Unit 12

Weblogs: their use and application in science and technology libraries
I agree that the blog is a feasible alternative to listservs and email chains (because it can archive discussions), but I don't think it works as a project management tool. That use would best be served by a wiki so that every participant has equal access to contribute in an organized layout.

Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program

As an intern with StoryCorps, I was able to utilize their wiki to learn about each department's responsibilities. They need a centralized space because the staff is spread out across the country; anyone is able to download forms and manuals directly from the wiki. The article points out the main advantage of wikis when it advises to "use everyone's specific experiences and valuable individual expertise."

Creating the academic library folksonomy

I wonder how much of a problem "spagging" is on library websites. Having subject specialists start the process is a good way to set a professional environment.

Jimmy Wales: “How a ragtag band created Wikipedia”

I'm surprised there was only one software developer maintaining Wikipedia in 2005. Have they added any more paid employees?

Unit 11 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.

Unit 11 Comments

http://elviaarroyo.blogspot.com/2010/11/muddiest-point-week-11.html?showComment=1290283782601#c1003666309790071141

http://megrentschler.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-11-reading-notes-112210.html?showComment=1290285267571#c4657033645216888267

Unit 11

Web Search Engines: Part 1 and Part 2
These short articles covered a lot of search engines' facets from how they find websites to how the websites are ranked. I know someone who gets paid $12 an hour to make webpages appear higher in the results list. I'm not sure how she does it, but it's an actual job.


Current developments and future trends for the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting
Since this was written five years ago, I am wondering how protocols have progressed. I looked at the website for OLAC and was impressed by the ease of the interface. Fifteen more data providers have joined the community since 2005, for a total of 42. This is a great resource, however, how are users supposed to find these websites? I don't know if I would have stumbled across this had it not been assigned for our reading.


The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value
There were too many disclaimers in this reading such as "little confidence in these results" to make me trust the statistics. I'm sure the general principles discussed (the deep web is larger than we imagine and relevant information is not being accessed) are true, but the accuracy of the data does not seem reliable.

Unit 10 Muddiest Point

Does the average system manager have a computer science or library science background? Is there a trend toward either program?

Unit 10 Comments

http://mszewczak.blogspot.com/2010/11/reading-notes-week-10.html?showComment=1289703072856#c7025772975363151728

http://pratt2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/1115-reading-notes.html?showComment=1289703406603#c4990682829750681465

Unit 10

Digital Libraries

I wonder why the Library of Congress was not involved in the first Digital Libraries Initiative. Were/are librarians overlooked when it comes to information technology?

Dewey meets Turing

This article answers my previous question about librarians’ role in the development of information technology. It paints a static picture of the profession slow to adapt to new developments.

Institutional Repositories
The author raises good points on digital repositories about how they should be managed and what their impact can be on scholarship. I will be interested to see what kind of partnerships are formed between universities and other institutions to document the community they share. The one topic I wish he could have explained more was how access to online archives collections would be administered.

Unit 9 Muddiest Point

Can you tell just by looking at a web site whether the underlying tags are HTML or XML?

Unit 9 Comments

http://edenorelove.blogspot.com/2010/11/reading-responses-unit-9.html?showComment=1289087281448#c7286523145811418880

http://feliciaboretzkylis2600.blogspot.com/2010/11/week-9-notes.html?showComment=1289087590234#c3599306465337261468

Unit 9

Introducing the Extensible Markup Language (XML)

The article was written simply, but I still didn't understand what XML was after reading it.

A survey of XML standards: Part 1

Covers XML namespace, base, inclusions, information set, canonical form, path language, pointer framework, and different languages. These mini introductions were not enough to help me understand what they are, though I admit I didn't bother clicking on the suggested resources.

Extending your Markup: a XML tutorial

Better explanation than the first two readings. Compares and contrasts XML with HTML.

XML Schema Tutorial

While going through the above readings, I kept thinking everything will make sense once I get to the W3 School tutorial--I was wrong. It teaches you how to write specific elements but does not show what the result looks like. I wish they would've added a similar editor feature like the one in the HTML and CSS tutorials to let us experiment with XML.

Unit 8 Muddiest Point

I have no muddiest point this week.