CS6604 DL, Fall 1997 --- News / Announcements

971203@2am:

• See the project page for the most current information about presentations. The listing is in date/time order, and gives durations for talks.
• We will have the same setup that was used once in class for PC projection, since it gives relatively high resolution.
• The instructor must be provided with a URL or other electronic copy for each presentation.
• Since there is not time for questions during presentations, the listserv and HyperNews pages will serve that role. Please, each group presenting, make an entry below my entry
  • 6. Discussions of final presentations
  under HyperNews so we can begin a discussion tree about projects.
• If you want to swap your time with another person, or have other concerns about the schedule, please contact the instructor as soon as possible. The current schedule is the best compromise that seemed feasible, but it is open for revision.

971201@1pm:

• Dec. 2 is the final lecture. The rest of the term will deal with projects. Regarding those, please check the project-people page and send corrections to me at your earliest convenience. I'd like to be sure everyone is mentioned, each project is covered with all participants, that the email addresses are correct, and to add in more URLs to information already available on the projects. I know some of you are missing, so please fill this in!
• Please also advise what you need for your project presentation beyond what is normally in the classroom (the Mac-based projection system I use, and a regular overhead projector). I can't promise too much unless I find out soon. We probably could bring in the PC system used a few weeks ago. though.
• Presentations will be this Thur and next Tuesday, since next Tuesday is our last class and there are many different topics to cover. Please note that I WILL BE MORE LENIENT IN GRADING PRESENTATIONS GIVEN THIS THURSDAY, so that is actually a good slot to select. I need volunteers for who will present when. Here is the algorithm for my assigning times:
  • When you provide your preferences, give me a ranking in descending order of what you'd like, from the following 4 choices: 1. early Thur, 2. late Thur, 3. early next Tue, 4. late next Tue. I'll try to accomodate the most people as best as possible, on a first come first best served basis.
  • If I do not hear from a group by 5pm on Tue Dec. 2 I will assign them an arbitrary slot. That probably means the earliest slot, e.g., first on Thur Dec. 4 (choice 1).
  • I'll send mail out late Tue. Dec. 2 indicating when people will present.
  • In terms of scheduling, single person groups will get 5 minutes, 2 person groups 7-8 minutes, and larger groups 10-11 minutes. We will start promptly at 2pm and finish 3:20. There will be minimal time to shift from one group to the next, so do any special setup beforehand. Those with elaborate setup are encouraged to be the first group to present.

971112@6pm:

• There is no final.
• All work for the course is due by 11:59PM 12/14/97.
• Remaining quizzes should be up soon.
• Project grading instructions are online.
• Plans are for PC-based demos on Tue Nov. 18. Hopefully we can meet in McB 116 on Nov. 20 for hands-on work with digital library systems.
• Those interested in ISI's citation databases can contact the instructor to experiment.

971020@5pm:

• Please attend parts of the IBM Renaissance meetings. See the detailed agenda
• Please reformulate and ask questions for the Tuesday 10/21 class panel, and add to the HyperNews discussion
• Please prepare a report by Tuesday Oct. 28 of progress and plans regarding your project activities.

970909@7pm:

• The first set of quizzes is online, accessible from the class home page; just follow the link titled "Take a quiz." The unit you need to choose is "Test1," and it contains two sets of quizzes: a set for chapter 1, and a set for chapter 8. You only need to pass one quiz from each set; if you take the first and do not pass, you may try again with the next quiz in the set. You get three attempts to pass in each set. You will start with the quiz entitled "Chapter1-A" (the 'A' means it is the first in the set) and as soon as you pass a chapter 1 quiz, you will be told you can move on to chapter 8. If you have any problems accessing the system (password problems, scoring problems, etc.) please contact the GTA (vanmetre@csgrad.cs.vt.edu) who can help you. You must have a password to access the system; you can request one from the CS 6604 home page, and it will be emailed to you. To request a password, you must supply some information about yourself (name, SS#, email address...) and it must match the information in the system exactly. If the system says it "doesn't know who you are" when you request a password, please send the GTA email for assistance.
• To learn about Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations read the new D-Lib Magazine draft article.
• There is now a course page on Project Gutenberg.
• Everyone should have the text, which was available under CS6604 in all local bookstores.
• Paul Metz, Principal Bibliographer, University Libraries, deals wit acquisition issues. See some early discussion.
• Oct. 21 will be a day of activities about digital libraries, culminating with a keynote address by Bob Heterick, President of Educom. There will be talks and demonstrations about usability of interfaces, and briefings by IBM and other universities on digital library activities.
• Thursday, September 11, 4pm, Haymarket Theatre (Squires Student Center) is when Sherry Turkle, author of Life on the Screen: Identify in the Age of the Internet, will speak on that topic at the ninth annual Mullins Lecture in Social Studies of Science and Technology.
• See about University Libraries services: general, general reference resources, full-text electronic journals.

970904@2pm:

• The Tech Bookstore, University Bookstore, and Volume II all have received additional shipments of our textbook, so there should be ample copies.
• You should try to get your QUIZIT password. The first quiz should be available next week, covering chapters 1 and 8 in the text. See the "Password request" link on the course home page.
• All accounts requested for video have been added. In some cases a previous account existed, so no new one was needed: Bharadwaja, Habib, Harley, Krouchinkin, Liu, Zhang.

970827@7pm:

• Now that the Tech Bookstore's 15 copies of our text are sold out, the University Bookstore and Volume II will each have 12-13 copies in by late Thur. 8/28 or early Fri. 8/29, and then each have 7-8 more available by Saturday. The Tech Bookstore also will get 20 more copies, in about a week.
• The CS6604 class will begin in McB 218 on 8/28 at 2pm as usual, but after a while will split up into (4) groups, so that more in-depth discussion can take place about group projects. So, please think a little about the type of term project you want to pursue.

970826@1pm:

• Our regular meetings are in McB218, Tue/Thur 2 - 3:15pm. For the first week only we will be joined by Honors 3004 students, who are also studying Digital Libraries, and who will help on CS6604 class projects.
• Please use the proxy system for your WWW browser. Select Options, Network Preferences, Proxies. Click auto configuration, and put the URL http://www.proxy.vt.edu/proxyconf? in the box below the auto configuration button.