Unit 9: cataloging my Sutro District collection

I have two journal articles in my collection, and I think it can be helpful to try to find the abstracts in a noted database such as Ebsco, and then see the subject terms listed in the record. Additionally, I have two films that are part of the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project. Subject terms are quite explicit in these records and have been helpful in focusing subject listings of my collection.

I believe that I’ve been the most consistent with Dspace regarding my collection, as with Dspace I was able to utilize both ATT & LCSH – additionally, my LCSH listings were fairly granular in Dspace. With Eprints, I could not achieve the granularity with my subject listings that I could with Dspace. For instance, with Eprints I could only choose Psychology for some of my objects when what I really wanted to choose was ghosts, a subheading under Psychology. Additionally, I like using ATTs definition of ruins vs. LCSH definition of ruins, the latter being specific to ruins in antiquity. The ATT definition of ruins is broader, encompassing contemporary ruins as well. Obviously the Sutro Baths ruins cannot be described as ruins from antiquity.

Overall I’m enjoying cataloging my collection, but I can see how good, detailed cataloging can be very time-consuming and thus very expensive in a real working environment. But I can also understand how you wouldn't want to cut any corners when it comes to cataloging, as the metadata is key to access; if no one can find your collection, it may as well not exist.

Unit 8 & the perils of Eprints

So far I prefer Dspace over Drupal & Eprints. It has been helpful to have to do the standard install now for the 5th time. I think I’m just starting to get the hang of it:) I still had some problems this time with connectivity, but I think that’s because I configured the static IP before doing the sudo aptitude updates.

I should have read Emily’s post earlier about mixing up the primary user password with the necessary mysql password, as I had to repeat this step 3 times before realizing that it needed my unique mysql password.

Another issue that came up was when trying to configure eprints with two repositories. Here I changed my hostname to eprints324, the name of my new vm. I really appreciate all the help that the tech activity has offered, and when I find the solution through either Bruce’s or another classmate’s assistance, I’m trying to add as much detail as possible to the posts in the event that others run into the same issue.

I had a heck of a time finding private/etc/hosts on my actual host machine. This was a very interesting exercise in patience and I must admit that I learned quite a bit about changing permissions for these files on my host machine. I had little time to configure my Eprints site by the time I actually got it up and running, but alas both repositories are ready to have collection items added. I’m still very much partial to Dspace. I appreciate its user-end appearance over that of either Drupal or Dspace.

Unit 7: Capstone Project Musings

Since our blog discussion this week is a subject of our own choosing, I thought I would discuss my dream capstone project. While I wouldn’t mind working on a project at my home institution of the UCM Library, my dream collection would be the Adolph Sutro Collection at UC Berkeley. This collection to my knowledge has not as of yet been digitized. I know a few of the librarians at Berkeley, and I’m thinking that I need to start putting my feelers out there to see if there is any chance that I would be able to participate is such a project.

The finding aid on OAC shows that this collection is not currently available in digital format. I know this is a pipe-dream project more than likely, and I’m not even sure if there are any plans to digitize the collection in the near future.

Another possible project might involve a digital-humanities collaboration with the writing program here at UC Merced. I am involved in a group of mostly writing professors here on campus called the “Critical Theory Reading Group.” This group meets every few weeks to discuss readings by philosophers and cultural critics such as Jacques Derrida, Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer. I think that it would be really interesting to prepare an archive of digital objects related to seminars and projects sponsored by the group.

Dspace (Unit 6)

I had problems finding the webapps line during the dspace installation, the first time I used the control-w command (so happy to know about this search command!), it could not locate the file. So I went back a few steps in the install and edited the additions to the /etc/default/tomcat6. This time I left a space between the last line and the beginning of the additions (tomcat user & security). I saved, and when I got back to the stomcat6/server.xml I was able to locate the file for editing.

I think that some of my confusion stemmed from the fact that I didn’t know where to stop in the standard install and then begin in the Dspace configuration. Also I experienced some issues with the static IP I initially assigned. I'm not sure if this was behind my connectivity issue, however I was able to ping successfully after using the IP I originally used for the last VM.

I really like the Dspace interface overall, especially the organizational hierarchy of creating a community, then a collection, and then adding your items. However collaboration too is inherent in the organizational structure in that communities can share collections. I'm looking forward to adding all of my metadata fields as established in my application profile. I think this will make my collection items that much more accessible and the item records much more robust.

Lastly, I liked how easy it was to add a logo & images to my Dspace site. I had to reformat my logo a few times, and the process was very straightforward and quick. Perhaps it's just me, but I felt that Dspace was far more customizable, and that the administrative functions were clearer - there was one point during the Drupal customization that I felt the page looked very crowded and confusing to navigate. I did not have this experience with Dspace, but perhaps that's because at this point my metadata is pretty sparse. We will see...

Installing Modules (unit 5)

I decided to add the Page_title module to my Drupal site. According to Drupal.org, this module allows granular control over the page title display. After downloading the contents of this file to my desktop, I realized that I could just use the command line to add this module by referring to the download link in the release notes and using the command line instructions in the tech activity. After downloading via the vm, and going back into Administer > site building > modules on my drupal database, it showed that this module was disabled because it required an integrated token module. So I found this module’s release notes on drupal.org and from the vm executed the same commands to download this module. I was really excited when the page_title module was enabled after downloading the token module. I would imagine that the more modules you download, however, the more complicated the back end of the drupal site becomes.

The only part of this week's exercises where I got stuck was when trying to configure the faceted search in the VM, but I was able to figure things out after realizing that I had a misplaced asterisk. I also got stuck at the command line when trying to download the Date module, however in one of the activity posts Bruce supplied alternate text that worked instead.

Unit 4: more fun w/ Drupal

I think that Drupal is going to work very well for my collection of objects focused on the Sutro District. As professor Fulton mentioned in one of postings this week, Drupal is very forgiving. Since I want to develop a taxonomy using more than one resource (LOC, AAT, etc), Drupal seems to be the way to go.

My collection is in some ways an homage to the Sutro district, and several of the items are art objects inspired by the district. Thus a varied taxonomy feels like the correct choice, however we shall see just how complicated this may become.

My drupal address is http://192.168.1.99/drupal/. I had some difficulty getting to this page through either of my browsers today, but then I realized it was probably because I was logged in to the VNC for UC Merced. I thought it curious that I couldn’t log in with user2 (?), but the authuser name & pw worked. However I didn’t have administrative privileges (arrh!). So I went back through the drupal install doc and realized that I needed to login in as admin – voila! This turned out to be the very least of my problems as I worked my way through modifying the file upload parameters, and eventually created my vocabularies (that part was fun!).

Unit 3: class pace

I believe that the pace of the technology assignments is perfect. I feel as though I’m able to closely follow the instructions without too many setbacks. I also feel that the technical rigor of this summer’s course really helped hone some of my troubleshooting skills. I’m trying to keep up with reading the discussions as the course progresses, whereas last semester I had to take a few days to play catch-up and read all of the past discussions. This semester feels much more on track so far.

I’m also enjoying the management readings, podcast and discussions. I didn’t notice a quiz tab yet so I’m guessing that there will be no quizzes this time around. I think that I will miss that component of the course, as the quizzes were really good exercises in learning the more technical details of the class.

Another interesting observation is the cohesiveness of the students in the discussions. Most of us have been through at least two semesters together, and this is very different from my college experience, even as a graduate student (most of my graduate coursework was completed overseas at Oxford Brookes).

Overall I’m really enjoying this class so far, and particularly the emphasis on taxonomies. I want to learn as much as I can about this subject, and find it fascinating especially when compared and contrasted to folksonomies.