LOC catalogue flash game

http://www.library.cmu.edu/Libraries/etc/game1/game1.swf

pretty lame.

3 down, 1 to go

As of this Friday, I am officially on vacation-from-school. It will be a much needed break.. very, very nice, and methinks i’ll be dying my hair pink again (with the help of chemical science, I had returned it to a ‘natural’ state of brown whilst being at school.. you know, in an effort to ‘look more professional’) . That’s all bs though. If anything, it makes me MORE responsible. More accountable. Impressionable. Identifiable.

Honestly, I cannot stand having regular hair, especially during the winter when everything is so dark and gloomy. Brightly coloured hair is a formidable ally in the war on terror weather. Alongside vodka and a truly fantastic scarves collection, its part of my anti-seasonal depression arsenal. I just feel sunnier.. happier.. livelier.. healthier.. more energized and more animated (and anime-ted) with pink hair.

Anyway, as I was saying, at the beginning of this post, come Friday I’ll have handed in my last assignment (the third one this week, plus final exam, ouch), and I’m going to spend the entire weekend (that is when I’m not at work) sleeping in and leisurely housecleaning. Maybe do some reading for me, too.

So what have I learned over the past three months?

1. I’m not going to be an archivist. My expectations were too high, and my perceptions of the field were greatly skewed. SO, I’ve left that stream and will be swimming over to LIS in January.
2. Do not judge a book by its cover (you remember books, don’t you? I wonder what the expiry-date is for that adage), as the class I thought I would like the most I wound up liking the least, and vice versa. Shockingly, the dark, dreaded horse known as Information Technology Applications turned out to be the big winner. I think mostly because I was challenged and actually learned a few things that will be useful both now and in the future. Imagine that. My e-business has been in desperate need for a database, for example. Now I can make one.
3. There are no books in this library. As much as I appreciate technology, literature, and the tangible, physical printed book remain as my first and foremost interests. Having said that, maintaining these interests, at FIS, is turning out to be a bit of a struggle. FIS has affirmed my interests, however, so this is a good thing. I’m going to meet with the people in charge of the book history collaborative program in January, and discuss my options for next year.

lastly,

1. I need to afford more time for me, outside of school and work. I miss yoga, I miss the gym. It shows, both physically and psychological. Time to get my zen (and abs) back.

At any rate, I should get going to (my last) class. I’m dead tired from working on the assignment last night, but I want to see this course to the end.

Life 2.0

It has been a pleasure knowing all of you.

I’m moving HERE

Quite seriously though, if this takes off? Ouch. Evercrack meets SimCity (with much better looking toons, err “prims”, I might add). Move over WoW, buhbye Facebook. Myspace who?

Anyone else a bit freaked out over the hand/eye logo? Never mind that though, it incorporates real money..! real estate..! and some pretty sophisticated second-life/earth-life integration tools. At least I think that’s what they are. I’ve skimmed the service, and don’t intend to delve much deeper right now. To be honest, I’m procrastinating from studying for my archives exam, so its par-for-the-course that I find this bloody thing. I’m closing the browser now. Stepping away from the computer.

Flow-chart Diagram Assignment

So, I just handed in my flow-chart for FIS 1311 and realized I neglected to include the following: “Hand in a printed copy of your diagram with a short description and URL of the modeled process and brief notes on your thoughts and observations. “

Woops. I will now attempt to fulfill this requirement here:

For this assignment, I chose to diagram the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) process as in place at University of Toronto Libraries (UTL). Included in my chart were several variables that would lead the user to alternate process paths. My initial thinking was that I was to mark these paths as well and include them on the same page, but this was not the case. So, instead of making actual charts for other possible endings (such as the intercampus delivery process, placing items on hold, etc.), I used the off-page connector symbol with instructions for the user to proceed to the appropriate page.

My initial paper&pen sketch seemed simple enough (I whipped it up in under 5 mins. I was rather proud of my efficiency), however, mapping it out on-screen proved to be a little trickier, and took a lot more than 5 mins. to create. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a tendency to obsess over aesthetic details. In this assignment I was enraptured with colour co-ordination choices and object size/shape congruency: “Oooh colouring the step-rectangles green makes sense, but which shade of green should I use?”, and “OK. These diamonds MUST be the same size. I’ll have none of this uneven ugliness on my flow-chart!”

Well, you get the idea.

Once I was pleased with the chart design and layout, I tested it from the perspective of an inexperienced, first-time user. Sure enough, I was missing steps. The missing steps were pretty basic, and certainly wouldn’t be necessary on a process-chart designed for any of us (i.e., the research elite), but I wanted to illustrate the process step-by-step, and from beginning to end. I plotted the diagram without making any assumptions as to the user’s intellect, experience, or comprehension level(s). In doing so, I created a bias-free design that anyone capable of following directional arrows and responding to simple “yes” and “no” questions could use. I suspect that by including every step my chart also would lower (if not eliminate) the chances of process failure or user confusion/error.

The downside to this, however, was that my chart grew to larger proportion than anticipated. A LOT larger. I created the chart on-line, using the free-version at gliffy.com. Resizing/shrinking/printer options don’t appear to be included in the basic version. So, I saved the chart to hard-drive and opened it in various editing programs (Adobe Photoshop, ACDSee, MSPaint… OK, kidding on the last one..)

In the end, I managed to get my chart small enough to fit on one 8×11.5″ page (rather than the side of a bus). Though, you might want to have your reading classes close-by, just in case…

CLICK HERE to view the pretty web-sized version

signs of the times…

Click the link to view the flash slideshow of the presentation Jessamyn West (Librarian.net) delivered yesterday to the Michigan Library Association. If you don’t like flash, she has the slides in .pdf and word available for download on her site. But ignore that. Just watch the flash. Flash is good. Once you’re done, come back here.

*waits patiently*

Back? Neat, huh?

OK. Now for part 2: I saw this video earlier this week during a presentation on Data Mining.. it’s a little flawed, a little flaky, and it’s maker appears to have taken the “narration and soundtrack” course at the Loose Change school of conspiracy video. But anyway. Onto part deux.

Source

More Hype

ps: Its from 2006. The blog post is 2 years old, which might explain why they keep calling it “TheFacebook”. I used to call MySpace “The Myspaces”. I did it first, I swear! They stole my line.

Software Analysis Assignment

The Chief Librarian has asked you to research, analyze, and write an executive analysis type report for the board (about 4 pages) on one of the following software projects:

- Koha library system – www.koha.org
- Greenstone – www.greenstone.org
- Dspace – www.dspace.org

You need to evaluate the software and report on its potential for your library. She is interested in knowing if this is technology the library should be using. What are the pros and cons? What are the potential problems or risks and how can they be addressed?

For this assignment, I chose to evaluate the Greenstone Software Suite and recommended it for my fictional rare-books library: The following investigation finds Greenstone as an ideal software solution for the Bernett-Townsend library. Based on research conducted and product evaluation, I highly recommend the Greenstone software application suite for immediate implementation; Greenstone is a “marriage of preservation and services, data and tools, permanence and flexibility” (Chavez, Crane, & Sauer 2006).

Background and Criteria

The Bernett-Townsend library is a small, but growing rare-books and materials repository with a desire to improve catalogue management and to go digital. As our collection contains one-of-a-kind materials, our library attracts multi-national/lingual researchers and scholars from all over the world. While our collection is moderate in size, we are about to acquire a collection of 13^th century manuscripts, and need to deploy a new and improved catalogue and database system – our current system is inadequate and thirty-years outdated. We require a new materials management system: one that will allow us to restructure our current database, to add new acquisitions and information to current holdings, and that has effective search and indexing features for both us and our users. We are also in the process of creating a digital image collection, and need a digital library software solution that will enable us to publish the collection online. We believe that through digitizing our catalogue (both image and text documents) we can better serve our patrons, while also generating further interest in the library, in rare books, and in learning.

Our digital objective is to “present the pages of the book as they actually appear, discolored pages, pictures and print, in full color, approximating the experience of reading the actual book” (Thibadeau & Benoit, 1997). Naturally, we require a software solution that is highly adaptable and can be customized to suit our unique needs. We are committed to providing our users with top-level service, and would like to maintain, if not improve our service levels through digitization. Our ideal solution would include multi-language support, offer our users extensive search methods, and would allow us to better organize, categorize, and customize our collections without data conversion loss as a result of switching to the new system. We seek a solution that boasts indexing and metadata solutions, is easy-to-learn, user-friendly, highly-flexible, highly-scalable, stable, well-reputed, affordable (in both short term and total costs), and relatively simple to maintain. Further, we would like a system that incorporates Web2.0 technologies, such as RSS feeds and blogging capabilities so we may improve communication between the library and our patrons.

Suggested Application

Greenstone Digital Library Software provides a way of building and distributing digital library collections, opening up new possibilities for organizing information and making it available over the internet or on CD-ROM (Witten & Bainbridge, 2003). Further, Greenstone enables administrators to sculpt websites and databases that are fine-tuned to specific institutions and their users. Being able to customize to ones needs and aesthetics is essential for all aspects of collections management. . . .

Greenstone is easy to use, has numerous classification and indexing capabilities, and a user friendly, attractive interface. Through the web-browser reader interface, patrons have the ability to navigate by browsing or search methods, retrieve comprehensive requested information, and to read and view documents from the digital library in their entirety. With Greenstone, distribution, source codes and software updates are available at no cost. There are no license fees, and institutions are not obligated to keep using the software, or be ‘locked-in’ under vendor contract agreements. While formal technical support and training is limited, the Greenstone website, as well as the user community is rich with resources, FAQs, tutorials, and manuals. Bearing these in mind, Greenstone offers a low total cost (TCO) solution.

Testing Greenstone

A panel of information specialists from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University compiled the following criteria for evaluating open-source digital library software: content management, user interface, user administration, system administration, and interoperability/standardization with other protocols, i.e., the OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) and Z39.50 (Hoe-Lian Goh et al., 2006). Throughout the evaluation, Greenstone Software consistently scored higher than open-source alternatives CDSware, Fedora and Eprints (Hoe-Lian Goh et al., 2006). Further, Greenstone was noted for its compliancy to standards used in digital libraries, namely, Unicode, XML, Dublin Core and MARC 21 (Hoe-Lian Goh et al., 2006). The Greenstone software package exceeded the competition in areas of report and inquiry capabilities, interoperability, harvesting metadata and automated content acquisition, and received full scores for report and inquiry, user interface, automatic tools, standards compliance, and support and maintenance capabilities (Hoe-Lian Goh et al., 2006).

Greenstone software is developed and distributed as an international cooperative effort established in August 2000 by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikato, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the Human Info NGO. . . . Issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Greenstone is an open-source, multilingual software suite for building and distributing digital library collections. As an open-source product, Greenstone is stable and active, used and recognized by thousands of organizations worldwide. . . .

Currently, Greenstone has nine active developers and is in level five (production/stable) development (http://sourceforge.net/projects/greenstone). Greenstone v2.74 is compatible with operates Windows, Unix/Linux, and Mac X operating systems. There are two choices for installation: local library (88MB, standalone based, novice user) or web library (server-based, sophisticated user), as well as further options to download the source code and a custom installation option (developers).

Evaluation

Greenstone is a flexible and robust software suite with several index options, modular plug-ins, customizable search (users can search by the criteria the institution has provided, such as author, title, year of publication, publisher, subject, keyword(s), etc.), database management, and compatibility features. The software boasts an extensive list of text plug-ins, from Word to PDF to LaTex to PostScript, as well as plug-ins for images (all formats) and multimedia formats, such as mp3 and RealPlayer. Also included are sophisticated index options that provide section and word-level indexing, phrase, proximity, and rank-able Boolean searches for incremental collection building. . . .

One of the most striking features is Greenstone’s CD-ROM publishing initiative . . . . One Greenstone-based CD-ROM can hold about 340kg of books, enough to fill a library shelf, which would normally cost $20,000 (University of Waikato 2004). . . .

A possible shortcoming of Greenstone is that it has the power to be very complex, and perhaps intimidating for the novice systems user. Further, as with all open-source projects, there are risks involved, including longevity (life-cycle), or loss of popularity to ‘the next big thing’. . . . While these scenarios are entirely possible, Greenstone has been established for ten years, and its popularity is unlikely to dwindle anytime soon. Another potential disadvantage of Greenstone is the underlying threat of corporate-launched lawsuits that have occurred with open-source projects. However, as Greenstone has UNESCO and the Human Info NGO affiliations, perhaps there is s lesser chance of hostility.

Final Considerations

As it is open-source software, formal technical support is not available through Greenstone. However, there is an established community of users that commiserate over the Greenstone Wiki, discussion boards, usergroups, and mailing lists. . . . Further, Greenstone.org hosts a blog, limited/emergency web-based support, several ‘how-to’ tutorials, user and developer archives, mailing lists, and a comprehensive FAQ. There are also links to multi-lingual examples of collections, patches, and to regional support usergroups, while numerous institutions worldwide host training seminars and workshops. Last but not least: “for those with funds, there are further opportunities”; $2000 purchases 24hrs of technical support time ( http://www.greenstone.org/support).

——————–
References cited above:

Chavez, R., Crane, G. & Sauer, A. (2006). Services make the repository. .

Hoe-Lian Goh, D., Chua, A., Anqi Khoo, D., Boon-Hui Khoo, E., Bok-Tong Mak, E. & Wen-Min Ng, M. (2006). A checklist for evaluating open source digital library software. Online Information Review, 30(4). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. database, ISSN 1468-4527.

Ian Witten. (nd). University of Waikato. .

Thibadeau, R. & Benoit, E. (1997). Antique Books. D-Lib Magazine (September 1997). .

Witten, I.H. and Bainbridge, D. (2003). How to build a digital library. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA.

Guest Lecturer = wow

Joseph Ferenbok, PhD candidate and Professor at UTM, was guest-lecturer for this evening’s FIS 1210 : Information and its Social Contexts class. In a word? WOW. His lecture and presentation was based on his 2005 “Research Day” conference paper, “Facial Recognition and Imposed Biometric Identities”.

For close to an hour, he had us (or at least me) enraptured. At one point I glanced across the class and not only were all eyes on him, but the eyes followed Ferenbok as he walked from side to side at the front of the room. Seeing this reminded me of my Betta fish, who will swim back and forth, back and forth, following me with each turn I take. Without question, tonight’s discourse proved to be the most stimulating and thought-proving experience I have had at FIS thus far.

• Facial Recognition Technology has an unreliable 52% accuracy rate, while the chance of two people having the same Iris Biometric is 1 in 14 billion. Guess which technology the US Government has deployed…

Why just look at the advantages:

• The chosen surveillance and identity system has a 50/50 chance of correctly identifying teh terroristzss!!.
• It streamlines practices of racial profiling, perpetuates stereotypes, and provides ample opportunities for scapegoating.

What ‘new technology’ will they think of next? Phrenology? Perhaps a categorical photography renaissance (hey, it worked for the Nazis).

• Recognition. In order for FRT to have a shot at being effective, the subject/suspect has to smile for the camera more than once. A repeat offender, if you will. Suicide bombers are generally not repeat offenders.

• Biometric technologies are part of the larger anthropometric tradition of measuring the human face to try to establish essential identity, character, and other stable characteristics of the inner self.

• We have a long history of assigning identity through facial appearance and structure, i.e., “she looks nice”, “he looks mental”, etc. I had a clever photoshop idea for this, but the computer I’m on can’t seem to find photoshop. Boo.

Anyway, Ferenbok’s lecture inspired me a great deal. Precisely what I needed. I do hope his paper is published at some point, I’d love to be able to cite it proper.

Where I’m at with things…

I’d originally written this in a comment, but it’s better suited as a new post, methinks.

I’m having difficulties adjusting to the program. After years of persuasive and interpretive writing, making the switch to quantitative (or is it qualitative?) research is a challenge. Writing papers in APA format is also something new to me, and I’m having real problems condensing my thoughts into pithy, 4 page response papers when I am used to writing elaborate 15-25 page research papers. Maybe my writing DOES suck right now. You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks…

Maybe that’s what I need to come to terms with — that I’m no longer an English major, and that I’m in a program with very different standards and expectations; standards that confuse my usual level of strong comprehension and expectations that I’m failing to meet. The thought of having to write exams sends nauseatic shivers down my spine. Exams!? I haven’t written an exam in eons.

I’m questioning whether I made the right choice entering the program (and certainly the archives stream). I’m a bibliophile, not a tekkie*. I fetishize antiques. One of my dreams is to have an attic filled with cobwebs and moths and mystery. I romanticize the literary tradition, from cave paintings to papyrus to ink to script to print to typewriter. Yea, I’m weird like that.

“We are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known”

The smell of old books; the prickly side of vellum; the idea of preservation; gathering pieces from a fragmented and partially — but never entirely — destroyed past we all once belonged to (and have so readily discarded). These are the things that do it for me and yet I find myself in a library without literature.

I’m meeting with the Assistant Dean tomorrow to discuss where my head it at, and options for 2008-2009.

————————–

*this is not to say I am a newcomer to the online experience, or that I don’t run an e-commerce website, or that I didn’t user ICQ and MIrc over a 14.4 modem back in the day, or play Everquest 18/hrs a day for 2 years of my life with a GeForce4..

Am I the only one…? Warning – rant ahead

Alright, I have to get something off my chest.

Am I the only one a little bothered by the fact that many of our assignments — at the graduate level, no less — are being marked and graded by a TA? No offence to the TA who is reading this, of course, but the last time I had a TA was during my second year as an undergrad. I’m shocked (heh, that’s the pg-13 word) that FIS finds no fault in having student markers for graduate students. We are paying a rather substantial tuition to learn and to be evaluated by professionals, NOT by students. I recognize that our profs are overworked; I have a night-time class where the prof has already taught two times earlier in the day and is exhausted to the point of not being able to effectively communicate ideas or spell basic words on the blackboard. Where’s the money going, FIS?

I used to be a TA. I’m not sure how decent I was at the job, but I recognized what was at stake for the students, and I always kept that in mind when grading their papers… is B+ the new A?

In the past four years I have maintained a 3.90 GPA, completed an Honours BA (awarded summa cum laude), a Masters degree in English, a post-graduate specialized diploma, and half of first term. Yes, four years. I’m driven as F#%$. I’m a two-time scholarship holder, and have received several bursaries based on academic performance.

I am not a B+ student…

oh wait, I am now.

Lookie there, I’m front page news!

http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

ok, well FIS front page news..