there, I had no trouble understanding it.  Even then, I reread those sections just to be sure I had a firm understanding before proceeding.  "Search Engine Technology" feels like a call to action in many ways.  Lossau brings up a point that is still a concern in library communities: Will commercial endeavors like Google wipe out library-created search systems?  He doesn't seem to think that will be so, but libraries must adjust, presumably in the ways he extensively detailed.

Week 7 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.

Week 6 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point for this week.  On a technical note, I did notice an issue with the recording where the slides didn't display very well during the presentation.  I downloaded the slides and followed on my own without too much trouble.  I'm not sure if I'm the only one having this issue, but I thought I'd post it just in case.

Week 6 Readings

This week's readings were all about XML and how to create valid XML documents.  As I've stated in previous posts, I completed the metadata class last semester.  So, this week's topic is another review for me.  I love the w3schools site and find its tutorials on nearly any topic very helpful.

The IBM site was new to me and I found it a nice addition to my resource collection.  I like how the explanations are both complete but not overwhelmed with jargon.  Students new to the topic will really appreciate those aspects.

Muddiest Point Week 5

I have no muddiest point this week.

Week 5 Readings

Having taken the metadata class offered by the University of Pittsburgh last semester, this week's readings served as a welcome review.  Gartner's article covered not only the history of metadata, but the general subcategories and possible future developments in the field.  Gilliland provided another brief introduction to the topic.  I read the entire work and not just the assigned sections and, therefore, reviewed crosswalks and harvesting as well.  Weibel's article presented a bit of history on the creation of Dublin Core and well as comparing what they believed would be its use and purpose versus what actually happened as the web matured.  Weibel also receives some bonus points from me for referencing Star Trek's "Prime Directive" in a scholarly article.

Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point for this week.

Week 3 Muddiest Point

I think I have a mild advantage thus far since I have already taken the metadata course.  We used Greenstone in that class and I have used Omeka in another.  D Space is new to me, but these systems seem to have some patterns in their designs.  Therefore, I still don't have a muddiest point as of yet.

Week 4 Readings

The Arms and Lesk readings focus on mark-up languages, character coding sets (ASCII and Unicode), and text conversion.  Even though the chapters were written several years apart from each other, there were still some agreements between the two.  Both talked about the disadvantages of OCR systems.  While the technology has developed enough that the cost Arms discussed has dropped, Lesk still holds that the error-finding, especially on old and worn items, can be quite time consuming.

Lesk also dove into more modern digital library issues, like the simple fact that some people just don't want to read on a computer screen.  Since this piece is about 8 years old, it doesn't cover the newer developments in e-reading technology including e-ink.  E-ink appears like ink on a page and is much less strenuous on the eyes than a backlit screen.  Still, the patron has to either own the device or borrow one from the library, both of which can cause problems not found with traditionally printed materials.

The other two readings by Lynch and Peskin cover digital identifiers in detail.  Lynch wrote about systems as whole while Peskin zoomed in on the DOI system.  I hadn't actually read anything on DOI in detail up until this point and I enjoyed the opportunity to learn about its history and development.  It seemed as though those creating the DOI system had read Lynch's article in a way.  They made sure to cover many of the concerns that Lynch raises about new identifier systems.

Week 2 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.

Unit 3 Readings

The assigned readings this week focus on open-source software designed for digital libraries.  Specifically, the articles focus on Greenstone and DSpace listing their features, history, advantages, and general usage information.  Both packages seem like great options for libraries and other organizations to investigate when in the planning stage of creating a digital library.

In one of my other classes, I have had the opportunity to use and build a small collection in Greenstone.  The Witten, Bainbridge and Boddie article presented the browser interface for both the public user and the administrator of the collection.  Having only used the desktop application interface, it was interesting to see the other side in more detail.  My class project was centered around the cataloging aspect of a digital collection, so it was unnecessary for us to explore to far past that functionality.

I have heard of DSpace, but have never used it.  In some ways, it seems similar to Omeka.  At least, it stood out to me that both have user submission features included.  I think I will explore more in this topic to see how much they actually compare.

Unit 2 Readings

In a general note, I think it would have been easier to have read the second chapter of Digital Libraries by Arms first, followed by "Interoperability for Digital Objects and Repositories."  "A Framework for Building Open Digital Libraries"could have been next, leaving "An Architecture for Information in Digital Libraries" for last.  This is because the writing styles and terminology of the readings as listed in Blackboard begins very technically and finishes more simply.  It was a bit disheartening to be thrown into the more complex articles first.

I sensed a bit of a theme among this week's readings.  While the Arms chapter focused on the basics of the Internet and its use for digital libraries, the other articles heavily discussed interoperability and extensibility.  With all of them being over tens years old, I have to wonder how much the arguments and experiments recounted actually impacted the modern reality.  I could piece together a few examples from my experiences, but certainly not enough to truly make a judgement.

One theory that stood out to me was, in the Suleman and Fox article, the assertion that components were the future of digital libraries.  I think one could confirm that this idea has not only shown up in modern digital libraries, but in all sorts of web applications.  From the library standpoint, Omeka is a platform that I am somewhat familiar with and it is made up of a basic package and many optional component pieces.  Selections include component pieces for patron submissions of material, various metadata standards, and PDF searchability.

Other websites and software packages, especially those classified as social media, allow users to attach add-ons to their personal accounts in order to customize their experience.  Tumblr, Twitter, and several web browsers permit this.  Therefore, Suleman and Fox's prediction has, in fact, become reality.  I would be very interested to see what other statements had been proven or disproven from these readings.

Week 1 Muddiest Point

I didn't have a muddiest point this week.