Digital Information Technologies and Architectures (INM 348)
Week 3 involved looking at databases, which were created as a way to store data centrally and make it easier to access. Our exercise for this week was to construct 10 database queries. I found this exercise to be quite interesting. It was a challenge to learn how exactly do to this but once I got the hang of it, it was rather fun. You definitely get a sense of accomplishment from learning to apply what you learn to specific cases to get the right results. The standard format for queries is as follows:
SELECT columns
FROM tables
WHERE something is true;
So for example, the answer I got for problem one (to list the publisher, company and city of publishers in New York) was:
select pubid, name, company_name, city
from publishers
where city = "New York";
Week 4 was about Information Retrieval, which is basically what you do when you search for information via Google or other search engines. Precision of retrieval measures the proportion of retrieved documents which are relevant. You get this figure by dividing:
Relevant documents retrieved
Total documents retrieved
Recall has an inverse relationship with precision and is measured as follows:
Relevant documents retrieved
Total # of relevant documents in the database
Library and Information Science Foundation (INM 301)
The topic for Week 3 was The History of Library and Information Science. Self-explanatory. We went from tasks of early librarians (organizing, adding titles, listing parts of documents, listing documents on shelf) to the development of a classification system of the world's knowledge in the form of a draft encyclopedia by Francis Bacon (1620) to Martin Schrettinger first coining the phrase "library science" in 1808, etc. The advent and role of special libraries was mentioned, and the steps of the information chain were listed: authorship/creation, dissemination/publication, organization, indexing and retrieval, and finally use.
Week 4 was about Information, Documents, and Collections. The three paradigms discussed were: system paradigm, cognitive paradigm, and socio-cognitive paradigm. We looked at Shannon and Weaver's Mathematical Theory of Communication, which calculates the amount of info that can be transmitted over a channel. Karl Popper (he keeps popping up in our discussions...get it? Hahaha. Yeah, lame, I know) suggested a theory of "Three Worlds," the first of which is the physical world, the second is the mental world of each individual, and the third is communicable knowledge. We also talked about the four levels of documents: 1) works (e.g. Shakespeare's Hamlet); 2) expressions (the English text of Hamlet); 3) manifestations (specific edition of the English text of Hamlet); and 4) items (this copy in my hand).
Spanish
We went over adjectives for things and for people (para cosas y para personas). Also, we covered gerunds (in English, the -ing verbs). So "talking" = hablando. This is used for any person the same; there's no changing the verb as there would be in present tense (hablo, hablas, habla, etc). Yolanda asked us: ¿Comó vienes a la uni? My answer: Vengo a pie/ Vengo andando. To which she replied: ¡Qué suerte! ("How do you come to university?", "I walk", "How lucky!").
Information Management and Policy (INM 341)
This was our two weeks of Information/Copyright Law. So...laws. What did I get out of it? England doesn't have a constitution. America wins. I think their law system is even more confusing than ours in America. How does that happen? I'll not hurt my brain again with all the breaches of confidence and actions in tort and contracts and whatnot. There's some laws. Don't break them. The end.
Research Evaluation and Communication (INM 356)
Week 3 was about Experimenting, Observing, & Evaluating. Experimenting is usually objective, positivist, and scientific, while observation is typically subjective and based on interpretation. Simple enough.
Week 4 was about Surveys, which can be split into interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, Delphi studies, and critical incidents. Interviews can be unstructured/naturalistic, semi-structured, or structured and can take place face-to-face, over the phone, or online/via chat. Questions can be closed or open. Focus groups involve usually 5-10 participants and allows group members to spark ideas off each other. A Delphi study involves a group interacting over time without ever actually coming together. It usually lasts 2 or 3 rounds to reach a consensus. Critical incidents are simply case studies. Sampling for studies can be complete, random, systematic/stratified, or convenience.
Woo! The end. No lectures next week so I can put off the recap of week 5 for a while, as I do. Now back to working on my DITA assignment! Slowly but surely, that one.
Week 4 was about Information, Documents, and Collections. The three paradigms discussed were: system paradigm, cognitive paradigm, and socio-cognitive paradigm. We looked at Shannon and Weaver's Mathematical Theory of Communication, which calculates the amount of info that can be transmitted over a channel. Karl Popper (he keeps popping up in our discussions...get it? Hahaha. Yeah, lame, I know) suggested a theory of "Three Worlds," the first of which is the physical world, the second is the mental world of each individual, and the third is communicable knowledge. We also talked about the four levels of documents: 1) works (e.g. Shakespeare's Hamlet); 2) expressions (the English text of Hamlet); 3) manifestations (specific edition of the English text of Hamlet); and 4) items (this copy in my hand).
Spanish
We went over adjectives for things and for people (para cosas y para personas). Also, we covered gerunds (in English, the -ing verbs). So "talking" = hablando. This is used for any person the same; there's no changing the verb as there would be in present tense (hablo, hablas, habla, etc). Yolanda asked us: ¿Comó vienes a la uni? My answer: Vengo a pie/ Vengo andando. To which she replied: ¡Qué suerte! ("How do you come to university?", "I walk", "How lucky!").
Information Management and Policy (INM 341)
This was our two weeks of Information/Copyright Law. So...laws. What did I get out of it? England doesn't have a constitution. America wins. I think their law system is even more confusing than ours in America. How does that happen? I'll not hurt my brain again with all the breaches of confidence and actions in tort and contracts and whatnot. There's some laws. Don't break them. The end.
Research Evaluation and Communication (INM 356)
Week 3 was about Experimenting, Observing, & Evaluating. Experimenting is usually objective, positivist, and scientific, while observation is typically subjective and based on interpretation. Simple enough.
Week 4 was about Surveys, which can be split into interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, Delphi studies, and critical incidents. Interviews can be unstructured/naturalistic, semi-structured, or structured and can take place face-to-face, over the phone, or online/via chat. Questions can be closed or open. Focus groups involve usually 5-10 participants and allows group members to spark ideas off each other. A Delphi study involves a group interacting over time without ever actually coming together. It usually lasts 2 or 3 rounds to reach a consensus. Critical incidents are simply case studies. Sampling for studies can be complete, random, systematic/stratified, or convenience.
Woo! The end. No lectures next week so I can put off the recap of week 5 for a while, as I do. Now back to working on my DITA assignment! Slowly but surely, that one.
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