Competency H

Demonstrate proficiency in the use of current information and communication technologies, and other related technologies, as they affect the resources and uses of libraries and other types of information providing entities

Information, and especially information retrieval, is moving from the physical realm into the digital realm. This makes the information more accessible to more people, but with this new accessibility comes a slew of new technologies that information professionals need to be familiar with. As technology keeps advancing, libraries and archives need to stay up with the trends if they are going to continue to be viable resources. Web-accessible databases, ebooks, digital images, and virtual reference interactions over instant messaging, e-mail, or social networking sites are only some of the ways technology has impacted information professions.

Electronic databases have been around since before the World Wide Web. Originally, they were only accessible through special terminals and only searchable with special knowledge. Nowadays most databases are accessible from any computer with an internet connection, and allow natural language searching. Library Web pages often provide access to these databases, but most are still created and maintained by third-party vendors. Information professionals need to be aware of what databases are out there and the kind of information the databases provide. Even though most database searches will be done by patrons, librarians still need to be familiar with the interface to be able to provide help when it's needed, and they need to be able to direct patrons to the appropriate databases for their needs.

Ebooks provide a way to bring the library to the patron. Most are accessible through the regular library catalog, or through dedicated ebook providers, such as Safari Books Online or Net Library. Ebooks can then be viewed online, or can be "checked out" and downloaded to the patron's computer. Like regular library books, the download will only be available for a limited amount of time. On most systems, when an ebook is in use, it cannot be viewed or downloaded by anyone else. If a library decides to offer this service, it will need to decide which ebook provider to partner with, as well as which titles it will make available in electronic form. Librarians will also need to be familiar with the ebook reader's interface in order to answer questions when they arise.

Digital images are a way to make image collections available over the internet. This not only makes the collection accessible to a much wide audience, it protects the physical images by limiting their use. Photographs and other media can easily be damaged by improper handling, and are vulnerable to theft. However, a library or archive needs to take the cost of digitizing into account; depending on the size of the collection and the desired image quality, the cost can run from very reasonable to prohibitively expensive. Once the digitizing is done, the institution must address the question of how to make the collection available. One way is to create metadata for the images and to store them in a text-searchable database, but this takes additional time and money to create.

Virtual reference interactions mean that patrons can get assistance without having to come to the library in person. To make this work, the librarian needs a working knowledge of the instant messaging or social networking software the library decides to use. Libraries may designate a few people as virtual reference librarians, or all librarians might take a turn, but the virtual librarians would need to be trained on the interface and also in how to interact with patrons through the medium of text.

Library Web sites can bring the library and its collection out of the physical library and into the patrons' homes. This can increase library use by making it easier to search the catalog and the databases, request items, and communicate with the librarians. But before the information can be available, it needs to be in a format that can be displayed in a Web browser. There are a number of ways this can be accomplished, depending on the size and type of collection and the functionality desired.

The first piece of evidence is the XQUERY and resulting HTML page that I wrote for one of my information technology classes. XML is one technology that is useful for storing data in the form of records, such as for a library catalog. The XQUERY pulls certain elements of data from certain records and returns them in a specified format, in this case as an HTML page. Which records the XQUERY finds can be predetermined, as it is here, or determined by values entered into a Web form.

This particular XQUERY has a mistake that I didn't catch until I was polishing up the HTML. The "id" attribute should not be repeated with the same value within a page, and that's exactly what this XQUERY is set to do with both the "div" and "span" elements. What I should have done is use the "class" attribute instead.

The second piece of evidence is the XSQL we used to pull information from the database my group created in my database design class. SQL is another way data can be stored in the form of records. One way to display the data in an understandable format is by using XSQL and XSL. These create an interface that allows the database to be accessed through the Web. Using Web forms, we created pages that added and deleted data, as well as pages that would display certain data sets depending on the values entered by the user. We divided the pages up evenly among the group members, and helped each other with troubleshooting and proofing. SQL is a very powerful and versatile database language, but is not straightforward to use and requires a lot of specialized knowledge.