Week8 Reading Note

This week’ reading materials are enough to ease my nescience about CSS. Those three webpages are including same content about how to write style sheet and how to embed CSS into an HTML document. CSS stands for ‘Cascading Style Spreadsheets’, and it defines how HTML elements are to be displayed. The logic behind CSS is not that hard to understand, but the problem, in my case, is to memorize every code and element to utilize CSS in real practice. Therefore, I expect that w3shcools’ web site would be helpful in the future. However, I believe that there are many people who create and design a web page without knowing CSS just like me because it is already embedded into a CSS-enhanced browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. In this view, I suggest that this basic but vital knowledge about behind the scenes should be learned at the beginning of the semester.

Week7 Lab

http://www.pitt.edu/~miy26/index.html

Week7 Reading Note

Beyond HTML is well written article to understand the initial part of the process of building a website which is more database-driven. I totally agree with the method of GSU’s web site developing. Sometimes, a website developer put priority on his interests. (Usually, he/she focuses on the aesthetic aspects of the websites regardless a user’s actual information seeking behavior.) Therefore, there is a significant gap between function of websites and the users’ needs. In this view, CMS and CSS are significant tools for information professionals. With these programs, an individual without knowledge about markup languages such as HTML has been empowered in contributing content. However, it has been 6 years after this article so the environment of the digital technology has been greatly changed, too. Now, I feel that ignorance about basic structure is producing another serious problem. In Chinese proverb, if you give a man a fish, you could feed him for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, you would feed him for a lifetime. I know it is harsh critics but I think that current staffs in the library are like programed robots which perform their work within their range. They show a marked trend to avoid and be afraid of tasks beyond their ordinary range. Some could say that it is specialization but I want to say that they are passive in working. If a librarian has more encompassed knowledge about markup language, it would be more idealistic than working with other individuals. I suggest that a library professional should invade other domains if they are vital in increasing our job’s effectiveness and efficiency.

Week6 Lab

Barcode: 0004848965

Week6 Reading Note

In his article, Librarians and their vendors have created a tougher world for themselves, with interoperability the only solution, Andrew Pace addresses that ‘interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality’. Why does he express a negative opinion about interoperability even though everyone works for it? I dare suggest the answer of this question that we are all obsessed by delusion that we should be an early adopter in digital technology not to be a failure. As I read more articles about the library system, I think that we need some agreement on the speed of accepting new technology in the library system. The library is a public facility for providing information, not a fair for introducing new technology. Nevertheless, a current library administration applies the newest technology without verification process, and then, moves to newer technology rapidly. From the view of a patron, this trend is not appropriate economically. I suggest that a library system should consider between what it can offers and what its patrons want.

Week5 Lab

Task1

Task 2

http://www.pitt.edu/~miy26/

Week5 Reading Note

Computer network & Local area network
It is beneficial to read about a computer network and local area network because we cannot exist without communication through various network. There are many types of network as size of them; personal area network, local area network, home network, storage area network, and so on. The type of a library network should be a local area network in the view of its size, but it is not because each computer in a library is connected with internet, and it does not have own dedicated network. Through this computer network, users can “facilitate communications, permit sharing of files, data, and other types resources, share network and computing” even though it has a shortcoming that it is insecure.

RFID
My local library performed the project of switching old RFID to new 3M RFID last fall. Based on my experience about it, I agree with Karen Coyle’s opinion in Management of RFID in Libraries that old barcode technology will be replaced by RFID technology after all, but in the view of ROI, I think that adopting RFID technology in the library system is little premature. As Coyle mentions in the article, the most beneficial part of using RFID in a library is circulation department. After switching new 3M RFID, the library administration located several new self-check machines to promote patrons’ independent checking out. The problem is although checking out through RFID machine is little easier than using a previous barcoding machine, there is no significant difference between two machines. Some patrons, who do not acknowledge that machine can read multiple books at once, check out books one-by-one, and other patrons still visit the circulation desk because it is more familiar settings for them or check out pre-reserved books through on-line. In this view, I want to ask one question. “Do we really need the new technology to serve patorns , or do we merely want to be an early adaptor?”

Week4 Lab

Task1

SQL Query:

SELECT * FROM isi_jcr_report_isls

WHERE j_abbr = 'ANNU REV INFORM SCI'

AND jcr_year = 2007

Task2

SQL Query:

SELECT j_abbr, j_if
FROM isi_jcr_report_isls
WHERE jcr_year = 2008
and j_if > 1