Pre-installed VM versus buildling from scratch

After building many VMs for the DigIn classwork, and finding that just because you are able to build a VM successfully once does not mean that you are able to repeat that task each and every time, I still prefer building the VM from scratch. I believe that my preference comes from the realization that in practice following the program, while one might have the luxury of having someone else install and troubleshoot the installation, it is important to be able to complete and troubleshoot the install as well.

As much as I might fuss and fume and have problems with getting files to transfer with WinSCP, I prefer working through it rather than having the "drag and drop" option in the VM (although I was getting pretty desparate and actually considered it). It's the same concept with the "pre-made" VM.

It might be more frustrating to work through the installation, and there might be a lot of "character building" involved, but it is a more productive learning experience as you get to complete the task, troubleshoot as necessary, and have the sense of accomplishment when it all comes together. Plus, you can take notes as you go along so hopefully when you go to install it or a similar product you can look back and see what you learned from previous installs and apply it to your current situation.

Oaister Harvesting

I reviewed several service provider sites at www.openarchives.org and at gita.grainger.uiuc.edu. Below are sites that I reviewed and some comments for each:

1) Sheet Music Consortium (digital.library.ucla.edu/sheetmusic).
I searched this collection using the keyword "liquor" to search for music associated with Prohibition and the Temperance movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My search returned 7 results - 1 at the Library of Congress and 6 at Duke University. To get to the individual items listed in the search results, the link from the items at Duke University took me straight to the image of the first page of music, while the links from the Library of Congress took me to a page similar to the one at the Consortium site where I had to select the item again to view the scanned image of the music.

I found it interesting that the two repositories chose different routes to displaying the images of the sheet music - and honestly, I found the Library of Congress approach, with the duplicitous descriptive record and second button to select, slightly annoying after having been able to get to the material from Duke University more easily.

However, this difference in delivery is one that should be addressed for this and other collaborative projects to ensure consistency in look and feel for the end users.

2. The second collection I looked at was Cornucopia (www.cornucopia.org.uk). This site is an online database of more than 6,000 collections across the UK. I searched for the term "Drake" and retrieved 9 results - 6 from the Tynwhitt Drake Museum, 2 from the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, and 1 from the Regis Philpot Museum.

This site was not at all what I expected as in my search results there were not digital images - just a site of catalog records similar to what you might find on OCLC's FirstSearch. There is a descriptive catalog record with a link to the website of the institution, and that is about it. I question why this site, as interesting and useful as it is, is listed at gita.grainger.uiuc.edu.

3. The third site I looked at was MeIND at the Hochschulbibliothekszentrum des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. This site is divided into different types of documents: archives; articles/preprints; links; monographs, congresses & festschrifts; digital & multimedia; regional information; conference proceedings; and serials. Also, there is the option to search by Dewey Decimal Classification.

I searched the term "Bach" and received 257 results in a variety of languages including English, German and Spanish. Results were grouped by genre.

What surprised me was the fact that there were links to items at the Library of Congress here in the U.S. on this site. I don't know why I was surprised as the ultimate goal of digital collections is to promote and give access to collections - which this very much does. I was just surprised that I was at a website in Germany that pointed me to a resource that is a few hours northeast of where I live.

I think that these sites are good, but there is a fear in the back of my mind that ultimately we will suffer from "information overload". I remember when I first discovered Barnes and Noble - the really huge locations in New York City - and I just fell in love. I would hang out there for hours just absorbing it all and wandering aimlessly through the aisles. I did the same at Tower Records in Los Angeles. It was all exciting and new - and I was thrilled to have such access to books and music, a degree of which I had never experienced (I was no longer captive to the bestseller or Billboard lists!). However, after a while, I just found it to be claustrophobic - there was just too much to choose from and I would find my self wandering around - not soaking it all in, but desperately trying to find something that would catch my attention. Information overload.

While a tremendously huge repository of institutions and collections sounds great (the one-stop shop for all things archival and library-ish), there is the need to temper it a little. I think that we, as humans, can only absorb so much and process so much before we just get overwhelmed and shut down. I can see the library and archives communities posting so much information online that it is underutilized because there is too much and the novelty of digital collections have worn off a bit. While I believe that collaborative efforts are ultimately beneficial, we should consider a moderate scope to our endeavors so as not to overwhelm our users and ultimately ourselves. Maybe there is a structure to digital collections that would help alleviate this, but I am not aware of one at the moment - but it certainly does deserve consideration....

Cataloging Quickly & Consistently - an oxymoron?

Consistency is the biggest challenge in cataloging - why there are so many standardized subject and descriptive schema available (Library of Congress Subject Headings; Art and Architecture Thesaurus; etc). In creating my digital collections, I am finding that consistency is a challenge, although I haven't really focused on that aspect of my collections yet. My rationale for not addressing the consistency in cataloging has to do more with my idea of testing the tools that are available for creating and organizing digital collections and figuring out the templates/controlled vocabulary at a later date. In working with digital collections on a limited basis prior to this program, the description of an item and the consistency of descriptive elements are fairly easy to address. What is more important, I think, when initially working with a digital collection management program is to see how the workflow is and then what it is capable of in terms of ensuring consistency in description among users.

Drupal

After experimenting in Drupal, there are many aspects that I like. It appears to be flexible to meet many needs. I am still working on experimenting with the a/v files in my collection in particular, but am hoping to work on those soon. The CCK module is my "favorite" so far - there is a great potential there for organization and maybe the possibility of social tagging, although I haven't poked around in that as much as I would like. For the most part, though, Drupal is very suited for my collection - especially the image files - and is a great tool for institututions that have the staffing available to contribute to and maintain a site.

Busy, busy, busy

Taking two classes this semester is extremely challenging. I have wanted to improve my time management skills, and taking these two classes is forcing me to do that since I am working full-time in addition to taking these 2 classes. I think the pacing so far is good with both classes - the workload is challenging, but not too much in terms of quantity.

The main obstacle I have had is that I have spent a week trying to get the file transfer with WinSCP to work. After installing server after server, hoping that with the next installation I could catch what I missed previously, I spent too much time focusing on that, and less time focusing on what I could complete in a timely manner in Unit 3. As a result, I am afraid that I will have another late assignment, because my time management has not been the best.

Again, I think if all goes well, there isn't as much of an issue with getting things done - but if there are any unexpected challenges on the technical side, you have to be really careful about how you keep up and solve the problem.

Content & Change Management

I read "CMS/CMS: content management system/change management strategies" by Goodwin et al published in Library Hi Tech (24:1) 2006. This article was of interest to me as my institution is in the midst of implementing a commercial content management system for the institution. Many of the observations and suggestions were very familiar to me. We have found similar things at my own institution - the conflict between various departments as focus and priorities shift (the "we're more important than they are" mentality); the constant bogging down in the minutia rather than looking at the big picture; and letting progress suffer or become impossible because of an inability to take action.

To remedy this situation, at my institution we now have a position that coordinates all of the digital projects within the institution. This person has seen the inaction occur over and over, and has come up with some good work patterns for the various decision-making groups (committees). Take for example, a committee that I am currently on to address how to best manage our own digitally-created materials. The committee has 20+ people on it, but it is divided into two groups - the creators and the descriptive practictioners. In order to eliminate the "but my job is more important because...." and the inevitable endless discussion of "this is how we do it and that's that...." - the creators sent in their "list of wants" for the final project, which have been reviewed by the practicioners and the creators will be interviewed by the practicioner group to have processes and procedures evaluated from a distance to get an accurate view of the big picture.

I always thought this was a wise way to approach things in what I thought was a unique environment. However, it seems that other institutions face similar staff, personality, and department challenges. The authors made very good suggestions and have identified the same challenges that we have at my institution. It's nice to see that we aren't the only ones going through this!

At this time of transition, we are all learning how to best manage digital and print information. To do so effectively, requires adaptability and an open mind to actively address the challenges. The Goodwin et al article is a great tool to get that dialogue started.

A digital collection

I have compiled a series of items for my digital collection which includes scanned documents, scanned photographs, word files, a powerpoint presentation, sound files (.wav) and moving images (.mov) files. I might add a PDF-A file later this week, since it just occurred to me that it would be a good thing to try out as well. The collection is comprised of items from my place of employment, and all the items focus on 20th century Virginia history. With the exception of the sound and moving image files, the materials are related to prohibition in Virginia (1916-1934). The sound and moving image files are from other collections at my institution - and were included to create a realistic scenario of the variety of materials that are often found in government records. Considering that the sound and moving image files are from a different collection (not Prohibition), description of these items within context will definitely vary, unless I create a general "20th century Virginia" collection. This collection (either created together as it is for this project) or as grouped by subject (Prohibition in Virginia; 20th century Virginia political campaigns) are of interest to those researching: 20th century culture in Virginia; moral legislation; Prohibition; politics in the American South; media in politics and political movements; and other topics. In thinking of key terms, I can't quite escape from the LCSH and the Art and Architecture thesaurus and have the following floating in my head: Virginia; Politicians and Politics; Prohibition; 20th century; speeches; sound recordings; etc.

I don't know how this mix of materials will work out, but it should be interesting to see what the various environments can accommodate. The collection I have compiled was assembled in order to truly test what these programs can do and see what might work for some projects that are going on at my place of employment. I can't wait to get started!

Another semester begins

So, after a brief break, classes have started again. This blog will continue with postings from the Fall semester.

wow!

Here we are in the final week of instruction in my class, and I can't believe how much more I understand about how some of the computer programs that I use everyday function. I had a good idea of how things worked prior to this course, but now I have a new appreciation for what our in-house programmers do at work. My knowledge of the components of the LAMP server is somewhat superficial, and while I don't think I could just walk up to a computer and make things work, I do think that I can converse more intelligently with programmers, do some simple programming, and, more importantly be able to do some minor troubleshooting and make intelligent suggestions.

I had heard about SQL, but now I know how it works. I still can't believe that I have been able to do so much in so little time!

this weeks' readings

The readings I found the most helpful were the readings from the PMBOK & OCLC Systems and Services - specifically "Standard methodology in digital library project management" (Cervone). Also, the article I picked for this week's dropbox assignment was a "lucky find" and very relevant to my newest project at work.



As I mentioned in the discussion area for the class, I have been working on a new project where we are working on organizing and storing images that we create for in-house and patron use. All of the readings were particularly relevant to this new project and I am looking forward to applying the readings to this project (carefully so I don't step on the project manager's toes!). It is really exciting to see how much this program is already contributing to my work.

I will probably purchase PMBOK to have as a reference - the readings in this book were wonderful and I look forward to reading more.

Another eventful week - more network problems

Well, this week my adventures in network problems continue. Apparently, the software for our cell modem is corrupt and doesn't assign IP addresses effectively. My ISP is working on it, but it could up be up to 5 days before it is resolved. So, I am now writing from a Chick-fil-A restaurant in beautiful Central Virginia! :-)

Adventures in SQL

This week we tackled SQL. While it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, it does take a keen eye for detail and incredible patience to figure out why things are not going quite as you expect them to. The number of times I typed in '.' instead of '_' and '/' instead of '\' are too many to count.

At this point, though, I think the most confusing thing is that I kept trying to use linux commands while in >mysql. I need to get a better grasp of how to move around within the program using the command line and also need to remember to put the ';' at the end of each command.

Using the other interfaces to create tables and input data (webadmin, text files) were useful as well - and probably what I will use if I have the chance. I don't live at the command prompt am more inclined to use the graphic user interface of webadmin and the simpler structure of the text file to create tables and enter data.

I can't believe we've already progressed this far in the class and am amazed that I am able to do the things that I have. Now, in addition to the assignments for the next couple of weeks, I will need to work on my final project and begin reviewing material from the beginning of the course so I will be prepared for the exam.

What a week!

So, this week has been a really difficult week. Not only have we had my dad here for the week, but the readings this week have taken some time to absorb and digest.

I was fine with the MySQL materials and picked that up fairly quickly. However, the data modeling and data normalization materials were a little more complex and difficult to get on the first read. I am on the second reading of those materials, and am still a little fuzzy. At this point, as I have mentioned in previous posts, repetition is really the key and I will just have to go through them until I really get it all. It's not really a matter of not understanding the material, I do understand it, but I don't really feel that I have as good of a grasp on the material as I think I should. So, I will read and adjust my notes to see if I can internalize the ideas and concepts a little more - reading through multiple times always helps.

If re-reading the material doesn't help, I will see what other matierals are available through other sources (internet, books, etc). Of course, there is always the professor and class to assist as well.

technology plans

This week, I have read a lot about technology plans and how useful they are in accomplishing institutional goals. The article I found to be most helpful, had very little to do with how to create a plan, but rather how to stay sane through it all. I think that the mental game is very important and critical to maintain so you don't lose sight of the purpose and goals. In his article "Life is what happens to you when your'e making other plans", Michael Schuyler makes some great points that I think are very helpful reminders, no matter which side of technology you are on:

- "A technology plan is a political document"
- "Technology is not a result; it is an enabler"

These points are essential to remember when planning for technology. As one who often gets caught up in the hype and often "can't see the forest for the trees", these points are excellent observations to remember when you are crafting your plan.

demo system update

Well, this week has been quite trying. I uninstalled my server and desktop in VMWare in order to figure out why I had network connectivity in both previously, only to find out at the end of unit 7/beginning of unit 8 that I "lost" connectivity in my server. So, I uninstalled everything and just started from scratch. As it turns out, the settings on my computer had been changed so that a shared connection on my computer was not allowed - so, I changed the permissions to allow that, and we were set to go. However, at that point, I had to re-work my way through all the assignments I had previously completed from Units 3 - 6 and finish Units 7 & 8. I did have some other problems, but as it turns out, I was making it more complicated that it was in that since I am not using a demo machine and I am running NAT I need to do everything in VM. This week, when I was doing all sorts of stuff in the server, I did have the desktop running and I did not have any memory problems - which is a good thing! All is going well, and I am not having any problems. I am also trying to keep screenshots of the troubleshooting that I am doing in getting my system up and running so I can have that available for future reference.

xml

This week, I was able to go and learn some XML. I reviewed the lecture, assignment and external materials referenced, and while they provided a good start, I felt that I was floundering a bit. I went online and searched for some "real life examples" of documents that were available for me to review and look at. - that was a good supplemental exercise. Of the resources mentioned in the course materials, I found the W3Schools tutorial and the tutorial found at www.washington.edu/... to be the most helpful. In terms of other resources, I reviewd a number of the sites referenced at xml.coverpages.org/... - while there were some dead links there, I was able to find some helpful sites that had some examples similar to what I was looking for.

Ooops

In last night's post, I neglected to include how I went about learning HTML for the creation of my webpage. For the most part, I reviewed the material in the readings, but then purchased my own handy source for HTML/XHTML - one of the O'Reilly fundamentals books. I have used these books in the past when I was learning UNIX about 10 years ago and like the format and explanations of the tags - it is especially helpful when I have worked on something and it isn't quite working out the way I want. I haven't coded in HTML for about 11 years, so while it isn't totally new to me, I am very rusty and need to reacquaint myself with the tags. That "I know it, but I don't know it" state is a very dangerous one - and one of the main reasons why a quick reference source is helpful since I remember just enough to get into trouble. :-)

ARRRRRGH

Today has not been the best of days. For the past couple of days, I have been trying to figure out why I can't get everything to work on my system (running NAT in VMWare). So, today, I left work early so I could come home and work on it some more. It just kept getting worse, with the final decision that I would be uninstalling desktop and server and just starting over since sometime between yesterday and today I lost all internet connectivity on my desktop and server on my system. To quote the vast number of characters from "Peanuts", AAARGH! I am currently reinstalling the desktop and server (probably not necessary and totally taking way too much time - but it does make me feel better). I am going to try again and see what I might have missed - I am sure there is something, but I am just not sure what it may be. However, I can tell that I am getting way too frustrated and am not sure how much more I am going to be able to tonight to get this done. We'll just have to see how things go tonight and how long I last before my brain is gone for the night.

variety

In the class that I am taking, the material is presented in a number of formats: a written "lecture"; links to external sources; videos and podcasts. This is such a change from when I was in grad school about 15 years ago. I find that I am feeling like a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to come of all of this. Each week, I print out the lecture, assignment and discussion topics, so I can have them handy and nearby. The first few weeks of class, I was also printing out the majority of material that was linked to the lecture - but that became very cumbersome. I am learning to read more on the computer, and am getting used to that. The main problem I have with reading online is that there are times when I want to read my assignment at lunch when I am at work, and without a computer I am not able to do all of the reading that way because of all of the embedded links to online sources - but I just have to make adjustment to accomodate that, since I am not allowed to have food in my office. The reserve readings I am not having any problem with - I print those out and read them at my leisure during the week.

The videos and podcasts are particularly helpful, though - I think in part these are more like what I am used to in a traditional class setting, with the exception that I am at home rather than a lecture hall.

I think my ideal situation would be a combination of lecture with fewer embedded links, reserve readings, and videos. I think this combination works best for me because it is a "modern" version of the traditional classroom situation that I am used to. The written lecture and reserve readings are the equivilents to the textbook and supplementary reader. The video is akin to the live lecture in the traditional classroom or lecture hall.

All that being said, though, I am grateful that I have had this experience with the material being presented in the variety of ways that it is. It is helping me to become more familiar with the variety of resources available and getting me exposed to the "internet-based" world. Since I work in an archives with predominantly paper materials, it is a good thing for me to know that there are other things out there. :-)

Challenges of rural life

There are many things I enjoy about where I live: listening to the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves of the huge oak tree in the front yard; the incredible variety of birds that are singing; the smell of newly cut hay; being able to see the stars pop out in the sky at night; and seeing all of the wildlife. However, there are times when I get frustrated because there are certain ammenities that we do not have. I can do without restaurant delivery and I don't mind driving 15 miles to the nearest grocery store (30 miles to my favorite grocery store). However, I do mind that we are essentially trapped without the availability of options regarding "non-dialup" internet - the options are cellular modem (which I have) or satellite (which is prohibitively expensive and subject to outages with the number of storms we get in the southeast during the spring and summer). And I live halfway between the state capital and a major university (each 40 miles from my house) - yet I still don't have access. Argh.

another successful week

This week was a lot less stressful than last week. :-) I didn't have any problems going through the assignments, although it did take me several times through the readings to feel that I had a good grasp of the material covered this week - there was a lot to learn!

I guess all of that computer experience beginning with the TRS-80 25+ years ago is helping out. That and that informal training of being an engineer's daughter, and spending years hanging out with computer geeks. :-)

This week was a little more challenging. After several days of trying to get things up and running in the virtual machine, I was finally able to move on to other things - I have described my experience with this on the discussion section of this week's course page. Of course, things were complicated by the fact that I had to go out of town at the end of the week and the delays in getting the machine to where it needs to be put me way behind. So, here I am in my hotel room trying to finish this assignment before the deadline.

The tutorials went well - my previous experience is coming back to me slowly.

ubuntu challenges

Well, this week went pretty well. I started with loading Ubuntu desktop - that was fine; no problems; even enjoyed the Cylon-esque orange light moving back and forth. Then I moved on
to the Ubuntu server. But first I had to download the VMWare that we switched to for class. The first time I downloaded (the one time I didn't save to a file and then execute from the file), I had an incomplete installation because I had the version I downloaded last week. Of course, I had read in the class pages that the previous version had to be uninstalled, but it didn't "take" until that moment. So, I uninstalled the previous version of VMWare and then put in the "new" version with success on the second attempt.

Then I moved on to the Ubuntu server installation, which proved to be more challenging. I actually had to do it twice. I watched the videos that were provided, and then followed along. I don't know what I did the first time, but it wouldn't start up when I went to initialize the virtual machine. It would just stall and say that it couldn't find the source. I went back and made sure it was reading the file rather than the CD and tried again. Same message. I went back and put the CD in - same message. Finally, I just started over and created a second virtual machine - this time with success! I was relieved, because if it had not worked, I don't know what I would have done.

The only thing that I did have trouble with was the NAT configuration. Since I am using a wireless modem, my IP address changes, and I was not able to input an IP address. I am working to monitor my IP address to see if there is one in particular that I use and then I might be able to enter that in to the configuration. I certainly hope so!

I thought the tutorials were very good. The only problem I had was that the ones available through the course were cut off at the end of the section. But, I don't think there was much, if any, information lost. The YouTube tutorials were very good, although the last one didn't really apply since I didn't have the problems indicated. However, it was good to see how you can move around and troubleshoot when things do not go as planned.

On another note, this week, I am very proud that I did post one reply to the discussion board - and that was really hard. Hopefully I will be able to budget my time a little better this week and check into the boards more often to reply more frequently.

Overview of the past week (26 May - 1 June)

This has been a really busy week with class starting, the holiday weekend, and family commitments that took us out-of-town for the weekend. However, I think given all of that, things have gone well. Part of me still can't believe that I was actually riding in the car working on the laptop and connected to the internet while my husband drove us through Maryland on I-95!

I am still getting used to the online class environment, and am trying to overcome hesitation on my part in responding to my colleagues posts on the class pages - this week I will do it! However, I do enjoy the fact that I can work on the assignments when it is convenient for me - that is a huge plus, especially considering that I am working full-time. Although, sitting up in a hotel room until 1:30 am downloading Ubuntu or other programs is not something I would like to repeat too often!

I got everything downloaded, confirmed and on disc, completed the readings, completed the assignments, and am now looking at the clock, trying to get this summary post about the week up before the unit closes tonight.

Let's go on to Unit 3!

Unit 2 - Completed (I hope!)

So, I have now double-checked and everything seems to be complete for this week's assignments. I am unsure where to put my comments regarding the lecture, so I guess I will go ahead and put them here. :-)

Lecture: Answers to questions posed within the lecture:

In “About Servers”:

In looking at two sources that give definitions of computer terms, ODLIS and Wikipedia, the definitions in ODLIS are more of an overview of how the terms apply to computers and gives examples that the average person may have encountered in a work environment. The Wikipedia entries give more in-depth discussion to what the term is and how it functions in context. There are also embedded links to terms that might be unfamiliar to the less-familiar readers to assist in comprehension of the definitions. The user groups for these two sites may overlap, but it is clear that the ODLIS definitions are given to a very specific audience – basic computer users with little-to-no knowledge of network structures and the way computers are set up beyond what they themselves have seen or connected to. The Wikipedia entry is geared towards those with a basic knowledge at or above the target group of ODLIS, and expands upon that base to give a more in-depth definition of the term within a broader context.

In “Gnu, Linux, and Open Source”:

The question posed is: “Given Bretthauer’s discussion, can you explain what is really meant by these three expressions?”

The expressions and their definitions, from the two Bretthauer readings and other readings, “as according to me” follow:

Free as in free speech – Freedom to: run the program for any purpose; modify the program to fit individual needs; redistribute copies with or without charging a fee; and distribute modified versions so community can benefit from your input.

Free as in free beer – Freedom to: - choose as long as you share you results

Free as in free kitten – Remember: everything comes with a price, ie hardware, maintenance, staff time, etc. It may look great in the beginning, but there is always a price to be paid.

Yikes!!

So, I have now gone to the Ubuntu forums and looked at the "Absolute Beginner Talk" sticky thread titled "New to Ubuntu?". The first few posts from 2007, I could understand, but then skipping ahead to the more recent posts (last week/month or so), I am a bit overwhelmed. There are all of these terms that I know, yet don't know - the context is throwing me.



I also looked at the general thread titled "How does Linux identify file types?" It didn't occur to me just how different Linux would be. From doing a little Google search on "Linux File Extensions", I found a website that defines some of the common file extensions within Linux. This site, http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/getting-started-guide/s1-managing-file-types.html, contains references to extensions familiar to those of us who work in the Windows environment (.txt, .jpg). There are also references to the scripting languages (perl, python) and even to those critical system files that must be left alone.



I am a little discouraged that I had to go elsewhere to supplement the posts that I read on the "Absolute Beginner Talk" forum. How 'absolute beginner' can it be if I need to go and find more information/definitions? I guess I should just wait and be patient - this is why I am taking this class!



I think I will go back and re-read my assignment for this week and see what I might have missed that would help me be a little more "with it".

28 May - First post

Wow - so that was a task. :-)

I fretted for about 10 minutes over what I would call this blog. How can such a mundane thing consume so much time?

I finally came up with a title - so here we are.

This is my first blog entry, and I am looking forward to getting used to this new form of communication!