Lessons from Taking the MLIS 7505 Course (2012)

MLIS 7505, Applied Library Technologies has given me a better understanding of the new systems being used by Libraries and Information Centers to server users needs and provide innovative services that will help create dynamic communication through Web 2.0 technologies.  Getting direct experience using the CMS program Joomla was a great learning experience.  I had not explored RSS feeds before and it was important to understand what they do and where they can be created.  I enjoyed doing a research paper with my colleagues and I find those group projects to be good exercises in shared work project, which helps me prepare for the real world workplace work.  The individual third project was helpful in terms of really understanding the differences and commonalities of Digital Libraries and Digital Repositories.   The Maymester lends itself to an accelerated but enjoyable learning experience and I have to thank D. Yang for doing a great job in choosing excellent assignments and providing resources that teach to the subject.  Thanks to all my fellow students for sharing your experiences and opinions as well, I think we learn a lot from one another.

 Best Dominique

Final Assignment: Content Management Systems and Libraries

For our final project we had a group project and we decided to explore the use of Content Management Systems and their roles in libraries and information centers.  They provide a new system that creates web sites that can create dynamic looks and services but also allow for more of its stakeholders to create content.  To read the entire paper you can access it through Google Documents in the following link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EBT6-FjuA6PQQjxiXIwfHHoHxsex6nZRjMTjidh2XsE/edit?pli=1

Researching Eight Digital Libraries and Digital Repositories

I chose to complete option two for assignment three and research four digital libraries and four institutional repositories. I chose the following collections: Hathi Trust Digital Library, Mountain West Digital Library, Calisphere, Chronicling America, DSpace@Cambridge, OAIster Database, and Econpapers.

This was a valuable exercise because I learned about the different types of digital libraries and repositories. First, I found it interesting that many had a certain niche or Geographic area that they specifically covered. The lesson here seems to be find an area that needs objects to be digitized and become a leader in that area so users looking for that specific type of information will look there. This strategy also allows the digital libraries working similar areas able to pool their resources in one database creating a powerful group of resources. There were other examples where of large institutions, such as Universities, that had a lot of resource under their control have undertaken digitization projects for open access. I was surprised that most resources are accessible with out providing a login in many cases but other cases resources are kept only for certain users with permissions. Also it was interesting (but not surprising) that all had important metadata standards.

Publishing a Joomla Web Site

This was an excellent assignment because I learned a lot about web content management systems (WCMS) and got hands on experience with using one.  For the assignment, I was supposed to create my own website using the Joomla WCMS which I was able to use on a 30 day trial basis.  Joomla  (http://www.joomla.org/) is open source and it used to create millions of web sites of individuals, businesses, educational institutions and organizations.  It offers a 30 minute demonstration video that walks you through signing up for an account and the basics of creating articles (web pages), editing templates and uploading content.  It took me a few viewings, while I completed the steps in tandem, to create a small web site based on yours trully.   I was able to create an introduction, contact, education/employment and places visited pages without much frustration.  It does take time and a lot of trial and error to make your site look the way you want it.  I found it hard sometimes to edit the page and find that it looks different when published on the web, you need to go back and forth to edit in order to get it looking right.  Sometimes you need to improvise, like I wanted two photos to appear side by side but the program wouldn’t let me (or I couldn’t find an apparent way to easily do this).  So in order to do this, I went directly into the html code (used some of my own knowledge of code) to create a table to place the two pictures into a row.  This might not have been the only way to do it but it got the job done.  With any project like this it takes time to learn to use the software (but in the case of Joomla it wasn’t too hard but not completely easy either) and a lot of time to collect and format your materials /content.  Overall, I’ve really enjoyed this assignment and I’ve learned a lot.

Here’s a link to my site if you’re interested:  http://tremblayvsu7505.cloudaccess.net/

Visually Impaired Challenge the Use of Nook Lending at Libraries

Hey check out this link ... I guess this would be a reason to use Kindles instead of Nooks for library lending programs.

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/05/05/free-library-of-philadelphia-lawsuit-casts-a-pall-over-ereader-lending-programs-everywhere/

Reflection on Assignment #1

This assignment really opened my eyes to the advantages of Web 2.0 and its increasingly important role in the communications for libraries and their online users.  It is changing the nature and relationships between the librarian and users that creates a space for more collaborative work where the roles of instructor and user are becoming more blurred.  I found the RSS part of this assignment the most enlightening since in all honesty I didn’t know anything about them before (despite seeing the icon multiple times on websites).  Wikis are also a fascinating part of this assignment and I like the potential of using it for collaborate efforts to maintain things like databases or web site content, but at the same time I still don’t feel like I’ve got the first hand experience of using one.  The First hand experience of using and creating networks of followers in Twitter and the Blog were excellent.

Finding the Right Wiki for Emory's Library

The library I decided to look at for the wiki part of the first assignment was the Emory University’s Woodruff Library in Atlanta, Georgia.  Its characteristics are:

·      Academic/Research Library Setting

·      Population Approximately 12,000+

·      Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students, Faculty and Staff

·      Diverse needs in terms of support for Health Care, Business, the Arts, Law and people from around the world.

The goal of the wiki would be allow students, faculty, and staff to virtually organize and share information on course work, post and discuss announcements that involve the library, student activities, and schoolwork.  The wiki would allow for all members of the Emory community to make announcements or create support groups to help them in their educational needs or research.  Ultimately, it will be a space where a diverse community can come together and creatively share and learn from on another.

Wiki Requirements Needed: Page History, WYSIWIG (so those with little experience can easily contribute to the content as needed), professional support for help with management, the possibility of hosting its own software, database storage of information (for full-text searching), and be free and open sourced based for cutting down on costs.

With the use of WikiMatrix, (https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki) and the above requirements, I was able to produce a list of 14 Wikis that could be used.  Of this group, I selected MediaWiki since it can support up to 140 languages, which beats the closest competitor by about 100.  This is important because many of the students come from countries from around the world and Emory shares an important relationship with the Tibetan exile community and this Wiki was the only one that supported Tibetan.  It also allows for the use of Windows and MacOS operating systems and it has been developed with educational and end users in mind.  One draw back of MediaWiki was that it is not mobile friendly.