I started out knowing nothing, and now I feel like I have a basic comprehension of a few of the issues that are important when creating a digital library. It happened in little dribs and drabs. I really didn’t put it all together until I read the wrap up in Assignment 11:
[B]ut at the center of all of them is some kind of operating system, some kind of web server to make them available, some kind of record management system (such as a database) that organizes and stores information about the collection, and some sort of application that scripts interactions with the database to display information according to what a user wishes to find and to store new information.
And that’s what I’ve been learning.
I think I appreciate systems (and the IT Help Desk) much more than I did, now that I have gotten my fingers “dirty” by actually trying to configure and create code. One of the biggest frustrations in working with LAMP has been the enormity and the complexity of it all. I like simple cause and effect relationships. When I do A, I should get the result B. At times during the past few weeks the system has seemed capricious, and refused to give me the results I expected, no matter how many times I proof read the code I’d typed, and made sure it matched the instructions. I lost so much time trying something over and over again, hoping for different results. (That is the definition of insanity, isn’t it?) But somewhere in my readings (I wish I could remember where) the author explained that the complexity of the system, and the possibility of one slight configuration that is different can cause unexpected results in unexpected ways later on. And somehow, that sounds rational to me.
And of course there were times when I misunderstood directions or mis-keyed a command. The sense of elation when I got the “It Works” message was in direct proportion to the sense of panic or frustration when things were not going right.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Unit 10 Blog
MySQL was not that difficult conceptually. If one can remember the syntax, it seems pretty straight-forward. Similar to following a recipe—do things in the proper order, and make sure your measurements are the same as the directions to ensure you get the right results. That being said, while I don’t think the concept is difficult, I certainly don’t have all the syntax rules memorized. While I can follow directions fairly well, it’s a different matter creating a new dish when you have multiple ingredients in front of you, but don’t know what any of them taste like, or how they will taste when combined together.
I think having 10 years of librarianship behind me working with Boolean operators helped with the section on logic. I do think that the explanation of the operator “NOT, as presented in the Mostafa’s video was difficult to understand because it was different than the concept of “NOT” I’m used to using..
As it was presented to me, and the way I’ve used it for years, is to think of a set, whereby NOT excludes a specific subset within that set.
However in Mostafa’s video, I understood NOT to be the reverse of the truth of falseness of a statement. In other words if 3+4=7 (true) than NOT 3+4=7 would be false. Conceptually this is hard for me to understand.
MySQL was not that difficult conceptually. If one can remember the syntax, it seems pretty straight-forward. Similar to following a recipe—do things in the proper order, and make sure your measurements are the same as the directions to ensure you get the right results. That being said, while I don’t think the concept is difficult, I certainly don’t have all the syntax rules memorized. While I can follow directions fairly well, it’s a different matter creating a new dish when you have multiple ingredients in front of you, but don’t know what any of them taste like, or how they will taste when combined together.
I think having 10 years of librarianship behind me working with Boolean operators helped with the section on logic. I do think that the explanation of the operator “NOT, as presented in the Mostafa’s video was difficult to understand because it was different than the concept of “NOT” I’m used to using..
As it was presented to me, and the way I’ve used it for years, is to think of a set, whereby NOT excludes a specific subset within that set.
However in Mostafa’s video, I understood NOT to be the reverse of the truth of falseness of a statement. In other words if 3+4=7 (true) than NOT 3+4=7 would be false. Conceptually this is hard for me to understand.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Database Creation
After a few false starts with the MySQL session, things seemed to go smoothly. (I initially understood part of the MySQL query to be placed in <>, which is what the small font on the video from UACBT-VTC looked like. After trying to execute my commands several times but receiving error messages, I switched to the tutorial provided by the MySQL community, and saw that the signs were not <> but ( ). After that it was easy to follow along with the tutorials, and I sat with my laptop, watched the videos and mirrored them on my host PC, and did the same with the tutorial from the MySQL community.
It took me hours to analyze and decide how I wanted to present my database proposal. The deeper I looked at what I wanted to work with, the more confused I became. I decided to propose a database based on the Math-Science Institute papers that I am adding to ContentDM. Certain choices were easy—there were items and creators, each with obvious attributes. But the third entity presented a challenge. I knew it had to be related to the other entities, and needed attributes of its own. Although related, I felt it also had to be something which stood independently of the other two. I initially chose the Science Track the students were enrolled in, but as I worked with using the specific track as the primary key it soon became obvious that it wouldn’t work. Since there were only three tracks, yet multiple courses the students take in each track, the primary key would not be unique in each case. I found myself working on this problem in those occasions of light sleep during the night. Finally after much deliberation today, I’ve selected the courses for which the research was done to be the third entity, and the individual course to be the primary key. I may be overanalyzing all this and I hope that what I present is logical.
I’ve done a cursory reading of all the assigned readings for this unit. I know I nee to go back and re-read them more in depth. I’ve also looked out on the web for different examples and explanations caouse it never hurts to see thngs from a different point of view.
It took me hours to analyze and decide how I wanted to present my database proposal. The deeper I looked at what I wanted to work with, the more confused I became. I decided to propose a database based on the Math-Science Institute papers that I am adding to ContentDM. Certain choices were easy—there were items and creators, each with obvious attributes. But the third entity presented a challenge. I knew it had to be related to the other entities, and needed attributes of its own. Although related, I felt it also had to be something which stood independently of the other two. I initially chose the Science Track the students were enrolled in, but as I worked with using the specific track as the primary key it soon became obvious that it wouldn’t work. Since there were only three tracks, yet multiple courses the students take in each track, the primary key would not be unique in each case. I found myself working on this problem in those occasions of light sleep during the night. Finally after much deliberation today, I’ve selected the courses for which the research was done to be the third entity, and the individual course to be the primary key. I may be overanalyzing all this and I hope that what I present is logical.
I’ve done a cursory reading of all the assigned readings for this unit. I know I nee to go back and re-read them more in depth. I’ve also looked out on the web for different examples and explanations caouse it never hurts to see thngs from a different point of view.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Technology Plans
One document that stood out this week was the ALA’s Technology Plan. I think it was well organized and clearly presented its goals, strategies and criteria for successes. However I found all the talk about getting member’s information so they could be treated on an individual level as somewhat disconcerting. Even though there were safeguards for securing the information, I never realized what a high priority ALA placed on marketing products and services to its members.
Several years ago I had the pleasure of hearing Cathy De Rosa (The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan:Pattern Recognition) speak at a Florida Technology in Education Conference. I was impressed then by the research and insights the publication brought to light. I retained a copy of the booklet after the conference, and found it again when this reading assignment came up. After reviewing it once again, I marvel at how accurate many of the scans are seven years later.
I will file the article on applying for grants by Stephanie Gerding and Pam MacKellar in a place where I can easily find it again. I think it will prove very useful later if I have an opportunity to apply for a grant.
And of course, Florida’s State Plan for LSTA funding should be a “must-read” for all public librarians in the state. Many times the bigger picture does not trickle down to the librarian on the front lines. This document provides the visions and explanations of why things happen as they do. For any semi-ambitious librarian it is important to have knowledge of the direction that libraries hope and plan to move so they can make informed decisions to align their career goals to the goals of their institution.
As one article pointed out, IT people view the technology arena with different perspectives than end-users. It was frustrating, as I mentioned when discussing the fiasco of implementing thin-clients in my library, how IT departments make decisions without investigating end-users' needs and abilities. Having the chance to get my fingers “dirty” in an IT sort of way in this class, I have much more respect for the complexity of networked systems. I doubt in the hierarchical environment in which I work that I will ever be asked to contribute to technology planning. But I do hope that I may someday serve as a knowledgeable middle man between IT implementation plans and students’ needs.
Several years ago I had the pleasure of hearing Cathy De Rosa (The 2003 OCLC Environmental Scan:Pattern Recognition) speak at a Florida Technology in Education Conference. I was impressed then by the research and insights the publication brought to light. I retained a copy of the booklet after the conference, and found it again when this reading assignment came up. After reviewing it once again, I marvel at how accurate many of the scans are seven years later.
I will file the article on applying for grants by Stephanie Gerding and Pam MacKellar in a place where I can easily find it again. I think it will prove very useful later if I have an opportunity to apply for a grant.
And of course, Florida’s State Plan for LSTA funding should be a “must-read” for all public librarians in the state. Many times the bigger picture does not trickle down to the librarian on the front lines. This document provides the visions and explanations of why things happen as they do. For any semi-ambitious librarian it is important to have knowledge of the direction that libraries hope and plan to move so they can make informed decisions to align their career goals to the goals of their institution.
As one article pointed out, IT people view the technology arena with different perspectives than end-users. It was frustrating, as I mentioned when discussing the fiasco of implementing thin-clients in my library, how IT departments make decisions without investigating end-users' needs and abilities. Having the chance to get my fingers “dirty” in an IT sort of way in this class, I have much more respect for the complexity of networked systems. I doubt in the hierarchical environment in which I work that I will ever be asked to contribute to technology planning. But I do hope that I may someday serve as a knowledgeable middle man between IT implementation plans and students’ needs.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Learning XML
Unit 7 was the first time I was formally introduced to XML. I realize that I have seen XML coding before, when looking at many web document sources, but I never distinguished it as a different code from HTML.
I followed along both tutorials recommended by Professor Fulton– the one from w3school and Mark Longs’ tutorials in UA CBT. The tutorials were clear and writing the basic code looked easy. Ha! When I tried to write an XML document I kept getting an error message. Apparently I didn’t pay strict attention to writing attributes.
So knowing that different sources can say the same thing, but resonate a different way, I Googled “XML” to get some explanations on my errors from alternative sources. I came across the w3.org site, which was useful; and xml.com which states that their overview was outdated before it was even published on the web.
I had enclosed my attribute within greater than and lesser than symbols, made sure the attribute was in quotation marks, and that the tag was closed:
This is an error, and Internet Explorer would not display the document.
I finally figured out that the attribute is part of the element and that the closure tag closes the element and attribute:April 20, 2010
I am not at an advanced stage. I have much to learn.
I followed along both tutorials recommended by Professor Fulton– the one from w3school and Mark Longs’ tutorials in UA CBT. The tutorials were clear and writing the basic code looked easy. Ha! When I tried to write an XML document I kept getting an error message. Apparently I didn’t pay strict attention to writing attributes.
So knowing that different sources can say the same thing, but resonate a different way, I Googled “XML” to get some explanations on my errors from alternative sources. I came across the w3.org site, which was useful; and xml.com which states that their overview was outdated before it was even published on the web.
I had enclosed my attribute within greater than and lesser than symbols, made sure the attribute was in quotation marks, and that the tag was closed:
This is an error, and Internet Explorer would not display the document.
I finally figured out that the attribute is part of the element and that the closure tag closes the element and attribute:
I am not at an advanced stage. I have much to learn.
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