In this week's exercise I edited images using the JPEG and GIF formats. The JPEG format is appropriate for displaying photographic images on the Web due to its relatively small file size, but data is lost when the file is modified and cannot be recovered. GIF files are lossless but larger in size than JPEGs and only support 256 colours (Matthews, 2004). They are more useful for graphs and greyscale images and, unlike JPEGs, can be transparent or animated. The PNG format is growing in popularity as it is lossless like a GIF but supports 16 million colours although the file size is larger than JPEGs and it is not supported by older browsers (ibid). Irrespective of the format chosen, it is vital to save an original copy of an image before editing it for use on the Web. The results of this week's exercise are available from: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~abgy261/task4.html
Libraries are at the forefront of new techniques to digitally represent graphical information. MIT's SIMILE project spatialises digital information, creating maps and images which aid users navigating through information spaces. Mash-ups can be used to seamlessly combine data from several sources to create a new resource, for example integrating images from Flickr into OPACs (Engard, 2009) which can save time and deliver relevant information more quickly, ameliorating problems with information overload.
Digitisation is a socially and culturally important concern for libraries. Initiatives such as Google Book Search and the Open Content Alliance are trying to create a global library of information by converting books and historical documents into graphical formats, ensuring printed information is not lost forever. In addition to legal ramifications (Samuelson, 2009) there are also the practical limitations pertinent to all graphical information on the Web: the problem of maintaining quality and integrity while coping with limitations of user's bandwidth speeds.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Friday, 9 October 2009
Exercise 3.3 -- Internet/WWW
Through this exercise, I realised my understanding of the Internet's inherent technologies and information architectures was poor. As a digital native, the exponential growth of the Web in the 1990s and 2000s has changed the way I think and work (Prensky, 2001) but I knew little about the underlying technologies driving it.
This week, I read 'Weaving the Web' by Tim Berners-Lee, which broadened my understanding of the history of the Internet. HTML was designed to, "convey the structure of a hypertext document, but not details of its presentation." (Berners-Lee, 1999, p.45) Many web authors are guilty of using semantic tags for presentation, and in the late 1990s it was common to see tables used as navigational aids (Chapman, 2009). Using a limited set of tags taught me sticking to semantic tags is best practice as presentational tags can bloat file size, limit a user's control over how web pages are displayed, and are not supported by older browsers. Semantic tags also aid the creation of accessible HTML documents, for example the ALT tag can be used to provide visually impaired users with audio descriptions of hyperlinks. Working with a limited set of semantic tags and manually checking pages is vital as even valid HTML documents are displayed differently on different browsers. The index page uploaded to my WebSpace is XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant.
The Web is dynamic, and continually evolving. Ideas of Web 3.0 are beginning to emerge, as is the semantic web, where information will deliver itself to us (Berners-Lee, 1999). Similar ideas were described by Bush (1945) in his concept of the Memex, and I feel the ideas he espoused are still relevant today. The first web server outside of CERN was encouraged by a librarian, Louise Addis (Henderson, 2000) and librarians and information professionals have a tradition of being at the forefront of digital information technologies. Remaining so is vital to educate people on how best to use them for finding, managing and organising digital information.
This week, I read 'Weaving the Web' by Tim Berners-Lee, which broadened my understanding of the history of the Internet. HTML was designed to, "convey the structure of a hypertext document, but not details of its presentation." (Berners-Lee, 1999, p.45) Many web authors are guilty of using semantic tags for presentation, and in the late 1990s it was common to see tables used as navigational aids (Chapman, 2009). Using a limited set of tags taught me sticking to semantic tags is best practice as presentational tags can bloat file size, limit a user's control over how web pages are displayed, and are not supported by older browsers. Semantic tags also aid the creation of accessible HTML documents, for example the ALT tag can be used to provide visually impaired users with audio descriptions of hyperlinks. Working with a limited set of semantic tags and manually checking pages is vital as even valid HTML documents are displayed differently on different browsers. The index page uploaded to my WebSpace is XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant.
The Web is dynamic, and continually evolving. Ideas of Web 3.0 are beginning to emerge, as is the semantic web, where information will deliver itself to us (Berners-Lee, 1999). Similar ideas were described by Bush (1945) in his concept of the Memex, and I feel the ideas he espoused are still relevant today. The first web server outside of CERN was encouraged by a librarian, Louise Addis (Henderson, 2000) and librarians and information professionals have a tradition of being at the forefront of digital information technologies. Remaining so is vital to educate people on how best to use them for finding, managing and organising digital information.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
Exercise 3.2 -- Text/HTML
Digital information consists of binary data, strings of unformatted ones and zeroes. Computers are used to interpret, represent and manage this information. This week's exercise taught me there are several considerations anyone creating, manipulating or storing digital information must bear in mind.
The format data is stored in is an important consideration. Different applications represent the same data in different ways. Proprietary formats such as Microsoft Word's DOC lose information when opened in applications such as Notepad, as the image below shows. Metadata, and semantic mark-up in particular, must be considered from the point of data creation to ensure the information is imbued with meaning and is interoperable across a wide variety of applications and platforms.
The document-centred view of data is useful as files are embedded in documents, so a single file stored centrally can be part of many different documents. Duplicate copies of the original file need not be made, and updates to the original file are reflected automatically. This is vital for my job at Leeds University Library. When creating tutorials with specialist software such as Articulate, I embed them in Powerpoint documents, ensuring information is correctly displayed on PCs which lack the specialist software.
Lastly, when storing files, consideration must be given to file names and folder organisation. What is meaningful at the time of creation often differs from what is meaningful at the time of retrieval. Information may be created in a piecemeal manner, but considering organisation from the outset saves time and effort. The image below shows how I have used knowledge from this week's exercise to organise my folder for this module.
The most pertinent lesson I learned from this week's exercises is that anyone creating digital information is their own information manager. Learning how to organise, manage and represent intangible digital information to best exploit it is empowering.
The format data is stored in is an important consideration. Different applications represent the same data in different ways. Proprietary formats such as Microsoft Word's DOC lose information when opened in applications such as Notepad, as the image below shows. Metadata, and semantic mark-up in particular, must be considered from the point of data creation to ensure the information is imbued with meaning and is interoperable across a wide variety of applications and platforms.
The document-centred view of data is useful as files are embedded in documents, so a single file stored centrally can be part of many different documents. Duplicate copies of the original file need not be made, and updates to the original file are reflected automatically. This is vital for my job at Leeds University Library. When creating tutorials with specialist software such as Articulate, I embed them in Powerpoint documents, ensuring information is correctly displayed on PCs which lack the specialist software.
Lastly, when storing files, consideration must be given to file names and folder organisation. What is meaningful at the time of creation often differs from what is meaningful at the time of retrieval. Information may be created in a piecemeal manner, but considering organisation from the outset saves time and effort. The image below shows how I have used knowledge from this week's exercise to organise my folder for this module.
The most pertinent lesson I learned from this week's exercises is that anyone creating digital information is their own information manager. Learning how to organise, manage and represent intangible digital information to best exploit it is empowering.
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