Muddiest Point for the week of 10/26

Since we submitted Assignment 3 last Tuesday, I'm wondering when Assignment 2 will be graded.

Readings for week of 10/26

OK this is my first post on here in a while since we didn't have class the week before last due to FastTrack weekend. Of all the readings for this week, I found the one by Papy (Chapter 1 of Digital Libraries) to be the most interesting. Particularly, the passage "the average yuser looks for one answer, not all possible answers. The librarian's obsession with delivering all possible answers is a surplus in quality that is not appreciated by the user". Furthermore, Papy goes on to add that "(librarians) no longer play the role of the mediator between the user and the system". This goes to the heart of the debate on not only what a digital library is, but how users interact within a library context and how librarians respond to that. Our profession likes to think that librarians will be needed in the future to help customers get the correct information for whatever they're looking for, but the way that this will be done has to change in accordance with the above.

I'd also like to add that I enjoyed watching everyone's presentation proposals. I think it's interesting that groups will work on everything from digitizing movie posters to digitizing files for an Eskimo language.

Muddiest Point for Week of 10/5/10

Based upon the last slide in the lecture, Assignment 3 is due on 10/19. However, in the syllabus, the due date shown is 10/26. Which is correct? I hope that it's the latter, of course. Another student already brought up this question on the dB, but I'm still unclear on it as well.

Readings and lecture for the week of 10/5/10

After watching the 10/5 lecture on XML and doing the readings, I thought that some concepts about XML that were confusing were now a little bit more illuminated. The lecture was generally easy to understand and quite informative. I tend to learn more by doing than by observing, though, so I think that once I start on Assignment 3, I'll really "get it" then.

Additionally, I'm also taking Metadata now and we're discussing and reading about XML in great detail there, too, so I think that this will help me with Assignment 3 and with understanding XML better as well.

Since we don't have a lecture this coming week, I look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday 10/16 in Pittsburgh for FastTrack weekend!

Reflections on Assignments 1 and 2

When I originally completed and attempted to submit assignments 1 and 2, I didn't realize that I had to hit "send" in the Digital Dropbox instead of just adding them. Thus, I was wondering why I hadn't received my grade and the TA informed that it wasn't visible for that reason. After resubmitting them properly, I finally received my grade for Assignment 1 and was glad that the error was overlooked and forgiven.

Assignment 2 - part one

Here is the link to my flickr folder.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/87025663@N00/sets/72157625104724484/with/5056071338/

These are just five random photos that were taken this past summer. In case anyone's wondering, the street sign and the photo of the Dia Museum were both taken in Beacon, NY this past June. The photos of the band Flower and the singer/songwriter Don McGlashan were taken this past July in Brooklyn, NY. Last but not least, the photo of our cat Lola was taken in July right here in Philadelphia since she's on our kitchen table (a favorite spot of hers).

Metadata readings and lecture

I found this past week's lecture very interesting because I'm also currently taking LIS 2407, which is (as the instructor noted) the brand new Metadata class that's now being offered. In that class, we've already learned about Dublin Core, MARC and MODS, so the lecture and the associated readings were a bit of a refresher for me. Part of me wishes that I would've taken this course beforehand just to get a better handle on Metadata and on XML, which we'll be learning about both in this course and in Metadata next week, but the overlap is helpful as concepts are reiterated and reinforced.