Beyond HTML: Developing and re-imaging library web guides in a content management system

On three separate occasions I browsed the ULS Pitt Catalog for this article and I could not find it. I have found all of the other articles for this class, except for this one. Did any body else have difficulties in finding it, or am I the only one?

W3 Schools CSS Tutorial

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) define how html elements are to be displayed. As html was never intended to contain tags for formatting, CSS were created to solve this problem.

In html 4.0, all formatting could be removed from the html documents and stored in a separate CSS file. Styles are normally stored in external CSS files. External style sheets allow you to change the appearance and layout of all the pages in a website, just by editing one single file.

HTML Cheatsheet

This article consists of a list of useful html tags, which might come in handy if I were building a web site.

W3 Schools HTML Tutorial

Hyper Text Mark Up Language (HTML) is a markup language which uses a set of tags to describe web pages.

The purpose of a web browser is to read HTML documents and display them as web pages. The html tags are used to interpret the content of the web pages.

The tutorial goes on to teach one how to write in html to create web pages.

Muddiest Point for 10/25

I had no muddiest point for this lecture.

Assignment #4

Here is the URL to my library at CiteULike:

http://www.citeulike.org/user/BookwormSince1984

Comments for Week 7

http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/10/week-7-readings.html#comment-form

http://jonas4444.blogspot.com/2010/10/reading-notes-for-week-7.html#comment-form

Sergey Brin and Larry Page: Inside the Google Machine

This was a short video whose original audience was probably either shareholders or employees of Google. I found it very interesting, especially the global model at the beginning where you could see the searches taking place, and therefore the infrastructure of the Internet.

They also mentioned that employees of Google are allowed to do what they want with 20% of their time, and that some people invented Google products with this "free" time. It reminded me of a version of the Pareto Principle, "80% of the time people are working and 20% of the time they are goofing off."

Andrew K. Pace, "Dismantling Integrated Library Systems"

I found this article interesting as it explained that the systems used to check out/in books at the library are not always compatible with each other, "interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality."

I never gave this much thought--that other library systems might use different software which might cause Inter Library Loan to be difficult.

Jeff Tyson, "How Internet Infrastructure Works"

This article explained some complicated information in simple terms, which made it easier for me to understand.

I learned that routers have two purposes: to make sure that information does not go where it's not needed, and to ensure that the information needed makes it to the intended destination.

I also learned that URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and that Domain Name Servers handle billions of requests daily and are essential to the Internet.

Muddiest Point for October 15th and 16th

I had no muddiest point for this class. Thank you!

Assignment #3: Working with Jing

Part 1: Video of how to do a Long Tail Cast On for Knitting:

http://screencast.com/users/BookWormSince84/folders/Jing/media/7a46108d-a04d-4de9-a269-5526df79ae9b

Part 2: Screen Captures on how to use MapQuest to Print Driving Directions:

Step 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54200368@N08/5071545739/

Step 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54200368@N08/5071567365/

Step 3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54200368@N08/5072182674/

Step 4: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54200368@N08/5071599719/

Step 5: http://wwww.flickr.com/photos/54200368@N08/5072215596/

Comments for Week 6

http://lostscribe459.blogspot.com/2010/week-6-readings-computer-networks.html#comment-form

http://adamblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/unit-6-readings-notes-wireless-networks.html#comment-form

"Management of RFID in Libraries" Journal of Academic Librarianship, 2005

I find this article immensely interesting. It opened my eyes to the possibilities of RFID tag usage in libraries. Imagining being capable of eventually checking in an entire stack of books at once is astounding to me!

The library where I work have exit gates and we put a card in the pocket in the back of the book to signify an item has been checked out, which also prevents the alarm from sounding. While I suppose this is fairly typical library security, I had not thought of the tag in the pocket as an RFID before reading this article.

I guess it is possible that RFIDs will replace barcode technology, but I think the technology needed to adapt it to a library setting (an RFID that would work in a thin item, and last many years) is not yet in existence.

YouTube Most 5 Most Common Types of Networks

The most common network is the PAN (Personal Area Network) which usually includes at least one pc and a device such as a printer, usually found in homes.

LANs (Local Area Networks) are supposedly the second most common network, which can be found in offices, for instance.

The third most popular network is a WAN (Wide Area Network) which are larger than LANs in scale.

The fourth type of network are Campus Area Networks (CAN), which as the name implies, are a network encompassing a university.

MANs (Metropolitan Area Network) are networks that cover a city in geographical area.

Wiki Article on "Computer Network"

A computer network, as the name implies, is a group of computers, and devices, connected by communication channels that allow for communications among users and allows users to share resources.

Computer networks can be used to facilitate communications, to share hardware (such as a printer), to share files/data/information, and to share software.

Computer networks can be classified by the hardware or software technology used to connect the devices, as well as the scale (or size) of the network. There are a plethora of types of computer networks.

The basic hardware of a computer network contains: network interface cards, repeaters, hubs bridges, switches and routers.

Wiki Article on LAN

LAN is a term that I have often heard bandied about when discussing telephones versus cellular phones. "I'll have to call you back on a LAN line because my cell phone is losing reception" is one instance.

So it surprised me that the use of this term in that example is probably improper, considering that LAN stands for Local Area Network and refers to computers and devices connected in a network, such as in a home, school, or office building.

According to Wikipedia, the defining characteristics of a LAN are a higher data transfer rate than a Wide Area Network, a smaller geographic area, and no need for leased telecommunication lines. Examples of the structure over which LANs operate are Ethernet and Wi-Fi.

Muddiest Point for 10/4

I had no muddiest point for this class.

Comments for Week 5

http://maj66.blogspot.com/2010/09/metadata-and-dublin-core.html#comment-form

http://jsslis2600.blogspot.com/2010/09/week-4-reading-notes.html#comment-form

An Overview of the Dublin Core Data Model

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is an international effort to create a consensus across disciplines for discovery-oriented description of diverse resources in digital form.

DCMI is currently identifying and providing semantics for a core set of types of resources (people, corporation, place, etc.) that will facilitate the description of electronic resources.

In other words, DCMI are a set of rules archivists from a range of disciplines follow in order to catalogue resources in an electronic, digital format.

Introduction to Metadata Article

Metadata, data about data, in the past 100 years has solely been the responsibility of info. professionals involved in cataloging, classification, and indexing.

Today, with the rise of new technologies, the average user of the internet is engaged in creating metadata through the use of web page title tags, folksonomies, and social bookmarking.

Library meta data provides intellectual and physical access to collection materials including indexes, abstracts, and bibliographic records all created according to catalogue rules (AACR, MARC, LCSH, or AAT).

Meta data shared over a network has five main functions: it certifies the authenticity and the degree of completeness of the content, it establishes and documents the context of the content, it identifies and exploits the structural relationships that exist within and between info. objects, and also it provides some of the information that info. professionals might provide in person.

Folksonomies and social bookmarking are examples of user-created meta data. The advantages of this type of meta data are that communities can create meta data based on their needs, and it is an inexpensive way of augmenting existing meta data. The disadvantages are: lack of quality control, and inoperability.

Database Wiki Article

Database (referred to herein as db) - an organized collection of data for one or more users, typically in digital form

Database Management Systems DBMS consist of software that operates databases. DBMSs can be categorized in several ways: the db model they support (relational, XML), the type of computer they support, the query language used to access the db, or any performance trade offs that characterize the db.

There are at least 7 types of db: operational, data warehouse, analytical, distributed, end-user, external, and hypermedia.

So far, in my lifetime, I have probably used a distributed db, an end-user, external db, and a hypermedia db.

Muddiest Point for 9/27

I'm glad we are learning about Unicode. I often wondered how other languages adapted to technology, particularly Chinese and Japanese. What does a keyboard look like for those languages? Is it QWERTY?