CS 6210 - Special Topics in CS: Digital Libraries and
Computing for the Humanities
A Crash Course in
Library and Info Science
Module 1                       Min-Yen KAN

Thoughts from last time
Differences between the digital library and the physical library
Database?
WWW?

The Memex
What issues did Bush bring up in the excerpt read last week?
Access
Annotation

Changes in curriculum
20-minute student paper presentations to feature in the last three classes.
Should focus on papers in your survey.
Surveys are individual; but presentations will be by group.
10% of your final grade, the balance coming from your final project grade
(from 50%
à 40%).
Balloting will be done for survey and presentation to ensure balanced subjects
Your suggestions to improve this procedure more than welcome!

Outline
Today:
A brief history of libraries
Raganathan’s Laws
The Information Seeking Process
Reference Interviews
Discussion on article
Next week:
Library Evaluation

The Library of Nineveh
Collection of over 1500 clay tablets
Had a standardized writing script, oven-baking process and tablet-making procedures.
Subjects:
Mostly
supernatural
Records of
King’s deeds

The Libraries of Alexandria
Perhaps about 600,000 books
___________
Translated pagan works
Collection building
Most famous for its (gradual) destruction

Aspects of ancient libraries
Record knowledge, but also
Enhance prestige
____________
______________
Class distinction
Archiving / Preservation

Library of Congress
For lawmaker’s
reference, but
also for the public
Some history:
Burned once by
the British in 1814
Bought Pres. Jefferson’s 6k+ collection as starting collection

Library of Congress
_______ gave the LoC a copy of each book published
Also forced the LoC to develop the MARC standard for interchange
120 M items, including
18 M books
39 M manuscripts
13 M photographs
4 M maps
.5 M pieces of music
.5 M motion pictures

New York Public Library
4 Research libraries
42 M items
2 M users
2 M items
accessed/year
85 Branch libraries
10 M items
12 M users
12 M items circulated

New York Public Library
118 M USD for research libraries
134 M USD for branch libraries
Organizational Structure

National Library Board
Established in 1996 from the National Library
7.6 M items; 6.4 M books
~28 M loans
27 M library visitors by 2 M users
Structure:
National Library
2 Regional Libraries
18 Community Libraries
43 Community Children’s Libraries

Aspects of the modern library

Objectives of the Library
Ranganathan (1957)
Books are for use
Every reader his book
Every book its reader
Save time of the reader
The library is a growing organism

Break time – Yay!
When we come back:
Did you read the required article?
Information Seeking
Reference Interviews
Discussion on article:
The Earth’s Largest Library

The Earth’s Largest Library
Amazon’s trick in cataloguing
User Interface Issues
Patron centered UI
Properties of the problem different from Amazon

References
Annotated Selected Bibliography of Full-Text Web-Based Articles Relating to Library Instruction http://library.morrisville.edu/sunyla/lic/fulltext.html

Next time
Finish up LIS and we’ll move onto Fundamentals of Information Retrieval.
Pick a topic for your survey paper by next class.  See the course website for details.
Readings:
Buckland, Michael (92) Redesigning Library Services: A Manifesto.
Supplemental: Nardi, Bonnie A. (99) Librarians: A Keystone Species, In Information Ecologies, MIT Press. RBR.
Supplemental: Bush, Vannevar (45) As we may think.  The Atlantic Monthly.