11th Reading Assignmet

Title: GREENING THE LIBRARY
Source: http://library.queensu.ca/library/green


ABSTRACT:

These readings enumerated the green practices that a library can do and how can we stay green and clean in the library. In the spirit of sustainability and environmental consciousness, the library has been making an effort to reduce the impact of our services on the natural environment while maintaining welcoming and comfortable environments in our campus libraries.

THINGS I LEARNED:

Our environmentally conscious practices include:

-Lights are shut off during closing hours

-Computer monitors time- out to black screensavers after 20 minutes of inactivity, and power

down after a further 20 minute period. Public workstations automatically shut down overnight

-All printers offer double-sided printing

-Recycled paper is used in printers and photocopies
-Printer toner cartridges are recycled
-Post – warranty computer hardware is donated to non- profit agencies for reuse.
-New! Green express computer stations provide quick access to the library catalogue and the internet, but are not networked to printers.

How you can stay green and clean in the library

You can help us protect the environment and library books and resources

Choose double- sided printing when using Library workstations
When finished with single – sided print- outs and copies, use the blank sides for notes
Please respect the libraries’ food and drink policies.
Share the space. Be mindful of others and keep the work area around you clean and clear.
When you leave the library, ensure that recyclables and trash are sorted and disposed of in the appropriate bins.

APPLICATIONS / IMPLICATIONS
In order to have a green library, for me we must start it in ourselves by being a green librarian. If we started it in ourselves, we can now be a part of the community in order it to be a green community.

10th Reading Assignment

Title: PERSONAL COMPUTERS: Steps to Avoid Physical Strains of Computer Use
Author: Peter H. Lewis
Source: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=personal+computers%3A+how+to+avoid+physical+strains&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701

Abstract:

Using a computer can be a pain in the neck, the back, the arms, the wrists, the shoulders, the knees, the eyes and virtually every other part of the body. It doesn’t have to be that way. The jury is still out over the long – term health risks of using personal computers, at least regarding low-level electromagnetic radiation from the computer monitor. For most PC users not much can be done about possible exposure to such radiation beyond limiting the time spent in front of a computer and avoiding sitting behind a monitor, the most likely source of electromagnetic emissions. This appears to be especially prudent for women who are pregnant.


Things I learned:

1. Follow the 20-20 rule: keep your face at least 20 inches from the screen and pause every 20 minutes or so to took around the room, allowing the eyes to focus on distant objects.

2. Get a glare screen. It should block glare without making the characters on the monitor screen appear fuzzy. Glare is the hidden cause of variety of physical ailments. Also, if possible, reorient the computer screen to avoid reflections from windows or artificial lights.

3. Get a stable, comfortable, adjustable chair. Avoid those “ergonomically designed” backless stools that pull all the weight on your knees, unless you enjoy walking like a chimpanzee.

Applications/ Implications:

I encountered all the pains given in the abstract, neck pain, especially back pain and eyes. I used to use my computer everyday and every hour. Using computer is part of everyday living. I can’t have my job/ task done without my computer. And by reading this article, I was informed on how to avoid those pains that I encountered.

9th Reading Assignment

Title: Digital Forensics in the Twenty- First Century
Author: Gavin W. Manes
Source: The Forensic Examiner 16.4 (Winter 2007)

ABSTRACT:

Digital forensics experts are called on to collect and analyze digital information from electronic devices such as computer hard drives and cell phones. Electronic Evidence is used in a wide variety of cases, ranging from corporate espionage to employee separation or divorce. Recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have legitimized the use of digital evidence in court, making this new field of forensics more relevant than ever.


Three things I learned:

The digital forensic experts must be employed to carefully gather pertinent evidence when digital evidences or digital information will be used in the courses of an investigation or discovery process.
The production of digital documents during court proceedings is important to ensure all necessary information has been preserved.
Digital communications seen anonymous, but quite the opposite is true. Experts are able to investigate user activity through such applications as email, instant messaging, text messaging, and eve Internet telephone conversations.

Implications:

When information is deleted from a digital device, the file itself is not erased but rather, the computer’[s reference point for the file is erased. It is like removing a card from the library’s card catalog, but not taking the book off the shelf. The computer then marks the space containing the file as available. If a large amount of data is added to the drive, there is a chance that the “deleted” file can be overwritten. However, the use of very large hard drives in most current computers makes the chance of overwriting unlikely, and fragments of documents can often be found even a year after normal computer use.

8th Reading Assignment

TITLE: The Emergence of Open- Source Software in China
AUTHOR: Guohua Pan and Curtis J. Bonk
SOURCE: International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning,

Volume 8, Number 1. March 2007

ABSTRACT:

The open- source software movement is gaining increasing momentum in China. Of the limited numbers of open – source software in China, Red Flag Linux stands out most strikingly, commanding 30 percent share of the Chinese software market. Unlike the spontaneity of open- source movement in North America, open- source software development in China, such as Red Flag Linux, is an orchestrated activity wherein different levels of China’s government play a vital role in sponsoring, incubating, and using open- source software, most conspicuously, Red Flag Linux. While there are no reports on open- source course management system in China, there are reports on the study and us of Western open- source management systems for instruction and learning in Chinese higher education institutions. This paper discusses the current status of open- source in China, including open- source course management software and associated tools and resources. Importantly, it describes the development model of Red Flag Linux, the most successful open- source software initiative in China. In addition, it explores the possibility of Chinese higher education institutions joining efforts to develop China’s own open- source course management system using the open- source development model established in North America. A timeline of current and major open- source projects of significance in China is provided. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential for applying the open- source software development model to open and distance education in China.

THINGS I LEARNED:
Gift culture and distributed development enable the success of open- source software such as Linux and the birth and growth of open- source courseware projects such as CORE and OOPS. Gift culture and distributed development might simultaneously help build and consolidate a community of practice of open- source software developers within higher education; especially related to online learning tools and resources including instructional designers, online educators, and virtual students. This gift culture and distributed development also can be mirrored open and distance learning practices by building and reinforcing a community of open and distance learners, online instructors, instructional designers, and other educational professionals who lend insights into their needs, as well as potential directions of the open- source movement, that can benefit online learning in higher education and other sectors.

IMPLICATIONS:
Given the potential for enormous demands for online learning in China, if and when that happens, the influence of China in the open- source movement will be extensive and potentially relentless. As that occurs, no longer will the thrust within the open- source movement be from North America to China, but instead, it will be pushing, and not too gently, from China back to North America and all other parts of the world. This reverse migration of open- source ideas, tools, and resources is something, of course, which the entire world of higher education will be intently watching.

7th Reading Assignment

An Educational Tour to IRRI

Three things I learned:

1. Organizing their collections (Print and Non- Print). They have a very systematic way on how
to organize their collections whether it is print or non- print.
2. Enriching their collections by subscribing e- journals and e- references and also by

downloading those open access journals.
3. Techniques in arranging the list of their electronic journals (subscribed and open access)


Trip to IRRI is so challenging. In the first place we (Aisa and me) really don’t know how to go to IRRI, but by just asking for the directions, we’ve made it, we were able to locate the place.
It’s believable that IRRI library is one of the best libraries. It is due to their library system Millennium, though it is so expensive but they’re able to depend it by serving their clients, even abroad with satisfaction. They’re been very resourceful in enriching their collections.
Really can’t forget this tour in IRRI, there’s so much fun.

6th Reading Assignment

The IFLA Internet Manifesto
Source: http://archive.ifla.org/III/misc/im-e.htm#1


ABSTRACT:

The IFLA Internet Manifesto was created based on the article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, wherein it indicates that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”. IFLA encourages the international community to support the development of internet accessibility worldwide, and especially in developing countries, to thus obtain the global benefits of information for all offered by the internet. It also encourages national governments to develop a national information infrastructure which will deliver Internet Access to all the nation’s population. Also, IFLA urges the library community and decision makers at national and local levels to develop strategies, policies, and plans that implement the principles expressed in this Manifesto.


Three (3) Things I learned:

1. Every individual has intellectual freedom, wherein we can express our opinion and/or seek other information from the other.
2. The librarian and information professional has a big participation/ responsibility in the access of information.
3. Regardless of who we are, where we cam from or where do we live, we are free to access to the internet without barriers.

IMPLICATION:

As a librarian, I also believed that I, myself has a big factor in disseminating information. Internet Manifesto will help a lot in sharing information to all, not only to those who are more privilege but to all users, including children and young people. Libraries and information services should support the right of users to seek information of their choice. But of course, we must promote a responsible access to quality networked information for our users.

5th READING ASSIGNMENT

Title : The Open Access Initiative: a new paradigm for scholarly communications.

Author: Kristin Ylotis.

Source Citation: Ylotis, Information Technology and Libraries 24.4 (Dec 2005): 157(6). InfoTrac Custom Periodicals 100. Gale. Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation. 4 Aug. 2009 .


ABSTRACT:

This paper gives an account of the origin and development of the Open Access Initiative (OAI) and the digital technology that enables its existence. The researcher explains the crisis in scholarly communications and how open access (OA) can reform the present system. OA has evolved two systems for delivering research articles: OA archives or repositories and OA journals. They differ in that OA journals conduct peer review and OA archives do not. Discussion focuses on how these two delivery systems work, including such topics as OAI, local institutional repositories, E-prints self-archiving software, cross-archives searching, metadata harvesting, and the individuals who invented OA and organizations that support it.
The scholarly communications crisis has become a major concern in the academic and research community. Libraries across the board are undergoing significant budget shortfalls caused by increases in the numbers and costs of peer-reviewed journals. At issue is commercial publishers' policy of turning scholarly research into a commodity and raising subscription rates to levels that cannot be absorbed by library budgets. This has the effect of keeping professional publications out of the reach of users. A worldwide effort is underway to address this scholarly communications crisis. A new paradigm has emerged that will realign scholarly journals to their traditional role of free information created for the public good. This paper explores the origins and development of the Open Access Initiative (OAI), which enables a more socially responsible and equitable way of disseminating scholarly communications.

THREE (3) THINGS I LEARNED:

1. Open Access (OA) signifies the democratization of knowledge and supports a socially responsible way to distribute knowledge.
2. Open Access (OA) makes the same knowledge and information available to scholars in wealthy, first- world nations, in developing ex- communist, second –world nations, and in underdeveloped third- world nations.
3. Open Access (OA) archives and journals are evidence that the world is moving in the direction of democratization of information and knowledge by removing access restrictions in the form of copyright protection of free- based dissemination policies.



IMPLICATIONS:

Open Access means removing barriers to research, wherein the serials pricing and permission crises can be solved because it is free of charge to users and it is because the copyright holders consent in advance to unrestricted reading, downloading, copying, sharing, storing, printing, searching, linking and crawling of OA articles. It only means that if the scholars retain copyright to their work, then they consent to give the users Open Access to research articles for which they expect no payment. If scholar transfers the copyright to the traditional publisher, then the publisher will erect price and permission barriers to prevent Open Access.

Subscriptions of print and non- print journals now a day is so expensive. As a Periodicals Librarian, I can say that Open Access Journals helps a lot to improve our services in my section. Aside from our print journals and e- journals subscription, we can also give them some URL of Open Access Journals for the additional resources.

4th READING ASSIGNMENT

4th READING ASSIGNMENT

TITLE: Interactive 3D Visualization for Document Retrieval
AUTHORS: John Cugini, Dr. Christine Piatko, and Dr. Sharon Laskowski
SOURCE: http://www.itl.nist.gov/iaui/vvrg/cugini/uicd/viz.html

ABSTRACT:

The availability of large collections of documents coupled with powerful search and retrieval algorithms provides the opportunity for people to access large sets of relevant documents in electronic form. However, often a user query can result in hundreds of potentially useful documents returned by the system. Our hypothesis is that interactive 3D graphics techniques can be used to help the user comprehend and filter such result sets. We describe some prototypes developed at NIST in pursuit of these goals and discuss associated design issues, such as icon appearance, layout within 3D space, and interaction mechanisms.

THREE (3) THINGS I LEARNED:

1.Visualization gives the user an immediate overview of the retrieval set.
2.The graphical display of keyword strengths makes it easy to understand at a glance the relative distribution of terms in a document.
3.Visualization maybe the solution in retrieval problem by helping the user find those documents which are most relevant more quickly than a traditional scrolled list.

IMPLICATIONS
As a searcher, we usually encountered difficulties in finding those documents which are relevant to what we are searching. Based on this article, visualization can be a solution for that retrieval problem. Example of those were although the order of the list makes it more likely that useful documents are at the top, the may be the “best” document from the user’s perspective may be towards the end. Visualization helps can be used to interactively filter result sets. Also, visualization helps users comprehend large quantities of data, and visual attributes can present abstract representations of data. In visualization, relationships among displayed entities become apparent. So, it only implies that visualization for document retrieval helps a lot in having a refined result in our searching.

3rd Reading Assignment

TITLE: Library 2.0 Theory Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries

AUTHOR: Jack M. Maness

SOURCE/URL: http://www.webology.ir/2006/v3n2/a25.html


ABSTRACT:


This article posits a definition and theory for “Library 2.0”. It suggests that recent thinking describing the changing Web as “Web 2.0’ will have substantial implications for libraries, and recognizes that while these implications keep very close to the history and mission of libraries, they still necessitate a new paradigm for librarianship. The paper applies the theory and definition to the practice of librarianship, specifically addressing how Web 2.0 technologies such as synchronous messaging and streaming media, blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging, RSS feeds, and mashups might intimate changes in how libraries provide access to their collections and user support for that access.


Three (3) I learned:


1. Library 2.0 is user- centered- because the library collection will be more interactive and fully accessible.
2. Library 2.0 is a virtual reality of the library, because it will be a place not only for searching of books and journals, but can be a place where we can interact with a community, a librarian, and share knowledge and understanding with them through this electronic medium, the Web 2.0.
3. Web 2.0 and libraries are well suited for marriage, or we can say, the best partner.
Library 2.0 is completely user- centered and user- driven. It is a mashup of traditional library services and innovative Web 2.0 services. If libraries and Web 2.0 becomes partner, it will be a library for the 21st century which is rich in content, interactivity, and social activity.

REFLECTION:

Library 2.0 is a mashup of the traditional library services. The library services changed, it focused more on facilitation of information transfer and information literacy rather than providing controlled access to it. According to the article, Library 2.0 is the application of interactive, collaborative, and multi- media web- based technologies to web- based library services and collections. Also, it moved its collections and spare services into the online environment, and the Library 2.0 will move the full suite of library services into this electronic medium. With the Web 2.0, information can be released to flow in every direction (library to user, user to library, library to library, and user to user). And with Library 2.0, library services are frequently evaluated and updated to meet the changing needs of library users

2nd Reading Assignment

Title: Morality and computers: attitudes and differences in moral judgments.

Author(s):Urs E. Gattiker and Helen Kelley.

Source Citation: Information Systems Research 10.3 (Sept 1999): 233. InfoTrac Custom Periodicals 100. Gale. Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation. 6 July 2009 .

ABSTRACT:
Business ethics is an emerging area of research in many subfields of management, including information systems (IS). Empirical IS research has studied differences in users' attitudes and in moral judgments regarding ethical computer-related behavior. This study applied the "domains of morality" approach to determine how users felt about certain computer-related behaviors. Vignettes describing ethical dilemmas involving computer technology (e.g., uploading a computer virus on an electronic network/bulletin board system) were presented to a sample of Internet users. The research findings offered several interesting and, in some cases, unexpected results. The empirical results indicated that older computer users have a less permissive sense of what is right and wrong for an illegal game. When computers were used to test a banned game, men and women differed in their assessment of its appropriateness. A surprising finding was that participants were not likely to endorse civil liberties, and were more concerned about the harm to, and violations of, social norms when the scenario described a situation involving a computer virus. How users perceive, prejudge, and discriminate computer ethics and abusive computer actions raises numerous questions and implications for IS researchers, IS practitioners, and policy makers. The results of this study foster a better understanding of Internet users' moral categorization of specific computer behaviors and, hopefully, help to further reduce risks and vulnerabilities of systems by identifying computer actions deemed ethically acceptable by users. Opportunities for IS researchers to further explore this timely issue are also discussed. (Computer Security; Domain Theory of Moral Development; Data Encryption; Computer Viruses; Gender; Ethics; Socioeconomic Status; Age).

Three (3) things I learned:

1. The development of ethical standards and regulations that are perceived as acceptable and appropriate by the majority of users is needed to facilitate compliance with legislation and with company and industry policies for the ethical use of computer technology.
2. Moral reasoning often exists for individuals as representations of their collective beliefs regarding what is just or unjust.
3. We must develop a better understanding of the moral development of the growing numbers and varieties of computer users, especially with respect to the social transgressions committed by some.

Implications of the new things I learned:

We are in a computer world now. We witnessed a rapid evolution in and adoption of computer technologies and the Internet. Because of the proliferation of computer technology and the introduction of new technology, many individuals use their computers on a daily basis at home or work.
This only implies that we have to know the right attitude in using the computer and the internet. Also, there are instances that computer users from different socioeconomic status on moral judgments of ethical dilemmas involving computer technology when the situations are categorized as residing in the personal, conventional knowledge, an moral domains.

1st Reading Assignment in LIS260

Title of the Article:

Divide and Conquer Strategies for Effective Information Retrieval

Authors: Jie Chen and Yousef Saad

URL : http://www.siam.org/proceedings/datamining/2009/dm09_043_chenj.pdf

Abstract:

The standard application of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), a well-known technique for information retrieval, requires the computation of a partial Singular Value Decomposition

(SVD) of the term-document matrix. This computation becomes infeasible for large document collections, since it is very demanding both in terms of arithmetic operations and in memory requirements. This paper discusses two divide and conquer strategies, with the goal of alleviating these difficulties. Both strategies divide the document collection in subsets, perform relevance analysis on each subset, and conquer the analysis results to form the query response.

Since each sub-problem resulting from the recursive division process has a smaller size, the processing of large scale document collections requires much fewer resources. In addition, the computation is highly parallel and can be easily adapted to a parallel computing environment. To reduce the computational cost, we perform the analysis on the subsets by using the Lanczos vectors instead of singular vectors as in the standard LSI method. This technique is far more efficient than the computation of the truncated SVD, while its accuracy is comparable. Experimental results confirm that the proposed divide and conquer strategies are effective for information retrieval problems.

Three (3) things I learned from my Reading Assignment

1. I learned that Latent Semantic Indexing, a well-known method which was developed to deal common problems of word usage. LSI projects the original term-document matrix into a reduced rank subspace by resorting to the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). The comparison of the query with the documents is then performed in this subspace and produces in this way a more meaningful result.

2. The authors of the article proposed two strategies to have an effective information retrieval, the divided and conquer strategies. It is a paradigm known for its effectiveness in solving very large scale scientific problems is that of multilevel approaches. It can lessen the computational burden because it has a primary goal of reducing cost at the expense of a minimal cost in accuracy.

3. Divide and conquer strategies were proposed to retrieved relevant documents for text mining problems, along with efficient techniques to use as alternatives to the classical truncated Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) approach of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI).

Application / implication of new things I learned to my work or to me as a person.

Actually, I am not that familiar with some words/ terms used in information science and that is why I have difficulties in understanding those articles that I have read. But after reading the article about “Divide and Conquer Strategies for Effective Information Retrieval”, I realized that I need to have patience in reading this article though it is really hard for me to understand those unfamiliar terms. Reading this article really helped me to have little idea how we are able to have an accurate retrieval of information.

We always say that it is easier to get information using the internet, but really we don’t how that information has been stored and retrieved. So maybe, by reading this article, slightly I have a little idea why it happened.

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