Make Salad, Not War

Luke, my 8-year-old, and I alternate nights with my 5-year-old for snuggles before falling asleep. On Luke's nights, he likes to stay awake as long as possible chatting about whatever he can come up with. Sometimes I am dead tired and there is my wide-eyed little Luke all excited for Mommy snuggles and as soon as I lay down he'll start in with, "so, what should we talk about?" I wonder whether I am going to have one of those closeted teenagers or whether he will always be this adorable eager beaver?

Several nights ago it was Luke's turn for Mommy snuggles. I lay down beside him and slid my arm around him.

"Mommy," he said, "did you know that the Stormtroopers in my Lego Star Wars game have guns that turn into carrots?! Isn't that crazy?!"

"Carrots?" I said, "That sure is crazy!"

"They can't hurt anyone Mommy! They're just -- carrots!" he said.

"Wow," I said, "What if that could really happen and we could replace all of the guns in the world with carrots?"

"Yeah!" he said excitedly.

"And bombs could be tomatoes," I said.

"Yeah, it's like salad!" he said even more excited.

"Yeah Luke! Make salad, not war!" I said

And with that the two of us fell into a fit of giggles. Luke decided that he was going to start a major campaign to replace weapons with vegetables and encourage world peace by making salad, not war. Politics with an 8-year-old is so much fun!

The Semester is Over and I've Survived!

Little did I know a year ago that I'd be sitting at my computer having completed my first semester of graduate school on my way to a whole new career. It's amazing how life can change in a year. I'm so thankful for the amazing gifts that life has thrown my way in friendship and family. As much as I've seen around the globe, it's the amazing relationships I've found with people that have shown me that no matter how much craziness, darkness, and brutality we all may hear about there is far more light and love to be found.

My mother came to me last spring and offered to pay for my education at a time when I saw no opportunity. I have an incredible mother. I delight in every day that I've been able to raise my own children as I hold onto their giggles and snuggles and watch them sprout up before my very eyes. When I jokingly say, "My! You are almost ready for college!" My 5-year-old daughter wells up and says she will never want to leave me and my 8-year-old son proudly proclaims that he is taking "mommy, baby beluga, sleepy bear, and RS Media" (his robot) with him. I chuckle knowing the reality that they will be oh-so independent in a very short while, but know that I am truly blessed. I am thankful for the friends, both old and new. The friends I have known since I was 7, 17, 32, and just a year or two ago. Friends who have made life rich with laughter and compassion as we've shared our growing, our greatest joys, our greatest sorrows and sometimes just a good glass of merlot.

So as 2008 comes to an end, I hope that all are able to look for the light and love, the joy and laughter in your lives and welcome in a bright 2009. Peace.

muddiest point

Cloud computing and Web 2.0 are a great development, but don't they pose a security risk for sensitive data? How do you ensure that protection is adequate if you are relying on software and hardware outside of your local network?

Muddiest Point -- Wikipedia

How exactly does one get picked to become a part of the volunteer hierarchy at Wikipedia?

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Readings Week 12 -- Social Software

This week's readings were about blogs and wikis. Until I started in the MLIS program, I'd read a few blogs here and there and certainly looked up a few things on Wikipedia, but really hadn't used wiki's all that much. During the past few months, however, I've gained a whole new perspective and appreciation for them. What they really bring to the table is a new way to connect and collaborate.

Blogs allow us to carry on a web-based discussion, be it a scientific or engineering-based discussion as the Reichert article talks about, or a discussion among student from different classrooms in different parts of the world. They open up new possibilities for how teachers can teach or politicians can carry on political debates. I've been quite intrigued by the whole thing and am sure that as a school librarian I'll be using blogs and encouraging teachers within my school to use them as well.

Wikis bring a new face to collaboration. Once skeptical of the validity of Wikipedia, my viewpoint has shifted. I am beginning to look at Wikipedia as a source with as much validity as an other encyclopedia. After reading about the creation of the OED and learning about the process of creating Wikipedia and the standards to which it is being upheld, it seems to be a valid resource. In using wikis for writing collaboratively, I am finding them to be incredibly useful. They force compromise as a group moves toward a finished document. I wonder what an experiment would be like if we took a section of US Copyright Law and put it on the web as a wiki for a year for all to tinker with? Would something reasonable come out or would it be an utter failure? Maybe Lawrence Lessig should give it a try just to see what happens...

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Muddiest Point -- OAI

Can you spend some more time on OAI? It seemed like you flew through this part of the lecture at the end and I have too many questions to list...

Readings Week 11 -- Digital Libraries and Institutional Repositories

This was quite an interesting topic to read about this week as it has been something that I have been delving into at work for the past 6-8 weeks as a side project. I work part-time at the University of Delaware as the newsletter editor/writer for the Center for Composite Materials. I'm interested in moving the web page in the direction of a DL so that our researchers work gains wider access. Some of it is already online, but it is often outdated and not well organized. We do have a small archive of old material on DSpace, but are not leveraging properly. I'm trying to learn as much as I can so that I can pull together a team to organize a project that will revamp what we currently have. To that end, all three of these readings were helpful, but the Lynch article was extremely interesting. One of the issues I am struggling with is the copyright issue and what we are allowed to publish. The MIT model is amazing, but won't work for CCM as we are part commercial. I'd like to see more models of open access archives and how institutions are setting them up.

Webpage

I have not been able to get FileZilla to work on my Mac, so after several tries, I am giving up. I have plenty of space to host my website on my Mac site as well as Comcast, so hopefully that is OK.

http://web.mac.com/melissajosef/iWeb/Site%202/Welcome.html

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Muddiest Point -- XML

I understand that XML is used primarily for data while HTML is better suited to formatting and display, but it seems like this line crosses over occassionally. I'm not clear on when, where, and why XML is used for display and formatting.

Week 9 Readings -- XML

This week’s readings on XML, while interesting, definitely showed my weakness when it comes to programming. I got everything at a basic level. I understand that XML supports data while HTML is better suited to formatting and display… and then the waters began to get murky for me…

“It is important to understand that XML is not a replacement for HTML. In most web applications, XML is used to transport data, while HTML is used to format and display the data.”

“With XML, data can be stored in separate XML files. This way you can concentrate on using HTML for layout and display, and be sure that changes in the underlying data will not require any changes to the HTML.”

I sort of understood this area about schemas…

“One of the greatest strength of XML Schemas is the support for data types.
With support for data types:
* It is easier to describe allowable document content
* It is easier to validate the correctness of data
* It is easier to work with data from a database
* It is easier to define data facets (restrictions on data)
* It is easier to define data patterns (data formats)
* It is easier to convert data between different data types”
But when it started to get into XLST and style sheets I’m afraid I was in murky water again. I’d have done better to have been playing around with it. This is why I was an English major and not a programmer.

Muddiest Point

How come the fall break only affected LIS 2600 and not LIS 2000?

Comments Posted

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Koha Bookshelf -- The Fish School

Here is my Koha bookshelf...

The Fish School-- books on diving, the oceans, and marine biology.

http://pitt5.kohawc.liblime.com/cgi-bin/koha/bookshelves/shelves.pl?viewshelf=35

Week 8 Readings -- HTML and CSS

This week's readings were a lot of fun. I have always wanted to learn how to write HTML and now I had the perfect opportunity to get up off my rear end and play with it! I knew the basics and theory behind it, but had never played with it. As I did the readings, I pulled up a text file on my Mac and tried writing some of the examples. It was really fun to see how they worked. I am just learning Dreamweaver at work, so this week's readings were immensely helpful in filling me in on how all of the files in the index I am looking at in Dreamweaver are working together to form a webpage. CSS files FINALLY make sense to me!!!

New SpringWidget

Get this widget!

Visit the Widget Gallery

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Muddiest Point

I guess this isn't really a muddy point, but more of a request... it would be HUGELY helpful if Dr. He could make up a slide at the end of the lecture with a listing of all of the web references on it so that we can print it off and go back and refer to it. There are so many throughout the lecture that I get bogged down sometimes making my list of sites I want to refer back to.

Assignment 4 -- Jing

http://www.screencast.com/users/mjosef/folders/Jing/media/7f092198-3215-4e0a-9f0d-0a4fce3a0833

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30034657@N05/

Week 7 Readings -- Dismantling Integrted Library Systems, Inside the Google Machine Presentation, Internet Infrastructure

The "How Stuff Works" Internet Infrastructure was pretty basic, nothing astonishing or new...

The article on dismantling ILS was interesting. I don't yet work in a library, just volunteer at my kids' school library so I haven't experienced the frustrations of incompatibility on a large scale (other than my mac dealing with the PC world). I guess my feeling is that in the long run it is really in the library's (meaning all libraries) best interest to continue struggling through these challenges even if they do mean extra capital expenditures. Ensuring that today's library system integrates with the outside world is more important than holding on to a relic.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Google presentation! The map of Google users worldwide was really cool. In fact, I liked it so much, I downloaded it to iTunes. I'm really interested in the spread of the Internet globally and thought this was a great way to track useage across the planet! I loved Brin and Page's presentation style and am impressed by several of their ideas. I love the idea of 20% time and the way they encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. I also liked the Top 100 list of ideas -- just like Billboard!

Actually, I work within a special area of the University of Delaware where innovation and entrepreneurship are also encouraged. If one of our researchers has an idea outside of their specific research area, they are encouraged to go with it. One of our PhD candidates has a provisional patent for an idea outside of his research area right now. I want to show this video to my boss -- I think he'll like it!

Muddiest Point -- PNG

If PNG is better than TIFF and GIF, why isn't it the new standard and used instead of TIFF and GIF? Currently TIFF and GIF still seem to be used as the standards.

Comments

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Week 6 Readings -- Networks

The readings for week 6 were all fairly repetitive. I felt like they were all saying the same thing about networks in different ways. The concept of networks wasn't new to me, but I hadn't really thought about it stretching all the way to Global Area Networks. Going from PAN to LAN to CAN to MAN to WAN to GAN sort of reminds me of those Russian stacking dolls. I have networked the computers in my house with a wireless router and ethernet, so the hardware terms were also fairly easy to understand. I'd be interested in knowing where to get advanced information on setting up home LANs and security if anyone has any information. My network is setup on a MAC and I have a PC connected to it. We connect PC laptops into it and sometimes have issues with being knocked off the network. I get good signal strength but haven't been able to get to the root of the problem yet.

Assignment #3 -- Personal Bibliographic Management Systems

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

Here is the link to my library in CiteULike. The topics I researched were global information infrastructure, museums and online projects, and school libraries and education.

Muddiest Point

How can online students get access to student software? Do we have to wait until we are at Pitt or is there a way we can order it and have it sent to us?

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Week 5 Readings -- Data Compression, You Tube, and Imaging Pitt Project

The readings for this week covered a lot of territory...
Overall I felt the data compression article was fairly easy to grasp. The whole idea of lossless versus lossy compression makes inherent sense to me -- haven't we all spent enough time downloading files and e-mailing photos to be able to apply this theory to our own experience? I particularly found some of the information on audio interesting as I've downloaded a lot of music. Some of the music on the "free" sites is of low quality and the article does a good job of explaining how this can happen.

The second article was much more in depth and gave a deeper understanding of compression, but I was losing it a little bit with the algorithyms. I think I get the bottom line for where is is acceptable to use lossy compression and where it is unacceptable. Obviously you can't have a computer program download unless it is compressed with lossless compression or it won't work properly, but a photo may not have to be 100%.

The review of YouTube was interesting. I hadn't thought of it as a tool for libraries. Let's face it -- many of us are used to getting hysterical videos from friends via e-mail with YouTube links. My daughter and her friends did a short movie and posted it on YouTube. I watched the Republican and Democratic National Conventions on YouTube. Why not put a library tutorial on YouTube? Sounds good to me!

The First Monday article on the Imaging Pittsburgh Project was a wonderful review of the design of a digital library from the start to finish. What I found most interesting was that they were building a library of photographs primarily -- and a huge number at that! After reading the article, I went to the site and checked it out. It is pretty neat. I'd be curious to know if it is meeting the goals of each of the contributing members.

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Muddiest Point -- Blog Postings

I am confused about blog postings in general. Are we supposed to summarize the readings for the week or post our opinions and thoughts about the readings? Is the point of our postings to inspire discussion about the week's readings or show our notes of what we've read?

Week 4 Readings -- Metadata, Dublin Core, and Databases

I have to say, databases have never been an area that I've been enthralled with, nor bothered to learn much about other than the big names like Oracle and dBase. I had no idea that they had moved on to bigger and better things in the area of databases until reading this article. I'm still not sure what the bigger and better new databases do that the older versions didn't do, but assume we'll learn more about that in the lecture. My basic view of databases is that they are kind of like my external hard drive for my Mac where I store all of the big stuff I don't need right away. Clearly a necessity in our profession with the amount of digital information we are dealing with on a regular basis.

The next article on metadata was all new territory for me. As I understand it, metadata basically forms the backbone of digital information systems and search engines. Gilliland's article covered many different examples of metadata and different ways that people are interpreting it, but ultimately that is my understanding. Both Gilliland and Miller, who wrote about the Dublin Core Data Model, argue for moving towards some form of standards in order for systems to work properly. This obviously makes sense, but the question arises as to which system? I suppose there is a debate going on somewhere about which model is best...

Week 3 -- MAC, Linux, and Windows and Muddiest Point

My muddiest point is figuring out when to post...

I really liked reading about all of these except Windows. Windows just read like an advertisement. I found it boring. I use Windows XP and Vista at work and I use a MAC at home.
I loved the write-up by Amit Singh on the MAC! I plan on going back to it again as a resource. I am pretty good with my MAC, but he had so many great things in his article including some ways to play with the system. I thought it was a great tutorial. Also, in answer to the class question about fans, I think there are 5 or 6 fans on an iMAC and they are distributed across the system.

I also liked the Linux article although I've never programmed. I think it's interesting that so many programmers are developing as open source programmers. It makes me far more willing to pay for "free" software that I like. I feel like I need to support the starving artists.

My Flickr Posts

I hope I've done this right... I haven't used Flickr before, but I posted a slideshow version and a version with thumbnails. Let me know if anyone has trouble viewing. Hope you enjoy my little bit of family nostalgia!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30034657@N05/sets/72157607207989195/show/
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Week 2 Readings -- Computer Hardware & Moore's Law

All of the week two readings were basic review for me as I have a background in the semiconductor industry. My second job after graduating from college was working for a company that made polishing consumables used primarily in the semiconductor industry. I had tremendous fun doing everything from government and public relations to communications work. I got to watch a small company of 300 employees grow to well over 1300 as an indirect result of Moore’s Law. Polishing consumables were necessary in order to created a flat substrate to design smaller and smaller circuitry. Our challenge was to create increasingly perfect flat surfaces for the IC design. Eventually our company was acquired by Rohm & Haas and is now a part of their electronics division.

I really enjoyed the link to the Computer History Museum. I have young children, one of whom is really into computers, and I am looking forward to testing the link out as a teaching tool. Since my goal is to become a school librarian, I am always looking for things to fill my “resource list.”

I was only able to access two out of three of the readings for week 1 as the Emerald site proved a frustrating roadblock. I don’t know yet if others have had the same experience, but I suppose I shall find out as I read your blogs!

As a communications professional, I found both Clifford Lynch’s viewpoint and the viewpoint in Contents Not Containers right in alignment with my own. The idea of libraries thinking outside of the box and moving toward new ways of presenting materials is one that communications managers have also been promoting within the corporate environment.

Lynch is right on target in separating information technology literacy and information literacy into separate but necessary coexistent entities. On one side you have technology infrastructure and on the other you have content and communication, but they need to work together. I’m unsure about whether I agree with him or not about the preparedness of today’s students, although I do agree that they need to have a strong base education in technology literacy.

If people gain a stronger hold on technology, information flow both inside and outside the workplace will become far more efficient and beneficial. Currently, Information literacy tends to get funneled towards “experts” in the IT departments of workplaces. Not that those functions would disappear, but if individuals had greater skills, IT departments would not have all of the focus of the IT function. It would dissipate throughout the organization. Likewise, with information literacy, Communication Departments would spread their function throughout the organization. Overall, the trend leads toward a much more collaborative society