1) "Social Aspects of Digital Libraries"
Agre, Philip E. "Research Topic for Social Aspects in Digital Libraries"
I agree with Agre's point that we need to place information usage "in the context of genres, activities, relationships, and subjective experiences". Information never exists in a bubble. To fully understand an individual's information need, one needs to understand the larger context of the information need.
Bikson, Tora K. "Identifying Real Information Needs and Developing Digital Libraries to Meet those Needs".
I agree that "User modifiable interfaces (including user-definable search templates) are available in other kinds of systems and should be extendable to digital libary systems". This is an important point because one interface may not be intuitive to all users.
2) Arms, William Y. "A Viewpoint Analysis of the Digital Library"
I agree with Arms' point that "A user who wishes to do serious work using online information will find that superficially similar services have deep semantic differences". The way that a library's online catalog searches for information is very different from the way that Google, for instance, searches for information. To ever truly to have interoperability among DL systems, there would have to be greater uniformity in the way that users use these systems to find information.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Class 9 readings
Kling and Elliott reading:
I do not understand what exactly Mosaic is. Does it work the same way as internet browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. It sees like Gopher would be confusing to use due to all the submenus.
Saracevic reading:
I agree with Saracevic's statement, "A major difficulty was establishing boundaries: what to include/exclude as to the first criterion? What falls under a 'digital library'" (2).
It is difficult to come up with an evaluation system for a digital library because digital libraries fall under such a broad scope.
I do not understand what exactly Mosaic is. Does it work the same way as internet browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. It sees like Gopher would be confusing to use due to all the submenus.
Saracevic reading:
I agree with Saracevic's statement, "A major difficulty was establishing boundaries: what to include/exclude as to the first criterion? What falls under a 'digital library'" (2).
It is difficult to come up with an evaluation system for a digital library because digital libraries fall under such a broad scope.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Readings Class 8- Preservation
Rieger reading:
This is an interesting report because I have heard a lot about how digitization is a means of preserving print materials, but I have not heard a lot about what happens once the materials are digitized, and how companies such as Google will maintain long-term access to digital book collections.
Hedstrom reading:
I agree with Hedstrom that in order to preserve digital materials long-term, we will need systems that are self-sustaining and require little human maintanence. Another concern is that many digital library technologies will become obsolete. I also agree with Hedstrom's point that the preservation of digital materials will require new systems for identifying digital objects since current identifiers, such as PURLs, require updating to stay current.
This is an interesting report because I have heard a lot about how digitization is a means of preserving print materials, but I have not heard a lot about what happens once the materials are digitized, and how companies such as Google will maintain long-term access to digital book collections.
Hedstrom reading:
I agree with Hedstrom that in order to preserve digital materials long-term, we will need systems that are self-sustaining and require little human maintanence. Another concern is that many digital library technologies will become obsolete. I also agree with Hedstrom's point that the preservation of digital materials will require new systems for identifying digital objects since current identifiers, such as PURLs, require updating to stay current.
Muddy Point class 7
I was wondering if there were any privacy issues with regard to Google Desktop. I would be worried about a corporation being able to view the personal information on my computer.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Access in Digital Libraries II readings
Miller article:
I agree with Miller's point that the success of Google lies in its simplicity. Users want to be able to type a query into a search box and quickly find relevant information, nat spend hours searching for it. The problem with Google, however, is that the search results may not always be relevant.
I also agree with Miller's point that the library catalog is no longer always a library's primary source of information.
"The Truth about Federated Searching":
I am having trouble understanding exactly what federated searching is. From this article, I understand that a federated search engine is a service that a library can subscribe to that will search all of the library's databases simultaneously. Is the Zoom! service in PittCat an example of a federated search engine?
I agree with Miller's point that the success of Google lies in its simplicity. Users want to be able to type a query into a search box and quickly find relevant information, nat spend hours searching for it. The problem with Google, however, is that the search results may not always be relevant.
I also agree with Miller's point that the library catalog is no longer always a library's primary source of information.
"The Truth about Federated Searching":
I am having trouble understanding exactly what federated searching is. From this article, I understand that a federated search engine is a service that a library can subscribe to that will search all of the library's databases simultaneously. Is the Zoom! service in PittCat an example of a federated search engine?
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Muddy Point Class 5
I was wondering if there hae been any efforts to create a controlled vocabulary for digital libraries, maybe using social tagging as the basis.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Week 4 readings
Witten Section 2.2:
I thought that the three objectives of the bibliographic system, finding, collocation, and choice, were interesting. Each objective is designed to make it easier for the end user to find and retrieve the information he/she is looking for. I agree with Witten's point that a successful didgital library is one that mimics a traditional library. The author writes, "helpful digital libraries need to present users with an image of stability and continuity, as though electronic documents were identifiable, discreet objects like physical ones" (49).
Gilliland reading:
The author briefly mentions automated metadata creation. I am curious about how this can be achieved. It seems that an object would need to be examined by a human to create metadata that best describes that object.
Gilliland writes about the broad scope of metadata extending outside of the traditional library catalog. For instance, I am creating metadata when I create tags for my favorite websites.
I thought that the three objectives of the bibliographic system, finding, collocation, and choice, were interesting. Each objective is designed to make it easier for the end user to find and retrieve the information he/she is looking for. I agree with Witten's point that a successful didgital library is one that mimics a traditional library. The author writes, "helpful digital libraries need to present users with an image of stability and continuity, as though electronic documents were identifiable, discreet objects like physical ones" (49).
Gilliland reading:
The author briefly mentions automated metadata creation. I am curious about how this can be achieved. It seems that an object would need to be examined by a human to create metadata that best describes that object.
Gilliland writes about the broad scope of metadata extending outside of the traditional library catalog. For instance, I am creating metadata when I create tags for my favorite websites.
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