Reading Notes for 11/15
Digital Libraries
The number and variety of entities with administration over some portion of the scholarly information landscape immediately illustrates why navigation of this landscape is so complicated. I cringe to imagine the ad hoc standards some of those groups have come up with in a pinch. Aggregate, collocate, and federate. I didn't even know what collocate meant (: to set or arrange in a place or position; especially : to set side by side). It's interesting that while the Internet is a completely global infrastructure now, so much of it's innovations still come from the US.
Dewey meets Turing
"[Information] technologies were indeed important to ensure libraries' continued impact on scholarly work." That's an understatement. Again we have the publishers cast as villains inhibiting distributed innovations. We poor librarians have such difficulty letting go of our commitment to well-ordered and defined collections, which it seems the rest of the world (computer scientists included) doesn't really give a crap about as long as they can find whatever they individually need.
Institutional Repositories
The Pitt IR (d-scholarship.pitt.edu) is a DSpace IR, right? As the proportion of scholarship that exists in a born-digital format increases, it seems almost irresponsible for a university to not have an IR. More evidence of how faculty is outpacing institutions at embracing the opportunities technological innovation provides for the construction and dissemination of their scholarship. Build IRs and change your promotion and tenure processes already, will ya?
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Muddiest Point 9
Muddiest Point for 11/09
I don't have a muddiest point regarding the lecture this week, but I did wonder when we could expect grades for Assignments #3 and 4?
I don't have a muddiest point regarding the lecture this week, but I did wonder when we could expect grades for Assignments #3 and 4?
Monday, November 8, 2010
Assignment 5
My Koha Shelf
My Koha virtual bookshelf is entitled "The Art of Knitting" and was produced under the username AMP162.
http://upitt01-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=126
My Koha virtual bookshelf is entitled "The Art of Knitting" and was produced under the username AMP162.
http://upitt01-staff.kwc.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/virtualshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=126
Friday, November 5, 2010
Muddiest Point 8
Muddiest Point for 11/01
Jiepu recommended we use tags like paragraph rather than break line because of a greater semantic accuracy, and in the readings on XML it seems that semantic accuracy is something developers strive for when refining markup language systems. However, I noticed that in many examples comparing XML to HTML, that accuracy came with a much greater level of complication. How do the benefits of semantic accuracy outweigh the increases in complexity, and at what point would a higher level of simplicity rather than semantics be preferred?
Jiepu recommended we use tags like paragraph rather than break line because of a greater semantic accuracy, and in the readings on XML it seems that semantic accuracy is something developers strive for when refining markup language systems. However, I noticed that in many examples comparing XML to HTML, that accuracy came with a much greater level of complication. How do the benefits of semantic accuracy outweigh the increases in complexity, and at what point would a higher level of simplicity rather than semantics be preferred?
Reading Notes 7
Reading Notes for 11/08
Intoducing the Extensible Markup Language
It seems that the benefit of XML versus HTML is that it builds a more defined structure within documents to ensure that they're always processed and displayed as intended. It's interesting how everything is built around entities and attributes, much like a database, which is also used to provide information with a specific, human-readable structure. I guess the system is partly designed to make XML tagged info documents easily sorted by a given database without eliminating the ability to view it in its original structure.
A Survey of XML Standards
By adding XML Namespaces with vocabulary markers it seems the language makes it possible for you to embed segments in other markup languages within an XML document. Does this increase the flexibility of the types of documents XML could be applied to? Still not sure that I understand the difference between URIs and URLs or what a parsed or unparsed character is. I also didn't know XML can make it possible to build links with multiple destination points, or two-way hypertext links, but that would be a very desirable utility.
Extending Your Markup
The interoperability between Document Type Definitions and XML Namespaces seems like it would make the use of Namespaces a lot more complicated. This is what they're trying to alleviate with a standard XML Schema, but with all that is being accomplished with further refinement of the XML language, it seems like getting everyone to agree on and adopt the same standards is an issue that is hindering the language from reaching its full potential.
XML Schema Tutorial
The adoption of a specific XML Schema over the use of DTDs will enhance the utility of XML, but will it make XML more adaptable to new technology and document-type developments? It seems that like markup languages before it, it operates on a fairly stringent set of definition limitations, and if it isn't more adaptable then gradually everyone will move on again to the whatever is more currently suited to their needs. What happens when content is created that is outside of the definition of allowable document content?
Intoducing the Extensible Markup Language
It seems that the benefit of XML versus HTML is that it builds a more defined structure within documents to ensure that they're always processed and displayed as intended. It's interesting how everything is built around entities and attributes, much like a database, which is also used to provide information with a specific, human-readable structure. I guess the system is partly designed to make XML tagged info documents easily sorted by a given database without eliminating the ability to view it in its original structure.
A Survey of XML Standards
By adding XML Namespaces with vocabulary markers it seems the language makes it possible for you to embed segments in other markup languages within an XML document. Does this increase the flexibility of the types of documents XML could be applied to? Still not sure that I understand the difference between URIs and URLs or what a parsed or unparsed character is. I also didn't know XML can make it possible to build links with multiple destination points, or two-way hypertext links, but that would be a very desirable utility.
Extending Your Markup
The interoperability between Document Type Definitions and XML Namespaces seems like it would make the use of Namespaces a lot more complicated. This is what they're trying to alleviate with a standard XML Schema, but with all that is being accomplished with further refinement of the XML language, it seems like getting everyone to agree on and adopt the same standards is an issue that is hindering the language from reaching its full potential.
XML Schema Tutorial
The adoption of a specific XML Schema over the use of DTDs will enhance the utility of XML, but will it make XML more adaptable to new technology and document-type developments? It seems that like markup languages before it, it operates on a fairly stringent set of definition limitations, and if it isn't more adaptable then gradually everyone will move on again to the whatever is more currently suited to their needs. What happens when content is created that is outside of the definition of allowable document content?
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