Final Project: http://alidiaz.com/753/html/Index.html

Everyone has done an amazing job!

Here is my facebook review.

http://alidiaz.com/753/html/webtool_facebook.html

inspired by john’s index, i made a simple one for my work. here is my index and my exercises!
http://alidiaz.com/753/Index.html

Posting #2
There is a continuous need or rather focus for reinvention, collaboration, and innovation in the for-profit world. I am glad our profession is starting to pick up on these focuses. The for-profit world aims to make a profitable product while the non-profit aims for social impact. In the effort to talk about libraries as a “business”, social impact should be our profit. And, what has had the most impact in society in the last decade? Technology. It only makes sense to embrace technology and use it for our professional goals and to meet our values. I think its smart and exciting to see more job listings requiring technological skills. It means that we are responding to our ever-changing communities. Also, I appreciate that institutions, like the Smithsonian, are investing in employees by providing internal education for innovative projects.
As Michael stated in his article, LIS school goals should include preparation for digital futures. I think interdisciplinary courses would enhance LIS curriculums also. (I’m sure many students would like to know how to use Adobe software. A design/LIS would give students those skills.) Our profession is diversifying. Our titles are changing. I think we have a bright future full of coding, twittering, digital designing etc.

I always feel torn between my artist and librarian’s perspective when it comes to copyright issues. As a graphic designer, I understand the creative tendencies of remixing, reinterpreting, and recontextualization. I’m also aware of the fine line between inspiration and plagiarism. A “responsible and professional artist” will know the difference (between inspiration and plagiarism), respect others work, and know how to protect their own creations. (A perfect example is artist, Jeff Koon four lawsuit for copyright violations on his balloon dogs: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/arts/design/20suit.html) However, technology has made it easier to miss, blur, and even ignore that fine line; and, the (art and rest) world has almost embraced this. For example, underground musicians find more exposure for their overly sample filled music –which may not be permitted by the original artist — through piracy and encourage fans to illegally download. With that said, I also understand the librarian’s perspective on dissemination and access for all…without breaking laws of course. So after reading this week module and dealing with my own tangled thoughts as an artist and future librarian, I can only come to this conclusion: Be original. Be informed. Be responsible.

Be Original…well sort of.
Creating digital work that is original is always wise. But who has time to learn softwares and design? The Kennedy article provides some free access graphic art. I would like to add to that list:

Photography: Stock.xchng offers great images that we can use for free photography http://www.sxc.hu/
Graphics: Vecteezy offers free vector images http://www.vecteezy.com/
Fonts: free fonts http://www.1001freefonts.com/
(As we learned this week, read fine print and give credit to artists and copyrights.)

Be informed. / Be responsible.
Lessig talks about the need to recognize the diversity of different ways and reasons for creating. I completely agree with him when he states that there is a great need for copyright laws to reflect the digital age and furthermore become a simpler system. However, until copyright laws are updated, we are still responsible and as several authors put it, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse”. I think all the articles are extremely useful for librarians. Technology is an integral part of librarianship. Whether it be purchasing licensed databases and e-books, designing library websites or teaching information literacy, we need to learn about theses laws and teach patrons about them.

Here are my two exercises.
http://alidiaz.com/exercise01.html
http://alidiaz.com/753/html/exercise02.html

Suggestions?

My memories of the internet are much like Elaine’s. I do not remember the exact year my parents got the internet but I remember the long chat sessions, the sibling fights over internet usage, horribly designed websites (that may still exist), and the endless waiting for dial-up to connect. I recall ”being online” afterschool and getting emails was a BIG deal. I still remember my first email address which I stole from the movie Hackers. Oh, memories.