Wow! This was a hard but interesting assignment. I had several false starts as I am like a bull in a china shop when it comes to working with Excel spread sheets. I had to redo my project a couple of times due to a misplaced column or two, or missing a key function in the instruction. Kudos to Phil White and his video tutorials I don't think I could have gotten through the assignment without them. One of the things that took a bit of time was editing all the data. Once or twice I took out something I wanted to keep and had to go back to square one. Like I said I stink at spread sheets. For the assignment I picked Scotland County which is located in the south eastern part of North Carolina and I know from personal experience is an economically depressed area. One factor I was curious about was the education level of the population of Scotland County. 

Using the Census data and the other tools provided for in the assignment I located the two libraries that are in Scotland County and was able to create an area demographic table of percentages of education level within the county. So how could this information be useful to the local public libraries? For one thing based on the education levels a library could tailor its services to help with school work for their patrons and providing materials to prepare patrons for higher education. The local libraries could also assist in providing seminars on how to apply for college, how to find scholarships, grants, and loans, as well as computer training.  

Here are some of the statistics that one can find from the interactive map:

·        Overall for each of the Census locations High School level education or higher was less than 49% for those ages 18-24.

·        On average only around 8% of the population for Scotland County have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher.

·        On average around 80% of the population of age range 25 and up have at least a high school degree.

GIS Project

I have spent most of the weekend when I was not taking care of family, job, and errands to work on the GIS project. I am not sure how I am going to compile all of the data but this stuff is just cool! Then again, I am a bit of a research geek.

Kim

Ah well...

Not much to talk about this week. I am working on resubmitting the Wordpress project and trying to catch up on discussions and complete the GIS project. I still cannot get the Wordpress.org to work. One problem I did solve is that since my computer at home died a couple of weeks ago I have been staying late after hours at the law library to do my assignments. I discovered that during all this time the Law School has a firewall that does not allow for php functions to load. Wish I had known that sooner. I am now working on a borrowed laptop until I can build a new computer. (Part of which is finding the funds to do so.) I have made some progress now that I am working on a machine without the particular firewall issue. However, I still cannot get the content to load. I will appreciate any help in that area. I am using  MySql  in the byethost. While the content from Wordpress.com did import I just cannot figure out how to get it to load so I can see the pages.

Later,

Kim

Weary of WordPress

Where to begin in regards the faux library WordPress assignment...well, it was a bear. At this late hour a day before the assignment is due to be turned in I am about finished. I do not think I will have covered all the requirements but I am at least happy with the look of the final product. Some of you might be put off by the topic but I am a long time student of military history as anyone knows who took LIS 620 with me.

I spent a huge amount of time trying to get things to work using the byethost tools. I was writing HTML code and finally in frustration I installed Dreamweaver on my computer to help me get things done faster. I was discussing the issue with my co-worker that oversees our law library blog page and sets up our lib-guides.She wondered why I did not just go directly into WordPress.com and create the site that way. She did not see the value of byethost and at this point and time neither do I. I never could get most of the tools to function in any meaningful way. Once I shifted my focus to working directly in WordPress.com things started to come together rapidly and I was finally making substantial progress. Wish I had talked to my co-worker about this project about a week ago instead of today. Frankly, I was ready to take an incomplete in the class thinking I had finally met a technical hurdle I could not get my mind around. That was probably lack of sleep talking but that is another story.

I had taken LIS 635 over the summer and in that class we had to do a detailed website with a large amount of content and multiple pages. We were told to use Google Sites to create the webpage. That experience was far more rewarding. While Google Sites has its limits it is more intuitive and I was able to design a website rich in content in half the time I have spent doing the WordPress assignment. However, WordPress is ubiquitous within all types of libraries. Perhaps that is the point. As future librarians we have to be aware of a lot of the processes that go into creating all the functions of a library. Byethost on the other hand can byet me!  I do not ever want to mess with it again. Your mileage may vary. Getting some rest now...

Kind Regards,

Kim

When I Finish the MLIS...

...I plan to go somewhere for a week where I do not have computer access, there is beer, a quiet beach, and a kayak. 

 

Ah well, two years to go. 

It Helps to Read the Fine Print: Or, read all of the Syllabus carefully

This is one of those face palm moments.  I have spent any spare time that I have working on the current assignment in LIS 631. This is that assignment where we go and create a faux library website and blog using WordPress. I have spent many, many, many hours pouring over tutorials, reading about HTML tagging, looking at youtube how to presentations, you get the idea. My frustration level is rising and I have yet to actually begin creating the site. I was all set and was beginning to understand where and how to use all the tags, I had numerous bookmarks to refer back to if I got in a jam. I decided to go back to the Assignments link in Blackboard to make sure I had all my bases covered. I start reading the instructions as I had dozens of times. Then I saw it. 

Our goal is to create a small scale website that incorporates several social software and interactive features with WP without using any tutorials or extra help.

Nuff said