Unit 5

I had originally tried to download Google Analytics, which I have heard much about but never worked with. I was unsuccessful, using the same code for the other modules on the assignment sheet: wget http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/google_analytics-6.x-3.3.tar.gz. I kept getting an error message—page not found, and gave up—probably too easily. So I chose Gallery Assist, a module which promised to be simple, fast, uncomplicated and successful, which it was. When I previewed it before downloading, I liked the way it displayed photos—with and without text, and various screen sizes and display options. Since my collection is photographs, the display of them is very important, and I like having several thumbnails in a gallery to tease the viewer with. In ContentDM, there is an option to display items on the landing page in a revolving carousel. This is not appropriate for all items such as PDFs and some thumbnails which just say “item” or the file type. But it can be very attractive with images. I’m not sure if Gallery Assist can do anything that advanced, because I only tired some simple configurations. Although the video demonstrating installation and configuration was definitely not high quality, it was adequate to allow me to follow along and successfully create a gallery of photographs on my Drupal home page.

Drupal

Drupal is a good entry point for a novice to begin to create web content. Configuration of the site, adding  content and creating users has been relatively easy. But I am less than impressed with it for managing a repository of photographs.

I’m disappointed in the appearance of my Drupal collection.  I’m not talking about the lack of fancy graphics, colors or themes for the website, but the absence of the appearance of an organized structure to the repository. It’s true I have not spent a lot of time configuring it, so perhaps this is just an “out-of-the-box” experience.  But I don’t like the items in the collection to be displayed as posts. I don’t like that an image is not displayed until one clicks on it as an “attachment” -- this gives the impression that viewing the images is the secondary reason to come to the site. I don’t like that the information I entered for the record is not displayed with field names, but just as (meaningless) words in a semi-structured paragraph.  I don’t like that I cannot give an order to multiple words in the Subject field—they are listed in alphabetical order, not order of importance to the contents of the photograph. Probably in the hands of someone who was familiar with Drupal, all these negatives could be finessed into a beautiful, meaningful display, but not for a Drupal beginner like me with limited time to spend on each part of the assignment.  It is not surprising to me that a number of repositories (like AMP, IUPUI, University of Louisville and others) are using a commercial application such as ContentDM.

unit 3

The question for discussion for this week’s blog is whether the pace of the technical assignments is too fast, too slow, or just right. I wish I could say that they have been too slow (give me more?). And I can’t really say they are too fast—so far they have been nothing as intense as the assignments for IRLS 672. I also wish I could say that, due to all the skills I learned in the previous semester, I am finding them easier. But that’s not exactly it either. I have not yet encountered the absolutely stumping problems that frequently occurred during the summer session. But it is early yet, and I attribute this far more to luck than my new skill level. Perhaps I feel more confident during these assignments; I don’t seem to panic as quickly or as easily when something does go wrong—I just recheck for my work and move on.


In the syllabus for IRLS 672 Bruce said there was so much to learn, yet so little time. That sums up how I feel about the time factor and this class. Each thing we touch on could have a whole course devoted just to it. There is so much background on the topics that I could spend years gathering, so much depth of knowledge that cannot be attained in the time we have, so many skills that one practice session disallows for mastery.

It has been very difficult for me to find all the time needed for this class—I have a fulltime job, a long commute and family obligations. But I can’t condemn the pace of the assignments—I think it’s necessary to ensure we learn what will be needed.

Unit 2 Article Summary and Comments

Wiggins, R, Remley, J, & Klingler, T. (2006). Building a local CMS at Kent    State. Library Hi Tech, 24(2), doi: 10.1108/07378830610652121

This article describes the extensive undertaking by the Kent State University Libraries to recreate their website. After determining mandatory features desired in a new CMS and evaluating several commercial and open source products, the web team decided to create their own. Among the functionality they included were: metadata descriptions for every page, dynamic presentation of data, better site management tools to increase currency, and increased statistical and broken link reporting. The authors described their development and implementation plans, and provided examples of forms used during creation of specific pages.

My first though after reading this article was what a talented web team KSU Libraries had to complete this undertaking, how much insight they needed to develop a plan from a holistic level to the most detailed, and how lucky they were to pull it off without any major failures (at least that were reported.)

In the early 2000s, only a few years before this article was written, I was a member of a committee that redesigned our university library’s pages. At that time we were not concerned about dynamically created content or statistical reporting, but only concentrated on the look and feel of the static pages. Looking back, and comparing it to this article, our attempts were very naïve—little management of the site; form definitely took precedence over functionality. If I had reported on the process at the time, I would have had to tell of committee squabblings and discussions on whether icons should be clip-art or reality based. We also had usability testing, bribing students and staff with pizza, but were unable to offer any monetary compensation. (pizza must be the universal enticement at colleges). Only a year or so after the grand unveiling of the new, improved website, the university had a branding campaign, and all our work was scraped.


One idea that intrigued me, as a future enhancement for Kent’s system, was the possibility of faculty adding their own class pages as content resources. A very collaborative idea! I haven’t yet seen catalog tagging by users in any of the local systems I frequent, but perhaps tagging with links to a faculty’s content pages? As an instruction librarian I frequently recommend specific books and add them to a LibGuide created for a specific class assignment. Could a catalog result be cross-linked to a specific LibGuide to explore additional resources?

One thing that surprised me was Kent’s requirement for their CMS to only allow staff access to a WYSIWIG editor when creating content. I have been frustrated when using WYSIWIGS, and have been very grateful when I can open the html and see the coding. Maybe there are more perfect utilities that don’t get a mind of their own and add unwanted code, but in my limited experience I have found the html editing tool very valuable.


The article was a great introduction to the possibilities of the uses of a content management system beyond a storage and retrieval system.

On second thought…

I think a learning object repository is overly ambitious for the semester project. I am having trouble opening several of the files I saved in my home environment. JHOVE does not seem to be able to validate flash, and I am concerned that some of the repositories we test will not be able to display complex files.

So what’s a good second choice?

I have never been much of a collector. The only thing around my house which seems to collect is dust. I do, however, have a lot of pictures from the trips I’ve taken. So as cliché as this might be, I will be gathering some of my favorite digital photos of a trip to Peru, supplemented by a few notes from my husband’s travel journal, some audio files from a CD we purchased there, and maybe a travel video If I can find one to download on the net.

Unit 1 IRLS 675 Begins…

First assignment: gather together 15-20 digital objects. These will serve as the working collection for the repository systems we create in the coming weeks.

I immediately thought of a collection of learning objects. Learning objects are broadly defined as “any digital resource that can be reused to mediate learning.” (Wiley and Edwards, 2002) LOs are the big project my Provost is focusing on this semester, and I’ve been appointed to a committee to investigate what it would take to create a repository and to encourage faculty to begin creating VLOs for their distance learning courses. So collecting 15-20 learning objects to experiment with sounded great. In STEM topics—even more perfect!

Except…..

I spent a good portion of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday trying to capture some objects. There are great repositories—Merlot, Wisc-Online, NSDL, Orange Grove, EcoLearnIt, etc. But Merlot and NSDL are decentralized (they point to objects rather than host them), Wisc asks that you link to their website instead of downloading items, and most of the other repositories did not have objects that I could easily download and use. (I have an entire folder full of zipped files—how do you put them in a repository?) I think I need a lot more technical skill (which I hope to get during this class.) I may be undertaking more than I can handle, but I would like to give this a try.

Tonight I came across some educational sites that were a little more promising. I have downloaded several .swf files, which I hope will work within the repositories we create. Although my initial attempt has been to try to find interactive flash files, as I hone the collection, I plan to include images, documents and other audio/visual formats.

I have been reading (in some cases skimming) the selections for Unit 12 on project management. One that I found especially interesting was the USDA’s Project Management Handbook. I was taken by how structured and formalized it was. It seemed that quite a bit of the handbook was spent in lisitng all the other government mandates that define how projects should be handled. That is the supposed curse in working for the government—one can feel like their hands are tied in having to comply with all the many rules and regs. I also found it interesting that it went into more detail then other readings on the importance and place of security in the IT environment, and different stages of the project. I think the document did a good job at differentiating between program and project manager, and spelling out the responsibilities of each, along with roles and responsibilities of the project team and client.

I contrast this with the article I read for the dropbox assignment: Reich, Sauer, and Wee’s Innovative Practices for IT Projects. As the title indicates, it has suggestions for novel ways to deal with issues that arise during a project’s planning and implementation. One message from the article is that it is alright not to follow rules if they would lead to a failed project, and even to encourage dissent if something is in the works, but doesn’t make sense. Somehow I see the authors of the Project Management Handbook dying of apoplexy if they were asked to take that article seriously.

Of course there is necessity for both works. The Project Management Handbook is useful for providing a solid government reference, and many people are most comfortable with having detailed, structured assignments and boundaries. But unexpected variables happen, and flexibility to respond in more a unorthodox manner, if it leads to success, is what Innovative Practices for IT Projects affirms.