Week 5 Readings

Data Compression - Wikipedia article

I know a bit about data compression because I download a lot of movies and tv shows and they come in .rar files that need to be extracted. My only knowledge, though, was that these files were 'rar-ed' to make them easier to transfer, but didn't really know how compression worked. My question would be when using, for instance, WinRar to extract compressed files, does it detect what kind of files it is extracting and then choose lossless or lossy automatically? Another thing I was surprised about was that data compression was being discussed/theorized about 50 years ago. The mention that 'the idea of data compression is deeply connected with statistical inference' makes it a lot easier to understand now.

Data Compression Basics

This article was quite interesting. The examples of RLE and the discussion of when actual compression will and will not work made the this whole concept easier to digest. I didn't really understand the discussion of entropy encoding and will probably have to give it another read.

Imaging Pittsburgh

This article did a great job of explaining in detail the whole process of creating and bringing to reality this imaging project. This project will only increase access to rare and/or hard to find images of our great city for the general public and for researchers. The article explained the rationale behind many of the decisions made regarding the project, such as what controlled vocabulary to use (LCSH), the use of different data bases for the different groups involved. It clearly laid out the problems and solutions when tackling large digitization projects with multiple organizations.

YouTube and Libraries

The one thing I took away from this article was the idea that using YouTube could be especially good for college students who, like myself, didn't have to take a freshman orientation class. I stumbled around Hillman in undergrad and was not aware of MANY resources that could have been useful for me. Using YouTube may also be helpful for training/instruction in public libraries of our growing aging population. I think that older people will become more and more savvy with computers but may need more training. It could also benefit their health if, for instance, a public library had YouTube instructions on how to search appropriately on MedlinePlus (a consumer health information site). This is just one example off the top of my head but there are countless other ways YouTube could be used to reach out to the aging population.