Thursday, October 27, 2011

Muddiest point - October 27th

I'm pretty sure I understand the difference between CSS and HTML, but can you explain it just one more time?

Reading Notes 11-4

The Brighton University Resource Kit for Students
- BURKS (the Brighton University Resource Kit for Students) was a non-profit collection of useful resources for students of Computing who did not have an Internet collection.
- The project ran from 1997 to 2001 and the collection grom from 450M to 2.5G.
- Internet is a rapidly changing place.
- Collection is now nine years out of date.

Survey of XML standards: Part 1
- Namespaces in XML 1.0 provides a mechanism for universal naming elements and attributes in XML documents.
- Motivation behind XML Namespaces: You would be able to assign each a vocabulary marker. In XML namespaces, each vocabulary is called a namespace and there is a special syntax for expressing vocabulary markers.
- XML namespaces have been controversial among XML experts because they add a bit of complexity to the XML processing mode.
- XML namespaces have become almost universally accepted among XML users.
- XML Base provides a mean of associating XML elements with URIs in order to more precisely specify how relative URIs are resolved in relevant XML processing actions.
- XML Inclusions: provides a system for merging XML documents.
- XPointer defines a language that can be used to refer to fragments of an XML document.
- XML Linking Language provides a generic framework for expressing links in XML documents.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Reading Notes 10-27

Chapter 2: CSS
- HTML elements enable Web page designers to mark up a document as to its structure.
- Two ways to create CSSs: Use a normal text editor and write the style sheets by hand or you can use a dedicated tool.
- A rule is a statement about one stylistic aspect of one or more elements.
- A style sheet is a set of one or more rules that apply to an HTML document.
- A rule consists of two parts: Selector - the part before the left curly brace. Declaration - the part within the curly braces.
- Declaration has two parts separated by a colon: Property - the part before the colon. Value - the part after the colon.
- Brevity was a goal in designing CSS.
- All declarations must be contained within the pair of curly braces.
- The style sheet and the HTML document must be combined so that they can work together to present the document.
- You can glue the style sheet and the HTML document together by putting the style sheet inside a style element at the top of your document.
- The style element is placed after the title element and before the body element.
- For CSS to work, you must use a browser that supports CSS.

CSS Tutorial - Starting with HTML & CSS 
- For your first style sheet use a program like TextEdit.
- Don't use a wordprocessor - typically makes files that a Web browser cannot read.
- "Simple files is good, since it makes it easier to use the same style sheet for multiple HTML files: you only have to write the style sheet once."
- List at the top of the HTML page is meant to become a navigation menu.

Muddiest point - October 20th

I do not have a muddiest point for this week.

Assignment Four

Below is the link to my Citeulike page.  The two topics I chose were newspaper libraries and intellectual property.  I added citeulike in the tags to identify which ones I found through the cite.

http://www.citeulike.org/user/pamrichter

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Muddiest point - October 13th

Are there any projects in place like the Internet Archive?  Is there any competition to this site or has this site proved to be the best one for archiving Internet content?

Reading Notes October 20th

"Beyond HTML: Developing and re-imaging library web guides in a content management system"
- Content management can be defined as the process of collecting, managing and publishing content.
- In a CMS, the content is disconnected from the layout and design elements of the page.
- Allows librarians to focus on identifying, creating, annotating and selecting the content itself as opposed to exploring HTML format.
- In CMS, the content can be repurposed or repackaged.
- A CMS can allow more content creators to have direct editorial access to their assigned areas or components of a web site.
- Tagging content is an important feature of the CMS because it allows librarians to work in the same system and allows them to repackage it in ways that are most meaningful to the users.
- Reusing and repurposing is a benefit of using a CMS.  Librarians have the ability to add a resource item once, and then reuse that item in many research or course goals.
- Study in article about Georgia Southern University found that the move to a CMS has been a positive experience and an overall success.
   - In part because of the collaboration between the web development personnel and the liaison librarians.
- The CMS makes up the vast majority of GSU library's web site infrastructure.

HTML Cheatsheet Guide
- This is an extremely helpful resource. It helps simplify HTML code a little bit for me.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Muddiest point - October 6th

This is more in relation to the readings than what we talked about in class, but can you further explain the concept of "dismantling LIS systems," and similar themes discussed in that article?

October 13th Reading Notes

"How stuff works"
- Nobody really owns the Internet. It is a collection of networks.
- Grown from four host computer systems to millions.
- When you connect to your ISP, you become part of their network. The ISP may then connect to a larger network.
- Point of Presence: a place for local users to access the company's network.
- The routers determine where to send information from one computer to another.
- Routers are specialized computers that send your messages.
- Two jobs of routers: 1. Ensures that information doesn't go where it's not needed. 2. It makes sure that information does make it to the intended destination.
- National Science Foundation created the first high-speed backbone in 1987 called NSFNET.
- Backbones are fiber optic trunk line and has multiple lines to increase the capacity.
- IP Address: Internet Protocol, which is the language that computers use to communicate over the Internet.
- Four numbers in an IP address called octets.
- URL: Uniform Resource Locator

Dismantling Integrated Library Systems
- "GIS has been successful in offering public libraries tightly integrated core functionality in its Polaris product."
- Automation vendors have their own motivations: new revenue streams.
- ILS maintenance fees are relatively cheap.
- Library vendors have two choices. 1. They can continue to maintain large systems that use proprietary methods of interoperability and promise tight integration fo services for their customers. 2. They can choose to dismantle their modules in such a way that librarians can reintegrate their systems through web services and standards.
- May be necessary for librarians and vendors to dismantle the ILS in order to rebuild it.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Muddiest Point - September 29th

My muddiest point for September 29th is about RFIDs.  What are a few benefits of using them as opposed to bar codes?