Course number 21:226; 2 semester hours;  Room 3092 LIB; Thursdays, 1:30 - 3:20 p. m.; Jan. 18 - May 10, 2001.

Course text: Lesk, Michael. Practical digital libraries: books, bytes, and bucks. San Francisco, Calif: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers; 1997. 297 p. (The Morgan Kaufmann series in multimedia information and systems). $51.95

SCHEDULE

GENERAL READING

CONCEPTS OF DIGITAL LIBRARIES Readings for this unit

Jan. 18: Introduction. Read: Lesk, ch. 1: Evolution of libraries.   Class notes.

Jan. 25: Digital library programs and activities, part 1. Read Lesk, ch. 11: International activities.   Class notes.

Feb. 1: 1:30-2:30: Visit to the Iowa Women's Archive; meet Karen Mason; introduction to the Radio HomeMakers collection.  2:30-3:20: Digital library programs and activities, part 2. Read Lesk, ch. 8: Collections and preservation.    Class notes.
 

DIGITAL LIBRARY PLANNING AND CREATION Readings for this unit

Feb. 8: 1:30-2:30: Visit to Special Collections; meet Sidney F. Huttner; introduction to the Kent photographs of Iowa City, the Thompson travel artifacts (souvenirs from various parts of the world), the Wilkes Booth playbills, the Vander Maas railway photographs and the Twelve Days of Christmas materials.  2:30-3:20: Presenting information on the Web.    Class notes.    Scanning.   Class notes.   Read Lesk, ch. 3: Images of pages.

Feb. 15:   Codifying data in digital libraries: TEI, EAD etc.  Class notes.   Read Lesk, ch. 2: Text access methods;  ch. 7: Usability and retrieval evaluation.

Feb. 22: Class visit: American Memory project of the University of Iowa Libraries: Traveling culture: circuit Chatauqua; hosted by Dick Kolbet, Special Collections, University of Iowa Main Library.
URL: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/iauhtml/tccchome.html
Read Lesk, ch. 4: Multimedia storage and access

Mar. 1: OCR.    Class notes.    Read Lesk, ch. 5: Knowledge representation methods; ch. 6: Distribution

Mar. 8: 1:30 - 2:20 p.m.: DreamWeaver demonstration.    2:20 - 3:20 p.m.: Metadata.    Class notes.     Reading for this session.

(Mar. 15): Spring Break

Mar. 22: Class visit to the Virtual Hospital, hosted by Michael D'Alessandro, MD; room 716 General Hospital.  Reading for this session.       Note: before this session students should also visit :
http://www.vh.org  /   http://www.vnh.org  /   http://www.uihealthcare.com
Hand in: preliminary plan or outline.

Mar. 29: 1:30 - 2:20 p.m.: Photoshop demonstration.   2:20 - 3:20 p.m.: XML in theory.    Class notes.    Reading for this session.

Apr. 5: XML in practice: Dr. Padmini Srinivasan. Reading for this session.

Apr. 12: Databases on the Web.  Class notes.  Reading for this session.

Apr. 19: Indexing web sites.  Class notes.  Reading for this session.
 

DIGITAL LIBRARY MANAGEMENT      Readings for this unit

Apr. 26: Management of digital libraries. Copyright. Read Lesk,  ch. 10: Intellectual property rights. Class notes.

May 3: Final class: Read Lesk, ch. 9: Economics; ch. 12: Future.   Class notes.

May 10: Exam week; no formal exam, but: NOTE CAREFULLY: all products MUST be posted to the web or handed in by  3:20 p.m.

ADDITIONAL READINGS
 

PRODUCTS EXPECTED FROM STUDENTS

Digital library project

It is expected that most students will work in group on a practical digital library creation project.

Students who prefer a written paper may attempt

EITHER: A comparative evaluation of two or  more digital library programs

OR: An in-depth analysis of a digital library program

The term paper can be presented in either digital (HTML or other web-compatible presentation) or paper form.

In either case students will be expected to submit both a preliminary plan or outline and, finally,
the complete Digital Library project or term paper.

NOTE: students on this course in Spring 2000 produced a digital introduction to the
Mary Noble Postcard Collection of the Iowa Women's Archives
located in the Main Library of the University of Iowa:
http://mingo.info-science.uiowa.edu/Mary_Noble/

The Spring 2001 course produced an introduction to the
Evelyn Birkby Collection of Radio Homemaker Materials
held at the Iowa Women's Archives:
http://mingo.info-science.uiowa.edu/birkby/index.html
 

GRADING SCHEME
 

Plan of Digital Library / Preliminary outline of term paper: 30%

Operational Digital Library / Term paper: 50%

Participation: 20%