Semantic web

For LIS2000 we had an online discussion that dealt with the web and it's effects on librarianship and scholarly communication. From the discussion, what interested me most was how the emergence of the Semantic web might impact cataloging. Clearly new standards for metadata will have to be established as "data about data" will increase ubiquitously. What is unclear is whether or not librarians will have a role in determining a new language for such standards, or web administrators will use an open access model or user data-seeking behavior to come up with a meaningful system.

"The Nature of Meaning in the Age of Google" by T.A. Brooks is an interesting take on this topic and can be found at http://informationr.net/ir/9-3/paper180.html.

Copyright

A few readings for my copyright class are really worth taking a look at for anyone interested in copyright law:

Google's senior copyright counsel William Patry's Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars deals with the history of copyright in America and his views on current copyright trends.

Kembrew McLeod's Freedom of Expression is also very interesting and deals more with the cultural repercussions of intellectual property rights.

McLeod's can be found online in its entirety at the link above.

Blogging cont'd

For some reason I thought I had already posted twice this week, so to accommodate the requirements of the class I'm posting twice today.

In LIS2000 we are to participate in weekly online discussion groups regarding issues in library sciences. Each week a student or two is in charge of moderating the discussion, this week belonging to myself. The general topic is how the web has influenced scholarly communication and publishing, and what implications its had and will have on libraries. Being the tech geek that I am (haha), my co-leader and I agreed that I would tackle discussion related to Web 2.0 and the Semantic web.

For anyone interested, I stumbled upon this blog from the Semantic Library blogroll. It contains an archive of topics related to new technology and library futurism, if for in the future you find yourself having to discuss these issues with colleagues.

http://www.semanticlibrary.net/author/fiona/

Blogging

Hmm...what to blog about...

So I finally took advantage of the university's free software and picked it up at the computer lab, but then I discovered I cannot use it. My CD drive seems to be broken. I looked up some instruction for what to do, and after attempting to reinstall through the control panel I have realized it is purely a failure of the hardware to operate. Not looking forward to dealing with this conundrum, but I will keep my ever-so-eager readers posted on the situation as it unfolds.

Another Post

I used to work for a national teleservice corporation, which owned several centers across the country. These centers would compete with each other for call-conversion on sales. Previously, the site that I worked at was the leader in sales/conversion for the same products on calls that were equally routed to the national centers. However, this changed when we decided to switch to VoIP phones. What I believed to have happened was that the IP address was changed with the switch, therefore rerouting the calls first to the other centers, and then back to the Erie site. The tech people at the corporation failed to realize this, and as a result lost a few clients due to the declining sales that ensued.

Anyways, I don't recommend anyone with a decent set of morals to work for a teleservice (not to mention telemarket) company, especially if you're sensitive to being screamed at. I should mention that teleservices involve handling inbound calls related to print and electronic ads, but mostly TV infomercials.

Jing Video for Zotero Installation

Another Post

I'm starting to enjoy the readings for my others classes a bit more than when the semester first began. The other day I finished Freedom of Expression©: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property by Kembrew McLeod. McLeod actually licensed the term Freedom of Expression© to show how copyright laws have taken a turn for the worse when it comes to the free flow of information and free speech. The book gives several cultural examples of how copyright "bozos" are taking unfair credit for authorship, preventing new scientific discoveries, and stifling new authorship.

For anyone interested in copyright and fair use, I recommend taking Dr. Currier's class, if time and class schedule permit.

First Assignment

After finishing the first assignment, which was to export 50 citations from both Scopus and Google Scholar, I feel I have a pretty good understanding of Refworks. I've used Refworks before, in my undergrad career as a history major, but not very much. I feel that after this assignment I will only use Refworks to import my bibliographic citations.

During the assigment I observed that the bibliography for the Scopus references included where it was retreived from, while the Google Scholar references (also in 5th APA edition) did not. I hope this disparity does not affect my grade on this assignment, as I created both lists using the same format.