The Big One....

The big paper, that is. Actually this whole month has been a succession of big ones.The big Wiki. The big Joomla. The big paper on digital libraries and IRs that I was trying to write simultaneously with this one. And now this month of May is over. And I will now go to my big bed. I would go and and fix a nice big drink but I'm too tired.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OfYK3iOGSyWe0V08KHCr7i-TOfbQBgQteUDSbLc8XO4/edit

Digital Library/ IR Summary

In finding information  about the eight digital libraries and institutional repositories that  i chose for my assignment, the recurring theme that I noticed was the preference for open access and open source.  None of these libraries or IRs wanted anything to do with pre-packaged or proprietary software.  For some, such as HathiTrust and Chronicling America, the freedom of an open source platform was a necessity for the ambition of their projects.  For others, such as SMARTech and Vtext, the use of an open source software such as DSpace made financial sense.  All of these digital collectives embraced some degree of open access, from published access to self archiving (arXiv.org in particular).

The Finish Line Is Within Sight

Finished the infamous Assignment 3, Option 2  choice of digital library and IR comparisons earlier today.  If this assignment weren't such a pain to get done, I probably would've enjoyed browsing through some of the collections. Now I have to do its summary, which is hard to get motivated to finish, because I need to get started on the dreaded Assignment 4 research paper.  I'll write about the vagaries of e-books in the library tomorrow; it's time for bed.

Joomla, the Morning After

A small bit of rest before tackling the next discussion postings. Celebrated finishing the Joomla website by going to the Braves game this afternoon (Braves won 8-3). As much of a pain that dealing with Joomla was, it is kind of neat to have produced a website, however modest. Selecting and then shaping the music features for the site made the last part of the assignment fun.

http://elbie.cloudaccess.net/

Goodbye Joomla

Dull. Dreary. Frustrating. No, I'm not talking about this past weekend's weather, I'm speaking of my experience with Joomla.  Granted, I'm not a technology oriented person, but I'm usually able to follow directions and keep up with video tutorials. After setting up the Cloud Access account, I spent the better part of two days trying to find my confirmation e-mail (ah, spam filters) and then trying unsuccessfully to gain entrance to my site's back-end. The next day I decided to start over, using my job e-mail and recreating my domain name. I now had full entrance to my nascent website. Setting up the site while trying to follow the tutorial, however, was an arduous task.  Once I took the advice of classmates to set up the site in step with the tutorial, some headway was finally made. This was the case even though viewing thirty minutes of the tutorial would usually equal about two hours of real time.  The tutorial narrator did mention that the repetition of the set up would eventually make the task easier, which turned out to true.  With the understanding that there are many more user-friendly CMS's available, I can safely say that Joomla will not be the product used to create my next website.

Assignment One: Wikis

The Georgia Tech Library and Information Center serves over 20,000 students plus approximately 1,000 academic faculty and 3,500 research faculty and professionals.  The library employs over 125 faculty and paraprofessionals.  Library expenditures are approximately $13.5 million.  A wiki would need to be composed in order to enable the library staff and patrons to share and send library information and to view online resources.

•  Page History: This would need to be necessary for document recovery and to view the editing history.

• WYSIWYG: An intuitive interface is essential for the many staff members and patrons who are not technically proficient.

• Commercial support: Will have in-house systems support.

• Interface Language: No localization needed.

•  Software or hosted: Will be hosted by GeniusWiki.

• Domain: No domain name needed.

• Corporate Branding: Will have, in order to ensure that the Wiki's branding and design is consistent with the school's.

After using the Wizard, I decided on GeniusWiki.  The licensing is free, with unlimited bandwidth, the software is free and open source, and it seems capable of hosting thousands of users.


Of course, this is my first time dealing with wikis, so I hope I haven't steered myself wrong.

Still dipping my toes into the blogosphere and twitterverse. I haven't run away screaming yet so that's a good sign.