The Digital Library from Information Superhighway to the Semiotic Web

The Digital Library from Information Superhighway to

the Semiotic Web

Suzanne C. Pilsk

and

Martin R. Kalfatovic

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

The Scarecrow

Dedicated Terminals vs. the Personal Computer

Dedicated Terminal

• Proprietary• Single function• Expensive• The vendor’s dream

machine

The Personal Computer

• Client/server paradigm

• Multi-use• Open (as defined by

Microsoft)• Can be expensive• Bill Gates and Andy

Groves’ dream machine

Munchkinland

Early Internet Experiments

Finger

• Weather Conditions• Checking the status

of the Coke machine down the hall

“Finger” is a simple protocol used to retrieve information about users and return the information in a simple string

Anonymous FTP• Transfer of large file

sets that the user could reassemble

• Mastering the art of spelling “A-N-O-N-Y-M-U-S”

Though still useful for various technical operations, as an “end-user” Internet experience, Anonymous FTP’s life is at an end

Telnet

• Fast, even with a “slow” Internet connection (the remember 2400 baud modem?)

• Efficient (the telnet client was usually quite “lite”)

• Blinking white letters on a black screen!

Gopher

• The first widely accepted Internet “publishing” tool

• Librarian friendly (who doesn’t love a strict hierarchy of information?)

• Acronym friendly

LC MARVEL

• Library of Congress

• Machine

• Assisted

• Realization (of the)

• Virtual

• Electronic

• Library

SI Library Gopher: SILENUS ?

• Smithsonian

• Institution

• Libraries

• Electronic

• Node (of)

• Useful

• Stuff

Rescue of the Tin Woodman: Libraries Go Online






• Dewey to LC classification (ca. 1965)

• Input of data into OCLC (1974)

• GEAC (1984)• NOTIS – TELNET

(1994)• Web access to the

catalog (1996)• Horizon (1998-1999)


The Cowardly Lion

Communication is King of the Jungle!

Communication is King

• Bulletin Boards: in the early days of the personal computer, one of the wonders of having a computer in your home was the ability to plug an acoustic coupler into the machine and snug your telephone handset into the device and connect to a bulletin board. Bulletin boards allowed communities to form around topics, buy and sell things

• Email: the next step was direct communication with others in a nearly asynchronous manner. Soon the ubiquitous “@” became a regular part of our language.


• GEAC Mail: Many of our fist experiences with email were not the global email we’re used to today, but instead, in-house or system dependant “electronic messaging systems”.


• BITNet: BITNet hit the Smithsonian around 1988 and suddenly email went beyond the walls of the library (SI used that now primitive IBM system, PROFS, I still remember my BITNet email: libem071@sivm.


• Webmail: Now, with web accessible email, email systems are available on any web enabled PC, and of course, cell phones and PDAs


• Listservs: with “beyond the walls” email, the world of listserv where, again, communities coud form simply by typing “sub me listserv x”. Communication became a “Push Technology” where people’s opinions, thoughts, questions, and even rants (remember “flame wars”?) came into our in box.


• BLOGS: and now, here we are again. How many of you have participated in some sort of BLOG? Once again we see the concept of the bulletin boards rising in the form of the BLOG.


Deadly Poppy Fields of Jargon

From Smithsonian Libraries On Display: Seed Catalogs


• Firewall• Surfing• Link• Link rot• Burn• Web Master• Rip• Zip and Unzip

• Online• Java• Googling• Metadata• 24/7• HTML• XML• Taxomony

Taxomony

• Merriam Webster Online1) The study of the general principles of scientific classification : systematics2) Classification; especially : orderly classification of plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships

• WebopediaTaxonomy is the way it organizes its data into categories and subcategories, sometimes displayed in a site map

• InformationWeekTaxonomy-creation tools that scan documents and suggest logical categories based on common themes that occur across an organization's data


• Cataloging• Classification• Thesauri• Metadata• Schemas• Ontologies

Dublin Core Metadata

Open Archives Initiative

Open = Not Supported

Archives = Means “Repository”

Initiative = Yet Not Ready

Open Archives Initiative

MARC and METS and MODS

MARC

MARC XML

MODS

Oh My!

http://mapageweb.umontreal.ca/turner/meta/english/indexacroeng.html

The Emerald City of Oz

Building and Maintaining the Library Website

The Library Website

• Mosaic marries graphics, text, and the hyper text transfer protocol

• Information becomes less linear and more relational

• Librarians become graphic designers (ack!)

The Library Website

The Library Website

The Library Website

The Library Website

The Library Website

The Library Website

The Library Website

The Library Website

The Library Website

• The “public site”• The “library staff site”• The “scholars’ portal”• The “Intranet site”• The “fully

customizable with features that only I can find and find useful site”

The Search for the Wicked Witch

Internet on Your Desk: A Long Hard Battle


• “I don’t see why any one needs access to the internet at their offices or in the library because they can come to the central Smithsonian computer office and use it there. What would they be doing on this “internet”?”


The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible

Taking Content Online


• The Library Catalog• Citation Databases• Full-text Databases• Electronic Journals• Digital Collections• Digital Books• Online Exhibitions


• ASCII text• HTML• SGML• EAD• XHTML• XML

The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible

You see Scarecrow, you

always had content, you just need acronyms!

Library Science vs. Rocket Science

• Case Study: “Sewing Machines: Historical Trade Literature in Smithsonian Collections” - inches and centimeter mix up leads to confusion

Library Science vs. Rocket Science

• Case Study: NASA Mars Climate Orbiter (1999) - The peer review preliminary findings indicate that one team used English units (e.g., inches, feet and pounds) while the other used metric units for a key spacecraft operation.

The Magic Art of the Great Humbug

The Changing Position Title


• Deck Attendant• Collections

Improvement Assistant

• ILL Technician• Reference Librarian• Information Access

Coordinator• Digital Projects

Librarian• Head, New Media

Office


• Information Specialist

• Librarian• Cataloger• Metadata Specialist

• Cybrarian• Webmaster• Knowledge Manager• Metadata Mistress


Where’s Toto?Building the Digital Yellow Brick

Road

The Digital Library from Information Superhighway to

the Semiotic Web

Suzanne C. Pilsk

and

Martin R. Kalfatovic

Smithsonian Institution Libraries