week 12 readings

Where Do We Go From Here

This article has one phrase that bothered me "some would argue that digital libraries have very little to do with libraries as institutions or the practice of librarianship." How is it not librarianship just because it is online? Is an email not a letter because it is read on the screen rather than the page? The article then goes on to detail milestones in digital library interest and development by organizations like The Library of Congress and DARPA. Then it explores where future research and development will lead the field of digital libraries, including areas that the author finds of particular interest: personal information management, long term relationships between humans and and information collections and systems, the role of digital libraries, digital collections and other information services in supporting teaching, learning, and human development, and Active environments for computer supported collaborative work offer the starting point for another research program.

Intellectual Property Rights and Wrongs

This article highlights the difficulty in intellectual property rights policy, especially the balance between encouraging new ideas by protecting them, and encouraging new ideas by allowing people to use other's ideas. The open source movement is a powerful response to the old ways of thinking. "Patent thickets" are dangerous to progress. Pharmaceutical patents can be complicated when the basis of a drug is an herb well known for its medicinal properties. And it is not a good idea to create a single policy for all, as developing countries have very different idea development needs than advanced industrial countries.

Assignment 2 Flickr URL

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54575800@N02/

Week 3

Readings

LESK

I originally worked as a graphic designer, so the section on the history of computer typesetting was of particular interest. The text chapter really helped me stop thinking analog and start thinking digital. Seeing how a computer encodes, reads, retrieves…. These are tasks I’ve taken for granted, without understanding how a computer accomplishes them. The bit about OCR errors, with examples and an explanation of systems that are resistant to them was helpful.
The Image chapter is a good counterpoint. Scanning and display technology is explored in detail. The we go to a discussion of costs – digital versus print. This part is a repeat of what has been discussed in many classes so far.
Material feels slightly outdated.

ARMS

This reading is much more modern. While the LESK was interesting for its historical discussions, I find this one more helpful for this class. Much more clear. The in depth description of PDF documents was very interesting. The HTML and XML was a repeat from a prior class.

Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences

There is a lot of technical data in this one. The first page did a good job of describing a DOIs purpose and process. Useful quote:
“DOI is an acronym for Digital Object Identifier. The DOI system provides for unique identification, persistence, resolution, metadata, and semantic interoperability of content entities (“objects”). Information about an object can
change over time, including where to find it, but its DOI name will not change.”

Muddiest Point

No mention of Assignment 1 during class! I had noted all due dates from the syllabus in my calendar, but I almost missed this!

Week 2

Readings

A Framework for Building Open Digital Libraries

There is no set standard for building a digital library. Different needs lead to very different systems. This is a creative period we have seen with other technologies. The internet is a good example, where the browser wars were a period of competitive development. It wasn’t until a common standard was developed that we began to see the true potential of the internet. I believe that digital libraries will see a similar pattern, and only once a common method is agreed upon will we see what they are truly capable of.

An Architecture for Information in Digital Libraries

An important point raised is that all items should be tagged as individual objects. An article with a picture should be two tagged items: the text and the picture. This way either item can be accessed independently as well as together.

Interoperability for Digital Objects and Repositories

Interoperability is the next step for digital libraries. This study has found that digital libraries have to be only mostly similar to be acceptably interoperable. By following similar standards, using the same open-source software etc, it is possible to create systems that users can operate, moving back and forth, without undue trouble.

Muddiest Point:

In our brief discussion of the group project, we were told that we will be creating a digital library to solve a problem. What do you mean by problem?