LIS 7410 - Digital Libraries
Spring 2011 -- Section 01
Homework Assignment 1
Case study: an image-oriented digital library
Select a publicly-available image-oriented digital library that interests you, and demonstrate a general understanding
of the system, placing it clearly in its context. Here is a list of example digital libraries/repositories
for your reference, but you are encouraged to explore one that is not on that list.
Your case study may include, but is not limited to the following subtasks:
- describing its relevant features,
- evaluating its strong and weak points,
- testing its indexing and searching function using relevant queries,
- comparing and contrasting the selected system with similar digital libraries,
- discussing (and citing) published literature or descriptions, where possible.
Digital library interfaces are usually very visual in nature, and your texts are expected to be adequately illustrated.
There is no standard outline for a case study report since different systems will require different treatments, but
general outlines might follow such patterns as:
Introduction to the system [content, purpose, size...] || Interface design [Initial screen, presentation of specific
items...] || Search function [Initial resource discovery, in-depth or advanced search capacity...] || Strength and
Weakness... || Conclusion, Summary, Comments.
or
Background to the system [sponsor, users, purpose...] || Interface design [Initial screen, presentation of
specific items...] || Browsing function || Search mechanism || Comparision to similar digital libraries... ||
Conclusion, Summary, Comments.
You may find this paper - Search Features of
Digital Libraries - useful when addressing search features of the digital library you have selected.
Your report might be at least 5 single-spaced written pages (excluding illustrations or printouts of sample pages),
but no more than 20 pages in total (including illustrations and bibliography). You should focus on the quality of
your work rather than on the number of pages. If you can demonstrate a good understanding of your digital library
in fewer than 5 pages (which very often means you have excellent writing skills), that is perfectly fine.
Please submit a MS-Word document (.doc, .docx, or .rtf rather than .wpd), a PDF document, or an HTML document.
Construct a simple Web page (named as 7410.html) on the SLIS Web server (or any Web server you have access to)
with the following content:
John Smith's LIS 7410 Homework (suppose you are John Smith):
- Homework 1
- Homework 2
- Homework 3
- Homework 4
- Project paper
Add a link from "Homework 1" to your MS-Word or PDF file. If you use the SLIS Web server, your 7410.html
page must be accessible from this URL:
http://classes.slis.lsu.edu/wu/7410/sp11/your_folder/7410.html (where "your_folder" is your first initial followed by
your last name, all in lower case, such as jsmith for John Smith).
Here is a tutorial
on using FileZilla to upload your files to the SLIS Web server. Note that you need to type "sftp://classes.slis.lsu.edu" in the host box of FileZilla. Please Email the URL to the instructor (you need to do this only once).
For grading guidelines, please read this page.
Acknowledgement to Cavan McCarthy.
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Yejun Wu