RA No.4

Intellectual property rights and copyright issues in the context of electronic information
By A. Lakshmana Moorthy and CR Karisiddappa
URL Source: http://drtc.isibang.ac.in:8080/xmlui/handle/1849/359


Abstract:

It discussed about intellectual property rights and copyrights in general. It also tells about the provisions of Indian copyright act and about the exceptions of copyright infringement. It gives an account of how copyright acts upon electronic information and what are the problems involved in copyright protection of electronic information and how to give copyright protections to databases, etc.

Three things I learned from it:

1. Copyright protects forms of expression of ideas only, not the ideas themselves.
2. There are disparities in the Intellectual Property Right Laws of different countries that need harmonization or unification to facilitate transborder flow of information and trading.
3. The Intellectual Property Rights and the Copyright Laws should help in enhancing and not preventing the access and usage of electronic information.


Implications:

In our generation today in terms of technological advancement, the present copyright laws will not be able to prevent piracy or infringement of rights. Laws should be rigid to assure the creators, prevent piracy and plagiarism and encourage use. We also as “caretaker of information”” should have the kind of fair dealing in adhering to the Intellectual Property and Copyright Law.

RA No. 3

Library 2.0 Theory: Web 20. and its implications for libraries
By: Jack M. Maness
URL Source: www.webology.ir/2006/v3n2/a25.html

Abstract:

This article posits a definition and theory for “Library 2.0”. It suggests that recent thinking describing the changing Web as “Web 2.0” will have substantial implications for libraries and recognizes that while these implications keep very close to the history and mission of libraries, they still necessitate a new paradigm for librarianship. The paper applies the theory and definition to the practice of librarianship, specifically addressing how Web 2.0 technologies such as synchronous messaging and streaming media, blogs, wikis, social networks, tagging, RSS feeds and mashups might intimate changes in how libraries provide access to their collections and user support for that access.

Three things I learned from my reading assignment:

1. Nothing is constant. Everything is changing and revolving specially in terms of information advancement.
2. We should be careful on the things that we would be adding to our blog collection development system. It should only be reliable and authoritative information.
3. We should understand and be critical in information we would collect for our collection development system.

Implications:

Web 2.0 is a vast answer to our demands in terms of learning innovations. But as information professional we should know how to manipulate it properly. Like what the article has said, we should be critical in choosing information. Web 2.0 is very important because we need this innovation to make our work easier and to give our users more access to information. But in a world where no information is inherently authoritative and valid, we still need to apply our critical thinking skills for information literacy are paramount to all other forms of learning.

RA No.2

Computer Ethics? Right vs. Wrong
Written by Rod Hames
URL Source: http:/www.ollnet.com/school/faculty/DonRoquel/article3.htm


Ethics is more than just the golden rule. It is a principle of what is right and wrong. Part of the problem is technology has outpaced society’s ability to clearly label right from wrong. While many issues really only require someone to apply their common sense some issues require more deeper thought and analysis before determining right from wrong. It is our responsibility to give thought to the wise and responsible use of technology. It is a simple question of right and wrong! With the knowledge and ability to use a computer comes responsibility. The skills you are learning will one day provide advantages over someone who doesn’t know as much. However remember that your choices of right and wrong affect more people than just yourself. It is up to you to use computers in a way that doesn’t harm others.


Three things I learned from my reading assignment:

1. Follow the golden rule, “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others do unto you.”
2. Respect begets respect. Respect others privacy
3. Be a responsible user of technology.


Implications:

Computer ethics should be properly imposed to everyone specifically today that we are now in the vast world of computer technologies .This article has just reminded us to be careful and be sensitive enough in using computer and other technological gadget advancement. Let us always be reminded by the golden rule and the other cyber ethics as they call it. But I still believe that no matter how many rules and standards we set in using computer…true implementation stills lies on our hand as users. So let us all be a GOOD & RESPONDIBLE END-USERS!

RA No.1

Human-computer information retrieval techniques
From wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Exact URL Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human%E2%80%93computer_information_retrieval

Human-computer information retrieval (HCIR) is the study of information retrieval techniques that bring human intelligence in to the search process. The fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and information retrieval (IR) have both developed innovative techniques to address the challenge of navigating complex information spaces, but their insights have often failed to cross disciplinary borders.

The techniques associated with HCIR emphasize representations of information that use human intelligence to lead the user to relevant results. These techniques also strive to allow users to explore and digest the dataset without penalty, without expending unnecessary cost of time, mouse clicks or context shift.

Faceted search enables users to navigate information hierarchically going from a category to its subcategories but choosing the order in which the categories are presented. This contrast with traditional taxonomies in which the hierarchy of categories is fixed and unchanging. It shows available categories categories but does not require them to browse through a hierarchy that may not precisely suit their needs or way of thinking .

Relevance feedback allows users to guide an IR system by indicating whether particular results are more or less relevant.

Summarization here is intended to encompass any means of aggregating or compressing the query results into a more human consumable form.

Clustering analyzes a set of documents by grouping similar or co-occurring documents or terms. It allows results to be partitioned into groups of related documents.

Visual representation of data is also considered a key aspect of HCIR. The representation of summarization or analytics may be displayed as tables, charts or summaries of aggregated data. Other kinds of information visualization that allow users access to summary views of search results include tag clouds and treemapping.


Three things I learned from it:

I had learned that there are so many ways in retrieving information. I never thought it has a very a very complex ways in navigating information such as this in HCIR.
I had also learned that if you would want almost exact information for your research you have to be precise in your terminologies/taxonomy . Avoid unnecessary words or delimit the information that you will type on the search engine.
I had also learned that HCIR is very important in academic research and industry practice. It helps them to navigate or retrieve information in the fastest and accurate way possible through the different techniques cited above.

Application/Implication of the new things I learned to my work/ to me as a person :

Honestly I am not a fan of technologies but being a librarian I have to learn the new trends in keeping updated in information science. We librarians should be the pioneer in information gathering because we are the first one being asked in the institution we worked with. This information has given me a different perspective in retrieving information. It opens my mind to a different new ways of retrieving and gathering data. With all honesty I am not familiar with all the words cited above though I tried to understand it. And somehow I get a little glimpse of it. Its all about information retrieval and this has been a challenge to me to discover more about it. I know there’s a lot more to learn and I am looking forward to that.