Friday, October 24, 2008

Week #8 Muddiest Point

I'm not sure if this is technically a muddiest point or a rant. I checked Thursday night, after 9:30PM for the class video. It wasn't there. I worked all day Friday. I checked when I got home and there it was. I changed my plans so I could view the video and post my muddiest point. The video had numerous problems that made it difficult to watch, including slides not matching audio. Do I understand HTML and CSS and web site design? I'm not sure I do. Professor's He's frequent use of website viewing is not very helpful to me as an online students. I will print out the slides and attempt to visit some of the sites on my own.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Readings week #9

All four of this week's reading concerned XML (extensible markup language). XML is a subset of SGML (standard generalized markup language). Using XML is suppose to make it easy to interchange structured documents over the Internet. XML is considered important for presentation, exchange, and management of information. XML is not a predefined set of tags that can be used to markup documents like HTML. XML documents are composed of a series of entities or objects. Each entity has one or more logical elements. Elements have attributes or properties. XML is a formal syntax for describing the relationships between entities, elements, and attributes. XML allows the bringing together of multiple files to form compound documents. XML identifies illustrations to be incorporated into text files, provides processing control information to support programs, and allows the addition of editorial comment to a file. XML coded files are ideal for storing in databases because it is object orientated and heirarchical nature. XML usually contain a DTD (document type declaration) which defines the structure of XML.
XML is a rapidly growing technology that has been undergoing standardization. According to Survey of XML Standards, standards are any specification that is significantly adopted by a diversity of vendors or recommended by a respectable vendor-neutral organization.
XML Schema is an XML based alternative to DTD that describes the structure of an XML document.
The readings and tutorials really became technical. The last tutorial recommended a basic understanding of HTML and XHTML, XML and XML namespaces, and DTD. I'm not sure that reading a few readings is enough to obtain a basic understanding. Hopefully some hands on practice with do what mere reading can't.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Muddiest point week #7 class

I am confused about when reading assignments are due when there is no class scheduled for the next week. I asked in the discussion board, no answer. I went to the online chat, but no one was there. The video of class did not cover this. Maybe I should ask a pitt virtual librarian? (hah, hah)

Readings week #8

The first 2 readings were really tutorials on HTML and CSS. I have never created web documents so the tutorials were all new to me. The 3 reading was a HTML cheat sheet. Why no cheat sheet for CSS? Easily found on the web though.

Beyond HTML: Developing and re-imagining library web guides in a content management system
This reading was a case study. The Georgia State University Library developed, in house, a content management system to manage web-based research guides. Of interest to me was all the collaboration that took place between the system developers and the users. A successful database requires user input and in this example repeated methods such as numerous surveys and liaison groups were employed to this end. Technical issues and user issues were given equal attention.Even the migration from the old "file and folder" system to the new database-driven website system was phased in gradually. I found this unusual because in my experience these types of system changes do not go smoothly. The upgrade to the content management system standardized the content of the research guide and provided better system security. Additionally, the new system reduced data duplication and was much smaller in size compared to the old system. More training both initial and on-going was found to be needed which seems to be a problem in most conversions.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Muddiest point week #6

I have questions concerning fiber optics. Is this the wave of the future or is wireless? Is fiber optic wiring to your home or is in also in your home?

Weekly Readings #7

How stuff works--Internet Infrastructure
Great explanation of networks, routers, IP addresses, the Domain Name System, URLS, servers and clients.

Inside the Google machine.
Another sales pitch. It was obvious to me that Google is a business with revenues from advertisors tied to searches. Google wants to make the world a better place while making money. I did like the 80%/20% idea of spending 20% of work time on what you think is important. Unfortunately, watching the video was alot like watching the video of class. You can't really see what's happenning on their screen and during questions and answers its hard to hear the questions. Also, this video was from 2004. In the age of instant communication this seemed old.

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems
This article was also from 2004. I tried to think of it in terms of the library where I work. We migrated from DRA to SIRSI awhile back. I didn't really understand why at the time but now it makes sense to me because DRA went out of business. In operability with the Web is not a problem at my library.
This article semi-annoyed me. I often wonder why systems designers don't take into account existing technology when new systems are designed. Or do they? Having to purchase completely new systems is a very lucrative revenue stream. I wonder if there is enough funding available to keep public libraries technological updated.