Assignment #6: WebSite

I am not completely finished my site at the time of this posting, but it is to make sure the url will be available for grading on December 1 (my birthday!)

Allyson's 2600 Website!

Muddiest Point #10- Last One!

This muddiest point is less about the class today, which I think I understood well, but for the Assignment 6. I'm using Kompozer to design my webpage, but I can't figure out how you make the CSS an external style sheet. Right now the style is found in line when you use Kompozer....

Assignment #5: Koha

I hope this link works. It should be a public "virtual bookshelf" of my list of books related to Henry Clay Frick.


Virtual Koha Bookshelf
My username is AKG35, my list is called AKG35-Frick.

Muddiest Point #9

I don't have a muddiest point for this week.

Jiepu Got Married!

Jiepu, such beautiful wedding pictures! Congratulations!!!  Jiepu's Wedding!

Muddiest Point #8

I don't think I have a muddiest point this week. All of the different CSS style tags and formats we went through were hard to understand, but I think the hands-on assignment for creating our own webpages will help me understand this concept better and how to use it.

Muddiest Point #7

I understand that the web browser displays the notepad file we saw in class....but when we make a personal website, do we save those files to the Pitt server? How do we do that?'

Also, reminder to Jiepu-- our posts are worth two points, not just one, same as muddiest points (1.5 points)...also... Congratulations on your marriage!

Muddiest Point #6

We talked about URLs and how part of it includes the www for world wide web, but sometimes you can type in an address without it and it still goes to the site. Does the browser automatically add that in when you forget, or are some sites without the www prefix?

Reading Notes #10- Last One!

Digital Libraries
This article discusses digital libraries and a survey of the work done in this area. It appears that funded projects first began around 1993/1994 by the National Science Foundation  and the Digital Libraries Initiative which funded 6 universities for research, including CMU. There have also been other non-governmentally funded projects, including publishers, LoC, NISO, W3C, ISO, Google Scholar, and the open source community that have contributed to digital libraries. In the 21st century, we have many different organizations and people working to contribute to resource access through the internet/web in ways that I do not think could have been anticipated in 1993.


Dewey Meets Turing
This article discusses the Digital Library Initiative (DLI), which began in 1994 by the NSF, but it involved publishers, librarians, and computer scientists, people who I am sure that previously considered themselves in the same field. This project gave computer scientists a way to use computers to enhance library systems and research. It gave librarians (finally!) some funding, but it also gave them more efficient ways of searching and managing large collections. What this article calls the "cuckoo's egg surprise" is the introduction of the WWW and how this affected digital libraries. I thought this line summed up the issue well: "The Web not only blurred the distinction between consumers and producers of information, but it dispersed most items that in the aggregate should have been collections across the world and under diverse ownership. This change undermined the common ground that had brought the two disciplines together." While computer scientists did not feel shaken, those in the library field, used to their systems already in use, were faced with learning such a new technology and somehow integrate into those existing systems. Plus, with publishers starting to charge extra for digital availability of content, small budgets have forced libraries to cancel them. In the end, however, the author asserts that the DLI only helped to create new opportunities for librarians and library models.


Institutional Repositories
This article begins in 2002, when institutional repositories began to be used for scholarly communication, and standards were set for metadata and other aspects of digital information. The DSpace institutional repository was ed by MIT, and in 2003 it was duplicated for many other universities, and now can be found in open source form.  According to the author, a "university-based institutional repository is a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members" (2). It not only makes information available, but preserves it in digital form. However, it is noted that there are questions regarding how an institutional repository fits in with other organizations that do similar things. Another thing that is questioned is the legitimacy of digital publication, especially of something that never existed in print form. Many university faculty members do not have the time or energy to defend this choice, but by not publishing digitally, they cannot insure that their work will be available as formats and technologies change. An institutional means of managing all this information could make it easier to keep such publications current and available.
MIT also makes information available through OpenCourseWare, a free application that allows anyone anywhere with an internet connection to watch MIT courses. These were very helpful for my boyfriend, who was taking Quantum Mechanics in Italian at the Università di Bologna and needed a little extra, especially English, instruction. However, the author notes that this software could also be used to share and save campus events, and other extra curricular activities.
The author also gives some caution and states some concerns about the future of DL. One is that institutions should not be trying to control faculty/student work, merely accepting responsibility for it. Another is that there may be a tension between these repositories and other means of scholarly publication. A third is that institutions may try to create a repository, but lacking resources, does so out of pressure and does not do it justice. It needs to be a serious commitment to accept such responsibility. The message seems to be that digital institutional repositories may help many aspects of scholarly communication, but it may not (and maybe should not) be the answer across all disciplines.

Reading Notes #9

Introducing XML
This article breaks down the importance of XML (which upon reading this article LAST since the link wasn't working, a lot of my following questions are probably answered, so please disregard them):


XML allows users to:

• bring multiple files together to form compound documents
• identify where illustrations are to be incorporated into text files, and the format used to encode each illustration
• provide processing control information to supporting programs, such as document validators and browsers
• add editorial comments to a file.

It is important to note, however, that XML is not:

• a predefined set of tags, of the type defined for HTML, that can be used to markup documents
• a standardized template for producing particular types of documents.

It allows users to make a variety of different types of documents, not just one, making it really flexible. 



Survey of XML Standards
Written by IBM, this website gives an overview of XML standards. The author provides links to other websites that explain aspects of XML (extended markup language). It also mentions XML namespaces, catalogs, base, inclusions, and something called canonical XML,  XPath, XLink, and XPointer. Although the website is considered for introductory audiences, I really know little about XML and how it is used. The link to the Tidwell tutorial was the most helpful, which broke XML down to make it understandable, but the survey only contained helpful links. Tidwell explains that XML helps you make your own tags and was created as an improvement to traditional html.


XML Tutorial
Bergholz is right... I am doubting the simplicity of XML. There are so many components that I don't understand. The syntax, the structure... it's like learning a foreign language when I have no computer science background. Style, schema?


XML Schema Tutorial
This tutorial explains the XML schema, which defines the elements of XML. It explains that XML schemas are better than DTD (not sure what that is exactly) because it can support data types, use xml syntax, secure data communication, and are extensible. To be completely honest, looking at all the code/rules for the dtd versus xml, some of the xml looks familiar, but otherwise it looks foreign to me, and I can't say I understand it. Simple elements are only text, but more complex elements have attributes and restrictions. I understand what each of these types signify, but when it comes to all of the code written out, I'm clueless!

Reading Notes #8

Cascading Style Sheet
CSS, with this helpful webpage, can help you manage the style and layout of many different web pages all at the same time. You can change the code already written to create a webpage the way you want it to appear. However, I am confused how this tutorial allows you to edit multiple web pages at once. How does this simplify the process or save time?


CSS Tutorial
This tutorial explains a lot more how to make an html file, a css file, and how to use both of them. Plus, it has all the code (I'm assuming that's what you call all the tags and everything all together) already written out so that you can copy and paste it. This tutorial shows you how to change fonts and colors, and even a navigation bar, adding lines, and other stylistic aspects. It tells you to save two files, one html and one css, and to load them to your website, but I still don't see how they work together. Maybe when we start on Assignment 6 this will become clear.  It says that the style comes from one file, while the information is in the html file, but why is having two files instead of one really make it simpler?


Style Sheet for the Web
Ah ha! Maybe this chapter will put all the pieces together for me. Maybe the "code" was talking about were a series of "rules" which contain a selector and a declaration, which has a property and value. These determine what the information (like the text) will look like, color, font, etc. There are four different ways to attach a style sheet to the html, which this chapter calls gluing, but I still think I'd need to see this demonstrated. They also explain what "Cascading" style sheets mean... it means that multiple style sheets can affect one html file. However, I don't see how a user can alter a rule created by the creator of the webpage! Once the rules are written, how can someone looking at the webpage (I'm assuming that's what they mean by user) change that? What you see is what you get... or so I thought? 

Muddiest Point #5

So is the Pittsburgh wireless network a WAN or an "intranet?"

Reading Notes #7

HTML Tutorial and Cheat Sheet
This tutorial shows you how to write HTML to make your own website. It even shows you how to add colors, do line breaks, and other stylistic aspects that you may want on your website beyond black and white text. You can also add images, tables, or hyperlinks! It looks like a lot of code, but with this tutorial you can just copy and paste the < > instructions where you need them in the html editor.

The cheat sheet is a pdf download that gives you those "instructions," called tags, for text, formatting, forms, and graphics. This document is much easier to use and follow than all the links on the tutorial page! If I had to make websites all day, I would definitely print out that cheat sheet and keep it pasted next to my keyboard!

Beyond HTML
Not being familiar with html or web development at all (beyond blogger) a lot of this article went over my head. I definitely know that Dr. He will explain this well! The authors talk about the CMS and databases of the Georgia State University Library. Many of the graphic examples LOOK like the Access database relationships we had to create for our assignment, but even more complex. This article is really intimidating for an introduction (or beyond?) to html!

Reading Notes #6

Tyson Internet Infrastructure
How stuff works makes difficult topics very simple by putting them into more common language. The Internet is a series of networks. You can connect with an internet service provider (we have Comcast at home) or a LAN. There are also different points of connection, like NAP and POP (Network Access Points and Points of Presence).

An internet router helps to send information from computer to computer, making sure the right information gets to the right location. Routers are common in personal internet computer connections, both wired and wireless.

The internet backbone was created by the National Science Foundation in 1987 called NSFNET and made of fiber optics, making the internet faster and able to handle a larger capacity for information.

IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses are in decimal format but represent a binary code that computers can read. There are different classes of IP addresses, but it identifies an individual user/computer.

The domain name system makes it easier to remember the names of websites, instead of memorizing their IP addresses. This way, a URL as we know it connects to the right IP address. It was created in 1983 at the University of Wisconsin.  A URL is a uniform resource locator that includes the domain name, allowing users to access specific content, by automatically retrieving the IP address.

An internet server and clients have a static IP address, usually connected to your home modem, but if you dial up for internet, you are assigned a new IP address every time.

Ports also make the internet possible and HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol. I knew some of this information, but howstuffworks.com definitely explained the internet step by step.

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems
This article addresses the introduction of technology to libraries and its incompatibility with ILS, leaving libraries to either create their own programs or purchase new options. However, these programs can be expensive, but the author of this article maintains that compared to other library costs, it is more based on stubbornness of librarians' budgets than true expense. The advent of this new product has also led businesses who sell these products to reassess their business models. The "chicken and the egg" appendix/thing I think is the focus of his thoughts: do librarians or vendors truly control this market? 

Inside the Google Machine 
This video features a talk with Google's co-founders, Brin and Page. I really loved the earth graphic, showing people logging on to Google from all over the world, showing Google's international reach. For Google, power= internet= google searches. Visualization definitely helps one to understand Google's global scale, and the way in which information literally travels. Even showing all the search terms that occur in ONE SECOND on their slideshow was amazing. I think we are all aware of how much Google is used, but to see all those words together was remarkable. Google also has the ability to track popularity by location and time, which gives us additional data about how we as a social function. I also thought it was really interesting to hear that the U.S. is only 30% of Google's searchers.

They also discussed the Google Foundation and Google Grants given to other charities by using Google advertisements. He also mentioned Okrut, which I had never heard of, who wanted another social network, that sounds a lot like an early version of Google +. The innovation comes from Google's 20% policy, where 20% of an employee's time can be spent on a budding project they believe in, and this was how Google News was created. They cited Mendel as the inspiration.

They also mentioned "new" projects, though this video was filmed in 2004: Deskbar, Google Answers, Froogle, as well as physical projector enclosures.  Google itself is really employee-friendly, from laundry machines and dogs!  They even talked about how the Google logo changes daily and user-relevant ads, that keep the Internet growing and searching becoming more productive.

Muddiest Point #4

I have no muddiest point for this week. :)

Assignment #4

My CiteULike Library!

Reading Notes #5

LAN 
I have heard the term LAN before, especially in terms of LAN PARTIES, that computer geeks attend to play games. Plus, sometimes it says on the bottom of Windows machines LAN Not Detected, or something similar. According to this article, this also includes ethernet, which I had not realized was a part of this local area network. Using this all through college before wireless internet was available allowed all students to be connected to the school's server/internet. Both ethernet and Wifi create this local area network among a specific group, be it a party or a whole university (which could be debated, is a party). It is a critical part of how we connect to technology in the 21st century, and I think most people who use computers and connect to the internet don't think about what a LAN is, or even need to know, until the connection is lost. 


Computer Network
A computer network is "is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communications channels that allow sharing of resources and information." If I understand this article correctly, a LAN is a type of computer network, and there are also personal area networks and home networks, which can also facilitate DSL TV.  A computer network allows us as users to send messages, files of documents/images, even making phone calls. There are campus networks, like I cited above, and other networks I had never heard of before, like a backbone network. There are also different configurations of networks, something I think as a single user, did not realize, including a bus, star, or ring network layouts. Routers and firewalls were also familiar terms, but I did not know anything about switches and bridges, devices that work "behind the scenes." A big factor in computer networks is security. This is a big topic that surely has its own wikipedia page that was not discussed here, and I can't say I am anything near an expert on that! 


Management of RFID in Libraries
In this article by Karen Coyle in 2005, she addresses the use of RFIDs in libraries. RFIDs are radio frequency identifiers of a computer chip with an antenna that had contain information about the book as well as location. They are used in other industries, like livestock and warehouses, to keep track of many objects. The question in this article is its use in libraries. It could help manage large collections and tracking individual items.  Anyone who has gone to look for a book by its call number, only to find out that it has been reported as missing, is very disappointed. Coyle cites circulation and security as two library functions that could be assisted with the use of RFIDS. It would be possible to know if a book had been checked out or just taken from the building if they were used. She also questions its "return on investment" or ROI of these devices. It depends, however, how much these devices make the check out process easy and placed on the user, so that a circulation staff would no longer be required, saving the library tons on salaries. However, the books would still need to be reshelved when they were returned. Coyle gives both pros and cons for this possibility. In conclusion, she advises readers not to ignore this new technology, and to see how it can help libraries become more efficient. 

Muddiest Point #3

I have no muddiest point for this week. But I am wondering when our assignment three information will be on courseweb... It made the lab session hard to understand when I didn't know what the endproduct of the assignment was supposed to be. Will there be more straightforward instructions available? The lab session went way too quickly from excel to access and how do we know what SQL words to use?

Reading Notes #4

Introduction to Metadata
Before library school, I had never heard of metadata. It made me think of some sort of programming code, and I was terrified I would have to learn some computer language! Instead, it was something I knew all along, I just didn't know the term for it. Gilliland summed up metadata as three things: content, context, and structure: 

• Content relates to what the object contains or is about and is intrinsic to an information object.
• Context indicates the who, what, why, where, and how aspects associated with the object's creation and is extrinsic to an information object.
• Structure relates to the formal set of associations within or among individual information objects and can be intrinsic or extrinsic or both.

She also provides a handy table of the standards and rules associated with each aspect of metadata. However, it is difficult to have one standards system or terms available to describe EVERYTHING that may need to be indexed, cataloged, or otherwise organized. Metadata, even though it sounds scary, is just information about an object, that tells you about its content, its context and the structure of the object., and standards make sure that every individual or organization uses the same terms. For instance, one person might assign the word "blue" to an object, but another, to the same object, could say "navy." Both are true, but it doesn't help a user try to find the information that they need. 


Gilliland also discusses a new phenomenon of user-created metadata. We discussed in class the site Delicious, which I had never used before, but I think this is the same idea. Tagging has existed in other forms, be it Facebook or otherwise, that help to organize information, and it's done on an individual level. 


She also talks about the life cycle of an information object, which resonates with my current 2220 class and records management readings. Citing multiple situations in which metadata can be highly useful, it will definitely remain a core aspect of the information profession. 

Dublin Core Data Model

This model was completely unknown to me. It appears to be a metadata project begun in 1999, but I think this summarizes its mission: "The Dublin Core Element Set defines a set properties and associated semantics that are common to many resource description communities. The DCMI is declaring additional properties for richer descriptions (e.g. qualifiers) and domain specific needs (dc-education, dc-libraries, dc-government, dc-business, etc.). Each property defined will have unique identify along with at human readable labels and clear semantic definitions. Each property declared may additionally define permitted values, the types of resources it can describe, and/or its relationship (e.g. 'semantic refinement') with other properties." But honestly, I do not understand the computer-programming specific looking examples on this website! Hopefully it will be explained in class in laymens' terms. 

Endnote

I thought EndNote was something like RefWorks, but I think it's a little more extensive and versatile. This site is presented by a university, so it appears to be written for the student/scholar and uses video to explain how to use it to create EndNote libraries and import citations from databases and the like. Not only does it create citations in a variety of styles for papers and other written work, it is a "personal library" of references that can be organized. I have tried to use RefWorks in the past, and just got frustrated with it. I felt more confident handwriting out all of my citations, but that was easy because I rarely had more than 20 and they only needed to be in one style. EndNote might have an easier-to-use interface, making me more likely to use it for personal reasons, but knowing both systems would help me as an information professional for sure. 

Assignment #2: Working with Jing

I created a video as well as images to explain to new users how to create a Gmail account.
How to Create a Gmail Account

How to Create a Gmail Account Step 1
How to Create a Gmail Account Step 2
How to Create a Gmail Account Step 3
How to Create a Gmail Account Step 4
How to Create a Gmail Account Step 5
How to Create a Gmail Account Step 6

Muddiest Point #2

De. He said that the new PNG format for images is better but simpler than TIFF. Other than small file sizes, why else would using PNG be superior to the "archival" quality of the TIFF?

Reading Notes #3

Databases and the Entity Relationship Model in Database
I have used many different databases in my career as a student, from high school to the present. The wikipedia page on databases is very technical, and I don't understand all of the software terms, but I have a better understanding of a database having used one. Requiring both database programmers and administrators, it requires a staff to be created and maintained. The one aspect I hadn't realized was the number of different types of databases-- cloud databases, graph databases, and knowledge databases, to name a few. Databases also have three different types of architecture- internal, external, and conceptual. One of the issues with databases is security and controlling who can access the information in a database. This is most obvious in the ULS holdings available online... one must either be signed on to the Internet on a campus computer, or you have to authenticate yourself with your Pitt ID-- showing the database you have permission to enter the database. A database also requires a large amount of space to store all the information-- so a large harddrive or server, but there are many different options depending on your needs and budget. Reading this article about databases definitely shows me that I know very little about computers or programming!

Entity-relationship Model is a part of software engineering, and coming from a humanities background, I had never heard of it before. It is very helpful to see information visually, especially organizationally. The ER Model helps you to achieve this and to determine what the needs will be of your database. Built of "entities," each part of the database is separate and related to other parts in sets. In order to demonstrate these relationships, different shapes and lines signify different relationships, but there are many different versions of these diagramming notations.

Database Normalization Process
Phlonx gives a good introduction to the database normalization process using diagrams. The hardest part was memorizing those three normal forms!:

1. No repeating elements or groups of elements
2. No partial dependencies on a concatenated key
3. No dependencies on non-key attributes 

The first scenario is keeping track of invoices, a very applicable problem for businesses. An Excel document may work, but it isn't as efficient or as helpful as a database would be. However, I was never an Excel whiz, so this normalization process looks daunting. Despite the diagrams and pictures, I have a hard time understanding "atomicity" and other terms used, and I'm sure that fully understanding how to complete this task comes with hands-on experience. It looks so complicated! Even at the end, the author says that he is only scratching the surface of the topic! After reading this piece, I am definitely more appreciative of those databases and their developers who help me to find the information I need and quickly! 

Reading Notes #2

Data Compression
While I have heard of data compression and have seen examples of it in my everyday "tech" life, I never understood exactly how it worked. Compression allows for smaller files, but it may reduce the quality of the end product (jpegs vs. tiff files for image) and sometimes it requires expensive software to decompress the files.  Lossy and lossless compression are a bit confusing. As it sounds, lossy compression sacrifices some of the information in the original file in order to compress it, and it's used in digital cameras among other applications. Lossless, on the other hand, retains all or most of the original information, but cannot be compressed as well as lossy compression. The longer article explaining how data compression works gets somewhat (ok, extremely!) technical and I cannot say I completely understand how the encoding works.

Imaging Pittsburgh
I was excited to read this article because it's written by my Pitt Partner supervisor at the Archives Service Center here at the University of Pittsburgh. Thanks for a grant from the Institute of Museum  and Library Services, over 7,000-10,000 images of Pittsburgh were digitized and made available online. Photographs of historic neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, its people, and its landmarks demonstrate the city's change over time and its diversity. Its digital format allows users to search and browse the collections, and to view images related by subject, date, or location with a few clicks of the mouse. Ed Galloway mentions that one of the biggest issues with the project, which at first sounds relatively straight-foward, was choosing which photographs to digitize. An interesting discovery, thanks to this grant and project, was that by using of subject headings for each photograph, it was possible to look at a collection from afar, and see which subjects were most common. This way, the nature of each collection became increasingly clearer and could communicate the importance of each collection to a patron. Another issue was the issue of copyright. It was decided to use a strategy in which the images could be used for personal/non-commercial use, but that the user should contact the institution that holds the originals for permissions and a link was also provided. Ethically-speaking, I think that this is a very conscientious decision.

Youtube and Libraries
This article provides easy-to-follow instructions for new users of Youtube to set up a profile. The author, Paula Webb, explains the advantages of using Youtube within libraries. Existing as free advertising, Youtube could allow small libraries or libraries with small budgets to publicize their location, collections, and events. Even larger institutions could utilize it. I liked the example of Williams College's freshman introduction to the library through Youtube, which gave a new hip and technologically savvy edge to a common information session. I think this article demonstrates how knowledge of information technology can help libraries reach patrons and connect them with the right information and facilitates access to, rather than makes obsolete, paper-based resources.

Muddiest Point #1

Dr. He mentioned in class that Mac OS and Unix are less likely to have issues with Spyware, versus Windows machines. Perhaps he could clarify exactly why Windows are less "resistant?"

Assignment #1: Flickr and Digitization

This set on my Flickr account should contain 10 objects or images, one as a display copy and one for use as a thumbnail, for a total of 20 images. If the link does not work properly, please contact me.

Flickr/Digitization Project Week 2

Reading Notes #1

Personal Computer Hardware

• Personal Computer Hardware- "component devices" onto which software is installed
• Components: Motherboard- connects other parts of the computer
• Attached to the Motherboard is the: CPU- Central Processing Unit- performs calculations "the brain," cooled by heat sink and fan
• Chip Set- Communicates between CPU and memory
• RAM- Random Access Memory- runs applications and operating system
• BIOS- firmware and power management- Basic Input Output System
• Internal Buses- connect CPU to expansion cards and external peripherals= USB, Firewire, etc

• Powered by AC converted to DC= Switch mode power supplies regulates DC power

Computer hardware contains many different parts that work together. 


Removable Media

• CD- Rom, CD Writer
• DVD- Digital versatile disc- stores 12 x more info than CD
• Blue-ray- High density, 70x CD
• USB flash drive- memory data storage

• Secondary Storage= hard drive, solid-state drive (no moving parts), RAID array controller- manages multiple hard disk

These removable media allow a computer to work with other pieces of technology and means of information storage. 

Sound card-

• now built into motherboard, output sound plus input microphone

Input:

• Keyboard, Mouse (optical), Trackball, Touchscreen, joystick, image scanner, web cam, microphone

Output:

• Printer, speakers, headphones, monitor (CRT, LCD, LED, OLED)

Computer Software

• "Collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it"
• Types= Application software, programming languages, operating systems, firmware, drivers

History 

• Software first used in print by John Tukey in 1958, theory proposed by Alan Turing in 1935
• User -> Application -> Operating System -> Hardware

System Software = drivers, OS, servers, utilities, windows systems

Programming Software= compilers, debuggers, interpreters, linkers, text editors

Application Software = word processing, video games, databases, simulations, etc

Industry

• Bill Gates- Microsoft Windows and Office
• Adobe, Corel, Symantec
• Nonprofits- Mozilla, etc

While many of these terms I have heard before, I never had a formal definition. I am familiar with hard drives and many other the external components that can be connected to a computer, but I had never heard of BIOS or a chip set, and often wondered what made Blue-Ray so much "better," and especially so expensive. DVDs were always clear enough for me! I realize now the assignment was looking more for these observations rather than these bulleted notes... I will have to verify how Dr. He and Jessica wants these assignments completed...

Digitization: Is It Worth It? by Stuart D. Lee

Lee- worked at computer services at Oxford, 4 years with rare manuscripts

Digitization Definition- conversion of analog media to digital form- for most people, digital imaging

Cost Issues

• Large numbers of caveats and variables to determine cost
• Does not always reflect entire cost (usually only 1/3 of total cost!)
• Must include assembling source material, clearing copyright, setting up the machines, checking output quality, post-editing, cataloging, delivering, managing

Benefits

• Increasing access, preservation, strategic goals of institution
• liberates document

Comparisons

• Compare costs vs. benefits, how it affects access
• Acquisition or digitization? Libraries often choose dig. because of prestige
• Must do this comparison on a case-by-case basis
• Could the money be spent better someplace else? 

Final Answers

• No universal answer, must be a debate
• Primary aim-> meet requirements of users and provide resources

Library science and archival theory regarding preserving information can often be explained in ideal situations, but Lee demonstrates how often the "real world" can interfere with humans' best intentions. Cost is the largest factor behind converting information to a digital form, and the question of whether or not it will more easily facilitate access also remains a key aspect of this large decision. As a "save-everything" at heart, I have had a hard time in my past archival work experiences separating myself from an object (like a book from the 1700s that is missing half its pages). While to me it is an artifact from the distant past and is therefore interesting, I have come to understand that it would not be worth an institution's funds to keep and preserve, especially when it no longer can provide 50% of its original information. Lee reminds us all, not just archivists, that certain concessions must be made. 

European Libraries Face Problems in Digitalizing by Dorren Carvajal 10/28/2007

European Digital Library- hoped to compete with Google book project

• European organizations have limited government funding and dealing with having to align with private companies
• Downsides- company uses it for shareholder profit or public appeal

European Commission- $85 million to develop digital library, still encouraging private alliances 

Jean-Noel Jeanneney of Bibliotheque Nationale- Google threat that  posed a "risk of a crushing domination by American in the definition of the idea that future generations will have of its world", but new leader Racine, willing to meet when necessary

Creation of Europeana- prototype for EDL, 12,000 documents with Hungary and Portugal

Thoughts on Google Book Project by Charles Edward Smith

General Unease, but why? Will not make books obsolete, make that info more widely available

Life changing- can view 19th-century texts on Google Books

Most student don't have world-renown library access

Human knowledge can be lost- transfer to a new form, content protected from disasters


The Google Book Project has helped me with my own research and has allowed me to use resources that even ILL could not provide. Primary sources added depth to my undergraduate thesis, and it was exciting to use a first edition found on Google. However, I never considered the "corporate" aspect of Google's book project as being a negative. While in this way I agree with Smith that Google has facilitated access to sources that most people could not normally find in their local library, it is an interesting international counter-argument from the Bibliotheque Nationale. The concern that digitization projects will make books obsolete is something I have definitely considered in the past; however, I do not believe we as a society are ready to completely abandon print. Smith is definitely right-- digitization will only increase interest in print resources, ones that many students would have never known (without the help of technology) had existed. 

This is my first blog post!

Hello! Course notes to come!