made comments in the following blog. I tried a total of 12 blog sites and could only find the following with week 14 entry.

http://arklibraryscientist.blogspot.com/

week 14

Muddiest Point
When encrypting a message using both public and private keys and you send a message to multiple people. Does the message being sent act like it was sent to only one person, so that each individual’s public and private keys can be read? Or is there some type of public and private key that can be read by all readers?

Cloud Computing
Some say cloud computing is anything that happens beyond the firewall.
Cloud computing could be needs for something:
More storage
Abilities in new software without increasing the budget
Training new staff
Licensing new software

Software as a service (Saas)
Allows a customer to access software without high up from cost

Management Service Providers (MSP)
Application Monitoring Services

Service Commerce Platforms
Interactive service hub found in trading environments

YouTube
Cloud computing is an expansion of web 2.0
Amazon has a new hardware package called HaaS. It is elastic allowing the user to increase or decrease their needs on a minute by minute decision
This is also being called Utility Computing, allowing a company to tap into software needs much like buying electricity

The Future of Libraries
The way people communicate has changed over the years
All technology changes over the years, replace with new ideas
Moore’s law will have it end sometime in the near future
Search technology will be more complicated
Time and needs are changing the library look
Keyboards will have an end and verbal communication will be in
The need for global knowledge is increasing
A new global system is on the horizon
We are moving from a product based system to a experience base economy
Libraries will move from centers of information to centers of culture
Libraries need to:
Evaluate, embrace, preserve memory, and experiment.

Week 12

Muddiest Point
Dr. He mentioned in his lecture (I think) that search engines filter out duplicate findings. When doing research find the same item listed more than once in the returned list. Why is this? It would cut done on the number of listing one would have to look at.

Wiki’s
A wiki can help manage your library, for example, you can use it to share information among staff or patrons. When information on the wiki is outdated it can be changed easily.
Before wiki’s it was nearly impossible to share and build files effectively in an organization.
There are a number of free wiki’s out there that allow you to build your own wiki; these sites can be upgraded for a fee.
Wiki’s can be used in addition to classroom instruction by providing additional information on a subject.

Jimmy Wales
Jimmy talked about the benefits of wikipedia. His idea is to provide a free encyclopedia to every person on earth.
“Free access to all human knowledge.”
Wikipedia has one paid staff member everyone else is a volunteer. No other organization would be able to afford standby staff. The volunteers monitor all the wiki’s to make sure the information going into a topic is correct.
Wikipedia has 90 servers in a number of different areas.
Wikipedia carries a “neutral point of view” to keep the site from becoming bias.
Review of the new pages are done in reel time review, the pages get reviewed pretty quickly for content validity.
Wikipedia holds people editing the site to high standards.
People with a good knowledge of a subject can vote on pages that should be removed from the site.
The next big thing is wikibooks.

Social tagging sites
Social tags allow you to store bookmark information on a research topic you might be working on online. By saving you bookmarks this way allows others will see what you are searching, and you can see what they are looking at also. This can cut down on your own searches, information can be found by subject headings.

website

www.pitt.edu/~rjs73/index.html

couldn't get this link to work try

C:\Documents and Settings\Linda.Linda.Linda\Local Settings\Temp\pub3272.1\index.htm.html

Posted comments

http://epsyck.blogspot.com/

http://bshahidi.blogspot.com/

Week # 9

Muddiest Point
As I look over the HTML markup language, it seems to have similiar characteristics (commands linked with english text)of visual basic. Are all computer language similiar?

Articles
I feel very intimidated trying to graps HTML language. It hasn't been a focus in the previous IT classes that I have taken. At this point I'm still trying to digest the articles.

week 8

I made postings to the following accounts

http://theresarea.blogspot.com
http://elise-lis2600.blogspot.com/

Kola assignment

http://pitt5.opacwc.liblime.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-shelves.pl - Archives

Assignment 4

link to screencast.com

http://www.screencast.com/t/yt47RqkFE

Flickr shots

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30583099@N06/2921913476/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30583099@N06/2921086243/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30583099@N06/2921924702/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30583099@N06/2921940724/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30583099@N06/2921100951/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30583099@N06/2921111689/

blog responses

I posted entries in the following blogs

http://theresarea.blogspot.com

http://epsyck.blogspot.com/s-thoughts.blogspot.com

Week 7

Muddiest point
When a computer acts as a gateway or hub does it require a large amount of extra memory to run the many programs, or its just a regular computer?

Google clip
I enjoyed watch the film clip about Google. The globe was fascinating showing the number of web searches and the different language represented. The line went along with these pictures was “Everywhere there is power, there is the internet.” By this remark you could see a distinct line between the developed countries and the undeveloped countries. To counter this Google appears to make efforts to make the world a better place by its charity efforts.
It was interesting that 20% of a worker time was given to pursing or thinking about new products. This is a good example of a company wanting their employees to be happy and productive. It appears that it was easy and everyone agreed on the rank the projects to be tackled.

How Internet Infrastructure Works
This article brings out the fact that the internet is world wide and no one owns it. “It is made of both big and small networks.
In order for messages to be sent to the appropriate computer, each computer has an IP address, much like our street address. This address is unique to us. Routers act as intermediary which read the address of the message and delivers it to the right computer.

Citeulike URL

http://www.citeulike.org/user/SrBecky/watchlist

week 6

Muddiest point
When transmitting audio or video over the internet and it enters you computer through a buffer is that the same thing as a cache?

Week 6 notes
At first it was a little confusing reading about the various networks. But when I thought of them as telephone wires it made more sense.
PAN- Personal connections between computer and output devices
LAN – are local connections between offices
CAN- limited networks such as a university campus
MAN – connects two or more networks together
WAN – connects large geographical areas together
GAN – connects people together globally

NIU – Network interface units – bridge between computer system bus and a LAN
Hub – are bridges between LAN and WAN
Bridges – connect two separate networks together
Router – connects two or more networks together
Switch – connects networks or network nodes together

blog 5

Muddiest:
When working with meta databases does it matter how many entities or attributes you have? Does the database function better with less?


Collaborating on a project such as the digital image project is beneficial in a number of ways. First, preserving images of the Pittsburgh region in a metadata file not only benefits the organizations involved but allows the general public greater access to these pictures. Next, by forming a committee, the three organizations were able to accomplish more than an individual group might have in posting their pictures online. There were a number of lessons learned like, better communication amongst the group members. What one group discovered while readying the pictures for posting was share with the whole group, allowing more time to be spent in other ways. Another lesson was that it was helpful to have an understanding of each group’s purpose, mission and how it fits within the Pittsburgh region; this made it easier to identify categories and groupings for the pictures.

When you have large files such as the photographic collection mentioned above compression of the files is important, you want to have as much room as possible for future expansion. If I understand correctly, with photographs the lossy method would be used to compress the file. This method is used because some data would be lost in transition such as color, but it would be undetectable by the human eye. The other method, which is lossless, compresses a file when you don’t want to loss any data in transfer. An example of this would be saving a spreadsheet, where you wouldn’t want a figure to be altered in anyway.

flickr account

Here is the link to my flickr account

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30583099@N06
Sr. Becky

comments to blogs

I want to post comments to two of my classmates, but I was unable to do so. The square with the visual verification was inaccessable. Attaching them below. Sr. Becky

Sandrasilaghi.blogspot.com

I liked your description of waterloo and relating to information objects. Things don't have any meaning until you put it into some type of context. Sr. Becky

http://idontunderstandthepresent.blogspot.com/
Thank you for the link to Dublin Core - It reinforced the readings.
I too had a course in Access, but it wasn't until I had a class in database management did I understand the concepts behind the program. I think they should teach a database course first and then take the class in Access. The links are easier to understand. Sr. Becky

Week 4

Muddiest
Question, if one can access the Linux operating system and change program code, what keeps if safe from viruses and hacking?

Data base
In order to build a database from scratch, you must know what the end product is going to be. Talking to users of the end product will help identify all component of the software program. It is easier to fix problem as you go along than to fix it after you have completed the building process, sometimes it’s too late.
To start mapping this out on paper you must list all the attributes (columns) and list all the entities (rows) for that particular attribute. Once you have the attributes & entities identified this then become your table. The ability to link tables together is the function of the primary key. A row, named, employee number, in an employee table in the human resource department becomes the key to link another database together that has employee number in a table named payroll, in the business department.
When the tables are set up they can have a link to one other table, 1:1, one to many 1:M or tables might have a many to many relationship M;M. Many to many relationship means that the same information can be found in 2 or more tables.
Once we understand and build the database, the machine language (SQL) is used as the go between humans and the computers memory. The query pulls the information need from the appropriate tables and to answer our questions. Using search engines act as query interfaces to all available databases.
The following authors have written further on the subject of database & database management; Peter Chen, William Kent & David Campbell.

reponse to blog postings

Hi, I posted respones to the following blogs. rachelstevenson.blogspot.com & melhohman.blogspot.com. Sr. Becky

Digitalization

Is digitalization worth it?

I can relate to Charles Smith when he said, that he remembers having to go to the library and using indexes to find research articles. It wasn’t any fun for me either, to go through all those books of indexed materials to find what you wanted. Then waiting for the article to be retrieved, sometimes it was days before I had the article I needed. It’s so nice now to sit at a computer any time of the day or night and search the web. The best part is, you’re appearance doesn’t matter. I’m still not very good at doing searches for articles and there are times I wish for the good old days

Another good point about digitalization, in Smith’s article, is that it really does make the information available to more people. This is a good thing, especially if you live a distance from a library or can’t, for some reason get to a library. But on the other hand I remember reading something somewhere about how hard it is to obtain access to literature if you are not connected an institution of higher learning. I see this as a disadvantage to those who might be interest in a particular type of literature and are not connected. Could this be a type of discrimination?

After reviewing the pricing chart in Lee’s article, I’m not sure if digitalization is worth the cost, at least from my perspective. My future will find me working in my religious communities’ archives and we do not have a budget for this type of storage medium. If we decide to go this route, I know that I would have my work cut out for me. Trying to find funding resources would be a monumental task and there are many other things that will need my attention as well.

Is digitalization worth it? A part of me thinks that is wonderful technology and will open many doors in the future that are still unknown. The biggest drawback I see at this time is financial. How much will people be willing to pay for instant information and how will organization make a profit (within reason)?

blog week 3

When reading about the different operating systems for next our next class, a few things struck me as I read. Each system talked about how easy and user friendly they were. Windows and Mac’s stated that they provide user support during times of transition in software products. I have always used a window base program so I feel very comfortable with it; tried a Mac once and everything felt foreign to me. It all boils to do is experience, your future work environment or preference.
After reading the article on UNIX I had the feeling that this could be the answer to current and future software communication problems. If I understood right, this is an operating system that allows interface communication with different types of software programs. The one thing in the article that caught my eye is that it is a free download, no costs before or after acquiring the Open Source package.
When I think about storing information on a computer for preservation of documents, the drawback I find is that, at some point that information will have to be converted or it will be lost because the program changes. Is it correct to say that UNIX or Linux could solve this program problem because the basic computer language never changes allowing access to older program past the support date?

blog week 2

After reviewing the readings for this week and the Internet link to "Computer History Museum" I find it fascinating that people, over time can develop something bigger and bigger. Like a child playing with building blocks, it looks different than the starting point. This thought came t mind as I viewed the time line, in Computer History Museum, from the discovery of the silicone crystal to the making of a computer chip. It takes many people and brains to dream about What If.

This is also true when I read the article on computer hardware. To think that all those little parts are inside my computer and working without my knowledge makes me glad there are smart people out there. To develop a CPU and establishing a bus system, which acts a information highway between input and output devices is mind boggling, gives me a better appreciation for technology.

As I read about Moore's Law and that at first memory on a chip doubled every two years and now its eighteen month, makes me wonder if there is an end as predicted int he article and when we reach a point that we can't go any further, what next. As with any transition we will have to wait and see, be surprised with the technology (iPods, digital cameras) and find that they become old hat and you can't remember what it was like before the new developments took place.

I look forward to the new and hopefully I'll understand it. But I wonder if there will be a time when something new is just too much.

From the readings of the first week, I had the following thoughts
To run and be an efficient library one needs to have a broad background in a few disciplines.
Business:

• One must understand the business world in order to run a library at a profitable level.
• How to search for new funding and to write proposals for funding.
• In order to have a computer system installed, one must understand the SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle). You have to have knowledge about what kind of system you want to install, so that you can work with others to build your system. Then see that it is tested and implemented within your library. After this comes the training of staff and anyone else who will use the system. Finally, if at some point upgrades are no longer an option, you start the cycle all over again in a proactive way.

Technology:

• The above business process can not be obtain efficiently without a knowledge of the trends in the marketplace, both in technology and what the customer is expecting to have at their finger tips.
• One must have knowledge of the current vocabulary in use in order to teach others. I must say that I'm a bit behind in this area. I had no idea what fleshmet or moblogs, for example, were until I read the report by OCLC.
• Continuing education seems a must as I read the first three articles this week. To keep abreast of the happenings in new technology and business models is something I must remeber. For it I don't one will be lost when trying to figure out how to establish a blot and obtain an article such as the one written by Vaughan.