Friday, November 30, 2012
Reading thoughts, Dec 3
* Privacy in libraries is a very important thing. Your patron record is private; the information contained within cannot be released to anyone without a court order. There is a law in at least 40 states that requires the court order; most libraries, however, have that policy in place in their bylaws.
* The Patriot Act has tried to reduce the rights of libraries to keep their patron data private. Libraries have fought back again this.
* EPIC = Electronic Privacy Information Center; reports on news about data privacy and governmental spying. Formed to report on the Total (Terrorism) Information Awareness tracking system, which spies on citizens for the government. Clearly totally illegal, right? The TIA stuff?
* Even though people strive for privacy, it is mostly an illusion. There's a GPS in your car, your phone. Cookies track what you do on the internet. RFIDs pay your tolls, check out your books, buy your coffee. Unless you live off the grid, in the woods, possibly in a bunker - someone is probably watching you right now.
* The Patriot Act has tried to reduce the rights of libraries to keep their patron data private. Libraries have fought back again this.
* EPIC = Electronic Privacy Information Center; reports on news about data privacy and governmental spying. Formed to report on the Total (Terrorism) Information Awareness tracking system, which spies on citizens for the government. Clearly totally illegal, right? The TIA stuff?
* Even though people strive for privacy, it is mostly an illusion. There's a GPS in your car, your phone. Cookies track what you do on the internet. RFIDs pay your tolls, check out your books, buy your coffee. Unless you live off the grid, in the woods, possibly in a bunker - someone is probably watching you right now.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Reading thoughts, 11/26
Social Software and Library 2.0
* social tagging: relatively new phenomenon that allows users to tag things on the Internet for their own personal use. Allows others to see their tags and use them as well.
* social tagging sites include del.icio.us, Connotea, CiteULike, and Pinterest (a visual bookmarking site), among others.
* "folksonomy" - a taxonomy created by ordinary folks by collaborating together. Allows people to create their own controlled vocabulary.
* it's very difficult to catalog the Internet. Social tagging is a good way to start.
* a few academic libraries are trying out social tagging. University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University are both administering programs.
* a risk with social tagging is something called "spagging" - spam tagging, which is basically malicious tagging (likely by bored teens and Internet trolls)
* a wiki is a multi-author, collaborative software, often used as an encyclopedia. Wikipedia is the largest wiki in the world.
* wikis can be created for any purpose. There are a number of free wiki software options: seedwiki.com, pbwiki.org, and so on. They are fairly bare-bones, but if you pay, there are better versions.
* the use of wikis in libraries is becoming more common. They can be created as staff manuals, training documents, and teaching tools.
* East Tennessee State University has been very successful using a wiki for their Library Instruction Program. All of the librarians who participate in the instruction program add to and edit articles in the wiki.
* using digital materials in libraries is becoming much more common. However, many of these collections suffer from a lack of publicity - no one knows they exist. Social media can alleviate this issue.
* to have a successful social media blitz, the librarian must first listen to their patrons, to find out what their specific needs are, and what kinds of social media they use. Google Alerts are a good place to start, as well as Twitter and del.icio.us.
* they must also be an active participant in the social media. You can't just be a benevolent dictator, demanding that your patrons read what you tell them to. There must be interaction between the parties. There needs to be transparency as well - no bad press for the library.
* social tagging: relatively new phenomenon that allows users to tag things on the Internet for their own personal use. Allows others to see their tags and use them as well.
* social tagging sites include del.icio.us, Connotea, CiteULike, and Pinterest (a visual bookmarking site), among others.
* "folksonomy" - a taxonomy created by ordinary folks by collaborating together. Allows people to create their own controlled vocabulary.
* it's very difficult to catalog the Internet. Social tagging is a good way to start.
* a few academic libraries are trying out social tagging. University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University are both administering programs.
* a risk with social tagging is something called "spagging" - spam tagging, which is basically malicious tagging (likely by bored teens and Internet trolls)
* a wiki is a multi-author, collaborative software, often used as an encyclopedia. Wikipedia is the largest wiki in the world.
* wikis can be created for any purpose. There are a number of free wiki software options: seedwiki.com, pbwiki.org, and so on. They are fairly bare-bones, but if you pay, there are better versions.
* the use of wikis in libraries is becoming more common. They can be created as staff manuals, training documents, and teaching tools.
* East Tennessee State University has been very successful using a wiki for their Library Instruction Program. All of the librarians who participate in the instruction program add to and edit articles in the wiki.
* using digital materials in libraries is becoming much more common. However, many of these collections suffer from a lack of publicity - no one knows they exist. Social media can alleviate this issue.
* to have a successful social media blitz, the librarian must first listen to their patrons, to find out what their specific needs are, and what kinds of social media they use. Google Alerts are a good place to start, as well as Twitter and del.icio.us.
* they must also be an active participant in the social media. You can't just be a benevolent dictator, demanding that your patrons read what you tell them to. There must be interaction between the parties. There needs to be transparency as well - no bad press for the library.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Reading thoughts, November 12
* Information providers have attempted (for many years now) to transform the variety of digital publications and collections into "true" digital libraries.
* There is a big difference between simply providing access to digital collections and offering digital library services.
* 1994: federal programming for digital libraries, called the Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI-1), funded six projects in the digital libraries. 1998: DLI-2, more funding added for more projects.
* With the advent of DLI, three interested parties came forth: librarians, publishers, and computer scientists.
* The concept of digital libraries has been hard to accept for some (more traditional) librarians. The feeling of "loss" with regards to their collections (and their non-physicality) gave many librarians pause.
* Journal publishers took the opportunity to charge elevated prices for their digital publications; this resulted in many libraries having to reevaluate their subscriptions and make cancellation decisions.
* Even though the collections look different, the work of the librarian is still basically the same: organization, collation, and distribution.
* Institutional repositories are a great way for universities to take control of scholarly publishing on campus. Costs have dropped dramatically, making institutional repositories possible for most colleges to afford to set up.
* MIT developed D-Space, an institutional repository software that is open-source and widely distributed, in 2003. It is not the only software available, but is the most widely used.
* Can be termed as "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." (Clifford Lynch, "Institutional Repositories," 2003)
* Once a university's IR is set up, they might consider outreach in the community. Helping to establish a community archive/repository would be excellent PR, and would be very valuable to the community that they serve.
* There is a big difference between simply providing access to digital collections and offering digital library services.
* 1994: federal programming for digital libraries, called the Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI-1), funded six projects in the digital libraries. 1998: DLI-2, more funding added for more projects.
* With the advent of DLI, three interested parties came forth: librarians, publishers, and computer scientists.
* The concept of digital libraries has been hard to accept for some (more traditional) librarians. The feeling of "loss" with regards to their collections (and their non-physicality) gave many librarians pause.
* Journal publishers took the opportunity to charge elevated prices for their digital publications; this resulted in many libraries having to reevaluate their subscriptions and make cancellation decisions.
* Even though the collections look different, the work of the librarian is still basically the same: organization, collation, and distribution.
* Institutional repositories are a great way for universities to take control of scholarly publishing on campus. Costs have dropped dramatically, making institutional repositories possible for most colleges to afford to set up.
* MIT developed D-Space, an institutional repository software that is open-source and widely distributed, in 2003. It is not the only software available, but is the most widely used.
* Can be termed as "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." (Clifford Lynch, "Institutional Repositories," 2003)
* Once a university's IR is set up, they might consider outreach in the community. Helping to establish a community archive/repository would be excellent PR, and would be very valuable to the community that they serve.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Reading thoughts, 11/5
* XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language
* subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) defined in ISO standard 8879:1986
* makes documents interchangeable across the web - it's a language that every browser can decipher
* however, it is not HTML or CSS language, nor is it a template for web design
* XML is a formal language that computers use to talk to each other about the components of documents (all kinds: books, memos, etc.)
* though it is NOT HTML, it surprisingly looks a lot like it. :-)
* based on the concept of "documents" composed of a series of "entities"
* users create their own definitions of what tags mean, and then code that into the document schema
* the original XML schema language is the Document Type Definition (DTD); however, this is kind of bulky and awkward and many web designers are not fond of it. Many other new schema languages have emerged that are more favorable, such as RELAX NG.
* there are many different types of elements that are used in XML schema. Some are simple, and contain only text. Others are more complex, wherein elements can be combined together into a single element, or can even be empty.
* an example of a complex element that contains other elements:
<employee>
<firstname>John</firstname>
<lastname>Smith</lastname>
</employee>
* string data types are used for values that contains character strings. The string data type can contain characters, line feeds, carriage returns, and tab characters.
* even though you CAN code your own XML, it's much to your benefit to use an editing software. It can help catch your errors (like forgetting to close elements) and can also help guide your work.
* subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) defined in ISO standard 8879:1986
* makes documents interchangeable across the web - it's a language that every browser can decipher
* however, it is not HTML or CSS language, nor is it a template for web design
* XML is a formal language that computers use to talk to each other about the components of documents (all kinds: books, memos, etc.)
* though it is NOT HTML, it surprisingly looks a lot like it. :-)
* based on the concept of "documents" composed of a series of "entities"
* users create their own definitions of what tags mean, and then code that into the document schema
* the original XML schema language is the Document Type Definition (DTD); however, this is kind of bulky and awkward and many web designers are not fond of it. Many other new schema languages have emerged that are more favorable, such as RELAX NG.
* there are many different types of elements that are used in XML schema. Some are simple, and contain only text. Others are more complex, wherein elements can be combined together into a single element, or can even be empty.
* an example of a complex element that contains other elements:
<employee>
<firstname>John</firstname>
<lastname>Smith</lastname>
</employee>
* string data types are used for values that contains character strings. The string data type can contain characters, line feeds, carriage returns, and tab characters.
* even though you CAN code your own XML, it's much to your benefit to use an editing software. It can help catch your errors (like forgetting to close elements) and can also help guide your work.
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