LIS 7410 - Digital Libraries
Spring 2009 -- Section 01
Homework Assignment 1


Case study: an image-oriented digital library

Pick a publicly-available image-oriented digital library that interests you, and demonstrate a general understanding of the system, placing it clearly in its context. You case study may include, but is not limit to the following subtasks: Digital library interfaces are usually very visual in nature, and your texts are expected to be adequately illustrated. There is no standard outline for a case study report since different systems will require different treatments, but general outlines might follow such patterns as:

Introduction to the system [content, purpose, size...] || Interface design [Initial screen, presentation of specific items...] || Search function [Initial resource discovery, in-depth or advanced search capacity...] || Strength and Weakness... || Conclusion, Summary, Comments.

or

Background to the system [sponsor, users, purpose...] || Interface design [Initial screen, presentation of specific items...] || Browsing function || Search mechanism || Comparision to similar digital libraries... || Conclusion, Summary, Comments.

You may find this paper - Search Features of Digital Libraries - useful when addressing search features of the digital library you have selected.

Your report might be at least 5 single-spaced written pages (excluding illustrations or printouts of sample pages), but no more than 20 pages in total (including illustrations and bibliography). You should focus on the quality of your work rather than on the number of pages. If you can demonstrate a good understanding of your digital library in fewer than 5 pages (which very often means you have excellent writing skills), that is perfectly fine. Please submit a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx, rather than .rtf or .wpd) or a PDF document.

Construct a simple Web page (named as 7410.html) on the SLIS FTP server (or any Web server you have access to) with the following content:

John Smith's LIS 7410 Homework (suppose you are John Smith):

Add a link from "Homework 1" to your MS-Word or PDF file. If you use the SLIS FTP server, your 7410.html page must be accessible from this URL: http://slis.lsu.edu/faculty/wu/7410/YOUR_USERID/7410.html (where "YOUR_USERID" is your real userid). Email the URL to the instructor.

For grading guidelines, please read this page.


Acknowledgement to Cavan McCarthy.

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Yejun Wu