The Tears of Toil

Our class continues to explore repositories for our collections. Since I last reported in I've worked with DSpace and Omeka. Once installed, the differences between them were few though. (There are still unresolved issues with thumbnails in DSpace but I believe that it is a programming issue that can be resolved.) Omeka seems easier to populate than DSpace. The distinction between the two is in the installation. In the past, the programs we have been working, such as DSpace with have been built "from scratch" onto virtual machines running Ubuntu server, hosted, in my case, in an XP environment. Though Omeka can be installed in what for this class has become the convention, we were asked to download a pre-configured virtual machine running Ubuntu desktop, containing Omeka, to open up in VM workstation. Once open on the Ubuntu desktop in Firefox I was ready to enter my collection. This made the sometimes onerous network configurations and command line entries that caused me problems in DSpace, unnecessary. Like other programs, Omeka is configurable through the terminal application on the desktop as is DSpace.

Is the preconfigured solution better, is there more time to concentrate on collection building instead of what amounts to programming? Are opportunities lost in understanding how a repository is structured? As far as missed opportunities go, in a preconfigured solution, there can be an assignment to look at the repository structure by looking at various files that make the program operate the way it does. The lesson is still there on what the underpinnings of the repository are without the time and frustration of getting the program installed and up and running. It is the time factor that makes the preconfigured solution more desirable. I spent almost two weeks trying to get DSpace running only to find out that my vision isn't what I thought it was; I swore that the 5 was an S. There was also a lot of time spent getting Drupal and Eprints working in a usable way. There is a sense of satisfaction once it was operating but it put me behind in this course and in 671. Given the amount of time we have I think that a preconfigured solutions is more desirable.

Does the preconfigured solution affect what we learn? Of course, and it also shapes the material being taught. As it stands now, directly installing three different repository programs, we are learning essentially about programming and configuring programs. This makes us a bit more marketable that we have some knowledge to troubleshoot and configure these popular repository programs. The only repository software, I think, that has wide spread use we didn't look at is OCLC's CONTENTdm. The reason is, I would guess, is that it is proprietary, and would have to pay a fee for its use. The course objectives would be different if we moved to preconfigured gnomes for each repository I believe that more time could be spent on the prototype collection, its accompanying metadata and general theory. This approach might mean fewer hands on experiences and call for a different skillset in the choice of faculty.

It seems that I'm in support of having the repositories preconfigured in virtual machines. That isn't totally true. Being able to create a new machine and install software is more my style. I usually don't shy away from new technologies. There is something very satisfying when the installation works as expected. I had a few of those moments, sometimes weeks after the due date but had them none the less. Though I got the repositories up and running, there were unresolved problems, the search in Eprints, the thumbnail problem and missing metadata fields in DSpace and modules not working in Drupal (see Oct. 7, 2008 post). Omeka, preconfigured, had fewest problems. I wonder if I built Omeka from scratch would I have any difficulties past the command line typos. I'd like to believe I wouldn't.

Harvest

This week we are exploring harvesting metadata across collections with the goal of forming useful strong federated searches. I won't go into the difficulties of my own data harvesting experiences except to say; thank goodness it wasn't the corn crop or we'd all starve. That isn't said to diminish the usefulness of harvesting metadata and the concept of federated searches but only to state that I had trouble with the PKP harvester software itself. A lot of trouble.

Thank goodness for service providers, sites harvesting and storing metadata from various collections. I looked at four of these sites.

1. Sheet Music Consortium – The consortium is a partnership between John Hopkins University, UCLA, University of Indiana and Duke University Library.

2. Perseus- http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ A digital library of resources for the study of the humanities

3. Geo-Leo http://www.geo-leo.de/geoleo/www-docs/?language=en collects records in the subject areas Geology, Mineralogy, Petrology, Soil Science, Mining, Geophysics, Geography and Thematic Maps.

4. Citebase http://www.citebase.org/search "Citebase contains articles from physics, math, information science, and (published only) biomedical papers>"

A useful federated collection is based on records where there exists a commonality in the metadata and that enhances your research in some way. Each of these services fulfilled that need for the most part. Perseus returned over 1,000 hits on the search "railroad stations United States." This can be attributed to the Library of Congress being one of the sites searched. Also, Perseus returned irrelevant records including a sheep shearing station in Australia. The other sites returned data as I expected. Oh yes, one other reason why harvesting is good, there is the fact that you are only doing one search instead of searching individual sites.

The University of Michigan's mega repository Oaister http://www.oaister.org/ indexes about 15M records from nearly 1000 contributors. This is one of those cases where size matters and helps the cause. The advantage is you have the potential of more sources returning more useful records making for a stronger federated search Should this be your only source for information? Probably not, your research plan should include a look in more then one repository.

The Subjects

A question peered over the top of the laptop as I was entering my photo collection into Eprints. Which came first, the subject taxonomy or the collection? Do you fit the collection to the taxonomy or taxonomy to the collection? It depends on the type of collection, I think. In the case of my collection of photos from a recent trip to Alaska. I shaped the taxonomy to fit the collection by developing a series of parent child relationships. For example:

A: National Parks
a1: Glacier Bay National Park
B: States
b1: Alaska
b2Washington

This hierarchy proved useful in cataloguing this collection, developing relationships between the photos and increases the searchability of the collection.

The challenges were where to draw the line between parent and child and develop terms that might be consistent with similar collections. Juneau is both a child and a parent.

C: Cities
c1: Sitka
c2: Juneau
c2a:Mt. Roberts
c2b: Gastineau Channel

I wasn't sure how to classify some terms. Should Mt. Roberts be a child of a different parent such as mountains? Consistency across repositories at my level of cataloguing is an ideal that I attempt to attain by drilling down from the general to the specific. In that way queries of my collection will return a useful result. That’s what it's all about, isn't it?

Pour into Drupal

I have a friend who has an old Oldsmobile 88, from the mid 50s. He'd be out there every evening, in the garage, tuning it, polishing it, just fooling with it. It never worked totally right. Drupal is like that for me. I'm tweaking it and looking for fixes to correct those messages with the pinkish background. It works but has its problems. OK, I've only been at it for six days or so and have been able to enter content and metadata. It is searchable. It works. My friend was able to drive around in his Olds but it was soon back in the garage for more tweaking and tuning.

Drupal is open source and there are many people contributing various modules (code) to add to the functionality. There are modules a plenty, for almost anything you might want to add. As a class (see previous entries) we added a number of modules to the Drupal core) including an image module and a WYSIWYG editor, both working well and a category browser which for me never worked, evidently, there is a reported bug. With the image module, I was surprised to find it only supports jpeg, gif and png files in the "attach image module". If you want to add a tiff or a bmp then you need to do it in using the more conventional file attachment.

I added three modules on my own. The first is Lightbox2, a java script which overlay images on a page. It was a method to view photos in my collection. I still haven't gotten it to work to my satisfaction. The second module is Flash Video, a very powerful solution for playing video clips. One of its more interesting features is that it converts the original format to flv so it will be able to be played in a flash player. I've been able to upload an mpg file and have it playback but in QuickTime. Needs some tweaking! The third module, Node Map, is a tool that relates a node to a location on a map using either Yahoo or Google maps. It offers many uses to visitors to my collection, primarily attaching photo to a location. It also has its bugs. When I enter a location into the map I receive a location does not exist message.

I won't be in the garage, instead I'll be at the computer looking for solutions and tweaking.

A Lot To Do

The question was asked about the pace of the tech assignments compared to the "intensive Intro course"? At 12:30 am Wednesday morning in Nashville, 10:30 pm in Tucson about 30 minutes to deadline, I'm still slogging through Drupal assignment for this week. Until this week I would say that they were at the right pace. It is similar to the summer's pace minus the quiz and some drop box items but there is the additional management component. I'm not sure if I really see the difference. Grumble Grumble!

On a more positive note, I found the readings for this week interesting. I can finally make sense of the various forms of the classification of objects.

Content Management Solutions

Matt Benzing in his article, "Luwak: a content management solution" appearing in Library Hi Tech (2006 Volume 24 Issue 1, pgs 8-13) discusses how the Library at Renssealer Polytechnic Institute solved its problems caused by users accessing its "website with a multitude of browser types". The Library needed to adapt their web pages to accommodate these browser types. Also there was a need for librarians of "various skill levels" to create and update web pages. For a time Macromedia Dreamweaver was use as a site management and design tool. Benzing reported that this was not a satisfactory solution. It did not solve the need for transforming pages for different delivery methods. It was also susceptible to the erasure or alteration of pages.

The answer to this was a content management system An XML based system was developed by the Communication & Collaborative Technologies division of Renssealer Polytechnic Institute. This home grown solution was too the name Luwak after, as Benzing describes it, the ferret-like Asian mammal and the coffee that bears its name and benefits from the animals biological functions. There is a Java Java thing going n here. This system offered answered many of the Library's needs. In publishing web pages roles can be assigned to various players. Various style sheets could be created for different devices that would be applied on the fly such as hand held devices. One of the more interesting changes was that it became much easier for librarians, who are not, for the most part web designers or content publishers to go in and make a quick fix to a page in either XML or plain text. Benzing concludes that "the Library's website is more flexible, efficient and consistent than it has ever been.

The library at RPI is fortunate that its school has a division that served as the CMS developer. This helped keep costs down. This really depends on how the bookkeeping is done. Luwak is based on open source software. Though the cost savings gained from having the CMS developed on campus is questionable, there is a saving from using open source software.
This is only one solution to content management systems. Others are buying an answer in a box and others are developing systems based on open source software solutions. Later this week I will be starting to work with Drupal, a content management system based on open source software.

Collections

It’s the fall semester in my course of study at the University of Arizona, two courses both dealing with digital collections. Some interesting readings this week in both 675 and 671. On in particular pqued my interest was Clay Shirky’s essay, Ontology is Overrated ,. In it he raised the question, of how strict must should we be with the way we categorize, should we let the caategories fall as each person calls them. I think that it wont lead to chaos but instead might make it easier to find items.

This current assignment is to put together a collection to enter into Drupal in a few weeks. I'm going to continue dealing with the family photos, particularly those from the past 5 years. For the purpose of this exercise, I want to keep them generic tied to place as opposed to person. The audience would be friends and family. Some terms would include Alaska, ships, ocean, mountains, party, New York

14 Weeks and Keyboarding

Has it really been 14 weeks? For years I've heard about the powers Linux, and SQL. The command line interface was something that I had to use on occasion but only in a very elementary way. The experience gained using these tools, though I just got my feet wet, was enlightening. It built my confidence level up to the point that I might develop a media server for the family.

I was asked did the course change my perspectives on any aspect of digital information. The term digital information is a misnomer. The information isn't digital but it is information stored and handled in a digital environment. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, yes, my point of view has changed. It seems that there is a long history of many people developing the science of handling information digitally. I felt that this aspect of our "age" was an afterthought by many. I'm glad to see that isn't true.

You Need a Plan Stan

This week we dove into the theories of project management. We know what is the best way to achieve a successful outcome or at least know why the project failed? The Project Body of Knowledge was a good read. It outlined how to go about things. It also reaffirmed many of the strategies I used when I was producing television programs. Most interesting to me was H. Frank Cervone's article on Project Risk Management. The fact that there is a formula to measure risk in a project is enlightening Of course the variables are subjective but is seems that you can get close.

After doing the readings, I asked around where people are doing projects to see what they use to manage their projects. The answer I got was from a WAG to a written plan. What drove their decision was budget and scope. The larger the budget, the larger the scope, the more pages to the plan.

The Mark of the SQL'er

Years ago, I traveled to France but did not speak French. On the plane over I thought I could learn enough to get by. In a way learning sql was like that. I understood it but it was the details that got in the way. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting syntax from database I'm developing, sometimes it was missing comma or an inverted letter, other times it was more. I spent a very very long time looking at it, trying to get it to perform. When there was a problem back to the videos or my notes or a tutorial. When it worked it was like magic.

Database - Order to Disorder

This week SQL and creating a database! It is difficult, particularly developing the matrix and constraints of the database. It is probably the most difficult thing that I have come across in this course. One reason why it seems so complex is that there is a methodology that isn't clear to me. Maybe it is as simple as just making sure that you don't have any repeating attributes and that the subject of the database is broken down to its simplest elements. Isn't that all normalization is? A friend once gave me a sweater made out of wool. It caused me to itch, it was very uncomfortable. I wore it for some time. Eventually it stopped itching and became my favorite sweater. This is what I expect will happen with database management systems. I will keep doing it, get some feedback, and will be more comfortable with it. Sometimes you have to see the relatives you don't like.

The Plan or Where's the Money?

This week there were a number of readings about the creating a technology plan. Some were interesting from the point of what not to do or how to guarantee failure. Eric Chabrow, State of the Union article from the Nov 28, 2005, Information Week discussed why certain Federal government's tech initiatives went bad. Now I know why the IRS computer system didn't work out.

Two articles that were helpful were Robert Dugan's "Information Technology Plans", from The Journal of Academic Librarianship, v(28)n(3) and Gerding and MacKellar's Applying for Technology Grants from Computers in Libraries, July/August 2006. Both were very practical.
Dugan gave sage advice on all the aspects need to go into a technology plan stressing that it all should go back to the goals. Gerding and MacKellar makes two points in applying for funding. the first partner up and the second is know the trends. I read that as know what is being funded and go after that for your organization. Also know about who you are asking for the funding.

XML - It's a List

Learning how to do it was rather simple. Once again I found the W3schools tutorial very easy to follow. I also looked at Mark Long's videos on XML. Long seems very good at making it sound easy. The best way to learn though is do it. I did with few problems. Most of the difficulties turned out to be typos. I now have a list of photos with data added about the photos. I did look at the unit on namespaces. Also I skimmed the unit on java script which I hope that I will find time to go back to.

My stand alone demo machine is humming along. Connecting remotely went well. It works! One thing though, the terminal font seems smaller accessing it remotely.

HTML

This week it was make a web page using html. It has been almost 12 years since I've done any work in html and have forgotten most of it except for a few commands which I use at my current job at the Vanderbilt Television News Archive when writing descriptions about the shows. So you can say I was starting from just above scratch. The tutorial that was most helpful was from the W3 Schools. It was better in its layout then the Maricopa Center html tutorial Once I got down to making the web page I also looked at html tags from other sites to see how it was done. My web page can be viewed at http://www.u.arizona.edu/~davissc/class.html.

Finally, I've gotten my demo system to work. There were two other attempts with two different machines. One was a Pentium II, small hard drive, not enough memory, wasn't suitable for this situation. I found a P-4, a $10 garage sale wonder. It needed more work then I had time for to get it running. I found a GX260 on Craig's List. It is up and running, the server's IP address is recognized. So far so good! There are some issues with Webmin not opening up but I'm sure I will be able to resolve them.

Not All Done Yet

It has been a hectic week. I've been travelling since Tuesday and working away at the week's readings and other assignments for the Applied Tech course I'm taking. This week: networking. While sitting at the airport on Tuesday (there was a delay) I watched the Bob Metcalfe video and read through the lecture. In fact I also read the lecture again on Wednesday. The Metcalfe video was good first person account. There is nothing like hearing someone's story. It also gave me a better understanding of networking. There were other videos I needed to watch. They wouldn't play. I think my air-card connection was a little slow.

The lectures for this course are actually printed documents. It’s a format that works in distance learning. The lecture has a number of hyperlinks for added depth and understanding of what is being presented. I find them very helpful. I still have some reading for this week to do. The Linux Administrators Handbook reading is downloaded and ready. Tomorrow I leave Seattle and head north. My Internet connection disappears for a few days. I hope to get this done.

The Age of Machines

This week, command line to GUI plus I got to bring others along. The first task was to install Ubuntu Desktop onto Virtual Machine. The installation went well, without a hitch. My laptop, which is my primary machine, is able to support having both the server and desktop open at the same time. I guess the added memory, bringing the machine up to 2 Gigs was worth it. I think it's why I've had so few issues loading software.

The other software downloads went well. IceWM and Webmin both went in without a problem. There isn't much to say about IceWM, it’s a simple desktop, no bells, no whistles. I do like Webmin for adding users. My guess is that the other Webmin module will also make tasks easier. We will see! There was a small problem; I couldn't get Firefox to install into IceWM. The site couldn't be found. I ran update again and there it was. All is fine.

This week I found out how to add groups and users in UNIX. It was all very simple like making a cake from a mix, just follow directions. There was one point when adding someone from the desktop terminal where the new user was not in any groups. I forgot to check a box in the group. It was easily fixed.

An update on getting my "demo" machine, a second computer to use as a LAMP server, together. After some burps, I finally have a machine I can use for the project. It is a P-4 that I found on Craig's List. Originally I was going to use a P-II, which just wouldn't cut it. I then found a P-4 at a garage sale for what it costs for two to go to a movie in a big city. It needed to be reconfigured – rebuilt which was taking more time then I had hence the new computer. I've attempted to install Ubuntu desktop but had some problems. We'll see what the future holds.

All Hands

It was a week of configuring and text editors. No spiffy interface here it was all from the prompt, working in the black. The first was VI. It had a great tutorial. I was able to go through it, do the exercises then create and save some files on my own. It is a modal program, you can be in either the command mode or the insert mode. It is easy to forget to set the mode. When it didn't work I knew why. The other text editor was a program named Nano. It was very simple to use. The control commands are given at the bottom. It was reminiscent of the first word processor I used, Word-Star.

I am getting deeper into it. I have been empowered with commands. It is easy to forget where I am. Type in $ pwd at the prompt and I know what directory I'm in. To find out what is in that directory I type $ ls. $ find is handy for locating a missing file. In VI I created a file saved it and the using $ cp with a new name, moved it ($ mv) and then removed it ($rm).

I tried to write my own little program, attempting to write a shortcut to close down the server using an alias line.alias shut='sudo shutdown -P nowIt didn't work for one of two reasons, I think. The command shut is not already a bash command and only bash commands work. My second theory is that you can't use sudo commands. I did try using the word shut as a "ls" command. There was no having that.Based on that I believe you need an existing command.

Well sudo shutdown!

A New Beginning

For years it's been Windows, Windows, Windows with some DOS and other terminal based programs thrown into the mix. Early on, there was a smattering of very simple UNIX programming, This week, I've started using the Linux distribution Ubuntu as part of the course work I'm doing in the DigIn program. The first task was to boot the operating system to my PC. This was going to be a live session that was resident in memory only. I backed up my hard drive anyway, just in case.

My primary computer is a Toshiba Satellite M-245 laptop. The first time I tried to start Ubuntu desktop using the bootable CD I made it failed and the resident Windows OS started up instead. It must be the device boot order. I restarted the machine and changed the boot order having the CD be first. Windows continued to open. I ran the disc in a desktop and Ubuntu opened up. In looking around, I found it very accessible and easy to navigate. It was what I expected a GUI interface that was attractive and usable. During that initial visit to Ubuntu, I also opened the terminal app and ran some commands to get a feel for the programming.

The variety of tutorials is beneficial to my learning style. I started with the Introduction to Linux videos and watched them straight through. It gave me an idea of what to expect. Next I worked with the "15 commands" http://endor.hsutx.edu/cmdintro.htm while sitting in front of the terminal just to see how each behaved. I also worked with 'Learning the Shell" (http://www.linuxcommand.org/learning_the_shell.php in the same way. I used the printed material as a guide book. Putting that away I "played in the black" as my friend calls working from a prompt. One problem was I couldn't get back to the prompt from manual until I discovered "q". Each had tutorial had merit because the basics were repeated but in a slightly different way.

While working in the Ubuntu live session the laptop was powered up using the battery. by the time I got back to the laptop it was off, its battery drained. I plugged in the power cord, put in the bootable disc for Ubuntu, the computer came on and booted to the splash screen for Ubuntu. It seems that the battery power was holding some information somewhere and when it drained it lost that information and was able to follow the chosen boot order. Last chance fix for a laptop, pull the battery for a few minutes.

We're Off!

I've enrolled in the Digital Information Certificate program at the University of Arizona. The first course of the program has started... This hand on course deals with networks and their servers as used in the digital information environment. We will each build a LAMP server. To begin, we are looking at LINUX, using the UBUNTU operating system. This is all new to me, having used various versions of Windows for the past fifteen years. The class was assigned to look at the "Absolute Beginner Talk" section of The Ubuntu Forums http://ubuntuforums.org/. It was a good place to start. A lot of information on how to download Ubuntu, use it, and one section I found particularly interesting was "Switching to Ubuntu from Windows". There were suggestions on how to try out Ubuntu within Windows environment. If you are planning to make the switch, a warning to back up your files before you start. Good advice! Most comforting, to me anyway, is the amount of software available and how much easier it was to install applications in the Ubuntu environment. The migration assistant in Ubuntu helps in transferring your Windows files and settings. Later there is a discussion of file management and compatibility with hardware. Some hardware issues do exist. All and all it sounds good doesn't it? I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

In Every Walk of Life

Any idea how many Steve Davis-es there are? A long time ago I worked with a 15 person television production crew; 3 of them wore the moniker, Steve Davis. (4 more had Steve for a first name, but that is another blog). At Vanderbilt University where I work, there are 3. One, not me, is an endocrinologist. Sometimes people send me e-mail meant for him. As tempting as it was, I couldn't accept the invitation to go to Vienna and deliver that paper at an international conference. Years ago, while visiting London I went to check into a hotel here I had a reservation. The desk clerk was looking forward for Steve Davis to check in. I showed up. The clerk was taken aback. Evidently, I wasn't the Steve Davis he was hoping for. He thought he was going to meet Steve Davis the British snooker champion.Phone calls, I get phone calls, lots of them for Steve Davis. They usually involve collection agencies and lawyers. Guys pay your bills and most importantly child support.The thought crosses my mind occasionally to hold a Steve Davis conclave. All the name tags would read, "Hi, I'm Steve Davis. Though this is my first blog, I'm sure it is yet another Steve Davis blog.