Blog 7

Scholars Perspective: Impact of Digitized Collections on Learning and Teaching

This article deals with the availability and amount of digitized source materials that teachers can use and what impacts it has had on their teaching. Libraries are being replaced with virtual ones with economic, social and educational impacts-often more negative than positive. A student of Mr. Watt mentions how he prefers the online database as it is easily accessible in the dorm, away from the library. I might add too that he (we) are able to access this information 24/7, not being obstructed by library hours. One metaphor that I can relate is using Inter Library Loan. Recently, I’ve been using it heavily for bibliography articles and music performance pieces. At times, there are some problems when trying to submit requests online, and I am lucky to have a tangible person look over these issues and help resolve them as computers are not perfect. It is interesting to think that one is using the library, outside of the library I might add. I guess I never looked it at that way while browsing www.ithacalibrary.com (or edu) depending if it feels like working that day. Oh, and that’s a point too, sometimes there are more technical difficulties such as the online site being down. I really enjoyed reading this article as I have a lot to say on the topic of the increase of technology effecting education. I do think, however, that with all recently developed technological advancements, things take time to adjust. And all the technical problems etc. will find a way to resolve themselves, with the help of human interaction and technology.

Review of IMSLP

I was not aware that Imslp was rebranded The Petrucci Music Library. I remember first looking into this website, as recommended by an orchestra conductor; I was so ecstatic at the ease and availability of accessing all kinds of classical music as long as it was written before a number of decades ago (copyright laws). Their main website defines it as “to create a virtual library containing all public domain music scores, as well as scores from composers who are willing to share their music with the world without charge.” This article lists it as one of the fastest growing and largest sources of musical scores. I am curious as to the other websites included. I was not aware that the website was created by an undergraduate classical music student..how cool! I am also interested in exactly how the creator was able to bring the site back up after threats to take it down. The article states that his website has not been allowed to publish in Europe, though it will start to in 2014. I wonder if it has been published as of yet? I also wonder if, like Facebook, threats start to incur, and then the people lashing out the threats start to realize that no matter how hard they try, they will be unsuccessful at inhibiting the freedom of technology to take its own course. I think that Edward Guo made a smart decision taking the website down, allowing two years of discussion to occur, and then put it back up after everyone starts to relax a little bit. What I most enjoy about Imslp is that the users are the strongest contributors. They even police the activities and uploads of other users. And classical musicians I’m sure hold high regard and strict regulations for the music, naturally.

Never Trust a Corporation to do a Library’s Job

Googles mission, since created, was to include the preservation of the past. But I wonder if one has to (not altogether) get rid of the past, in order to move forward. One example of this that I can think of is Google’s deletion of Youtube comments after so many years ago. At first, I was a little disappointed as I thought that deleting comments would lessen our ability to have perspective on older videos, and at times I think it does. But overall, it better organizes and gives a fresh and new perspective on videos. I think the fact that Google has outgrown its mission statement of 14 years ago could be a good thing. This should infer progress and growth. I do enjoy the idea that the Internet Archive is including video games of the past to play. They are certainly marketing towards their crowd. I guess I eventually formed the correlation between the article and the title, however, I think the article could have represented its title in a more clear fashion in order to make its point.

Google’s Slow Fade with Librarians

It is very interesting how Google has tried to heavily influence libraries and librarians with money, power, and encouraging talk. Google.com/librariancenter speaks enough about this influence. The Google Books project then began starting to go downhill. I am most interested in this article, in the sense that, it should look into exactly how Google played a role in influencing libraries and librarians. I think it instead gave a short example how Google showed up to a meeting and partnered with them, and that as partners, there was deceiving and eradication of library information, corruption, seeking of power and money etc. I wish that this article would delve into more deeply the negative influence and results Google had on its company, and where both exactly stand today.

The Cobweb: Can the Internet be Archived?

Before the Malaysian Airline crash that took off from Amsterdam in 2014, Anatol Shmelev suggested and submitted archives of a list of Ukranian and Russian Web sites and blogs that ought to be recorded as part of the Ukraine conflict. The recorded message stating that the terrorist took the plane down was only recorded due to Shmelev. We often think that everything we post will always be recorded, and sometimes feared into thinking this in order to keep a clean slate of posts (especially Facebook), however this article suggests that it just may be impossible to keep a record of everything. I laughed when I read about Buzzfeed deleting its staff writers’ earlier posts as it started to look stupider and stupider. I wonder if even the Wayback Machine will eventually be eradicated. It already is having trouble specifically offering results that reflect what is being searched as the details from the past do not reflect the current very well. Not only because this is the last post, but I didn’t find a lot of the other information to be that relevant and/or exciting. Overall, I found that the internet can be archived for a relatively small amount of time, ever-decreasing at the demand of its viewers and impact profited corporations, and non-profit organizations have on the archives/information.