LSU/SLIS LIS 7008 (Fall 2010, Section 01): Syllabus

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Note: the average life of a link on the Web is about 100 days. If any link to a reading is broken, please email me ASAP. Thanks.

Session 1 (Aug 24): Computers

Readings

• Required
  • Shelly et al., Chapter 4: "The Components of the System Unit"
  • Shelly et al., Chapter 7: "Storage"
• Recommended
  • How much information?

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.
• Announcements will be posted under the News Forum and Session 1 on Moodle. Since this is the first week of the semester, we have many course-related issues to talk about. Please read those announcements and reply when necessary. If you have any question, please do not hesitate to post on Moodle or email me.
  
• An important reminder - I will use your LSU email address to contact you. I cannot use your non-LSU email addresses because they cannot be listed on Moodle. If you do not read emails from your LSU email account very often, it is your responsibility to forward emails from your LSU account to your non-LSU account.

Homework

• Homework 1 (due before next class session)

Project Activity

• Read the Project page, and start to look for a project client. Introduce yourself to the class (on Moodle) so that you can find team members whose skills complement yours.
• I will provide a couple of clients (who need a Website).

Useful Resources

• FileZilla FTP Client, also available from your LSU PAWS account (look under "Tigerware").
• A Quick Tutorial on Using FileZilla to Transfer Files our SLIS Server

  More FileZilla Tutorials:

• FileZilla tutorial on Youtube (you can skip the first part of the video, which is about the installation of FileZilla.)
• FileZilla conceptual tutorial (neat!)
• FileZilla conceptual tutorial (brief!)
• FileZilla graphic turorial (the middle part of the demonstration is customized to the FTP server of tutor.velnet.org.uk, which does not apply to our SLIS server classes.slis.lsu.edu, but it allows you to see how drag-and-drop is used to move files from a local machine to a remote machine.)

Session 2 (Aug 31): Networking, FTP, Simple HTML

Readings

• Required
  • Shelly et al., Chapter 2: "The Internet and the World Wide Web"
  • Shelly et al., Chapter 9: "Communications and Networks"
  • Huddleston: Chapter 1 (HTML and XHTML), Chapter 2 (HMTL Basics), Chapter 19 (Publishing Your Website) [Note: skim Chapter 1 and Chapter 19, but read Chapter 2.]
• Recommended
  • Introduction to HTML

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.

Homework

• Homework 2 (due before next class session)

Project Activity

• Read everybody's self-introductions on Moodle, start to form teams based on interest, skills, and geographic location.
• Start to find a client for your team. See more on the Project page.
• Distribute the faculty-client agreement, students-client agreement, and the project evaluation form.

Useful Resources

• Network tools: DNS lookup, reverse DNS lookup, traceroute, etc.
• HTML Colors [Another resource at Webmonkey]

Session 3 (Sept 7): Structured Documents (HTML and XML)

Readings

• Required
  • Huddleston: Chapter 3 (Creating Hyperlinks), Chapter 4 (Images), Chapter 5 (Tables), Chapter 6 (Lists), Chapter 9 (Other CSS Selectors) [Note: at least scan through these chapters before class; you will refer to them afterwards for your homework.]
  • Dave Raggett, Getting Started with HTML (read for detail, and then skim "Advanced HTML" and "Adding a Touch of Style" at the top of the page.)
  • Eric Ray, Learning XML (Chapter 1, password distributed on Moodle).
• Recommended
• What do you think? [Publicis] [The Zimmerman Agency] [Text 100 Public Relations]
• What do you think? [RISD] [MIT Media Lab] [Stanford's Media X] [FIT]

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.

Homework

• Homework 3 (due before next class session)

Project Activity

• Find a client for your team. Only one client is needed for one project team. If your team does not have any client yet, find one by talking to people (such as your colleagues, the instructor, CCELL), visiting non-profit organizations in your community, or soliciting client information from the SLIS mailing list. If your team has more than two clients, pick the one that best meets the goal of the project.

Useful Resources

• Introduction to XML (go through XML tutorial, from XML Introduction through XML in Real Life by browsing the taxonomy on the left side of the page.)
• What is a structured document?
• Why use structured documents?
• HTML Basic, Advanced, and Examples
• HTML Cheat Sheet
• Beginner's Guide to HTML
• Text alignment: [The Wonderful <DIV> Tag Makes Markup Easier]
• Typefaces designed for the screen
• So, You Want A Table, Huh?
• Fun with tables! [Image Maps]
• CSS
  • Introduction to CSS
  • CSS Property Index
    
  • Changing how links look with CSS
• CSS: Exercise (Borrowed from Jimmy Lin)
  • CSS Demo
  • Starting Point
  • Final Product
• XML and XSLT: Demo

  • XML Poem Example (Borrowed from Dr. Doug Oard)

  • MathML demo

  • More XML examples

• XML and XSLT
  • Introduction to XML
  • A Technical Introduction to XML
  • XML in 10 points
  • Understanding XSLT
  • What is XSLT?

Session 4 (Sept 14): Quiz, Multimedia

Readings

• Shelly et al., Chapter 6: "Output Device"
• Introduction to Streaming Media, Chapter 2 (Media Production) (also available here in PDF)
• Huddleston's 2005 version has Chapter 13 "Adding Multimedia on Your Page" which is not included in the 2008 version. I will try to post a copy on Moodle.

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.
• The quiz will be posted on Moodle. Email your quiz to me as an attachment (preferably in RTF, but PDF, MS-Word, and TXT are all acceptable).

Homework

• Homework 4 (due before next class session.)

Project Activity

• Find a client if your team has not got one. Prepare the Collaboration Planning Guide.

Useful Resources

• SMIL demo
• Adding Sounds
• Embedding QuickTime
• How do analog to digital convertors work?
• Web Page Design: GIF vs. JPEG
• When and how to use internet image formats

Session 5 (Sept 21): Relational Databases

Readings

• Required:
  • Shelly et al., Chapter 10: "Database Management"
  • Brooks, Frederick P., "The Mythical Man Month", Chapter 2 (online book available from LSU Library Catalog or from here)
• Recommended:
  • Databases from scratch (all three parts)
  • The Deep Web: Surfacing Hidden Value

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.
• Sample Database (RideFinder): [mydb.mdb in Access 2000] [mydb2007.accdb in Access 2007]

Homework

• Homework 5 (due before next class session)

Project Activity

• Find a client if your team has not got one. Discuss copyright and information ethics issues that can emerge when working with your client.

Useful Resources

• Tutorials for MS-Office, OpenOffice, PHP/MySQL/Perl: inpics.net

• MS-Access 2007 Tutorial
  • Access 2007 Tutorial (.Doc) [mirror]
  • Access 2007 In Pictures (I used this one before)
  • Introduction to Access 2007

• MS-Access 2000/2003 Tutorial
  • Access 2000 Tutorial by Florida Gulf Coast University
  • Access 2000 Tutorial by Bay School Public Schools
  • Access 2000 Tutorial by jfuller EDUCATIONAL
  • Access 2000 Tutorial by Penn State University

• SQL Tutorial
  • Issue SQL queries here!
  • Try your hand at SQL queries...
  • SQL tutorial
  • SQLCourse - Interactive Online SQL Training for Beginners

Session 6 (Sept 28): Programming (Javascript)

Readings

• Shelly et al., Chapter 3: "Application Software"
• Shelly et al., Chapter 13: "Programming"
• Huddleston: Chapter 11 (Adding Forms), Chapter 12 (Javascript)

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.

Homework

• Homework 6 (due before next class session)

Project Activity

• Find a client if your team has not got one.
• Discuss team collaboration issues and the man-month mythical theory.
• Distribute the team member self-evaluation and cross-evaluation form.

Useful Resources

• Programming
  • The Best Computer Language Guide

• Javascript
  • Javascript Talk
  • JavaScript demo: dinner
  • JavaScript demo: dessert
  • JavaScript demo: tasty candy
  • JavaScript demo: Search tool selector: shorthand version or full version (with semicolons and complete braces)
  • JavaScript demo: Hello World
  • JavaScript demo: Summation calculator
  • JavaScript form values
  • JavaScript events
  • The JavaScript Building Blocks: Data Types, Literals, and Variables
  • WebMonkey: JavaScript tutorial
  • Another JavaScript tutorial
  • JavaScript Kit
  • The Classic Image Rollover
  • A Wizard for Popup Windows

Session 7 (Oct 5): Web-based Integration (PHP); Mid-term Review

Readings

• Required
  • PHP Manual, Section I, Getting Started
  • AskTOG, First Principles of Interaction Design
• Recommended
  • PHP + MySQL Quick Tutorial for Advanced LIS7008 Students
  • Programming via PHP (online book)
  • Tim O'Reilly's talk at NPR on Web 2.0

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.
• Read Javascript Talk. This may help you apply Javascript into your project design.

Project Activity

• If anybody still has not joined a team yet, please contact me ASAP. Every team will discuss their project plan next week.
• If any team still has not got a client, pleast contact me ASAP.

Useful Resources

• PHP Tutorials
  • PHP Sample Codes
  • Simple PHP & MySQL Tutorials
• Web forms
  • Introduction to Databases for the Web
  • HTML Forms and Input

Session 8 (Oct 12): Mid-term Exam; Brief Project Discussion

Notes

• Mid-term exam will be posted on Moodle before 9AM today. Due: 10/14 Th 11:59PM. (Grades due 10/19 Tu 9AM). We will not coordinate a specific time for this, so please find a 2-hour time slot to work on it. Submit your exam as an email attachment.

Project Activity

• Each project team: please discuss your project plan on Moodle. Discussion Due: 10/19 Tu 9AM. You must have a client and a project manager now, and you must have started to work on your project now.
• Collaboration Planning Guide and Student-Client Agreement Due: 10/19 Tu 9AM. Project managers please submit your team's Collaboration Planning Guide and the Student-Client Agreement as an email attachement, fax, or hard copy.
• Solicit information needs from your client, have your client make the initial requirements for the Website, collect information content.

Session 9 (Oct 19): Computer-mediated Communication

Readings (Required)

• Coffman, Steve, We'll Take It from Here: Further Developments We'd Like to See in Virtual Reference Software, Information Technology & Libraries 20(3), 149-153, September 2001.

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.

Project Activity

• Solicit information needs from the client, have your client make the initial requirements for the Website, collect information content.
• Collect the faculty-client agreement, students-client agreement.

Useful Resources

• Distance Education and Virutal Reference: Where Are We Headed?
• Design Principles for Online Communities (by Peter Kollock)
• Design Strategies of Successful Communities
• Online Community Toolkit

Session 10 (Oct 26): Human-Computer Interaction

Readings (Required)

• Shneiderman, Ben, Designing the User Interface: Strategies for effective human-computer interaction, 3rd ed. (Addison-Wesley, 2005), Chapter 1 Electronically Reserved Copy (Password distributed on Moodle)
• You may want to refer to Huddleston's text for your project. Read the chapters you have not read.

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.
• Please read Javascript Talk (in Session 6) if you have not read it.

Project Activity

• Reflect how the man-month mythical theory works in your team.
• Design the information structure of the Website, build a rapid prototype with the information you have already collected.

Useful Resources

• The 10 most violated homepage design guidelines
• First principles of interaction design
• Top 10 mistakes in Web design
• Ten most wanted design bugs

Session 11 (Nov 2): Web Characterization

Readings (Required)

• Edward T. O'Neill, Brian F. Lavoie and Rick Bennett, Trends in the Evolution of the Public Web, D-Lib Magazine, vol 9, no. 4, April 2003

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.

Project Activity

• Build a rapid prototype Website, solicit feedback from the client, revise your design or collect more information.
• Reflect how copyright and information ethics issues are involved when working with a real organization.

Session 12 (Nov 9): Information Retrieval and Search

Readings

• Required:
  • Ricardo Baeza-Yates and Berthier Ribeiro-Neto, Modern Information Retrieval, Addison Wesley Longman, 1999, Chapter 1 (Read up through Section 1.4)
• Recommended:
  • Power Searching for Anyone (Browse to get an idea of what modern search engines can do)
  • Search features Chart
  • The Seven Ages of Information Retrieval
  • What Do People Want from Information Retrieval?

Notes

• Lecture slides with detailed notes will be posted on Moodle.

Project Activity

• Solicit feedback from the client and the users, revise your design, fix bugs, or collect more information.
• Discuss with your client where to host the Website, and start to test your prototype Website on the client's server.

Useful Resources