Readings 1, Paper 1Bush, V. (1945). As We May Think. The Atlantic Monthly, 176(1), 101-108. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush Publication information: - It was published in 1945.
- Bush led the Manhattan project during World War II.
- It was in The Atlantic Monthly and Life. Both of these publications are mass-market magazines.
Take-Aways: - Bush correctly predicted the large increase in the amount of data that scientists would have access to.
- He thinks that major changes in photography will allow engineers to create mechanical systems that store information.
- He describes the Memex, which is a machine that has the communication power of a computer.
- Just because you have a lot of information, that doesn't mean it is useful. You have to be able to access it.
- He discusses trails that connect pieces of information together.
Questions: - How were his predictions right?
- What was he wrong about?
- He suggests several inventions such as voice recognition that never reached common use. Should we spend more time researching this?
- Was he a visionary, or were these things an average scientist would have expected?
- How do hyperlinks differ from trails?
- Why do we not have indexing by association?
Readings 1, Paper 2Kahn, R. E., & Cerf, V. G. (1988). The Digital Library Project Volume I: The World of Knowbots (DRAFT): An Open Architecture For a Digital Library System and a Plan For Its Development: Corporation for National Research Initiatives. http://hdl.handle.net/4263537/2091 Publication information: - It was published in 1988.
- Kahn and Cerf ran the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI).
- It was published by CNRI.
Take-Aways: - This paper gives the authors' ideas about a digital library. A lot has changed since then.
- They describe a spectrum of the contents of a library in terms of interactivity that ranges from programs to printed articles.
- They discuss some of the issues in connecting parts of a digital library together.
- They theorize that intelligent agents called knowbots will do all the work in a digital library.
- The authors sketch-out how to create a Knowbot Operating Environment (KNOE).
Questions: - How were his predictions right and wrong?
- Did the authors overestimate the power of AI?
- Will we ever have intelligent computer programs that move from one computer to another?
- Where does most of the data in a modern digital library fit on their spectrum?
- What is preventing the creation of large digital libraries like they imagine?
Readings 1, Paper 3Griffin, S. M. (1998). NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative: A Program Manager's Perspective. D-Lib Magazine (July/August). http://dx.doi.org/cnri.dlib/july98-griffin Publication information: - It was published in 1998.
- Griffin is a program director for the Digital Libraries Initiative.
- D-Lib Magazine is an online magazine.
Take-Aways: - Information retrieval had become a significant topic by 1998.
- The Digital Libraries Initiative is part of the Federal High Performance Computing and Communications Program.
- A digital library is not just a bunch of documents and a search algorithm.
- The author of this paper thinks that research into digital libraries needs more funding.
Questions: - How have things changed since 1998?
- Has web 2.0 bridged the gap between producers and consumers discussed in the conclusion?
- Do we have any international digital libraries?
Readings 1, Paper 4Wattenberg, F. (1998). A National Digital Library for Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Education. D-Lib Magazine, 4(9). http://dx.doi.org/cnri.dlib/october98-wattenbergPublication information: - It was published in 1998.
- Wattenberg is a program director for the Division of Undergraduate Education at the NSF.
- D-Lib Magazine is an online magazine.
Take-Aways: - The author talks about how the internet is useful for teaching math and science, but a digital library would be an improvement.
- The author lists several use cases of the digital library.
- The library will need a controlling body, collections of data, and services that use the library.
- Finding quality information is hard.
Questions: - How have libraries improved since 1998?
- What can be done to improve current digital libraries?
- He gives several examples of services that could use the library. What else could we do with it?
- Should the author have written it as hypertext?
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