Week 3 Reading Notes (Unit 3)

Lesk and Arms Text
Both of these readings discussed mark-up languages, like HTML and XML, as well as ASCII code. In this discussion, the main focus was digital documents or files. More specifically, how are digital copies of book and other materials put into a digital format for digital collection purposes. Some are PDF, scanned copies. Chapter 3 of the Lesk text discusses the benefits of using one system, like PDF, over another, like SGML. One preserves the authors actual image while the other gives the copier more flexibility.

Identifiers and Their Role In Networked
Information Applications
I enjoyed reading this article because it, like many others, discusses the unreliable nature of URLs. And it introduced me to URNs, which I really hadn't known much about until now. this would have been good to read before this week 2 exercises as it would have given me a better understanding of what groups like the Internet Engineering Task Force are doing to adapt the system of handles to the digital environment. Assigning URNs to more than one URL could be another way handles are applied to digital objects. I am still trying to figure out what really constitutes a handle in the digital world. To take an example from the article, a book's ISBN is an identifier, essentially something standardized used to retrieve an object. However, unlike a URL, it is closer to a true handle. By true handle, I mean something interoperable that is valid regardless of the object's location. Identifiers do not relate to a location, but directly to an object.

Overall, I think this was the most informative reading of the week. I gained the best understanding thus far of what is being and has been developed in the way of identifier systems to maintain some level of standardization for retrieving digital objects.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI®) System
Norman Paskin
I found this article was not as comprehensive as the previous identifier article and covering a lot of the same material article. Perhaps this is because it focused on one particular identifier system and the development of that infrastructure.