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.

Unit 2 & the CMS

The article that I reviewed is Regina Beach and Miqueas Dial’s “Building a collection development CMS on a shoestring.” The key players in developing the CMS for Texas A&M University – Kingsville (a small campus of 5,000) started out by considering all students as potential distance learners, and from there developed a collection development CMS that could be used remotely, whereas the previous protocol had been to require that faculty and students submit paper forms (yikes!). I think it’s interesting that a faculty member (also one of the co-authors) was invited to help develop the CMS. This seems like a great idea in developing library services – to get the faculty’s input especially where access is concerned.

I thought it very interesting that the authors mentioned that the long term professional and paraprofessional staff who had worked together for several years were in fact crucial to the smooth implementation of technological change. It has not always been my experience that long-term staff are open to change, so I thought this refreshing and that it also said much for the author's positive and empathetic approach to this project. The overall focus of the authors’ article is moving from a book request system using paper forms to online forms. The article goes on to address the ease of access of the new system, and how much of the record data input was automated.

Having myself experienced the transition from a library website based on Dreamwever to a CMS (Joomla), I can honestly state that the CMS has allowed for greater ease and freedom in making changes to the website, ultimately benefiting the users in that information is disseminated as quickly as possible via the website. I'm not sure that the same ease, flexibility and (most importantly) speed in making information readily available would be possible if we were still using Dreamweaver.