Muddiest Point

When are libraries and other academic institutions going to work together rather than keep jumping on the next big thing and stop working against each other using or promoting different systems? Google cannot take over the world and do everything.

This weeks notes.....

Digital Libraries

It's always interesting to see that Google is the main competition for any digital library or project that comes about. It is about time that many institutions are banding together and trying to make a splash in the world of digital libraries and actually try to compete with the Google model. Bill Nye should be excited that the NEH and all of the government programs are joining in on the crusade to establish a digital library. I was surprised to see NASA and the FBI on that list, but then again I'm sure an open access library could end up housing dangerous material and could pose a threat to national security. I guess we will see what becomes of it.

Dewey Meets Turing

This could be my favorite article ever. It honestly made digital libraries sound like some sort of evil secret plot against humanity. And anything that puts some sort of excitement into putting things in order in boxes makes me feel better. I mean really, "The Initiative?" totally a secret plot to destroy the world. The DLI could just be another clever acronym that is just a cover-up for something more sinister. I am not going to be surprised if I end up seeing James Bond walking around trying to foil any sort of plans. But regardless, as the Web grows, libraries and librarians are going to have to continue to work together and strengthen that connection to fight the good fight against copyright and intellectual property.

Institutional Repositories

This is basically a breakdown of all that is going on in the world of digital institutional repositories. Again, the ways of scholarly communication are constantly changing and putting more and more pressure on the institutions to create something new and also within the rights of intellectual property. Eventually all of the institutions are going to agree on a certain system and create an all digital library, but there are still many obstacles to overcome and no end in sight.

Muddiest Point - 11/17

The winner this week is going to have to be why care about the "Deep Web?" Does it really matter what is contained in the part of the web people rarely use? I mean if there is that much free money floating around that people can do studies about things no one uses, can I get in on any of that action?

Weekly Comments

David Hawking , Web Search Engines

So even Google let me down on this one. I could not get access to part 1 or 2, it kept referring me back to the current issue of Computer magazine.

Shreeves et al.

This is a fine example of academic writing at it's best. I could not get past the abstract and I was already lost. The abstract was full of run on sentences and I couldn't make heads or tails of the whole OAI data providers sentence. After reading the article as far as I can tell is that the whole Open Archives Initiatives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting turns out to be a big ado in the world of metadata tagging.

Bergman - The Deep Web

This was a really interesting article explaining how the web and search engines work. It basically explained how search engines work and the different protocols different engines work. It almost reinforces that only so much of the Web is actually used. Basically the 80/20 rule all over again.

Weekly Comments

My Comments on Christa's blog

My Comments on Jaime's blog

10/10 Muddiest Point

Muddiest Point.

I am going to go for two this week. First point will be why choose XML and not EML? XML just sounded cooler? Second Point will be, according to the Intro to XML article it states that DTD is not needed for XML, but yet all of the articles reference it and explain it. If it is not needed why bother including it in the talks?

10/10 Notes.... Week.....(mumble, mumble,mumble)

Intro to XML

Welcome to the wonderful world of awesome acronyms. This intro article provides a nice overview of extensible markup language (why not EML?). I have come to figure I have a terrible memory with acronyms and constantly find myself re-reading most things to go back and find what something means. It just turns into a Where's Waldo kind of game, it makes reading a lot more entertaining. As seeing as I do not have a XML programming background all of that information basically just flew right over my head but I believe I got the gist of all of it.

XML Standards and XML Tutorial

The Standards and Tutorial articles are both basically the same thing. Both articles delve deeper into the wonderful world of XML than the Intro article. All in all, I would need to refer to all three articles if I were to throw my hat into the age of acronyms. I am, however, starting to enjoy the W3Schools stuff, they really seem to think about their articles and what goes in.

Extending Your Markup

Or maybe I spoke too soon. I will probably just refer to this PDF rather than the other three, although my heart remains with the W3Schools. The "asides," if you will, make things a lot easier to understand. For example, the DTD information is much easier to follow and understand than most things.