I have already opined to my professors at length about the scheduling issues I am having this semester. Between an unwieldy work schedule and a first-time pregnancy I was struggling to complete the homework for both classes in between work travel and naps. I made the decision to drop my IRLS 671 class, and as much as I labored over the decision I now believe wholeheartedly it was the correct choice. I am quite pleased with the progression of the 675 class, I'm sure for some it may seem a little slow, but I like having the opportunity to pore of the materials before setting upon the actual assignment. I feel like this was a luxury we weren't always afforded with the (understandable) pacing of the summer class.
I have mentioned this in previous posts, but I will be transitioning from the role of admissions counselor to support staff for a major software conversion taking place on the University campus in the spring and summer. This is excellent news for several reasons; the most important being that I am currently on the committee submitting a RFP for an additional software package specifically for the admissions office which will work in concert with the Peoplesoft conversion. I have really enjoyed the articles on CMS selection as I am finding a great deal of overlap in my classes and my worklife and admittedly some of the reading have helped shape the format of the RFP and I'm sure will play a role in decision making process as well.
I'm also enjoying the coursework because I feel it supplements a lot of the information covered in my MLS. I find that the readings on more than one occasion have caused me to go into my SIRLS class archives and locate an assignment that forged a connection between the classes. There is always the fear of the mental "bit rot" once your education is finished and I feel like these classes are assisting in keeping my MLS information fresh until such time I can't put my skills to work in a library career.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
IRLS 675 - Week 2
Untangling a tangled web: a case study in choosing and implementing a CMS
Terry L. Hutenlock, Jeff W. Beaird, and Ronald W. Fordham
Library Hi-Tech 2006, Vol. 24. Issue 1. pp. 61-68
I chose this article because while I feel I have gained a pretty good understanding of what CMS’s are I wanted a better understanding as to the processes involved in picking them. I will review the article in detail, but I would make the point that what I found most interesting was that, at the end of the day, the deciding factor for the choice of CMS was compatibility with the library’s database system. It’s interesting that features which would initially seem important; like design, ease of use, and scalability ended up playing a secondary role to the need to have the system communicate with existing library systems. I admire the fact that the small library both recognized the need for website and then further on realized the role the website can play in bringing the library to their community. It was when the power of the site was realized that library administrator's were forced to take a closer look at their current web m.o. "the web site started out merely as static pages connected to the larger institutional site, containing basic information about the library." The library committee developed a formal rubric with which to compare CMS providers. The initial concerns were of course; open source (for budget purposes), well established, well supported product, easy to install, and easy data migration.
After much evaluation a lot of the systems turned out to be fairly similar and it was with this revelation that a system, that had been previously disregarded as too difficult to install, became the front runner. The reason for the switch? The data migration would be the easiest. A lot of the other CMS platforms did not support the library's MyLibrary database. There were quite a few issues with the installation (some expected, some not) and later the upgrade, however the author surmises that the difficulties were worth the effort as measured by their satisfaction with the product. As a matter of fact the 2004 system upgrade was so seamless that the librarians at the University were accused of having done "nothing over the summer."
The lessons I take from this article are very similar to lesson learned in my "Decision making for Information Professionals" class, in that the actions that led to a positive experience for this library were the decision to;
-Pull input from all representatives of the library staff
-Formulate an initial list of desires
-Formulate an official agreed upon rubric
-Test products against the rubric
-Reassess list of desires
-Ensure the product is well supported
There is a great deal of about the importance of flexibility in library administration. The library committee's willingness to remain flexible in the pursuit of the most appropriate software and the ensuing install and updgrades resulted in the success of this CMS selection.
Terry L. Hutenlock, Jeff W. Beaird, and Ronald W. Fordham
Library Hi-Tech 2006, Vol. 24. Issue 1. pp. 61-68
I chose this article because while I feel I have gained a pretty good understanding of what CMS’s are I wanted a better understanding as to the processes involved in picking them. I will review the article in detail, but I would make the point that what I found most interesting was that, at the end of the day, the deciding factor for the choice of CMS was compatibility with the library’s database system. It’s interesting that features which would initially seem important; like design, ease of use, and scalability ended up playing a secondary role to the need to have the system communicate with existing library systems. I admire the fact that the small library both recognized the need for website and then further on realized the role the website can play in bringing the library to their community. It was when the power of the site was realized that library administrator's were forced to take a closer look at their current web m.o. "the web site started out merely as static pages connected to the larger institutional site, containing basic information about the library." The library committee developed a formal rubric with which to compare CMS providers. The initial concerns were of course; open source (for budget purposes), well established, well supported product, easy to install, and easy data migration.
After much evaluation a lot of the systems turned out to be fairly similar and it was with this revelation that a system, that had been previously disregarded as too difficult to install, became the front runner. The reason for the switch? The data migration would be the easiest. A lot of the other CMS platforms did not support the library's MyLibrary database. There were quite a few issues with the installation (some expected, some not) and later the upgrade, however the author surmises that the difficulties were worth the effort as measured by their satisfaction with the product. As a matter of fact the 2004 system upgrade was so seamless that the librarians at the University were accused of having done "nothing over the summer."
The lessons I take from this article are very similar to lesson learned in my "Decision making for Information Professionals" class, in that the actions that led to a positive experience for this library were the decision to;
-Pull input from all representatives of the library staff
-Formulate an initial list of desires
-Formulate an official agreed upon rubric
-Test products against the rubric
-Reassess list of desires
-Ensure the product is well supported
There is a great deal of about the importance of flexibility in library administration. The library committee's willingness to remain flexible in the pursuit of the most appropriate software and the ensuing install and updgrades resulted in the success of this CMS selection.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
My collection
I worked for a used bookstore throughout my undergraduate career. I had always been a reader but my actual passion for reading developed through a love affair with the writings of Kurt Vonnegut. I understand that this is not an unusual passion for an undergraduate student (or bookstore employee) to have but I still feel this would the perfect subject for my collection. School, employment, and life in general has prevented me from getting reaquainted for Mr. Vonnegut for a number of years so I feel as though it will add special meaning to the project. Lucky for me Kurt was not only an author, but also a lecturer, artist, essayist, and incredibly photogenic. That being said my collection consists of;
5 pictures of Vonnegut
5 images of Vonnegut artwork
3 artist renderings of Vonnegut
An interview with Vonnegut
An interview with Vonnegut's son
and 5 images of the book jackets of Vonneguts work
I enjoyed Shirky's essay on ontology. I feel like this whole notion sort of falls in line with the "bookstore organization" debate of libraries. It comes down to the fundamental question of "for whom do we classify?" Access is an important issue but so in consistency - additionally classifications schemes need to be fluid and allow for growth ...what is the junction between organization and modernization?
5 pictures of Vonnegut
5 images of Vonnegut artwork
3 artist renderings of Vonnegut
An interview with Vonnegut
An interview with Vonnegut's son
and 5 images of the book jackets of Vonneguts work
I enjoyed Shirky's essay on ontology. I feel like this whole notion sort of falls in line with the "bookstore organization" debate of libraries. It comes down to the fundamental question of "for whom do we classify?" Access is an important issue but so in consistency - additionally classifications schemes need to be fluid and allow for growth ...what is the junction between organization and modernization?
Monday, August 18, 2008
Final Reflection
When I began this course my technology experience can be best described minimal and everything I knew was almost entirely self taught. Acceptance into the DigIn program and the beginning of this course was analagous for me to jumping into something nose first without really being sure that I could do it. I was immensely nervous when I started this course and reviewed the syllabus, I had "heard" of a LAMP server before, but if pushed on what it is each of the individual components "does" I would have not been able to tell you. As I proceeded through the course I really had very minimal problems with any of the assignments. I kept waiting for "the other shoe to drop" in terms of one of the assignments going horribly wrong or that my virtual machine would just completely crash. None of this happened and in fact I actually started putting it all together and began to understand why we were doing things in the order that we did. In fact as I made an outline for my final paper it was entirely clear to me what we had achieved in this course and why. I think my favorite parts ended up being the sections on MySql and Php. I had always been curious about MySql (stemming from a passion for databases) and I was most intimidated by Php and ended up most proud for my efforts because I wasn't initially "getting" so I took extra measures to figure it out and once I realized I had I understood the key to understanding this language is understanding its relationship within the larger scheme of things.
Really, I think my technology perspective has changed. I feel less intimidated by the notion of trying new things and even taking the initiative to access the UACBT courses to learn more about technologies that interest me. Fundamentally, I feel that a little bit of research and a great deal of common sense has made technology quite accessible.
Really, I think my technology perspective has changed. I feel less intimidated by the notion of trying new things and even taking the initiative to access the UACBT courses to learn more about technologies that interest me. Fundamentally, I feel that a little bit of research and a great deal of common sense has made technology quite accessible.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Unit 12 Readings
As mentioned in previous blog posts and discussion board posts, I am currently a very small cog in a very large project at The University of Arizona. The University is currently in the process of preparing for a huge software conversion (hmmmm IT Project...go figure!) and I am fortunate enough to have been chosen as the point person for The Office of Admissions portion of the conversion. What this means at this point is very little, I'm only sort of getting started, as a matter of fact I just completed the admissions portion of the RFP for the admissions specific piece of the software.
That being said...I loved this week's topic. It's interesting to see what available project management methods, methodologies, and tools are available and what's even more interesting is the myriad of ways of thinking about the "inevitability's" of a project. Admittedly the videos....a little cheesy and not my favorites of all that we have watched in this course but I do absolutely see their merit. In terms of the readings I enjoyed all the Cervone articles. I appreciated his "no nonsense" approaches to the topics and really, REALLY favored his "How not to run" article. It was cute but it also really drove some important points home. It's embarrassing AND frustrating to see how often these mistakes are made on even the smallest of scales. I will be utilizing the "WAG" terminology in the very near future, I suspect. A few of Cervone's points I found most interesting was the concept that more people do not necessarily fix large issues. This is a common mistake I have seen over and over again in the companies I have worked for. "Oh you're struggling under the weight of this project? Well let's throw a few MORE untrained cooks into the kitchen and see what happens!"
Cervone's assessment of risk factors was dead on, in my personal experience I have found the most common source of bad side effects to be a direct result of bad communication and a misunderstanding of the perceived goals of the group (and that's just in my family!) I also appreciated the Decision Making article. I took Professor Don Fallis's Decision Making for Information Professionals last semester and really learned that I had entirely underestimated the breadth and depth involved in the process of making sound decisions.
Keil's article on "Pulling the Plug" was fantastic. I think the innate fear of failure in all of us can cause many projects to go over budget and badly analyzed. Very rarely, do those who have nurtured a project consider on the outset of the planning, that know when to say when may need to be a component of the plan. The need for constant and organic analysis is ever present. McDonough's article on Cross Functional teams was a fairly good read, maybe out of personal preference I found it less engaging than our other articles but it is interesting to note that this trend is apparent and alive and well in our University system as I am an active member of cross functional team, not only for the university project plan but that this is a mechanism used by our offices for small planning exercise as well. I know that when I am chairing committees my first instinct is to draw talent from all the areas of admissions so that I know the decision made by the team will hopefully be mutually beneficial to all involved.
As much as I have loved the tinkering with technology in this class, I have appreciated the downtime this week to relax with some interesting articles (get some work done on the final in my other class) and to have been afforded the opportunity to reflect on the theoretical nature of project management and its applications in my day to day life.
That being said...I loved this week's topic. It's interesting to see what available project management methods, methodologies, and tools are available and what's even more interesting is the myriad of ways of thinking about the "inevitability's" of a project. Admittedly the videos....a little cheesy and not my favorites of all that we have watched in this course but I do absolutely see their merit. In terms of the readings I enjoyed all the Cervone articles. I appreciated his "no nonsense" approaches to the topics and really, REALLY favored his "How not to run" article. It was cute but it also really drove some important points home. It's embarrassing AND frustrating to see how often these mistakes are made on even the smallest of scales. I will be utilizing the "WAG" terminology in the very near future, I suspect. A few of Cervone's points I found most interesting was the concept that more people do not necessarily fix large issues. This is a common mistake I have seen over and over again in the companies I have worked for. "Oh you're struggling under the weight of this project? Well let's throw a few MORE untrained cooks into the kitchen and see what happens!"
Cervone's assessment of risk factors was dead on, in my personal experience I have found the most common source of bad side effects to be a direct result of bad communication and a misunderstanding of the perceived goals of the group (and that's just in my family!) I also appreciated the Decision Making article. I took Professor Don Fallis's Decision Making for Information Professionals last semester and really learned that I had entirely underestimated the breadth and depth involved in the process of making sound decisions.
Keil's article on "Pulling the Plug" was fantastic. I think the innate fear of failure in all of us can cause many projects to go over budget and badly analyzed. Very rarely, do those who have nurtured a project consider on the outset of the planning, that know when to say when may need to be a component of the plan. The need for constant and organic analysis is ever present. McDonough's article on Cross Functional teams was a fairly good read, maybe out of personal preference I found it less engaging than our other articles but it is interesting to note that this trend is apparent and alive and well in our University system as I am an active member of cross functional team, not only for the university project plan but that this is a mechanism used by our offices for small planning exercise as well. I know that when I am chairing committees my first instinct is to draw talent from all the areas of admissions so that I know the decision made by the team will hopefully be mutually beneficial to all involved.
As much as I have loved the tinkering with technology in this class, I have appreciated the downtime this week to relax with some interesting articles (get some work done on the final in my other class) and to have been afforded the opportunity to reflect on the theoretical nature of project management and its applications in my day to day life.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Week 11
Despite the workload this week, I've actually had a lot of fun with these assignments. I have an affinity for organization and particularly the organization of information but have been confined to playing around in Excel and Access so needless to say I am pleased to be learning SQL. I've always been curious about both XML and SQL so I found the tutorials, readings, and exercises to be a great deal of fun. Naturally a student will find the lessons that are most interesting equally the easiest to learn because there's a strong desire to know more. I intend after I'm done with everything today to go through the entire SQL course on UACBT and to use my little "test" databases I've created to mess around and learn more. The only thing that's been tough for me in this section is (as previously mentioned) wrapping my head around how to effectively organize the information prior to putting it into the database, but I suspect I'm making that more difficult than it needs to be.
I am still having keyboard issues in Webmin, even the lightest of keystrokes will still result in multiples so my "photograph" names range from repetitive, to simplistic, to just completely odd.
My crowning achievement for the week was I made an error when entering information into to the text editor (that wasn't the achievement) and for fun I cleaned the table out using Php and then went back and rewrote the file and load it through the command line SQL. It's just fun to know that after these lessons I can understand where I have made and error and troubleshoot the mistake without missing a beat or freaking out! That's good stuff.
I want to learn more about how these SQL databases "feed" into a user friendly GUI. I think about the reports we use as work and how they've been modeled to make searches easy for everyone. Or online catalogs...I'd like to learn more about how the catalogs go from command line to user friendly.
Back to modeling searches.....
I am still having keyboard issues in Webmin, even the lightest of keystrokes will still result in multiples so my "photograph" names range from repetitive, to simplistic, to just completely odd.
My crowning achievement for the week was I made an error when entering information into to the text editor (that wasn't the achievement) and for fun I cleaned the table out using Php and then went back and rewrote the file and load it through the command line SQL. It's just fun to know that after these lessons I can understand where I have made and error and troubleshoot the mistake without missing a beat or freaking out! That's good stuff.
I want to learn more about how these SQL databases "feed" into a user friendly GUI. I think about the reports we use as work and how they've been modeled to make searches easy for everyone. Or online catalogs...I'd like to learn more about how the catalogs go from command line to user friendly.
Back to modeling searches.....
Monday, July 28, 2008
Week 10
As more than likely is evident in my assignment this week I am really having a problem wrapping my head around the notion of Normalization. I understand the why and I understand the rationale behind the "how" but I am having issues putting this concept into action. I wonder if it is becuse the examples I am setting up for myself are too difficult or if it's just conceptually a bit of a brick wall. I am doing a couple of things to work through this. First I have watched the UACBT videos about five times (I feel like I understand it while I'm watching it and have even taken notes but then....) I have looked at a number of online resources (listed below) including the Wikipedia page, and finally I have an engineering friend with a fondness for databases (parallel to my own) who I have convinced to come over to my house for dinner tonight so that we can discuss the idea of normalization "conversationally". I find this approach usually works best for me when I am having trouble tackling a concept; I'll ask for my husbands patience as I attempt to explain concepts to him...I find that if I am "teaching" the concept I am better able to master it or I at least discover that I understand it better than I had realized.
We shall see....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization
http://databases.about.com/od/specificproducts/a/normalization.htm
http://www.devshed.com/c/a/MySQL/An-Introduction-to-Database-Normalization/
http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/1428511
We shall see....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization
http://databases.about.com/od/specificproducts/a/normalization.htm
http://www.devshed.com/c/a/MySQL/An-Introduction-to-Database-Normalization/
http://www.databasejournal.com/sqletc/article.php/1428511
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