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

Week 9 reading....

I really enjoyed the technology planning section of this course. Not only was it a nice break from the technical aspects of our courses it is a timely lesson for me as I will be assisting my office as the point person a major software conversion.

I liked learning about the necessary aspects of a detailed technology plan in addition feeling like I've gained a better understanding of all the apsects involved in the evolution and maintenance of library technologies. As mentioned in the Dugan article, "Managing Technology" too often technologies in libraries are largely considered for the "housekeeping" benefits made available to the library. I find in my SIRLS classes we spend a lot of time discussing the patron service benefits of technology; I found the readings this week helped bridge the information between the two.

I would have to say my favorite reading was Schuyler's article "Life is what happens" and his plea for a more simple, flexible, and peer reviewed program for implementing technology plans. I work in an educational setting and I find that often a lot of planning issues arise from the disconnect between the people making the theoretical decisions and the people who will ultimately be involved in the "hands on" development of the programs.

From the sociological standpoint I also appreciated the "What haven't you noticed lately" and the discussion on the role sociological changes should play in the decision to implement technological changes in a library. It's very easy to get excited about new technology but what must be considered in implemenation is the abilities of staff and patrons to adapt, accomodate, and ultimately become reliant on the new "tools".

Finally, I really enjoyed reading and comparing the state plans after learning about what in involved in the development. This week's readings helped me to appreciate that while the Kansas State Library plan is suprisingly developded in the desire to cater to rural areas with new technologies, it was exceedingly lacking in planning for staff and patron development.

XML

In terms of XML and the "learning of" it seemed a fairly logical process especially after working with HTML. The only major difference for me were that HTML IS very forgiving and I learned through experimentation that XML is not. This is good, I think. In fact, I think that extensive usage of XML would go a long way to improving my HTML skills. I, quite honestly, found the UACBT and W3schools tutorials to be more than satisfactory in learning HTML. I did enjoy the Mark Long tutorial even more (including his accent and how he kept referring to himself as a "clown") I did not go into the schemas, namespaces, or xpath - but I think I will play around in those and specifically plan on looking at CSS out of curiousity.

Quick demo machine update, as previously mentioned I'm using Ubuntu on VmWare on a bridged network and have not had any problems. Fearfully, I've not had any serious problems with any of the assignments, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Learning HTML

I actually had started my HTML education with my IRLS 504 foundations class and then continued by taking Intro to Information Technology with Trevor Smith. Both of these classes had prepared me for this week's assignment. I did, however, choose to refresh and broaden my understanding of HTML with the assigned lessons through W3Schools and Maricopa. I have been playing around on the CBT lessons website during my lunch hours for awhile now. I find that HTML like all other languages are easier the more you use them. I haven't been in the aformentioned classes for quite a while so a lot of the tags had been lost on me, but the minute I started reading, a lot of it came back. I still had this website bookmarked from my earlier classes and find this to be a useful resource when "messing around" with HTML. I always use Dreamweaver for my class assignments in SIRLS so a lot of what I have learned is by using the Dreamweaver GUI and then splitting the screen to see what the code is. I will often look at the source code for websites to see "how they did that". I love playing with HTML and I love it even more because I find that webpage creators like Dreamweaver will sometimes apply "unreasonable" formatting to my pages and knowing how to manipulate HTML has helped in fixing that more than once (particularly the "pre" tag.)
I'm excited to see what our website lesson will be next week.