Muddiest Point for Week 8

    This week's muddiest point came from the first reading. It says there are three ways to insert CSS. However, the third one, the inline style, loses many advantages of a style sheet. I would like to know more about the inline style, and if it really loses many advantages, then why this style exist?

Notes for Week 9 Required Readings

W3 School Cascading Style Sheet Tutorial
http://www.w3schools.com/css/

A tutorial for CSS with specific examples.

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets

• HTML was not intended to contain tags for formatting. In order to format documents, CSS is needed as to define how to display HTML elements
• Styles are normally saved in external .css files. Therefore, people can edit one single file when changing the appearance and layout of all the pages

CSS Syntax

• Selector: points to the HTML elements we want to style
• Declaration: each of them include a property name and a value, separated by a colon

Insert CSS

• External style sheet: be used when the style is applied to many pages
• Internal style sheet: be used when a single document has a unique style
• Inline style: use this sparingly (loses many of the advantages of a style sheet)
• Multiple style: the value will be inherited from the more specific one

CSS tutorial: starting with HTML + CSS
http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss

A very specific and vivid example which explained not only how to create HTML and CSS files, but also how to make them work together.

Explained how to add color and fonts, create navigation bar, styling links, and horizontal line separately with corresponding codes.

Chapter 2 of the book Cascading Style Sheets, designing for the web by Hakon Wium Lie and Bert Bos (2nd edition)
http://www.w3.org/Style/LieBos2e/enter/

An introduction to CSS

CSS rule: a statement about one stylistic aspect of one or more elements. A set of one or more rules that apply to an HTML document is a style sheet.

CSS-enhanced browser is needed for CSS to work.

Common tasks:

• Setting colors & backgrounds
• Setting fonts and margins
• Links

CSS allows users to supply their personal style sheet

This week's reading is really interesting. By knowing more about CSS and how to make my website looks good, creating HTML files becomes more fun to me.

Notes for Week 8 Required Readings

W3school HTML Tutorial
http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/

    At the beginning, the tutorial provides some basic explanation about HTML.
HTML: a markup language for describing web documents/pages

• Stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
• Markup language: a set of markup tags
• HTML tags: describe HTML documents; each of them describe different document content

HTML tags: are key words (tag names) surrounded by <>

• Normally come in pairs like: <p> (start or opening tag) and </p> (end or closing tag)

<!DOCTYPE> declaration helps the browser to display a web page correctly

HTML Editors: Notepad or TextEdit (for Mac); professional HTML editor, such as Adobe Dreamweaver; Microsoft Expression Web; CoffeeCup HTML Editor

HTML Elements: everything from the start tag to the end tag

• Can be nested: elements can contain elements
• Empty elements: <br> (defines a line break)

Attributes: provide additional information about HTML elements

• Are always specified in the start tag
• Comes in name/value pairs like: name="value"
• Always use lower-cases attribute; always quote attribute values 

Headings <h1> to <h6>

• Search engines use headings to index your web pages
• Use headings to show the document structure

XHTML: Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language

• Stricter than HTML

    Additionally, the tutorial has many quizzes to help me test myself. It is very helpful.  

    More importantly, this tutorial provides very specific examples for creating web pages. After reading this tutorial, I got a general idea about how to create web pages. Also, I will use this tutorial as a guide when I have some problems creating web pages.

HTML Cheatsheet
http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/html_cheatsheet/

    This handy page contains the most common HTML tags with their proper syntax. I think it's very convenient for a tyro or a amateur like me to have this when creating web pages.

Pratter, F.E. (2001). Introduction to HTML, Chapter 2 of Web Development with SAS by Example, 3rd Edition (Google Book)

• This chapter is mainly for SAS users.
• This chapter provides examples with detailed explanation. 

• IDE (Intergrated Development/Design Environment) vs. text editor
• XHTML: must be "well-formed" (lowercase; closing tags; nest properly; attributes must be quoted)

HTML Lists

• Unordered - bulleted
• Ordered - numbered
• Definition - a series of term/definition pairs

Style Sheets (Templates): create a uniform appearance by separating the content from the presentation; also simplify web page maintenance.

• using a single style sheet to format multiple web pages to create a consistent look across the site

HTML Forms: collect user input

The reference include a list of good how-to books for learning HTML.

Goans, D., Leach, G., & Vogel, T. M. (2006). Beyond HTML: Developing and Re-imagining library web guides in a content management system. Library Hi Tech, 24(1), 29-53

This paper provides a practical experience about designing a content management system (CMS) to manage web-based research guides at the Georgia State University Library.

• Technical, functional, and managerial developments
• Practical user factors

Muddiest Point for Week 6

My muddiest point is about Dublin Core. I want to know more about its limitation. In other words, although the Dublin Core is not perfect, it seems to be the best choice as a standard to me. And if this is true, then there must be some deeper reasons for those who are not use the Dublin Core because apparently there are still a lot of institutions that are not use it.

Notes for Week 7 Required Readings

Tyson, Jeff. How Internet Infrastructure Works.
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-infrastructure.htm

Internet: interconnected networks

The Internet Society: established in 1992; defined how people use and interact with the Internet.

Networks rely on NAPs, backbones and routers to communicate to each other.

• Point of Presence (POP): a place for local users to access the company's network
• Network Access Points (NAPs): high-level networks connect to each other through NAPs.
• Computer network hierarchy: a network of networks (computers becomes part of the network when they connect to the internet)

Internet Backbone: fiber optic trunk lines

• The more the fiber optic cables combined together, the higher the capacity.
• Today, many companies operate their own high-capacity backbones, and interconnect to each other through various NAPs.

The function of an Internet Router: determine the destination when sending information.

• Ensures the information does not go where it is not needed.
• Ensures the information does make it to the intended destination.
• Protect the network from one another.

Internet Protocol (IP): The language that computers use to communicate over the internet.

• Domain Name Systems (DNS): maps text names to IP addresses automatically

IP Addresses: a unique identifying number that every machine on the internet has.

• Octets: the four numbers in an IP address; each can contain any value between 0 to 255.
• Certain values are restricted (0.0.0.0: default network; 255.255.255.255: broadcasts)
• Net & Host: While Net identifies the network that a computer belongs to, Host identifies the actual computer on the network.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

• The DNS servers will translate the human-readable domain name into the machine-readable IP address every time people use a domain name.
• Top-level domain names: .COM, .ORG, .NET, .EDU, and .GOV

Internet servers: the machines that provide services to other machines.

Clients: the machines that are used to connect to those services.

Ports: used by any server machine that makes its services available.

Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP): the protocol that every web server on the internet conforms.

Andrew K. Pace "Dismantling Integrated Library Systems" Library Journal, vol 129 Issue 2, p34-36.2/1/2004
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2004/02/ljarchives/dismantling-integrated-library-systems/

The old technology VS. new web technologie

• New modules are expected to be able to communicate with old ones;
• Products from different vendors are expected to be able to work together;
• Existing standards are expected to make distributed systems seem transparently whole.

However, the real situation is in an ironic twist, and interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality.

• Practical experience proved that creating a completely new ILS is unrealistic.
• Additionally, incremental functionality improvements to existing systems are more and more expensive.
• Rapidly growing number of users and a more complicated web environment lead to new challenges. One-stop search and retrieval becomes libraries new desire.
• Some companies have reinvented themselves with new software and successfully met the changing needs of libraries.
• Librarians are motivated to seek solutions because of health competition with peers and disparate information resources, and they are forced to look at new tech.

Better costs more.


Sergey Brin, Larry Page: The genesis of Google (Inside the Google machine)
http://www.ted.com/talks/sergey_brin_and_larry_page_on_google

The part that talking about innovation in this presentation really interest me.

"the 20% time": many valuable innovation were came out of this.
Challenges

How to keep innovation running

• Problem: over 100 projects.
• by writing them down and order them, you can do pretty good job deciding what to do and where to put your resources.
• that allowed them to be innovative and still stay reasonably well-organized. 

Highlight things

• Providing equitable access to everyone.
• The ability and responsibility to provide the right and objective information (never accept payment for search result).

Muddiest Point for Week 5

I'm still a little bit confused about the metadata schema. What does it mean by saying "no single standard schema"?

Notes for Week 6 Required Readings

Local Area Network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Area_Network

Defining characteristics of LAN (in contrast to WAN): 

• smaller area;
• not include leased telecommunication lines.

10Base-T & structured cabling: the basis of most commercial LANs.
Wi-Fi: very common, for where copper cabling is not possible, and/or to support easy access for laptops and smartphones.
Fiber-optic cabling: common for links between switches.
Fiber to the desktop: uncommon.

Network topology: describes the layout of interconnections between devices & network segments. (it is the arrangement of the various elements of a computer network)

• Switched Ethernet - the most common LAN topology in use.
• Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) - the standard at the higher layers.

Simple LANs: consist of one or more switches

Complex LANs: characterized by their use of redundant links with switches using the spanning tree protocol to prevent loops.

• STP is a network protocol that ensures a loop-free topology for any bridged Ethernet local area network.

Computer Network

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network

Definition: a telecommunications network that allows computers to exchanfge data.

• Data transferred in the form of packets. (network packet: a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-switched network)
• The connections between nodes are established using cable media or wireless media. (network nodes: network computer devices that originate, route, and terminate the data)
• Best-known computer network: the Internet.
• Important feature: providing access to information on shared storage devices.

Wired technologies (transmission speed: slowest to fastest)

Twisted pair wire - Coaxial cable - ITU-T G. hn - Optical fiber

Communication protocols: a set of rules for exchanging information over network links.

Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP): the foundation of all modern networking

Routing: the process of selecting network paths to carry network traffic.

Coyle, K. (2005). Management of RFID in libraries. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(5), 486-489.

RFID: radio-frequency identification. It is like a barcode but is read with an electro-magnetic field.

    It is advanced compared to barcodes in the following aspects:

• does not have to be visible to be read;
• can carry a more complex message;
• the size (smaller and more powerful chips)

    There are a lot of very different technologies when talk about RFID, and it is rapidly developed. What varies is: the amount of info the tag carries, the range in which it can be read, the frequency of its radio waves, its physical size, and its cost.

RFID in libraries

    It is particularly suited to inventory functions, and the same RFID tag is re-used many times in libraries.

    It can be looked as a security mechanism when it is used in anti-theft systems. There are some drawbacks. For example, it can be shielded, it can be easily found and removed. However, libraries should still use it because it is no worse than other security technologies.

    It can save libraries' time and money because a single tag serves multiple functions.

    It can read multiple tags at once, allowing librarians to check out a stack of books with a single transaction.

    By using RFID, the cost of doing an inventory goes down, the odds of actually completing regular inventories goes up.

    It can be used to gather statistics on the re-shelving of books in the stacks area.

Problems

    With less sturdy items, there may not have a good location for a relatively bulky tag, and that are so numerous that the tag cost is significant.

    It also may not be possible to accurately check out a stack of items that are particularly thin.

    There are 2 main directions for the RFID at this time. However, libraries need a slightly different technology from either of these. Libraries need tags that are durable, inexpensive, able to be reprogrammed.