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Operators

2010-07-05T11:38:00.000-04:00

Operators

Boolean, proximity and adjacency operators are used to broaden and narrow your search.

AND	Find all the words. When searching for keywords in "Citation and Document Text," AND finds documents in which the words occur in the same paragraph (within approx. 1000 characters) or the words appear in any citation field. Use W/DOC in place of AND when searching for keywords within "Citation and Document Text" or "Document Text" to retrieve more comprehensive results. Example: internet AND education
AND NOT	Find documents which have the first word, but not the second word. Example: Internet AND NOT html
OR	Find any of the words. Example: Internet OR intranet
W/#	Find documents where these words are within some number of words apart (either before or after). Use when searching for keywords within "Citation and Document Text" or "Document Text." Example: computer W/3 careers
W/PARA	Finds documents where these words are within the same paragraph (within approx. 1000 characters). Use when searching for keywords within "Document Text." Example: internet W/PARA education
W/DOC	Find documents where all the words appear within the document text. Use W/DOC in place of AND when searching for keywords within "Citation and Document Text" or "Document Text" to retrieve more comprehensive results. Example: Internet W/DOC education
NOT W/#	Find documents where these words appear but are not within some number of words apart (either before or after). Use when searching for keywords within "Citation and Document Text" or "Document Text." Example: computer NOT W/2 careers
PRE/#	Find documents where the first word appears some number of words before the second word. Use when searching for keywords within "Citation and Document Text" or "Document Text." Example: world pre/3 web

My Glossary & Information - 021

2010-03-01T19:40:00.004-05:00

Videotex (or "interactive videotex") was one of the earliest implementations of an "end-user information system". From the late 1970s to mid-1980s, it was used to deliver information (usually pages of text) to a user in computer-like format, typically to be displayed on a television.

In a strict definition, videotex refers to systems that provide interactive content and display it on a television, typically using modems to send data in both directions. A close relative is teletext, which sends data in one direction only, typically encoded in a television signal. Sometimes the term "viewdata" is used to describe all such systems generically. Unlike the modern Internet, all traditional videotex services were highly centralized.

Videotex in its broader definition can be used to refer to any such service, including the Internet, bulletin board systems, online service providers, and even the arrival/departure displays at an airport. This usage is no longer common.

Videodisc (or video disc) is a general term for a laser- or stylus-readable random-access circular disc that contains both audio and video signals recorded in an analog form. Typically, it is a reference to any such media that predates the mainstream popularity of the DVD format. Such formats include:

MCA/Philips DiscoVision (early name for laserdisc format) (1978)
Pioneer Corporation LaserDisc (1980)
RCA SelectaVision brand of CED players and discs (1981)
VHD, a videodisc format that was marketed predominantly in Japan by JVC (1983)
Laserfilm, a videodisc format developed by McDonnell Douglas (1984)
MovieCD, by SIRIUS Publishing, Inc. (1995?)

Unlike the battles between VHS and Betamax, there was no serious format war between early video disc formats as the LaserDisc proved to be technologically superior to all challengers of its time. Even the LaserDisc, though, failed to achieve much market traction against videotape, due to the latter's ability to allow consumer recording. Only with the introduction of the modern DVD format did a disc technology take hold for video. The modern DVD format also had little competition; only the short-lived DIVX format (not to be confused with the DivX video codec).

A programmable automation controller (PAC) is a compact controller that combines the features and capabilities of a PC-based control system with that of a typical programmable logic controller (PLC). A PAC thus provides not only the reliability of a PLC, but also the task flexibility and computing power of a PC. PACs are most often used in industrial settings for process control, data acquisition, remote equipment monitoring, machine vision, and motion control. Additionally, because they function and communicate over popular network interface protocols like TCP/IP, OLE for process control (OPC) and SMTP, PACs are able to transfer data from the machines they control to other machines and components in a networked control system or to application software and databases. A PAC at the core of an automation system can integrate multiple fieldbus networks like RS-485, RS-232, RS-422, CAN, Ethernet, EtherNet/IP, and others.

Info: Wikipedia

My Glossary & Information - 020

2010-02-20T16:02:00.009-05:00

The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), a consortium of institutions and research projects, maintains and develops a standard for the representation of texts in digital form. Originally sponsored by three scholarly societies, the TEI is now an independent membership consortium, hosted by academic institutions in the US and in Europe. Its major deliverable is a set of Guidelines, which specify encoding methods for machine-readable texts, chiefly in the humanities, social sciences and linguistics. Since 1994, these guidelines are a widely-used standard for text materials for performing online research and teaching, and TEI is now the de facto standard for the encoding of electronic texts in the humanities academic community.

DocBook is a semantic markup language for technical documentation. It was originally intended for writing technical documents related to computer hardware and software but it can be used for any other sort of documentation. As a semantic language, DocBook enables its users to create document content in a presentation-neutral form that captures the logical structure of the content; that content can then be published in a variety of formats, including HTML, XHTML, EPUB, PDF, man pages and HTML Help, without requiring users to make any changes to the source.

SPINDEX (also SPINDEX II, SPINDEX III), n. ~ An early computer application to assist in the production and indexing of finding aids for records and manuscript collections.

The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents. NARA is officially responsible for maintaining and publishing the legally authentic and authoritative copies of acts of Congress, presidential proclamations and executive orders, and federal regulations. The chief administrator of NARA, the Archivist of the United States, not only maintains the official documentation of the passage of amendments to the U.S. Constitution by state legislatures, but has the authority to declare when the constitutional threshold for passage has been reached, and therefore when an act has become an amendment.

Provenance is a fundamental principle of archives, referring to the individual, family, or organization that created or received the items in a collection. The principle of provenance or the respect des fonds dictates that records of different origins (provenance) be kept separate to preserve their context.

Encoded Archival Description: n. (EAD, abbr.) ~ A standard used to mark up (encode) finding aids that reflects the hierarchical nature of archival collections and that provides a structure for describing the whole of a collection, as well as its components. EAD is defined as a document type definition (DTD) that is compatible with both Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and extensible markup language (XML).

ASCII: n. ~ A standard, seven-bit character set for use by digital computers, which includes 96 displaying symbols (letters, digits, punctuation) and 32 control codes (line feed, newline, tab, etc.). An acronym for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII and its extensions are the most prevalent character set in computing. Standard ASCII, sometimes called flat ASCII, uses seven bits per byte, allowing for a total of 128 characters. The formal standard specification for ASCII can be found in ANSI X3.4 and ISO 646. Extended ASCII uses eight bits and can represent 256 characters. International, eight-bit extensions have been published in the ISO 8859 series.

Archivist: n. ~ 1. An individual responsible for appraising, acquiring, arranging, describing, preserving, and providing access to records of enduring value, according to the principles of provenance, original order, and collective control to protect the materials’ authenticity and context. – 2. An individual with responsibility for management and oversight of an archival repository or of records of enduring value.

An archivist's work with records of enduring value may be at any stage in the records life cycle, from creation onward. In the United States, archivists are typically associated with collections of inactive records. However, the European tradition includes management of active records as well, which in the United States is often the responsibility of a separate records manager. In the United States, archivists may be called manuscript curators, especially if they are responsible for collecting and administering collections of historical records acquired from individuals, families, or other organizations.

In some organizations, an archivist may be responsible for management of active, inactive, and archival records. In other organizations, an archivist may be responsible only for those records transferred to the archives. In a large repository, a practicing archivist may specialize in only one or a few archival functions noted above. A teaching archivist may not be currently responsible for collections but is familiar with the theory and practice of archival functions.

Info: Wikipedia, SAA: A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology

My Glossary & Information - 019

2010-02-14T15:27:00.003-05:00

Oral history is the recording, preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker.

It often takes the form of eye-witness evidence about past events, but can include folklore, myths, songs and stories passed down over the years by word of mouth. While it is an invaluable way of preserving the knowledge and understanding of older people, it can also involve interviewing younger generations. More recently, the use of video recording techniques has expanded the realm of oral history beyond verbal forms of communication and into the realm of gesture. Oral history can be inaccurate and needs to be used carefully in order to confirm the accuracy of the recorded materials.

information: Wikipedia

2010-02-12T16:07:00.002-05:00

1.4. Overview of Processing

Manuscript collections are wonderfully diverse. The John F. Kennedy Library focuses on the life and times of the thirty-sixth President, but it contains information about nearly every part of the world. Not only do we have the papers of John F. Kennedy, we have the personal papers of individuals from the Kennedy Administration, the Kennedy family, as well as the personal papers of Ernest Hemingway and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. And within these collections there is great diversity--rich, poor, male, female, African American, Native American, white, politicians, and many others are represented in our collections. Manuscript collections may contain letters, diaries, receipts, sound recordings, pictures, and materials in other formats. They range in size from one item in one folder to thousands of items in hundreds of boxes. Some arrive here in file folders, beautifully organized and labeled; others arrive loose in grocery bags. Because of this variety, there can be few hard and fast rules for processing manuscript collections. There are, however, standards, policies, and procedures that must be applied with common sense and flexibility.

Processing is typically thought of as arranging, describing, and screening. This manual divides processing into a number of tasks:

preliminary research and survey,

planning and initial inventory,

arrangement,

description,

preservation, and

screening.

2.1. Preliminary Research and Survey

Getting an overview of your collection and preparing a plan are the first major steps in processing. You will begin by preparing the plan on the form provided. Throughout the project, you will meet with your supervising archivist to review and modify this plan as appropriate.

2.1.1. Where To Begin

Before you start processing, you will want to get a sense of the history of both the collection and the creator of the papers, be it an individual, family, or organization.

2.1.1.1. Administrative History

A good place to start the search for information about the history of the collection is with the donor and processing files. Donor and processing files often contain information essential to satisfactory processing: file descriptions and folder lists, notes on the original arrangement of the papers and how they were transferred, special conditions of gift or loan/deposit as outlined in donor agreements, details on access restriction, letters from researchers concerning the papers, and other material.

2.1.1.2. Historical Context

To process effectively, you need enough information about the creator of the papers to answer basic questions about the collection: who, what, when, and where. If you exhaust the possible sources and still come up empty, the papers themselves become the chief resource. In such cases, it is not unusual to feel somewhat mystified as to who is who and what is what. Often the mists are at least partially lifted in the normal course of processing, but you should not feel that you have been derelict in your duty if you leave some of the investigative work to future researchers.

Usually, some information about collection creators can be found, sometimes without leaving the Unit:

Donor files

Basic printed sources for historical and biographical information available in the Reference Services

2.1.2. The Survey

To survey, you must try to see the collection as a whole. Because of space limitations, you will need to open boxes one (or possibly two) at a time. Don’t forget to take notes on what is contained in each box—this will help you (and other processors) later if the collection takes a while to be processed. Scan the papers to get a feeling for their scope and content. Skim. Do not spend too much time on any one item. Resist the temptation to begin arranging and describing. At this point, just try to get a picture of what the collection is like.

2.1.2.1. On The Lookout

Since your survey and analysis of the papers will form the basis of your processing plan, you will want to look for certain things in the papers as you go along. Look at the processing plan form and see what elements are needed. Take particular note of the following features of the collection:

Provenance: The donor file should tell you from whom we received the papers. What person, organization, or office actually generated and/or accumulated the material?

Names: Look out also for basic identifying information about the collection creator and other major players in the collection. In particular, take note of essential names and dates.

Arrangement: Observe the arrangement of the papers. Can you discern a purposeful order? Are the papers in file folders? Look for related groupings of material. Sets of material in the papers are the basis of subcollections, subgroups, series, and subseries--the building blocks of every arrangement scheme. Is the current arrangement of the papers usable? If not, what arrangement might be appropriate? If the papers seem to be in no particular order, are there series that you can create to facilitate use of the collection?

Content: As you scan the papers and briefly examine selected items, try to form an impression of what the collection is about. What are the major subjects and research strengths? How well do the papers document the various aspects of a person's or an organization's history? Is there anything missing? Do some materials seem not to fit with the rest of the collection?

Format and Physical Condition: These aspects of the papers are almost as important as the content in deciding what to process and what levels of processing will be used. Are most of the items letter, legal, or oversized? Are there duplicates? Are there photocopies? What condition is the paper in? Is mold visible? Are there peculiar odors? Is the handwriting legible? What formats other than paper are in the collection? What condition are these other materials in?

In addition, you will want to note:

approximate earliest and latest dates of the papers (inclusive dates);

approximate earliest and latest dates of the bulk of the papers (bulk dates);

frequent or prominent correspondents;

major figures and major events in the life of an individual or in the history of an organization;

major occupations of individuals; major functions of an organization;

confidential or sensitive records, such as Energy files, Foreign Policy, medical records, and case files;

languages (other than English).

Retain whatever information you gather; it will be helpful in making decisions about arranging your collection and will also be useful in processing plan discussions with your supervising archivist.

2.2. Writing a Processing Plan

Your analysis of the collection will result in a processing plan. This plan should be written down on the processing plan form and discussed with your supervising archivist. The plan becomes an important document, providing a framework and continuity for the project. You and your supervising archivist will refer to it regularly and adjust it as necessary throughout the course of the processing work.

2.2.1. Initial Inventories/ Box Lists

All materials receive at least minimal description upon being accessioned into the John F. Kennedy Library. Whether or not they are open to researchers, these materials are part of the Library's holdings and basic information about them must be formally recorded. Even if treatment at the point of entry is minimal, we try to achieve a modicum of control over all of the materials in our charge.

One form minimal control may take is the initial inventory. There are several reasons why a collection might require an initial inventory, but the most common reason for an initial inventory is that the materials are either of such high research value that considerable time should be devoted to their processing or that the materials are of such low research value that a great deal of time would be wasted if they were thoroughly processed. In the first case, an initial inventory acts as a place marker, providing at least minimal access while the collection sits near the top of the processing backlog until such time that full processing can be scheduled. The access section of such initial inventories will usually indicate that the collection has either been closed pending processing or can be used with only with special staff assistance. In the case of a collection with low research value, the initial inventory may carry the same remarks in the access section, but there will be no great haste in scheduling the papers for full processing.

3. Arranging

3.1. Basic Premises

After survey, analysis, background research, and initial inventory comes arrangement: the ordering of the papers in a meaningful way. Arranging is probably the most important activity a processor performs, the basic step in structuring a collection. Arranging papers in a suitable way enables you to write accurate descriptions that give rise to useful access points during the descriptions stage.

3.2. The Break Down

Papers are usually accessioned in groups called collections. Collections usually divide into logical units of some sort. When arranging a collection, we want to establish a framework that will enable the researcher to see the various parts of a collection without losing sight of the whole. The parts are usually established as series, which may be further divided into subseries. Occasionally, subcollections may be created.

4. Describing

Consider the image of the processor as cartographer, for it is through describing that the collection's "map" comes into being. The collection finding aid you create is the map that will lead researchers to and into collections that may be of interest to them. Throughout processing, put yourself in the researchers’ shoes and be sure you are creating a map that will help them find the collections they need and help them find pertinent material within those collections.

Although describing is the focus of this section; arrangement underpins every description. Arranging establishes the intellectual and physical contours of the collection. While arranging, you anticipate describing your collection in terms of its arrangement scheme. Get the arrangement down, and description will follow.

4.1. The "Typical" Finding Aid

If you knew, even without benefit of the telltale quotation marks, that the title of this section is a joke, you have understood a basic fact about manuscript materials. In the messy world of manuscripts, nothing is typical. There are, however, finding aid formats that can be established, standards that can be set, and procedures that can be followed. The key, of course, is to apply the formats, standards, and procedures with flexibility.

The following sections lay out the finding aid format used at the John F. Kennedy Library and get down to the basic procedures for describing a collection's arrangement. Because every collection calls for a tailored arrangement scheme, every collection also calls for tailored description. You can use some of the parts of the finding aid all of the time, and you can use all of the parts of the finding aid some of the time, but you cannot use all of the parts of the finding aid all of the time.

With the advent of the World Wide Web, ARC, and EAD, descriptions must be somewhat more standardized, but it is still true that not every descriptive possibility can be anticipated. Review the following sections with an eye to picking out which parts of the finding aid apply to different kinds of collections.

5. Preserving

5.1. Preservation and You

Preservation of the materials in our care is a responsibility of the highest order. It is an integral part of manuscripts work at EVERY level for EVERY staff member.

Most materials processed at the John F. Kennedy Library have been handled in a preservation-conscious fashion. Most successful has been the segregation of special format materials (pictures, audio tapes, video tapes, film, etc.) for their own protection and that of neighboring materials. Processed collections have been housed, for the most part, in containers that meet current archival standards, and a limited number of collections (or parts of collections) have received conservation treatment (deacidification, tear repair, encapsulation, etc.).

5.2. Procedures

All staff share in the preservation responsibilities at the John F. Kennedy Library. Research Services staff observe careful handling procedures and instruct researchers on how to do the same. Both Research Services staff and researchers occasionally find individual items that require conservation treatments; they are also in the best position to identify collections that desperately need rehousing.

Archives Processing Unit has responsibility for monitoring the macroenvironment, for handling newly processed materials in a preservation-conscious way, and for facilitating conservation treatments for individual items. Staff should always be on the lookout for water leaks, dramatic changes in temperature, and other signs that may signal macroenvironmental trouble. Preservation measures that are taken during processing, chiefly relating to a collection's microenvironment, are the responsibility of the processor and supervising archivist.

The Library also supports reformatting of audio materials and of moving images. Reformatting these materials is chiefly the province of the Audiovisual Archivist. It is unlikely that you will be directly involved in reformatting of these media.

5.2.1. What You Can Do

Like everything else in manuscripts work, no hard and fast rules can be applied to determine the preservation requirements of the collections you process. Once again, it is important to understand the relationship among the chief processing procedures. When particularly intensive processing is to be carried out, equally intensive preservation and conservation measures may be indicated. As the depth and intensity of arranging, describing, and cataloging depend on the collection's research value, so the extent of preservation work actually performed on a collection is determined, to a large degree, by how valuable the material is. Value here is chiefly in terms of research value, although many of our items also have great artifactual value (autographs, etc.). It would make little sense to apply extensive, time-consuming preservation or conservation measures to materials that are of minimal research value. On the other hand, it makes a great deal of sense to devote considerable effort to a collection containing materials of great value, one whose loss would have serious consequences for research in one or more subject area.

Paperclip removal

The paperclip is carefully levered up with the help of a micro-spatula and gently removed from the paper.

Staple removal

Staples are removed using one of two methods depending on the amount of paper they are holding together. If it is only a few sheets, one of the prongs of the staple is levered up and flattened with the help of a micro-spatula. The micro-spatula is then placed under the second prong and the staple is carefully pulled out. If the staple holds a large number of sheets together then this first technique will not be effective and instead the two prongs will be levered up until they are at right angles with the paper and the staple removed gently from the front of the paper by slipping the micro-spatula under the bar.

Surface Cleaning

Any surface dirt from case note papers or folders is removed with careful sweeps with a chemical sponge.

Re-alignment of creasing

Any creasing is realigned by pulling out folds, providing light pressure in the reverse direction when necessary and flattening paper with gentle pressure from the pads of the fingers until it lies flush with the rest of the paper.

Definitions

2010-02-12T15:54:00.013-05:00

Artificial collections are composed of miscellaneous items received from various sources and generated by different creators. Each artificial collection focuses on a particular type of item: materials from a certain group of individuals (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Collection); papers from and relating to a certain historical figure (Hemingway Miscellaneous Accessions Collection); research material used for a particular purpose (Hemingway Vertical File); bound volumes (Hemingway Book Collection). The various artificial collections are internally arranged in different fashions.

Collections--Papers are usually accessioned in groups called collections. Collections usually divide into logical units of some sort. When arranging a collection, we want to establish a framework that will enable the researcher to see the various parts of a collection without losing sight of the whole. The parts are usually established as series, which may be further divided into subseries. Occasionally, subcollections may be created.

Conservation is chiefly defined as bench work and is described in terms of treatments performed on individual items. These include cleaning, deacidification, tear repair, encapsulation, and other procedures. Whether or not you ever become involved in conservation (Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, MA, handles all of our conservation needs), it is undeniably an important part of your work as a processor.

Initial Inventory/Box lists acts as a place marker, providing at least minimal access while the collection sits near the top of the processing backlog until such time that full processing can be scheduled. All materials receive at least minimal description upon being accessioned into the John F. Kennedy Library. New accessions are part of the Library's holdings and basic information about them must be formally recorded. Even if treatment at the point of entry is minimal, we try to achieve a modicum of control over all of the materials in our charge.

Preservation consists of those actions that retard or prevent damage to materials. Among these are controlling the macroenvironment (temperature, relative humidity, light, etc.), providing a safe microenvironment (archivally sound housing in terms of boxes, folders, etc.), imposing preservation-wise rules for the handling of materials by staff and researchers, devising and implementing a disaster plan, and other measures.

Processing means arranging a collection in some logical way; describing the collection’s arrangement, contents, and research potential so that researchers and staff can find the specific materials they need; cataloging the collection to provide access points that lead researchers to the materials they seek; and taking physical preservation measures to ensure that materials with which we work survive.

A good deal of processing is cerebral--developing an arrangement scheme, writing the description, selecting access points--but it also entails work that is mundane and most decidedly unglamorous. Tasks like unfolding, flattening, removing paperclips, annotating, separating, and refoldering are very common in manuscripts work. As in many other fields, countless hours of behind-the-scenes work go into making the writing (and reading) of history look easy.

Series is a body of files or documents kept together because of some connection arising out of their creation or use. A series might be a body of records arranged under a single filing system, or kept together as a unit because it relates to a particular function or has a particular physical form.

Subcollections are large divisions within a collection. In this scheme, activity/function arrangement is usually handled at the subcollection level, while type/format-based series and subseries are used to group like materials together. The most common use for subcollections is with papers that are related, but require some sort of strong partitioning. A good example of subcollections use is the Papers of John F. Kennedy that contains four subcollections: Personal Papers, Pre-Presidential Papers, Presidential Papers, and Papers of the Post Assassination Period.

IN-CLASS ARRANGEMENT EXERCISES

2010-02-12T15:51:00.002-05:00

Provenance—fundamental principle of modern archival practice.

Means we don’t mix or intermingle creators’ records.
Identified by creator of records, not the donor

Original Order—maintain the records in the original order in which they were created

To function within a system organized according to provenance.
Preserves file structure
Rearrangement time consuming and arbitrary

Levels of Control—Not a theory, but a way to implement provenance and original order

· Hierarchical structure—from largest and most general to smallest and most specific

· Offices, activities, functions for series, files within series, and documents within files

· Each level of control has own implications for admin, processing needs, and access

Collective Description—describing sets of records collectively rather than as discrete items

Description of archival collection is description of its arrangement
Inventory as a guide “Table of Contents” for papers
Outline of contents of collection

Overview of Collection— Before you start processing, you will want to get a sense of the history of both the collection and the creator of the papers, be it an individual, family, or organization. You want to gather general information about the collection. Where it came from, what it consists of, etc… Where do you find this information:

Organization’s files
Donor: talking with or writing
The papers themselves

Context— To process effectively, need enough information about the creator of the papers to answer basic questions about the collection: who, what, when, and where. It is not unusual to feel somewhat mystified as to who is who and what is what. Do not feel that you have to do it all: leave for other researchers.

Be on the Lookout-- Since your survey and analysis of the papers will form the basis of your processing plan, you will want to look for certain things in the papers as you go along. Look at the processing plan form and see what elements are needed. Take particular note of the following features of the collection:

· Provenance: from whom we received the papers. What person, organization, or office actually generated and/or accumulated the material?

· Names: Look out also for basic identifying information about the collection creator and other major players in the collection. In particular, take note of essential names and dates.

· Arrangement: Observe the arrangement of the papers. Can you discern a purposeful order? Are the papers in file folders? Look for related groupings of material. Sets of material in the papers are the basis of subcollections, subgroups, series, and subseries--the building blocks of every arrangement scheme. Is the current arrangement of the papers usable? If not, what arrangement might be appropriate? If the papers seem to be in no particular order, are there series that you can create to facilitate use of the collection?

· Content: As you scan the papers and briefly examine selected items, try to form an impression of what the collection is about. What are the major subjects and research strengths? How well do the papers document the various aspects of a person's or an organization's history? Is there anything missing? Do some materials seem not to fit with the rest of the collection?

· Format and Physical Condition: These aspects of the papers are almost as important as the content in deciding what to process and what levels of processing will be used. Are most of the items letter, legal, or oversized? Are there duplicates? Are there photocopies? What condition is the paper in? Is mold visible? Are there peculiar odors? Is the handwriting legible? What formats other than paper are in the collection? What condition are these other materials in?

Take Notes

In addition, you will want to note

· approximate earliest and latest dates of the papers (inclusive dates);

· approximate earliest and latest dates of the bulk of the papers (bulk dates);

· frequent or prominent correspondents names;

· major figures and major events in the life of an individual or in the history of an organization;

· major occupations of individuals; major functions of an organization;

· languages (other than English).

Write a Plan

Your analysis of the collection will result in a processing plan. The plan

· provides a framework

· continuity for the project

Box Listing

Acts as a place marker, providing at least minimal intellectual access to the papers

Helps you to see the papers and how they may be organized (Original Order)

Arrangement

After survey, analysis, background research, and initial inventory comes arrangement: the ordering of the papers in a meaningful way.

Most important activity a processor performs
basic step in structuring a collection
Arranging papers in a suitable way enables you to write accurate descriptions that give rise to useful access points during the descriptions stage.

If it Ain’t Broke…don’t fix it--Maintaining the original order established by the creator of a collection preserves contextual information that may be important to researchers. The original order itself may also make an important statement about its creator. Using the original arrangement scheme, moreover, may save the processing staff valuable time and energy. You may have to tidy up papers that arrive in a certain order, and you may need to add a supporting superstructure to aid in description and cataloging.

Relative research value determines the amount of time and resources we devote to the project

Control Levels-- affect such things as the amount of refoldering, item-level conservation, and how detailed the description will be

The Breakdown-- Collections usually divide into logical units of some sort. When arranging a collection, we want to establish a framework that will enable the researcher to see the various parts of a collection without losing sight of the whole.

Type/Format
Activity Function
Where you should put it

Arrangement Possibilities--As you investigate the contents of your collection, think ahead to the finding aid you will write. The chief reason for doing this is that each series and subseries offers you an opportunity to describe. Good description leads to good access and use. Typical ways to arrange

Type/Format-- materials in like formats be grouped together. Most often, these groups are established as series or subseries. Some examples are

· Correspondence

· Writings

· Financial materials

Activity/Function—is grouped around central ideas rather than physical attributes provide the rallying points.

Collections and Series--There are times with small collections consisting of materials of one type or format, when papers are adequately arranged in one series, and can be described at the collection level. Most collections of papers can be adequately handled by series. A series is a body of files or documents kept together because of some connection arising out of their creation or use. A series might be a body of records arranged under a single filing system, or kept together as a unit because it relates to a particular function or has a particular physical form.

Files and Items-- Once you have identified series, decide how the folders will be ordered within each series and how the items in each folder will be arranged (if they are to be arranged at all). The most important considerations in an arrangement scheme are the collection's original order and the ease of intellectual access to information in the collection.

· Alphabetical

· Chronological

· Other orders (geographical for trip files, numbering schemes)

Where Should I put it?--

For Type Format arrangement, you want to sequence series in order of research value. Displaying a collection's strengths assists researchers in determining a collection's potential value to their work. You will find that, in a great number of collections, the correspondence series contains the most valuable research material. In these cases, the correspondence series comes first, followed by other series in descending order of importance.

Correspondence-- frequently arrives unarranged. Arrangement most often impose is chronological order.

· follow the development of ideas,

· the progression of friendships or business relationships,

· or the flow of daily activities over time.

Writings-- formally prepared written work, usually intended for publication, presentation, or other dist.

· Creator and by others should be divided

· Type: journal articles, short stories and novels, speeches, pamphlets, fragments of an epic poem

· no original order, arrange by creator in a straight alphabetical or chronological run

Financial and legal material-- often arranged in one series: chronological run, is simplest option or type.

Subject files—if original order includes subject files, maintain. Created subject files are risky because grouping papers around a subject may present an inaccurate picture of the importance of that subject to the creator. Usually subject files are alphabetical.

Research notes-- usually arranged so that they are linked to some subject. Need context more than others.

Printed material/clippings-- When printed material contributes to the understanding of the creator's life and/or activities, save. Clippings-usually chronological run or based on events.

Other materials-- is not the dumping ground. Volumes should be placed intellectually where they fit

Pictures/Audio Visual-- if the pictures have no original order, follow these sequencing guidelines when determining the arrangement of individual pictures or batches of pictures:

1. identified individuals with pictures of the collection's creator(s) filed first;

2. groups of individuals, at least some of whom are identified with family pictures filed first;

3. identified scenes;

4. unidentified people;

5. unidentified scenes.

Museum items—like photos, separated out. Maintain intellectual control. Usually a descriptive list.

For Activity Function arrangement you want to sequence series in chronological order, or some other order that makes sense for the activity.

Preservation consists of those actions that retard or prevent damage to materials. Among these are

controlling the macroenvironment (temperature, relative humidity, light, etc.),
providing a safe microenvironment (archivally sound housing in terms of boxes, folders, etc.),
imposing preservation-wise rules for the handling of materials by staff and researchers,
devising and implementing a disaster plan, and other measures.

Conservation, on the other hand, is chiefly defined as bench work and is described in terms of treatments performed on individual items, including

cleaning,
deacidification,
tear repair,
encapsulation

Archival Theory

2010-02-08T17:04:00.002-05:00

Archival Theory

Pure discipline – quest for knowledge for its own sake.

Vs.

Applied discipline – action to achieve a desired end. Theory relates to method and practice.

1^st Object of Archival Theory is the nature of archival documents or records.

Build knowledge about documents
Act upon them in methodical ways
Protect the properties they have

Theoretical question is what are those properties that need to be protected and why.

Characteristics/properties of Archives

1. Impartiality—relationship between facts and interpretation

Documents created as a means to express action and as a product of that action are free of from the suspicion of prejudice in regard to the interests in which we now use them. Doesn’t mean the creators weren’t prejudiced. Jenkinson

Duty of archivists is to protect records from corruption to preserve impartiality.

2. Authenticity—contingent on the facts of creation, maintenance, and custody

Authentic only when

· created with need to act in mind

· preserved and maintained as faithful witness of fact and act by creator

To be authentic memorials of past activity, documents must be created, maintained and kept in custody according to regular procedures that can be attested. Observable not in the document, but in the procedural context of their generation and preservation.

Next two characteristics deal with the manner in which documents accumulate in the course of transaction of affairs: Interdependent for meaning; Links functional activity to document

3. Naturalness—not collected for some purpose outside the administrative needs—organic

Understanding function giving rise to the documents

4. Interrelatedness—not put together according to some scheme to serve other than those needs. Documents have their relationships established by the course of the conduct of affairs and according to its needs.

Structure of documents

5. Uniqueness—each document has a unique place in the structure of an archives.

Archives Study

2010-02-05T13:28:00.007-05:00

Arrangement

The process and results of organizing archives, records, and manuscripts in accordance with accepted archival principles, particularly provenance, at as many as necessary of the following levels: repository, record group or comparable control unit, subgroup(s), series, file unit, and document. The process usually includes packing, labeling, and shelving of archives, records, and manuscripts, and is intended to achieve physical or administrative control and basic identification of the holdings.

ARRANGEMENT CONTINUUM
Found Slate

Series Level

Consider the existing, order; review all folder notebook, binder, or container titles. Ask if there are any obvious groupings or series; if they are titled; if they are usable for research; if they are too general or too specific; if they are in correct order.
Review reveals no rearrangement or re-titling needed at the series level.
Review reveals at least some rearrangement or re-titling needed at the series level.
Describe the rearrangement and re-titling needed at the series level.

Folder Level

Review the units in the series (folders. notebooks. binders, etc.). Ask if they are adequately titled; if they are correctly arranged; if they are too thick or too thin.
Review reveals no rearrangement or re-titling needed at the folder level.
Review reveals at least some rearrangement or re-titling needed at the folder level.
Describe the rearrangement and re-titling needed at the folder level.

Item Level

Spot review the items in a few folders in each series. Ask if the folder titles accurately reflect the contents of the folders; if the items need to be in correct order; if they are already in correct order.
Review reveals no re-titling of folders or rearrangement of items in folders needed.
Review reveals at least some re-titling of folders or rearrangement of items in folders needed.
Describe the re-titling and rearrangement needed.
Weigh the costs in time, staff and material expenses. Decide on the level and course of action.
Apply the course of action.

Preservation
The basic responsibility to provide adequate facilities for the protection, care, and maintenance of archives, records, and manuscripts. Specific measures, individual and collective, undertaken (or the repair, maintenance, restoration, or protection of documents.

Description
The process of establishing intellectual control over holdings through the preparation of finding aids.

Screen
To examine records or archives to determine the presence of restricted documents or information and to remove such documents from the files.

information: "When is a collection processed?" by Megan F. Desnoyers

My Glossary & Information - 018

2010-02-04T12:27:00.019-05:00

Finding aid

A finding aid is a document containing detailed information about a specific collection of papers or records within an archive. They are used by researchers to determine whether information within a collection is relevant to their research. The finding aid for a collection is usually compiled by an archivist or librarian during archival processing.

Finding aids are a concept dating back to ancient Sumer's clay tablet culture. In more recent times, finding aids were usually written or, later, printed on paper. Finding aids today can be created in various electronic and print formats, including word processor document, spreadsheet, database, paper list, index cards, etc. The standard machine-readable format for manuscript collection finding aids, widely used in the United States, England, Canada, and Australia, is Encoded Archival Description.

The content of a finding aid may differ depending on the type of material it is describing. Usually, a finding aid includes a description of the scope of the collection, biographical and historical information related to the collection, and restrictions on use of or access to the materials. Finding aids may be detailed inventories that list contents. They may also include subject headings drawn from LCSH, AAT, or other controlled vocabulary.

The data elements essential to finding aids were defined by the International Council on Archives in the General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G)). In 2004 this was superseded in the United States by Describing Archives: A Content Standard (2006).

Provenance

Provenance is a fundamental principle of archives, referring to the individual, group, or organization that created or received the items in a collection. According to archival theory and the principle of provenance, records of different provenance should be separated.

In archival practice, proof of provenance is provided by the operation of control systems that document the history of records kept in archives, including details of amendments made to them. It was developed in the nineteenth century by both French and Prussian archivists.

Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion now available online

2010-02-03T16:59:00.012-05:00

All 11 volumes of Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion now available online. Login to Flickr and set your Safe Search to "moderate" or "off" (content = "artistic nudes") to view.

If you can't see some of the photographs (Collotypes), go to your Flickr account settings, click on "Privacy & Permissions", search below "Content filters" then click on edit by "Search settings" and select "SafeSearch off".

Eadweard Muybridge's Animal locomotion : An electro-photographic investigation of consecutive phases of animal movements, 1872-1885 was published by the

University of Pennsylvania

in 1887. The eleven volume set consisted of 781 plates printed by the Photogravure Company of New York.

The Boston Public Library's copy of Animal locomotion is missing plates 281, 321, 345-348, 431, 529 and 551. These plates were not present when volumes were transferred to the Rare Books Department.

For further information, please contact:

Rare Books & Manuscripts Department
McKim Building, 3rd Floor
Boston Public Library
700 Boylston St.
Boston, MA 02116
617-536-5400, ext. 2225
rare_books@bpl.org

A copy of Muybridge's Prospectus and Catalogue of Plates is available through the Internet Archive.

Additional information about the role of the University of Pennsylvania in Muybridge's animal location studies is available through the University Archives.

Other Collections on Flickr

2009-11-13T17:17:00.003-05:00

These are other collections I worked on, that are online.

Frank A. Rinehart Collection is Online

2009-11-13T16:59:00.002-05:00

Just finished uploading digital files of the Platinum prints from the Frank A. Rinehart Collection. You can view the photographs from the link below.

Frank A. Rinehart Photographs

Frank A. Rinehart, a commercial photographer in

Omaha

Nebraska

, was commissioned to photograph the 1898 Indian Congress, part of the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. More than five hundred Native Americans from thirty-five tribes attended the conference, providing the gifted photographer and artist an opportunity to create a stunning visual document of Native

American life

and culture at the dawn of the 20th century. Although the portraits are posed and artistically lighted in his studio, they have a candid intimacy that allows his subjects individuality and dignity, a quality not shared by most 19th-century ethnographic photography.

Rinehart printed the photographs as platinum prints, a photographic medium known for its delicate tonal range and permanence.

TED Talks - Taryn Simon photographs secret sites

2009-10-10T14:09:00.001-04:00

TED Talks - Stefan Sagmeister shares happy design

2009-09-29T13:45:00.000-04:00

TED Talks - David Griffin on how photography connects us

2009-09-29T13:33:00.003-04:00

TED Talks - Richard Baraniuk on open-source learning

2009-09-29T11:07:00.002-04:00

TED Talks - Jimmy Wales on the birth of Wikipedia

2009-09-29T10:47:00.001-04:00

Cataloging and Metadata Books

2009-09-19T18:34:00.005-04:00

ALSO

Metadata‎
by Marcia Lei Zeng, Jian Qin - Computers - 2008 - 365 pages - No preview available

In this new, authoritative textbook, internationally recognized metadata experts Zeng and Qin have created a comprehensive primer for advanced undergraduate, graduate, or continuing education courses in information organization, information technology, cataloging, digital libraries, electronic archives, and, of course, metadata. Instructors seeking a text that covers the theory as well as the how-to's of application design, implementation, and evaluation will find it here. An outcome-based approach lets learners with different orientations adapt their new knowledge and skills to any domain. Examples and practice problems focus on tasks typical to all metadata application projects. Other useful features include sample problems with solutions, quizzes, hands-on tutorials, and a recommended reading list at the end of each chapter. A companion digital library on CD-ROM for instructors includes quizzes, answer keys, and additional exercises. An ideal classroom tool, this book works equally well for self-guided study. Individual modules can stand alone, for reference on an as-needed basis, when transitioning from traditional cataloging to compilations of metadata for locally created resources and websites, for example. Or you can study metadata systematically, module by module. Regardless of your approach, this book is the ideal guide to metadata for both students and working information professionals.

Wynar's introduction to cataloging and classification‎
by Arlene G. Taylor, David Peter Miller, Bohdan S. Wynar - Language Arts & Disciplines - 2000 - 552 pages - No preview available

In this landmark edition of the classic work, Taylor offers you a complete, up-to-date, and practical guide to the world of cataloging and classification as it stands at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The new edition emphasizes online catalogs and cataloging, with all the attendant terminology. Also included in the work are the 1998 revision of AACR2, MARC 21, the 21st edition of Dewey Decimal Classification, current schedules of the LC Classifications, the latest Library of Congress Subject Headings, and the 17th edition of Sears List of Subject Headings. In addition, Taylor addresses such vital issues as Internet cataloging, international access control, Natural Language Processing, and ontologies.

The organization of information‎
by Arlene G. Taylor, Daniel N. Joudrey - Language Arts & Disciplines - 2008 - 512 pages - No preview available

This third edition of Taylor's modern classic continues to articulate the theory, principles, standards, and tools behind information organization. As with previous editions, it begins with strong justification for the continued importance of organizing principles and practice. Following a broad overview of the concept and its role in human endeavors, Taylor and Joudrey provide a detailed and insightful discussion of such basic retrieval tools as inventories, bibliographies, catalogs, indexes, finding aids, registers, databases, major bibliographic utilities, and other organizing entities; and subsequently trace the development of the organization of recorded information in Western civilization from 2000 B.C.E. to the present. Standards of codification (MARC, SGML, and various DTDs), controlled vocabularies and ontologies, and Web 2.0 technologies are but a sample of its extensive topical coverage.

The extensively revised and completely updated second edition of this popular textbook provides LIS practitioners and students with a vital guide to the organization of information. After a broad overview of the concept and its role in human endeavors, Taylor proceeds to a detailed and insightful discussion of such basic retrieval tools as bibliographies, catalogs, indexes, finding aids, registers, databases, major bibliographic utilities, and other organizing entities. After tracing the development of the organization of recorded information in Western civilization from 2000 B.C.E. to the present, the author addresses topics that include encoding standards (MARC, SGML, and various DTDs), metadata (description, access, and access control), verbal subject analysis including controlled vocabularies and ontologies, classification theory and methodology, arrangement and display, and system design.

Metadata and its applications in the digital library: approaches and practices‎
by Jia Liu - Reference - 2007 - 192 pages

While the concept of metadata predates the Internet, worldwide interest in its standards and practices is directly linked to the increase in electronic publishing and digital libraries. Yet questions remain, such as: What form should these standards take? Who gets to develop them? How will they do so and how, in turn, will the standards be implemented? Jia Liu tackles these questions and more by offering a state-of-the-art analysis of metadata's major theoretical issues and most exemplary practices. Part one of her book elaborates on the general and latest knowledge about metadata and its implementations. Part two discusses an international array of metadata-related practices, projects, and applications in the digital library.

My Glossary & Information - 017

2009-09-17T13:32:00.004-04:00

The Research Libraries Group (RLG) was a U.S.-based library consortium which developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliographic descriptions and ArchiveGrid, a database containing descriptions of archival collections. RLG was founded by a group of major research libraries in 1974, two years after OCLC, another library consortium, was founded. A major motivation for RLG’s establishment was dissatisfaction among research institutions with OCLC’s record keeping.

Open source software (OSS) is defined as computer software for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that meets the Open Source Definition or that is in the public domain. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms. It is very often developed in a public, collaborative manner. Open source software is the most prominent example of open source development and often compared to user-generated content. The term open source software originated as part of a marketing campaign for free software. A report by Standish Group states that adoption of open source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.

In computer science, the Boolean or logical data type is a primitive data type having one of two values: true or false, intended to represent the truth values of logic and Boolean algebra. Most programming languages, even those that do not have an explicit Boolean type, have support for Boolean algebra operations such as conjunction (AND, &, *), disjunction (OR, |, +), equivalence (EQV, =, ==), exclusive or/non-equivalence (XOR, NEQV, ^), and not (NOT, ~, !).

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is a United States non-profit standards organization that develops, maintains and publishes technical standards related to publishing, bibliographic and library applications. It was founded in 1939, incorporated as a not-for-profit education association in 1983, and assumed its current name in 1984. Todd Carpenter was appointed Managing Director of NISO in 2006.

NISO (National Information Standards Organization) is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and is designated by ANSI to represent U.S. interests to the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee 46 (Information and Documentation). In 2008, NISO was appointed Secretariat on behalf of ANSI for the TC 46 Subcommittee 9 (TC 46/SC 9) - Identification and Description.

NISO approved standards are published by ANSI. Unlike most other ANSI standards, many NISO standards are freely available from its web site.

Designations (names) of NISO standards all start with "ANSI/NISO Z39." (read zee or zed thirty nine dot).

Examples of NISO standards include:

Z39.2 (MARC standards for bibliographic records)
Z39.50 (a protocol for accessing bibliographic databases)
Z39.83 (Circulation Interchange Protocol for library catalogue data exchange)
Z39.86 (Specifications for the Digital Talking Book: DAISY Digital Accessible Information SYstem)
Z39.87 (Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images - MIX)
Z39.88 (OpenURL)

information: Wikipedia, The Organization of Information Text Book

My Glossary & Information - 016

2009-09-16T14:33:00.013-04:00

MARC 21 is a result of the combination of the United States and Canadian MARC formats (USMARC and CAN/MARC). MARC21 is based on the ANSI standard Z39.2, which allows users of different software products to communicate with each other and to exchange data. Currently MARC 21 has been implemented successfully by The British Library, the European Institutions and the major library institutions in the United States, and MARC 21 was designed to redefine the original MARC record format for the 21st century and to make it more accessible to the international community. MARC 21 has formats for the following five types of data: Bibliographic Format, Authority Format, Holdings Format, Community Format, and Classification Data Format.Canada.

MARC 21 allows the use of two character sets, either MARC-8 or Unicode encoded as UTF-8. MARC-8 is based on ISO 2022 and allows the use of Hebrew, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, and East Asian scripts. MARC 21 in UTF-8 format allows all the languages supported by Unicode.

ISO 2709 is an ISO standard for bibliographic descriptions, entitled Format for Bibliographic Information Interchange on Magnetic Tape.

The Standard Generalized Markup Language (ISO 8879:1986 SGML) is an ISO-standard technology for defining generalized markup languages for documents. ISO 8879 Annex A.1 defines generalized markup:

Generalized markup is based on two novel postulates:

Markup should describe a document's structure and other attributes, rather than specify the processing to be performed on it, as descriptive markup need be done only once, and will suffice for future processing.
Markup should be rigorous so that the techniques available for processing rigorously-defined objects like programs and data bases, can be used for processing documents as well.

Voyager is an integrated library system used by more than 1,300 libraries around the world. The biggest user is the Library of Congress and many universities, museums, and community colleges use it. Voyager was developed by Endeavor Information Systems Inc., which was merged into Ex Libris Group in December 2006.

Unicode Transformation Format may refer to one of several forms:

UTF-1
UTF-7
UTF-8
UTF-16/UCS-2
UTF-32/UCS-4

UTF-8 (8-bit UCS/Unicode Transformation Format) is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode. It is able to represent any character in the Unicode standard, yet is backwards compatible with ASCII. For these reasons, it is steadily becoming the preferred encoding for e-mail, web pages, and other places where characters are stored or streamed. UTF-8 encodes each character (code point) in 1 to 4 octets (8-bit bytes), with the single octet encoding used only for the 128 US-ASCII characters.

In computing, UTF-16 (16-bit Unicode Transformation Format) is a variable-length character encoding for Unicode, capable of encoding the entire Unicode repertoire. The encoding form maps each character to a sequence of 16-bit words. Characters are known as code points and the 16-bit words are known as code units. For characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) the resulting encoding is a single 16-bit word.

External links

Understanding MARC Bibliographic Machine Readable Cataloging, a good introduction

MARC authority records

Current TEI Lite: P5

The current version of TEI Lite is derived from the P5 version of the Guidelines. It is available in the following formats:

HTML documentation
ODD customization file
RELAX NG schema (XML syntax)
RELAX NG schema (compact syntax)
XML Schema
DTD

Encoded Archival Description is an XML standard for encoding archival finding aids, maintained by the Library of Congress in partnership with the Society of American Archivists.

The first section of an EAD-encoded finding aid is the eadheader. This section contains the title and optional subtitle of the collection and detailed information about the finding aid itself: who created it, when it was created, its revision history, the language the finding aid is written in, and so on. The eadheader itself has a number of required attributes that map to various ISO standards such as ISO 3166-1 for country codes and ISO 8601 for date formats.

The eadheader and its child elements can be mapped to other standards for easy interchange of information. They are often mapped to Dublin Core elements such as Creator, Author, Language. For example, in the excerpt below the relatedencoding="DC" attribute of the eadheader element specifies that child elements will be mapped to Dublin Core; the child element indicates that the EAD element maps to the Dublin Core element.

The International Standard Bibliographic Description or ISBD is a set of rules produced by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to describe^[1] a wide range of library materials within the context of a catalog. The consolidated edition of the ISBD was published in 2007. It superseded earlier separate ISBDs that were published for monographs, older monographic publications, cartographic materials, serials and other continuing resources, electronic resources, non-book materials, and printed music. IFLA's ISBD Review Group is responsible for maintaining the ISBD.

ONIX International (ONline Information eXchange). The book industry standard for representing and communicating product information in e-format; designed to carry the kind of information traditionally carried on jacket covers and, optionally, also to carry excerpts, book reviews, cover images, author photos, ant the like.

information: Wikipedia, The Organization of Information Text Book

My Glossary & Information - 015

2009-09-15T22:51:00.000-04:00

The Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) is a controlled vocabulary used for describing items of art, architecture, and material culture. The AAT contains generic terms, such as "cathedral," but no proper names, such as "Cathedral of Notre Dame." The AAT is used by, among others, museums, art libraries, archives, catalogers, and researchers in art and art history. The AAT is a thesaurus in compliance with ISO and NISO standards including ISO 2788 and ANSI/NISO Z39.19.

The Universal Decimal Classification is a system of library classification developed by the Belgian bibliographers Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine at the end of the 19th century. It is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification, but uses auxiliary signs to indicate various special aspects of a subject and relationships between subjects. It thus contains a significant faceted or analytico-synthetic element, and is used especially in specialist libraries. UDC has been modified and extended over many years to cope with the increasing output in all disciplines of human knowledge, and is still under continuous review to take account of new developments.

The documents classified by UDC may be in any form. They will often be literature, i.e. written documents, but may also be in other media such as films, video and sound recordings, illustrations, maps, and realia such as museum pieces.

UDC classifications use Arabic numeral system and are based on the decimal system. Every number is thought of as a decimal fraction with the initial decimal point omitted, which determines filing order. For ease of reading, a UDC identifier is usually punctuated after every third digit. Thus, after 61 "Medical sciences" come the subdivisions 611 to 619; under 611 "Anatomy" come its subdivisions 611.1 to 611.9; under 611.1 come all of its subdivisions before 611.2 occurs, and so on; after 619 comes 620. An advantage of this system is that it is infinitely extensible, and when new subdivisions are introduced, they need not disturb the existing allocation of numbers.

The main categories:

0 generalities
1 philosophy, psychology
2 religion, theology
3 social sciences
4 vacant
5 natural sciences
6 technology
7 the arts
8 language, linguistics, literature
9 geography, biography, history

A document may be classified under a combination of different categories through the use of additional symbols. For example:

+	plus	addition	e.g. 59+636 zoology and animal breeding
/	stroke	extension	e.g. 592/599 Systematic zoology (everything from 592 to 599 inclusive)
:	colon	relation	e.g. 17:7 Relation of ethics to art
[]	square brackets	algebraic subgrouping	e.g. 31:[622+669](485) statistics of mining and metallurgy in Sweden (the auxiliary qualifies 622+669 considered as a unit)
=	equals	language	e.g. =111 in English; 59=111 Zoology, in English

The design of UDC lends itself to machine readability, and the system has been used both with early automatic mechanical sorting devices, and modern library OPACs. A core version of UDC, with 65,000 subdivisions, is now available in database format, and is called the Master Reference File (MRF). The current full version of the UDC has 220,000 subdivisions.

APPM (Archives, Personal Papers, and Manuscripts). A standard based on AACR2R for the description of archival materials; has been accepted as a standard by most archival community.

ATT (Art & Architecture Thesaurus). A thesaurus of terms in hierarchical arrangements that cover content and materials in the disciplines of art and architecture.

A faceted classification system allows the assignment of multiple classifications to an object, enabling the classifications to be ordered in multiple ways, rather than in a single, pre-determined, taxonomic order. A facet comprises "clearly defined, mutually exclusive, and collectively exhaustive aspects, properties or characteristics of a class or specific subject".

The memex (a portmanteau of "memory" and "index") is the name given by Vannevar Bush to the theoretical proto-hypertext computer system he proposed in his 1945 The Atlantic Monthly article As We May Think. The memex has influenced the development of subsequential hypertext and intellect augmenting computer systems.

information: Wikipedia, The Organization of Information Text Book

My Glossary & Information - 014

2009-09-13T14:19:00.000-04:00

An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS), is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.

An ILS usually comprises a relational database, software to interact with that database, and two graphical user interfaces (one for patrons, one for staff). Most ILSes separate software functions into discrete programs called modules, each of them integrated with a unified interface. Examples of modules might include:

acquisitions (ordering, receiving, and invoicing materials)
cataloging (classifying and indexing materials)
circulation (lending materials to patrons and receiving them back)
serials (tracking magazine and newspaper holdings)
the OPAC (public interface for users)

Each patron and item has a unique ID in the database that allows the ILS to track its activity.

Larger libraries use an ILS to order and acquire, receive and invoice, catalog, circulate, track and shelve materials. Most sizable First World libraries use an ILS. Smaller libraries, such as those in private homes or non-profit organizations (like churches or synagogues, for instance), often forgo the expense and maintenance required to run an ILS, and instead use a library computer system.

Computer Output Microform (COM) catalog. Catalog in which surrogate records are produced on either microfiche or microfilm and require a microform reader in order to be able to use them.

The Research Libraries Group (RLG) was a U.S.-based library consortium which developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliographic descriptions and ArchiveGrid, a database containing descriptions of archival collections. RLG was founded by a group of major research libraries in 1974, two years after OCLC, another library consortium, was founded. A major motivation for RLG’s establishment was dissatisfaction among research institutions with OCLC’s record keeping.

The founding libraries were the university libraries of Columbia, Harvard and Yale and the New York Public Library. RLG moved its offices to Stanford University in 1978 and adopted Stanford Library’s BALLOTS computerized processing system which evolved into the online database, RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network). RLIN was generally only for use by library specialists and in 1993 RLG developed Eureka as a user-friendly interface for use by non-librarians. RLG expanded its membership to other research libraries throughout the U.S. and in 1992 the British Library became the first non-North American member.

Interlibrary loan (abbreviated ILL, and sometimes called interloan, document delivery, or document supply etc.) is a service whereby a user of one library can borrow books or receive photocopies of documents that are owned by another library. The user makes a request with their local library, which, acting as an intermediary, identifies owners of the desired item, places the request, receives the item, makes it available to the user, and arranges for its return. Although books and journal articles are the most frequently requested items, some libraries will lend audio recordings, video recordings, maps, sheet music, and microforms of all kinds. In many cases, nominal fees accompany interlibrary loan services.

Universal Bibliographic Control (UBC): The concept that it will someday be possible to have access to surrogate records for all the world's important information packages.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is the leading international association of library organizations. It is the global voice of the library and information profession, and its annual conference provides a venue for librarians to learn from one another. The IFLA forum promotes international cooperation, research and development in all fields related to library activities.

Z39.50 is a client-server protocol for searching and retrieving information from remote computer databases. It is covered by ANSI/NISO standard Z39.50, and ISO standard 23950. The standard's maintenance agency is the Library of Congress. Z39.50 is widely used in library environments and is often incorporated into integrated library systems and personal bibliographic reference software. Interlibrary catalogue searches for interlibrary loan are often implemented with Z39.50 queries.

information: Wikipedia, The Organization of Information Text Book

My Glossary & Information - 013

2009-09-11T21:08:00.000-04:00

AACR2 stands for the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, Second Edition. It is published jointly by the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (in the UK). AACR2 is designed for use in the construction of catalogues and other lists in general libraries of all sizes. The rules cover the description of, and the provision of access points for, all library materials commonly collected at the present time.

Resource Description and Access or RDA is a set of instructions for the cataloguing of books and other materials held in libraries. RDA is intended to replace AACR2, a standard in widespread use in Anglo-American libraries. It is expected to be released online in 2009.

LC stands for The Library of Congress and is the oldest federal institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in is the research library of the United States CongressWashington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books.

The Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) comprise a thesaurus (in the information technology sense) of subject headings, maintained by the United States Library of Congress, for use in bibliographic records.

The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) is a system of library classification developed by the Library of Congress. It is used by most research and academic libraries in the U.S. and several other countries. It is not to be confused with the Library of Congress Subject Headings or Library of Congress Control Number.

The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC, also called the Dewey Decimal System) is a proprietary system of library classification developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876, and has been greatly modified and expanded through 22 major revisions, the most recent in 2004. This system organizes books on library shelves in a specific and repeatable order that makes it easy to find any book and return it to its proper place.

OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is a "nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purpose of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs", according to its website. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center. More than 60,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials.

MARC is an acronym, used in the field of library science, that stands for MAchine-Readable Cataloging. The MARC standards consist of the MARC formats, which are standards for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form, and related documentation.

An Online Public Access Catalog (often abbreviated as OPAC or simply Library Catalog) is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries. Users typically search a library catalog to locate books, periodicals, audio/visual materials or other items under control of a library.

NELINET (New England Libraries Information Network), Inc. is the not-for-profit membership cooperative of academic, public, school and special libraries and other information and cultural organizations in New England of the United States (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont). It was formed as a program of the New England Board of Higher Education in 1966, and became independently incorporated in 1979.

The American Library Association (ALA) is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally.

NELA - New England Library Association

The Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) professional is the Massachusetts, United Stateslibrary association that "advocates for libraries, librarians, and library staff, defends intellectual freedom, and provides a forum for leadership, communication, professional development, and networking to keep libraries vital." MLA publishes standards for library services to Massachusetts children and young adults.

Special Libraries Association (SLA) is a professional association for librarian and information professionals working in business, government, law firms, banks, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions, among others. Special libraries include law libraries, news libraries, corporate libraries, museum libraries, and medical libraries.

The American Society for Information Science and Technology (also referred to as ASIST or ASIS&T) is an organization of information professionals. Established in 1937, the organization sponsors an annual conference and publishes proceedings from this conference under the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology series; provides administration and electronic communications support for interest-based organizational groups referred to as SIGs; provides administration for geographically defined chapter groups; publishes the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (also known as JASIST); publishes a society bulletin; provides job availability oriented communications support; and provides organizational support for continuing education programs for information professionals.

The Society of American Archivists - SAA (established 1936) is the oldest and largest archivist association in North America, serving the educational and informational needs of more than 5,000 individual and institutional members. They are partnered with the Library of Congress in developing Encoded Archival Description - an XML Document Type Definition - a standard for encoding archival finding aids, allowing them to be made accessible online.

Connexion is a powerful yet easy-to-use tool that lets you perform original and copy cataloging with WorldCat, the world's most comprehensive bibliographic database and the core of the OCLC cooperative. Catalog in Connexion and you contribute and receive quality records that help information seekers find what they need quickly. Connexion gives you a choice of interface: an easy-to-learn Web interface and a Windows-based client interface.

The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) is an attempt to build a "low-barrier interoperability framework" for archives (institutional repositories) containing digital content (digital libraries). It allows people (Service Providers) to harvest metadata (from Data Providers). This metadata is used to provide "value-added services", often by combining different data sets.

The OAI technical infrastructure, specified in the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), currently in version 2.0, defines a mechanism for data providers to expose their metadata. This protocol mandates that individual archives map their metadata to the Dublin Core, a simple and common metadata set for this purpose.

The Dublin Core description. It defines conventions for describing things online in ways that make them easy to find. Dublin Core is widely used to describe digital materials such as metadata element set is a standard for cross-domain information resourcevideo, sound, image, text, and composite media like web pages. Implementations of Dublin Core typically make use of XML and are Resource Description Framework based.

Library Journal (LJ) is a trade publication for librarians. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional practice. It also reviews library-related materials and equipment.

information: Wikipedia

Simmons GSLIS Guest Visiting BPL Digital Lab

2009-07-30T21:23:00.000-04:00

Simmons GSLIS guest Dr. Zainab A. Salman from MoHE&SR (Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research) Baghdad Iraq came to visit BPL's digital lab today.

Group Shot

Notebook

2009-07-25T20:27:00.000-04:00

Hardware

CPU (Central Processing Unit): A central processing unit (CPU) or processor is an electronic circuit that can execute computer programs.

Bus: A circuit path that connects devices within a computer or over a network.

USB (Universal Serial Bus): Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus devices to a host computer. USB was designed to allow many peripherals to be connected using a single standardized interface socket and to improve standard to connectplug and play capabilities by allowing hot swapping; that is, by allowing devices to be connected and disconnected without rebooting the computer or turning off the device.

IEEE 1394 = FireWire: The IEEE 1394 interface is a serial bus interface standard for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer, frequently used by personal computers, as well as in digital audio, digital video, automotive, and aeronautics applications.

RAM (Random Access Memory): Random-access memory (usually known by its acronym, RAM) is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order (i.e., at random). The word random thus refers to the fact that any piece of data can be returned in a constant time, regardless of its physical location and whether or not it is related to the previous piece of data.

Software – General

Booting: In computing, booting (booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. A boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the computer performs when power is switched on.

Device Driver: In computing, a device driver or software driver allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer program hardware device.

API (application programming interface): In computer science, an application programming interface (API) is an interface that defines the ways by which an application program may request services from libraries and/or operating systems.

OS (Operating System): An operating system (commonly abbreviated to either OS or O/S) is an interface between hardware and user; an OS is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer. The operating system acts as a host for computing applications that are run on the machine.

Cache: In computer science, a cache is a collection of data duplicating original values stored elsewhere or computed earlier, where the original data is expensive to fetch (owing to longer access time) or to compute, compared to the cost of reading the cache. In other words, a cache is a temporary storage area where frequently accessed data can be stored for rapid access. Once the data is stored in the cache, it can be used in the future by accessing the cached copy rather than re-fetching or recomputing the original data.

Software—Specific

Apache: The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache, is a web server notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. Apache was the first viable alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation web server (currently known as Sun Java System Web Server), and has since evolved to rival other Unix-based web servers in terms of functionality and performance. The majority of web servers using Apache run the Linux OS.

PHP: PHP is a scripting language originally designed for producing dynamic web pages. It has evolved to include a command line interface capability and can be used in standalone graphical applications.

MySQL: MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) which has more than 6 million installations. MySQL stands for "My Structured Query Language". The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. MySQL is owned and sponsored by a single for-profit firm, the Swedish company MySQL AB, now a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems, which holds the copyright to most of the code base.

MySQL is commonly used by free software projects which require a full-featured database management system, such as WordPress, phpBB and other software built on the LAMP software stack. It is also used in very high-scale World Wide Web products including Google and Facebook.

Java: Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities. Java applications are typically compiled to bytecode (class file) that can run on any Java virtual machine (JVM) regardless of computer architecture. The original and reference implementation Java compilers, virtual machines, and class libraries were developed by Sun from 1995. As of May 2007, in compliance with the specifications of the Java Community Process, Sun made available most of their Java technologies as free software under the GNU General Public License.

Javascript: JavaScript is a scripting language used to enable programmatic access to objects within other applications. It is primarily used in the form of client-side JavaScript for the development of dynamic websites.

PERL: Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall, a linguist working as a systems administrator for NASA, in 1987, as a general purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. he language provides powerful text processing facilities without the arbitrary data length limits of many contemporary Unix tools, facilitating easy manipulation of text files. It is also used for graphics programming, system administration, network programming, applications that require database access and CGI programming on the Web.

Security Related

DDoS (Destributed Denial of Service): A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) occurs when multiple systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system, usually one or more web servers.

Firewall: A firewall is a part of a computer system or network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized communications. It is a device or set of devices configured to permit, deny, encrypt, decrypt, or proxy all (in and out) computer traffic between different security domains based upon a set of rules and other criteria.

Spam: Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.

Phishing: In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT Administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public.

Zombie: A zombie computer (often shortened as zombie) is a computer attached to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker, a computer virus, or a trojan horse. Generally, a compromised machine is only one of many in a botnet, and will be used to perform malicious tasks of one sort or another under remote direction. Most owners of zombie computers are unaware that their system is being used in this way.

Protocols

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): The packet switching technology used to support all Internet activities.

MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): The automated encoding scheme that facilitates the transfer of binary information in a ASCII text representation; for instance, MIME enables binary file e-mail attachments.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange): Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) refers to the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means. It is used to transfer electronic documents from one computer system to another (ie) from one trading partner to another trading partner.

POP (Post Office Protocol): In computing, the Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection. POP and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern e-mail clients and servers support both. The POP protocol has been developed through several versions, with version 3 (POP3) being the current standard.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication, Rich Site Summary, or RDF Site Summary): An XML-based protocol that enables a variety of syndicated feeds of blogs or podcasts.

XML (Extensible Markup Language): A lightweight meta-language derived from the SGML standard that has been optimized for the web.

Dublin Core: The Dublin Core metadata element set is a standard for cross-domain information resource description. It defines conventions for describing things online in ways that make them easy to find. Dublin Core is widely used to describe digital materials such as video, sound, image, text, and composite media like web pages. Implementations of Dublin Core typically make use of XML and are Resource Description Framework based.

PDF (Portable Document Format): Portable Document Format (PDF created by ) is a file format Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system.

Network Related

LAN (Local Area Network): A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport.

WAN (Wide Area Network): A collection of local area networks.

VPN (Virtual Private Network): A strategy to extend an address space by the creation of a virtual, secure "tunnel" through which authentication data and private network traffic can pass, allowing a remote user to access their organization's network from the outside.

TLD (Top Level Domain [name]): A top-level domain or domain name (TLD) is the highest level of domain names in the root zone of the Domain Name System of the Internet. The Categories group has become known as the generic top-level domains. Initially this group consisted of GOV, EDU, COM, MIL, ORG, and NET.

DNS (Domain Name System [or Server]): A hierarchical system of servers maintaining a database of names and addresses providing these look-up services; this is how IP addresses are associated with a URL.

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium): The coordinating standards body that oversees Web development.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee: Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (London, 8 June 1955), is an English engineer and computer scientist and MIT professor credited with inventing the World Wide Web, making the first proposal for it in March 1989. On 25 December 1990, with the help of Robert Cailliau and a young student staff at CERN, he implemented the first successful communication between an HTTP client and server via the Internet. Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the Web's continued development. He is also the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, and is a senior researcher and holder of the 3Com Founders Chair at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He is a director of The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI),and a member of the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.

Audio/Visual Related

Lossless Compression: Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. Lossless data compression is used in many applications. For example, it is used in the popular ZIP file format and in the Unix tool gzip. Lossless compression is used when it is important that the original and the decompressed data be identical, or when no assumption can be made on whether certain deviation is uncritical. Typical examples are executable programs and source code. Some image file formats, like PNG or GIF, use only lossless compression, while others like TIFF and MNG may use either lossless or lossy methods.

Lossy Compression: A lossy compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that is different from the original, but is close enough to be useful in some way. Lossy compression is most commonly used to compress multimedia data (audio, video, still images), especially in applications such as streaming media and internet telephony.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): In computing, JPEG is a commonly used method of compression for photographic images. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format): The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF ) is a bitmapimage format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability.

The format supports up to 8 bits per pixel, allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colors chosen from the 24-bit RGB color space. It also supports animations and allows a separate palette of 256 colors for each frame. The color limitation makes the GIF format unsuitable for reproducing color photographs and other images with continuous color, but it is well-suited for simpler images such as graphics or logos with solid areas of color.

MP3 = MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (Moving Picture Experts Group): MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players. MP3 is an audio-specific format that was designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group.

The use in MP3 of a lossy compression algorithm is designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent the audio recording and still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio for most listeners. An MP3 file that is created using the setting of 128 kbit/s will result in a file that is about 1/11th the size of the CD file created from the original audio source. An MP3 file can also be constructed at higher or lower bit rates, with higher or lower resulting quality.

Database Related

Database: A database is an integrated collection of logically related records or files that is stored in a computer system which consolidates records previously stored in separate files into a common pool of data records that provides data for many applications. A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. In one view, databases can be classified according to types of content: bibliographic, full-text, numeric, and images.

Tuple = Row = Record: In mathematics, a tuple is a sequence (or ordered list) of finite length. In the context of a relational database, a row—also called a record or tuple—represents a single, implicitly structured data item in a table.

Attribute = Field = Column: In computing, an attribute is a specification that defines a property of an object, element, or file. An attribute of an object usually consists of a name and a value; of an element, a type or class name; of a file, a name and extension. In computer science, data that has several parts can be divided into fields usually have a . For example, a computer may represent today's date as three distinct fields: the day, the month and the year. Programming languagesrecord data type to represent composite data types as a series of fields. In the context of a relational database table, a column is a set of data values of a particular simple type, one for each row of the table.

Table: A table is both a mode of visual communication and a means of arranging data. The use of tables is pervasive throughout all communication, research and data analysis. Tables appear in print media, handwritten notes, computer software, architectural ornamentation, traffic signs and many other places. The precise conventions and terminology for describing tables varies depending on the context.

Primary Key: In relational database design, a unique key or primary key to uniquely identify each is a candidate keyrow in a table. A unique key or primary key comprises a single column or set of columns.

Foreign Key: In the context of relational databases, a foreign key is a referential constraint between two tables. The foreign key identifies a column or a set of columns in one (referencing) table that refers to a column or set of columns in another (referenced) table. The columns in the referencing table must be the primary key or other candidate key in the referenced table.

RDBMS (Relational Database Management System): A Relational database management system (RDBMS) is a database management system (DBMS) that is based on the relational model . Most popular commercial and open source databases currently in use are based on the relational model. A short definition of an RDBMS may be a DBMS in which data is stored in the form of tables and the relationship among the data is also stored in the form of tables.

information: Wikipedia, Internet Technologies and Information Services Text Book

A Free Digital Library

2009-07-24T11:34:00.000-04:00

Talks Brewster Kahle builds a free digital library

TED Talks Brewster Kahle is building a truly huge digital library. Every book ever published, every movie ever released, all the strata of web history ... It's all free to the public -- unless someone else gets to it first.

Source: TED "Ideas Worth Spreading" LINK

Also: Internet Archives "Universal Access to Human Knowledge"

My Glossary & Information - 012

2009-07-24T02:01:00.000-04:00

Digital Library
• A digital library is a distributed electronic collection that covers virtually all fields of
human endeavor including art, music, medicine, science, movies, videos, books, product literature, newspapers, brochures and catalogs. (Nabil & Yelena, 2000)

Who owns the idea?
• Who has created DLs:
– librarians,
– information specialists,
– archivists,
– programmers,
– engineers,
– social scientists,
– lawyers,
– technicians…

Why create a DL?
• Because…YOU CAN!!!
– technology improved
– fast internet connections
– digitization, storage; cheap process
– service improvement; faster service, enriched access
– resources: variety of organizing methods
– social aspect; distant user, cross-community interactivity

Digital Libraries services
• database and/or Internet searching functions
• Information Retrieval
• reference Services
• user training
• recent updates
• virtual collaborative activities

Digital Objects
– different forms (word, pdf, SGML, (X)HTML)
– intellectual Property Rights
– selection and acquisition of the material; meeting users needs
– preservation & archiving
– interoperability of information formats

Metadata?… Meta…what???
• Data about data?
– Describe, catalog, classify, distribute, retrieve the DL’s collection
• Descriptive: bibliographic description
• Administrative: terms and conditions, provenance
• Structural: describes the data entities and the relations between them

Digital Library Initiative
• Improve the way material is…
– collected
– stored
– organized
– processed
– searched
– retrieved
… in an electronic environment

Users
• technology compatibility
• organized interface design
• web pages for mobile technology
• users with disability
• next generation OPACs
• OPAC user tagging
• advanced personalized information services

Famous Digital Libraries
• European Library
• Library of Congress
• Perseus Project
• Project Gutenberg
• ibiblio

information: Technology for Information Professionals Class

My Glossary & Information - 011

2009-07-22T02:10:00.000-04:00

IR - Information Retrieval
Information retrieval (IR) is the science of searching for documents, for information within documents and for metadata and the about documents, as well as that of searching relational databases World Wide Web. There is overlap in the usage of the terms data retrieval, document retrieval, information retrieval, and text retrieval, but each also has its own body of literature, theory, praxis and technologies.

SQL - Structured Query Language
SQL (Structured Query Language) is a database computer language designed for managing datarelational database management systems (RDBMS). Its scope includes data query and update, schema creation and modification, and data access control.

NLP - A Natural Language Processing
Natural language processing (NLP) is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human (natural) languages. Natural language generation systems convert information from computer databases into readable human language.

Stopwords: Name given to words which are filtered out prior to, or after processing NLP data. Words in documents such as articles, prepositions, and conjunctions that are deemed meaningless as index terms.

Synonymy: Different words with identical or similar meaning. Ex: Film - Movie

Polysemy: Words or phrase with multiple related meanings. Ex: Mouth (body) - Mouth (end of a river)

Homonyms: One group of words that share same spelling and same pronunciation but have different meanings. Ex: Router - Network device or woodworking tool

LIS - Latent Semantic Value

RSV - Retrieval Status Value

Stemming: The process for reducing infiltered words to their stem, base or root form.

BIR - Binary Independence Retrieval

CBIR - Content-Based Information Retrieval

Content-based image retrieval (CBIR), also known as query by image content (QBIC) and content-based visual information retrieval (CBVIR) is the application of computer vision to the image retrieval problem, that is, the problem of searching for digital images in large databases.

"Content-based" means that the search will analyze the actual contents of the image. The term 'content' in this context might refer to colors, shapes, textures, or any other information that can be derived from the image itself. Without the ability to examine image content, searches must rely on metadata such as captions or keywords, which may be laborious or expensive to produce.

QBIC - Query By Image Content

QBE - Query By Example
Query by example is a query technique that involves providing the CBIR system with an example image that it will then base its search upon. The underlying search algorithms may vary depending on the application, but result images should all share common elements with the provided example.

Types of Searching:

The known item search
The existence search
The exploratory search
The comprehensive search

information: Wikipedia, Technology for Information Professionals Class, Internet Technologies and Information Services Text Book

Leslie Jones Family Visiting BPL

2009-07-18T01:35:00.000-04:00

Modest about his abilities as a photographer (he called himself a camera-man, not a photojournalist), Jones quietly built an unrivaled collection of photographic negatives. The collection numbers approximately 36,000 images, all of which were given to the Boston Public Library by his family in the early 1970's. The collection is a stunning pictorial document of the history of Boston in the 20th Century, and a tribute to the craft and artistry of a man who, by doing his job, preserved the past on glass and film.

Thomas Blake; the digital imaging production manager is giving a great speech about Leslie Jones to his family of all generations. It's a exiting day for us (the BPL crew) because we get to show his family what we have been doing for the past year. We will be digitizing his 20,000th photograph soon and by this time next year we should be complete with the digitization.

About Leslie Jones

Leslie Jones worked for the Boston Herald-Traveler newspaper between the years 1917 and 1956. He was educated at the Farm and Trade School on Thompson Island. Jones first worked as a pattern-maker, but had long held an interest in photography. While working in a Boston factory, he continued developing himself as a freelance photographer. It was not until Jones unfortunately lost two of his fingers to the factory machinery, however, which led him to convert this avocation into his profession. He joined the Boston Herald-Traveler staff in 1917.

In his 39 years at the newspaper, Jones covered everything from a fox stuck in a tree on the Boston Common, to Charles Lindbergh's U.S. tour after the aviator crossed the Atlantic. His photographs document both the usual and the unusual in the daily life of Boston.

Wikipedia Information:

Leslie Jones (1886-1967), was the famous photographer, who worked for Boston Herald-Traveler newspaper for 39 years from 1917 to 1956.

Jones graduated from the Farm & Trade School on Thompson Island. Although interested in photography from his school days, Jones first worked as a pattern-maker. He freelanced as a photographer for several years while working in a Boston factory, but after losing two fingers to the machinery he joined the Herald-Traveler staff full-time. In his 39 years at the newspaper, Jones covered everything from a fox stuck in a tree on the Boston Common, to Charles Lindbergh's U.S. tour after the aviator crossed the Atlantic. His photographs document both the usual and the unusual in the daily life of Boston.

A collection of almost 40,000 of his negatives is stored in the Boston Public Library.

Source: Wikipedia, Leslie Jones website

Copyright Issues

2009-07-17T20:43:00.000-04:00

A Fair(y) Use Tale

What is Copyright?
Copyright gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work. Copyright is described under the umbrella term intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.

What is Public Domain?
The public domain is a range of abstract materials—commonly referred to as intellectual property—which are not owned or controlled by anyone. The term indicates that these materials are therefore "public property", and available for anyone to use for any purpose. The public domain can be defined in contrast to several forms of intellectual property; the public domain in contrast to copyrighted works is different from the public domain in contrast to trademarks or patented works.

Source: YOUTUBE, Wikipedia

My Glossary & Information - 010

2009-07-17T02:02:00.000-04:00

** Any book published before 1923 is a public domain. 1923-76 is a gray area.

IR - Data Information Objects

Structured Data: Cataloging, meta data creation, database, tables & fields
Unstructured Data: Web pages, MS Word Documents, Images and other audio/visuals

Stopwords:

Pronouns
To be/ auxiliary verbs
Conjunctions
Articles "A", "The"
Prepositions
interjections/exclamation

Important:

Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs

EXAMPLE:

My daughter collects coins. Her collection includes pennies, nickels, and quarters. She has one Buffalo nickel, which is quite old.

*daughter f(x), r(x)
**collects
*coins f(x), r(x)
**collection

f: Frequency r: Relevance **:Collect "root", "stem" Also Relevant: collector, collectible, collecting, and collected

includes
pennies
**nickels
quarters
buffalo
**nickel
quite
old

**:Nickel "root"

Phrases: buffalo nickel, coin collection (proximity)

Visualization: Tag Clouds
A tag cloud or word cloud (or weighted list in visual design) is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and are typically listed alphabetically, and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color.

information: Technology for Information Professionals Class, Wikipedia

My Glossary & Information - 009

2009-07-15T02:50:00.000-04:00

Libraries & the Internet: Learning from the past, exploring the future

Internet: a miracle?
• Before 1990’s: how can I get connected? What is there?
• Early 1990’s: the World Wide Web (www)
– Hypertext: Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)
– Searching abilities
– Web 1.0, Web 2.0

Internet timeline:
the Pre-Web (1969- 1992)
• Dull & not user-friendly applications
• Library services: OCLC, Dialog
• Equipment? Connectivity
• Libraries limited online services
– Telnet connections, email, discussion lists
– printed journals, books, papers
– no indexing, no search-based strategies

Internet time line:
Web 1.0 (1992- present)
• Increased access and use in libraries, schools, homes
• 2006: 95% Public Libraries offer Internet access to their patrons
• Shift in information seeking, users active researchers of information:
– plethora of online content (webpages)
– search engines (Netscape, Internet Explorer)
– emails
– Google (a new type of library?)
– OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog)

Internet time line:
Web 2.0 (~2004- present)
• Web 2.0: Plenty of definitions
–Miller (2009): collaborative, social, interactive, shared, tagging
–Weinberger (2007): allows information and services to be placeless
–Allen (2008): deals with ideas behaviors, technologies and ideals all at the same time
–O’Reilly (2005) : a network as platform, spanning all connected devices: deliver software, consume and remix data from individual user

Web 2.0 applications
• RSS Blogs & Podcasts
• Wikis
• Flickr, YouTube, Social Bookmarking
• Social Networking Services
• Instant Messaging & Twitter
• Tagging
• Mashups
• Virtual Reality & Second Life
• Podcasts

Library 2.0
• Characteristics of the Library 2.0
– Integrated Library Systems: improve library services
– costless and efficient ways to deliver services
– user-centered library services in online environments- more user participation
– enables combination of a physical and virtual world
– effort to reach more distant users

The other face of Web 2.0
• Privacy issues: stored personal information online, e.g. Facebook, Amazon clients profile
• Information Gatekeepers: the “cult of the amateur”. Who creates the information and how can the users evaluate it?
• Distraction from reality especially for youngsters

Internet timeline: Web 3.0 (now- future?)
• Semantic Web?: XML, queries, organize, share and reuse data
• Libraries:
– Staff: special technology skills, excellent communication with other related departments
– Policies: privacy level, social networking, organize share of information
– Libraries walls: co-exist physical and virtual libraries

information: Technology for Information Professionals Class

My Glossary & Information - 008

2009-07-10T02:27:00.000-04:00

SI & ICT

• Social Informatics (SI): Social informatics is the study of information and communication tools in cultural, or institutional contexts (Kling, Rosenbaum, & Sawyer, 2005).
– design, uses, and consequences of ICT and interaction with institutional and cultural context (Kling, 2005, p.6)

• Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Information and communication technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that covers all advanced technologies in manipulating and communicating information. The term is sometimes used in preference to information technology (IT), particularly on these two communities: education and government. The common usage ICT is synonymous assumed the fact that IT or ICT encompasses all mediums, to record information (magnetic disk/tape, optical disks (CD/DVD), flash memory etc. and arguably also paper records); technology for broadcasting information - radio, television; and technology for communicating through voice and sound or images - microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to cellular phones. It includes the wide varieties of computing hardware (PCs, servers, mainframes, networked storage). Rapidly it develops personal hardware market the comprises mobile phones, personal devices, (MP3, MP4, MP5 and MP6) players, and so much more.
– political and social forces come into play, and those forces, rather than the technology itself, determine the form it takes (Berube, 2006, p.86)

Brief background of ICTs
• ‘50s: computer integration- fear of increase of unemployment
• ‘70s- ‘80s: use of computers affects organizations’ structure- great confusion
• ‘90s: computers are in homes, public libraries, companies- fast internet connections
• Currently: The Economist: May 10, 2007: Fishermen in Kerala- communication between the fishermen at the sea and the sellers at the coast

Design, develop, implement
• The configurational nature of ICT- based systems: ICT- based system’s uses are not fully inscribed in its design. It is the vendor, not the customer, that is defining what ‘the best’ is.
• ‘Social design of computerized systems’: joint design of (a) technological characteristics of a computerized system and (b) the social arrangements under which it will be used.

Why teach Social Informatics
(a) computing- oriented students,
(b) understand the design and implementation ICT is a socio-technical process,
(c) students develop a set of analytic techniques,
(d) develop a critical appreciation of the benefits and limitations of ICTs

• Heterogeneous population of students: (a) disciplinary affiliations, (b) the type of work these
students will obtain after graduation, (c) the level of education-under- postgraduates.

Communicating ICT to Professional audiences
(a) can improve professional practise,
(b) understanding and awareness of SI research can help ICT professionals avoid implementation failures

LIS; new trends
• LIS: interdisciplinary field fundamentally intertwined with information technology and “actively involved in the evolution of the information society.” (Saracevic, 1999) Bates, 1999
• The “physical” question focuses on the fundamental features and laws of information.
• The “social” question asks about people’s interactions with and uses of information.
• The “design” question directs attention to the problem of information access.

ICTs and ethical issues
• Social informatics: involve social actions and social relationships and have moral and ethical consequences (Kling, 2005)
• Computer technology is ‘logically malleable’: computers take various hardware to operate many applications (video, sound, image) and work in many ways (word processors, presentation creators, connect to the Internet) (Spinello & Tavani, 2001)

The future of ICTs (Floridi, 2007)
• Infosphere: it is an environment that includes online and offline spaces of information, which is
rapidly growing
• Infosphere makes a transit from (a) the analog to the digital data and (b) the ever-increasing growth of our digital space

Thus:
– We cannot ignore an event
– Acquire meta information about information
– Become more humanity increasing accountable morally speaking

information: Technology for Information Professionals Class, Wikipedia

My Glossary & Information - 007

2009-07-08T01:04:00.000-04:00

MMC - Malicious Mobile Code
Any program that moves from computer to computer via a network that is intentionally designed to modify a computer system without the users content.

Microsoft IIS - Internet Information Services
Internet Information Services (IIS) - formerly called Internet Information Server - is a set of Internet-based services for servers created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows. It is the world's second most popular web server in terms of overall websites behind the industry leader Apache HTTP Server. The services provided currently include FTP, FTPS, SMTP, NNTP, and HTTP/HTTPS.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to exchange and manipulate files over an Internet Protocol computer network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server applications.

IRC - Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfers via Direct Client-to-Client.

Malware: Software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owners informed consent.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface
The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard protocol for interfacing external application software with an information server, commonly a web server.

DDoS - Distributed Denial of Service

A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) occurs when multiple systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system, usually one or more web servers. These systems are compromised by attackers using a variety of methods.

Malware can carry DDoS attack mechanisms; one of the more well known examples of this was MyDoom. Its DoS mechanism was triggered on a specific date and time. This type of DDoS involved hardcoding the target IP address prior to release of the malware and no further interaction was necessary to launch the attack.

A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or persons to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers.

NETBIOS - Network Basic Input/Output Systems
It provides services related to the session layer of the OSI model allowing applications on separate computers to communicate over a local area network. As strictly an API, NetBIOS is not a networking protocol.

In modern networks, NetBIOS normally runs over TCP/IP via the NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT) protocol. This results in each computer in the network having both a NetBIOS name and an IP address corresponding to a (possibly different) host name.

Types of attacks:

Computer virus: A computer virus is a computer program that can copy itself and infect a computer without the permission or knowledge of the owner.
Computer Worm: A computer worm is a self-replicating computer program. It uses a network to send copies of itself to other nodes (computers on the network) and it may do so without any user intervention.
Trojan Horse: A Trojan horse, or trojan for short, is a term used to describe malware that appears, to the user, to perform a desirable function but, in fact, facilitates unauthorized access to the user's computer system.
Spyware: Spyware is a type of malware that is installed surreptitiously on personal computers to collect information about users, their computer or browsing habits without their informed consent.
Adware: Adware or advertising-supported software is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer after the software is installed on it or while the application is being used. Some types of adware are also spyware and can be classified as privacy-invasive software.
Crimeware: Crimeware is a class of malware designed specifically to automate cybercrime. The term was coined by Peter Cassidy, Secretary General of the Anti-Phishing Working Group to distinguish it from other kinds of malevolent programs.

information: Wikipedia, Technology for Information Professionals Class, Internet Technologies and Information Services Text Book

My Glossary & Information - 006

2009-07-03T01:46:00.000-04:00

Database: An organized collection of information/data with a purpose.

searchable
organized
made up of tables
data in fields
standardized
relationship among data
rules
purpose

* Relational Database Model (%90 1970)
* Flat File Model - MARC
* Hierarchical Model - Root Directory
* Object Oriented Database - Digital Photographs, Multi-Media

Atomization: Finding the smallest useful piece of data.

Information:

Structured - Databases, XML
Unstructured - Keywords, Information Retrieval Modelling

ILS:
An integrated library system (ILS), also known as a library management system (LMS), is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed.

acquisitions (ordering, receiving, and invoicing materials)
cataloging (classifying and indexing materials)
circulation (lending materials to patrons and receiving them back)
serials (tracking magazine and newspaper holdings)
the OPAC (public interface for users)
circulations
patron records
research
inter library loan
administration
reference
technology for patron

information: Wikipedia, Technology for Information Professionals Class

My Glossary & Information - 005

2009-07-01T02:15:00.000-04:00

XML - Extensible Markup Language
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages.It is classified as an extensible language, because it allows the user to define the mark-up elements.

RSS - Really Simple Syndication
RSS (most commonly translated as "Really Simple Syndication" but sometimes "Rich Site Summary") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.

SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a family of specifications of XML-based file format for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic (interactive or animated).

WML - Wireless Markup Language
Wireless Markup Language, based on XML, is a markup language intended for devices that implement the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) specification, such as mobile phones, and preceded the use of other markup languages now used with WAP, such as HTML/XHTML (which are gaining in popularity as processing power in mobile devices increases).

RDF - Resource Description Framework
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a family of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications originally designed as a metadata data model. It has come to be used as a general method for conceptual description or modeling of information that is implemented in web resources; using a variety of syntax formats.

OWL - Ontology Web Language
The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies, and is endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium. This family of languages is based on two (largely, but not entirely, compatible) semantics: OWL DL and OWL Lite semantics are based on Description Logics, which have attractive and well-understood computational properties, while OWL Full uses a novel semantic model intended to provide compatibility with RDF Schema. OWL ontologies are most commonly serialized using RDF/XML syntax.

DTD - Document Type Definitions
Document Type Definition (DTD) is one of several SGML and XML schema languages, and is also the term used to describe a document or portion thereof that is authored in the DTD language. A DTD is primarily used for the expression of a schema via a set of declarations that conform to a particular markup syntax and that describe a class, or type, of document, in terms of constraints on the structure of that document.

XSD - XML Schema Definitions
XML Schema, published as a W3C recommendation in May 2001, is one of several XML schema languages. It was the first separate schema language for XML to achieve Recommendation status by the W3C.

SGML - Standard Generalized Markup Language
The Standard Generalized Markup Language (ISO 8879:1986 SGML) is an ISO Standard metalanguage in which one can define markup languages for documents.

XLINK - XML Linking Language
The XML Linking Language, or XLink, is an XML markup language used for creating in XML documents. XLink is a hyperlinksW3C specification that outlines methods of describing links between resources in XML documents, whether internal or external to the original document.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.

CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation, including elements such as the colors, fonts, and layout. This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple pages to share formatting, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content (such as by allowing for tableless web design).

PCData - Parsed Character Data
Simply speaking, PCDATA stands for Parsed Character Data. That means the characters are to be parsed by the XML, XHTML, or HTML parser.

CSV - Comma-Separated Value
A Comma separated values (CSV) file is used for the digital storage of data structured in a table of lists form, where each associated item (member) in a group is in association with others also separated by the commas of its set. Each line in the CSV file corresponds to a row in the table. Within a line, fields are separated by commas, each field belonging to one table column. CSV files are often used for moving tabular data between two different computer programs, for example between a database program and a spreadsheet program.

ISBN - International Standard Book Number
The International Standard Book Number, or ISBN , is a unique,numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin,for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966.

NIP - Not in Print

URI - Uniform Resource Identifier
In computing, a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) consists of a string of characters used to identify or name a resource on the Internet. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network (typically the World Wide Web) using specific protocols. Schemes specifying a specific syntax and associated protocols define each URI.

URN - Uniform Resource Name
A Uniform Resource Name (URN) is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that uses the urn scheme, and does not imply availability of the identified resource. Both URNs (names) and URLs (locators) are URIs, and a particular URI may be a name and a locator at the same time.

XSL - Extensible Style-sheet Language

In computing, the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), a family of transformation languages, allows one to describe how to format or transform files encoded in the XML standard. The XSL language itself uses valid XML syntax, with constructs such as:

Hello Mrs. Jones!

<code>&lt;xsl:if test="@author='Jones'"&gt;Hello Mrs. Jones!&lt;/xsl:if&gt;