Unit 4

So far, Drupal seems to be working well for my collection. I do not feel like I have a strong basis for judging its effectiveness as yet, although I am beginning to better understand the basics. I suppose some criteria I would use to judge an application would be ease of use and flexibility for the person inputting the collection so that redundant actions are at a minimum, and how intuitive it is for an end user. So far Drupal seems effective on these scores, at least for a small collection such as mine. It seems as if it would be quite quick and easy to use once you know the ins and outs of the application. I look forward to learning more this upcoming week about what else we can do with Drupal.

Unit 3

So far, the tech assignments are going well, although I had a lot of problems with the  JHOVE installation last week (my own fault) which slowed me down quite a bit. I am tending to spend most of my time on the reading and discussion portions and actually wish that I had a little more time to spend on the Tech assignments, such as the Drupal tutorials. I am spending about the same amount of time on weekly work as I did in 672 (probably an average of 15-20 hours a week), mostly on readings and discussion, but the tech portion so far has not been quite as challenging as 672 was since that course introduced me to a lot of the brand-new concepts.

I have enjoyed all of my courses, but these two DigIn courses (672 and 675) so far have seemed to be the most useful to me in many areas. Although they are challenging, I have been very happy with the teaching style and how much I have learned. I am looking forward to learning more about Drupal, which so far seems to have a user-friendly interface and a lot of possibilities.

Unit 2

This week I read the article "CMS/CMS: content management system/change management strategies," by Susan Goodwin, Nancy Burford, Martha Bedard, Esther Carrigan and Gale C. Hannigan at Texas A&M University. The paper discusses the Texas A&M University Libraries' re-design of their web presence using a CMS. The University initially had several separate websites for its various libraries, along with departmental and personal websites, and thus needed a more unified and coherent web presence. The paper describes the main methodology of re-designing its website, which included the formation of a Web Implementation Team and the purchase of a CMS system. Rather than going into details about the technical aspects of implementing the CMS, the paper takes a wider approach by discussing the challenges on an organization-wide scale of developing an effective web presence, along with recommendations.

I found this article to be very enlightening and was surprised by some of the findings of the paper. I was expecting to read more about the technical challenges of using a CMS, but instead the authors take a more holistic approach and discuss the wider needs, challenges and benefits of the organizational web presence. The authors emphasize that many different members of the organization need to be involved and invested in order for the project to be a success, and especially members who have authority. I found the following statement to be particularly interesting: "Do not expect change without affecting roles and responsibilities. Virtual change will drive organizational change." (p.58) The authors go on to explain that increased self-sufficiency for the user can create a shifting of roles within the organization, as well as the requirement for new skills (such as maintaining the CMS). It had never occurred to me before that re-designing a website could have such profound implications for the organization itself. I really enjoyed this article and it encouraged me to think about aspects of a library's website and use of a CMS that I have never thought about before.

Unit 1

This week we are supposed to gather a small collection of digital objects which we will be working with over the course of the semester. Since these objects should be coherent yet diverse, something I know about, and should be digital objects that I have in hand, I thought that my artwork would fit this project well. I own my own small art business where I create and sell my artwork online and locally. These are physical paintings and drawings, but I scan or photograph all of them before they sell, so I have digital surrogates. Although I am the artist for all of them, they have different subjects and sometimes different mediums and creation years.

This collection would be aimed towards anyone interested in art, and specifically lowbrow, folk or pop surrealist art. I already use tags when listing my artwork online, so I could draw from those for terms used to provide access. Some examples of some terms I have used are "original art," "pop surrealism," "fairytale," etc. I would probably use more specific terms, however, once I get my images together and think more about the collection as a whole. I am really looking forward to this, as I have been wanting to do some sort of database for my artwork.