Final Project

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Abilene Library Consortium: Assignment 3

For Assignment Three, I interviewed Ms. Devhra Bennett-Jones, digital archivist for the Abilene Library Consortium in Abilene, TX. The ALC is a consortium of four academic (Abilene Christian University, McMurry University, Hardin-Simmons University, and Howard Payne University) and one public (Abilene Public Library) library.

The ALC is in the process of deploying its first content management system. They have decided to utilize D-Space in conjunction with a website interface called Manakin (developed by Texas A & M). Though our recent reading has emphasized the uses of D-Space in managing institutional output, this is not the primary focus of the ALC project. Rather, they are utilizing D-Space to help preserve archival material. The general climate of west Texas is not considered "friendly" to the preservation of old papers, photos, et al. Unfortunately, none of the libraries has a climate-controlled storage facility, nor do they have the funds to construct one in the near future, and all of them are experiencing major material backlogs. It is hoped that this CMS will help them preserve the history of their unique region (i.e., "The Big Country")

Ms. Bennett-Jones said that the most difficult part of the learning curve (at least thus far) has been retraining the various library catalogers to stop thinking in terms of MARC and start thinking in terms of Dublin Core metadata. She believes this is because most the catalogers are used to looking at things on an individual level (e.g., a single book, a journal issue, etc.) rather than looking at them from a collection level as one must do in archiving (e.g., a box of papers, photographs, and video all donated by a single person). The variety of material found in archives is the primary reason that ALC decided to adopt D-Space. In Ms. Bennett-Jones' words "it is very robust and can handle all types of sources well." Additionally, the ALC was very attracted to the "dark archiving" option available through D-Space.

Assignment 4

Is anyone else haunted by the suspicion that they really have not grasped what things like a "metadata schema" are, or how they differ from "technical standards supported"? I don't know that I've ever felt this lost in a class in my entire academic career...just wondering if I'm the only one.

Dazed and Confused

The title pretty much sums up how I'm feeling right about now. I'm waiting to hear back from two library directors whom I've requested responses from for Assignment 3. I'm trying to figure out how to do Assignment 4. And my new Final Project partner (Celia Strickland) and I are negotiating just which option we want to go with and how we'll approach it.

This is, of course, in addition to the various and sundry work- and family-related issues that crop up for all of us. Hope ya'll are doing well. I think we can all see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel...here's hoping it's not a train;-)

The "R" Must Stand for Rosetta

All you history fans are, I'm sure, familiar with the story of the Rosetta Stone. It was a stele containing an inscription in three ancient languages: Greek, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, (and I forget the third...maybe Latin?) In any event, the importance of the Rosetta Stone was that it finally allowed linguists to begin deciphering the mysterious hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians. So foundational was the Rosetta Stone to the history of linguistics, that it lends its name to the most popular line of language-learning software on the market today.

As I was reading through RFID in U.S. Libraries I could not shake the feeling that I was basically reading a Rosetta Stone. I didn't get a lot (and I mean, A LOT) of this 88 page exercise in verbosity and anagramic usage, but occasionally there would be a word or a sentence I understood. Now...if I could just find the English translation, I'd be in business.

Stop the (Word)Presses!

My experience with WordPress was good overall, though I wish we had had more time to work on the project. It felt like a tremendous amount of time early on was spent clarifying the assignment, rather than fulfilling it.

I came into this project with some WP experience. Previously, I had used WP for blogging and was familiar with many of its themes, as well as with utilizing the tagging and category features. However, I had really did much with the plugins/widgets/gadgets prior to this assignment. Quite honestly, I wasn't even sure that WP featured them--at least not to the degree and in the variety that Blogger does.

I had a bit of an embarassing experience early on when I was tooling around on the site to reacquaint myself with WP. In "cleaning up" the sidebar I eliminated the Meta gadget, which is what allowed us all to be site administrators. The upshot was that while trying to contribute to my team, I wound up locking my teammates out of the site. Fortunately, this was easily fixed once I knew what the problem was. (Thank you, Dr. Oguz).

I have mixed feelings about the whole team structure. Though I could not have asked for better team members, we struggled with the classic bane of student teams: scheduling. I think this problem was exacerbated by the short time frame we had to work within. In the end, however, I suppose we did pretty well.

A Ray of Hope

For some reason, I'm feeling a lot better about this class today. Perhaps it's because Dr. Oguz is going to allow me some additional time to comment on the vodcasts I missed due to computer issues. Maybe it's because after meeting with my WordPress teammates, I realized we don't have as much left to do as I originally thought. Maybe I've just had a good day and residual optimism is bleeding over into MLIS 7505. Where it comes from, I'll take it and be thankful. Hope a little sunshine has come your way as well.

One Week In...

Honestly, I was feeling pretty good about this course until I looked at the requirements for our upcoming assignments. To say that setting up this blog and playing with WordPress were relatively simple would be an understatement. One thing I'm thankful for is that at least the bigger projects will be done in teams.

Another Day, Another Drupal

Prior to one week ago, I had never heard of Drupal. After the reading and podcast/slidecasts I've seen today, I'm thinking that I may have to work with it in the near future. It sounds like Drupal relatively easy to work with, but I've learned to take such promises with the proverbial "grain of salt". Do you have first-hand experience with Drupal? If so, what is your take on it?

Sometimes Done is Better

Since I imagine many of us are experiencing some stress regarding Assignment 1, I'd like to share a quote. A former professor of mine, Jim Deitrick, once told me that when he was a graduate student he and his fellows came up with a motto:

Sometimes done is better than good.

Sounds about right to me.

The Quickie on the Wiki

I cruised several classmates' blogs tonight because I wanted to get a better idea of just what our report on the ideal wiki should look like. Unfortunately, I did not find anything on that topic posted yet. Okay...I'll be the guinea pig. I've had a rather difficult time wrapping my mind around not only the concept of the wiki, but what specific factors/qualities we're supposed to look for and write about when we choose one. Here's my first shot at it. If anyone has suggestions on improvements, I'm all ears (virtual ones, of course). Thanks for your input!

The library I'm most closely associated with is the small collection at Valdosta State University's English Language Institute (ELI). ELI students are involved in immersion language learning which simultaneously emphasizes grammar, reading, writing, conversation, and learning about American culture.

The primary goal of a wiki for this library would be to provide for the accurate gauging of student interest in specific books and genres, allowing instructors to post suggested reads, and allowing students to post personal reviews of books and their perceptions of how difficult the material was.

Absolute requirements for this wiki would be: (1) it needs to be free and open. We cannot afford to buy additional software/services. (2) WYSIWYG editing. We're not exactly a tech-savvy crowd, and none of us have massive amounts of free time to devote to beefing up our "nerd-factor". Given these constraints, my initial search on Wikimatrix suggested two options: Businesswiki and Mindtouch. Upon visiting those sites, however, I realized that Wikimatrix and I have different notions of what the term "free and open" means. I had assumed it meant one could build a wiki at no cost. They seem to assume that free and open trials (following by various pricing plans) are sufficient to warrant the description.

My next step was to utilize that most popular of information seeking strategies: Google "build a free wiki" and see what comes up. The first four results I found were: WetPaint (which I recognized from another classmate's post), Wikidot, Bluwiki, and Zohowiki. Fortunately, my selection was immediately weeded down by the parameters of the assignment. Bluwiki does not appear on the Wikimatrix evaluation list, so it was eliminated. Wikidot is free, but it did not offer WYSIWYG editing. While its broader range of options were tempting, most of those options would ultimately go unrealized by me because I have neither the time nor inclination to develop the necessary skills. WetPaint and Zohowiki were fairly similar in their options, but I found WetPaint to be a little easier to use.

Verdict: The ELI should utilize WetPaint to create its own wiki...and to cover that unsightly graffiti;-)

Gloria Estefan was WRONG!

Today, I'm reminded of a few contagious lines by a musician I've never been particularly fond of. Gloria Estefan warned all of us in the 1980s that the rhythm would...eventually...get us. In my experience, this has not occurred (though the rhythm did get perilously close once at a concert in the late 90s...but perhaps that was simply the result of all the second-hand marijuana smoke) At any rate, today I'm feeling like it's the stress--not the rhythm--that's in danger of eating me alive.

The May(be)mester

Okay, I'm already starting to wonder if I've bitten off more than could be safely chewed by an ancient slow-moving sauropod. I'm teaching three classes at the ELI (all three of which are completely new to me) while trying to manage not only the intense workload associated with a Maymester course, but one in an area that's a notorious weak spot for me (i.e., technology). Oh well--these are the times that try grad students' souls.

I'm off to (hopefully) learn how to produce a wiki. Wish me luck!

The RSS Feed Trough

After spending several hours digging a garden out of my backyard with my hands, a yard rake, and a conveniently located stick (as well as promoting future carcinoma on my back, shoulders, and face) I sat down to try and figure out the whole RSS feed assignment.

I think I managed to bumble through the process. The URL for the feed is http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/36616/ I'm getting the sense that I missed out something, however, as I never figured out how to set the feed's URL to contain the blog title (e.g., http://feeds.rapidfeeds.com/librarytechlog/ or something similar). Honestly, I'm just excited to have gotten the assignment completed. I guess I can now say I'm "syndicated." ;-)

One question on this thing: Does anyone know why we would want to go through rapid feeds to subscribe to each others' blogs rather than just signing up to be "followers" on the blog sites?

Day Two

Well, it hasn't taken long for my technological shortcomings to manifest. I was unable to access several of the vlogs on our module list due to not having the latest Flash player. However, attempts to download the latest version have met with uniform failure. Thus far, all I've succeeded in doing is altering my computer setting so that I get an annoying pop-up asking me if I want to allow ActiveX controls every time the page changes.

In happy news, I was at least able to watch Danah Boyd's presentation on My Friends, My Space. Overall, I found it insightful...though I have a hard time buying the argument that teens have no access to traditional mixed-aged publics. In my experience, most older people are quite excited to have young folks show interest in their groups--be they civic, cultural, religious, et al. The problem is finding that rarest of needles in the haystack: a teenager who doesn't view anyone above the age of 28 as a walking incarnation of Death. It seems to me the problem of cross-generational community is less that young people are not welcomed and more that they are simply not interested. Wrinkles just aren't cool.

Library Tech Log: 13 MAY 2010

This blog has its genesis in a course assignment for Dr. Fatih Oguz's Applied Tech Library Practice (MLIS 7505) class. I'm approaching this course with a strong background in some course content (e.g., blog platforms) yet in many other respects, I'm basically a technological neanderthal. I have high hopes the course will acquaint me with many new technologies as well as important new concepts (e.g., the various notions wrapped up in Library 2.0). Though I've only gotten through the first vodcast/podcast of Module 1, I'm very pleased so far.