Download Syllabus (Spring 2013) - Clayton State University

MASTER OF ARCHIVAL STUDIES PROGRAM
Richard Pearce-Moses
ARST 5110 ⋅ ARCHIVES AND THE WEB
SYLLABUS : SPRING 2013
7 Jan 2013 (v 3.1), subject to revision
INSTRUCTOR
Richard Pearce-Moses
Office location: Baker University Center 316B
Office phone: 678-466-4427
Email: [email protected]
Office hours: One half hour before and after class. Face-to-face, phone, WebEx: Monday to
Thursday, 10:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M., as available, appointment recommended.
PREREQUISITES
ARST 5100 · Archives and Technology
CREDIT
3 weekly contact hours
SCHEDULE AND LOCATION
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Course site: https://clayton.view.usg.edu/d2l/lp/homepage/home.d2l?ou=344229. Log in using your
Clayton State user id and password.
Lectures: Monday, 6:30 – 8:30 P.M. via WebEx (claytonstate.webex.com, meeting number 645 631 590,
password arst5110).
COURSE FORMAT
Online course including weekly, synchronous lectures by the professor and asynchronous discussion
of the readings by the students.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will provide a framework for understanding appraisal theory and how it is important in
archival work. Students will learn the methods and procedures that archivists use to identify, evaluate,
acquire, authenticate, and dispose of records in all formats. Review of theories and frameworks that
archivists have used to guide appraisal work will enable students to make informed professional
decisions concerning the selection and acquisition of archival material. The issues of collection
development policies, ownership, and intellectual property rights will also be covered.
DESCRIPTION
The course will examine the Web and other resources on the Internet both as a source of archival
records and as a means to disseminate and promote the use of archival collections. Using principles of
information organization and the Arizona Model, students will be able to review and analyze websites as
archival collections. They will be able to explain the complexities of capturing content from the web and
College of Information and Mathematical Sciences ◊ 2000 Clayton State Boulevard ◊ Morrow GA 30260
Voice: 678-466-4427 ◊ Fax: 678-466-4459 ◊ Email: [email protected]
propose strategies for harvesting web content. Students will also be able to create simple web pages
using HTML and cascading style sheets, including the ability to build simple page with dynamic content
derived from a database.
BACKGROUND
In the past, individuals had to come to an archives to research records. Today, the web allows
archivists to fulfill their missions more broadly by reaching wider audiences. Archivists can use the web
to provide increased access through finding aids and virtual collections, as well as reference service. At
the same time, the Web is a potential source of materials for special collections and a superb tool for
Students will learn the basics of administration of web services, information architecture, web
markup, and human-computer usability. They will also learn how to create pages that pull dynamic
content from databases.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. To describe and use standards and technologies used in websites
W3C, HTTP, HTML and variants, CSS
Parsed encodings (PHP, ASP.Net, ColdFusion)
Apache, IIS, content management systems
Dreamweaver, Bluefish, Gedit, plain text
2. To create and manage a website with simple web pages that are valid and well formed
Transfer files using SSH between development and production environments
Validates using W3C tools or can explain why it won’t and if it matters
Knowledge of basic structural tags (head, body, p, ul, ol, li)
Knowledge of basic formatting tags using CSS (font, color, size)
Principles of user interface
3. To demonstrate principles of dynamic web content
Creating, opening a connection to a database
Embedding queries
Parsing results
Rudimentary knowledge of elements of a procedural language
4. To explain factors influencing the use of graphics on the web
Size, color balance
Formats (gif, png, jpeg)
5. To discuss the relationship between web content and archival practice
Web crawling, harvesting
Web preservation
READINGS AND RESOURCES
Required texts
Robbins, Jennifer Niederst. Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to (X)HTML, StyleSheets, and Web
Graphics, 3rd ed. (O’Reilly, 2012).
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Nixon, Robin. PHP, MySQL, & JavaScript (O’Reilly, 2012).
Optional texts and useful information
W3Schools (Refsnes Data, 1999-2012). Offers many tutorials to complement the lectures and
exercises. See http:/w3schools.com/.
GRADING
Class participation (lectures and discussion): 25%
Assignments, short papers: 25%
Midterm: 25%
Term Project: 25%
Grade of A: Students have not only mastered the concepts and practices presented in lectures and
readings, but also have engaged them. They demonstrate original insights and novel application of
ideas and practices. They place the material in context, integrating and synthesizing them with
other aspects of archivy or other disciplines. Their work shows signs of creativity, exploration, and
curiosity. They are able to distill and address a meaningful problem from an ambiguous
assignment. Papers are well organized, incorporate and cite numerous authoritative sources beyond
assigned readings, and are written with simple and direct language with a minimum of mechanical
errors.
Grade of B: Students demonstrate they have a complete and accurate understanding of the concepts
and practices presented in lectures and readings. They can discuss ideas in their own words and
apply practices to assignments. Their work shows some evaluation or synthesis of material in the
archival context. They respond to the overt aspects of an ambiguous problem. Papers may need
additional sources or use poor sources; they may have some problems with organization, style, or
mechanical errors.
Grade of C: Students’ work does not indicate that they fully understand the concepts and practices
presented in lectures and readings. Their discussion of ideas lacks important points or misuses
professional terminology. Their work does not indicate that the concepts and practices have been
integrated into a broader understanding of archivy. Students are uncertain how to respond to an
ambiguous problem, and their response is incomplete. Papers are poorly organized and unclear, fail
to incorporate external authorities or uses inappropriate authorities, or have significant mechanical
problems.
Grade of D: Students work is incomplete or significantly lacking in substance. Students fail to
demonstrate an understanding of the concepts and practices presented in the courses and lectures.
Papers are disorganized or rambling, lack external authorities, and have significant mechanical
problems.
Grade of F: Students turn in no work or work not appropriate to graduate study.
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COURSE POLICIES
EXPECTATIONS
Students are responsible for their own education. Throughout the course, students should assess
their progress towards the course objectives and outcomes. At the same time, the course instructor is
responsible to facilitate students’ learning by structuring content, by providing a foundation of
information through readings and lectures, by guiding discussion, and by answering students’ questions.
Students should bring curiosity and creativity to the course. They are expected to think critically
about the course content – both the readings, the lectures, and discussion. Students are encouraged to
(respectfully) challenge the ideas presented in the course. Those challenges must be justified based on the
literature, empirical evidence, or other authoritative source. When evidence is contradictory, students
should develop a synthesis that finds commonalities, identifies differences, and notes how a particular
context may influence that synthesis. As such, there is seldom a "right" answer, but well-reasoned and
well-informed points of view.
Students are expected to find, read, and share additional, relevant works and incorporate the ideas
into class discussions.
GENERAL POLICY
Students must abide by policies in the Clayton State University Student Handbook.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
Students are expected to attend class (synchronous lectures) and arrive on time unless prior
arrangements have been made. Students with excused absences should watch the recording, then submit
a short (500-1000 word) report that indicates they understand the ideas covered in the lecture.
Missed classes and tardiness will result in a lower class participation grade. A student who fails to
attend any orientation session or to complete a scheduled assignment during the first week of class will
be reported to as a “No Show.”
Students in online courses should have a space where they can participate in synchronous lectures
with minimum interruptions.
LATE AND MISSED WORK
Late or missed work will be given a grade of zero points unless prior arrangements have been made
with the instructor. If you have a conflict, discuss it with me in advance so that other arrangements
might be made.
COMMUNICATION
Students are encouraged to engage the instructor to discuss assignments or if they have any
concerns about the course, by phone or email.
Students should use their and the instructor’s CSU email addresses for email. Students should check
their Clayton email frequently during the semester; daily is recommended. Students should check their
CSU email occasionally during semester breaks, summers, and long holidays.
Students are expected to participate in online discussions.
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DISABILITIES
Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations need to register with Disability
Services in order to obtain their accommodations. You can contact them at 678-466-5445 or
[email protected]. If you are already registered with Disability Services and are seeking
accommodations for this course, please make an appointment with me to discuss your specific
accommodation needs and give me your accommodations letter.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
Any type of activity that is considered dishonest by reasonable standards may constitute academic
misconduct. The most common forms of academic misconduct are cheating and plagiarism. All instances
of academic dishonesty will result in a grade of zero for the work involved. All instances of academic
dishonesty will be reported to the Office of Student Life/Judicial Affairs. Judicial procedures are
described at http://adminservices.clayton.edu/judicial/.
STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT
Behavior that disrupts the teaching–learning process during class activities will not be tolerated.
While a variety of behaviors can be disruptive in a classroom setting, more serious examples include
belligerent, abusive, profane, and/or threatening behavior. A student who fails to respond to reasonable
faculty direction regarding online behavior and/or behavior while participating in course activities may
be dismissed from class. A more detailed description the Student Code of Conduct can be found at
http://adminservices.clayton.edu/studentconduct/SCC--text%20version%202009-10.pdf. For more
information on the disciplinary policy please go to http://adminservices.clayton.edu/studentconduct/DP-text%20version%202009-10.pdf.
COMPUTING REQUIREMENTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Each student enrolled at Clayton State University is required to have ready access throughout the
semester to a notebook computer that meets faculty-approved hardware and software requirements for
the student's academic program. Students may use either a Windows (XP, Vista, 7 or 8) or Macintosh
(OS X) computer. Computers should have at least 2GB of RAM, and 4GB or more is highly
recommended. Computers must have at least 50GB free disk space.
Students must have a connection to the internet with sufficient bandwidth to participate in live
video lectures. Connections using a broadband cable modem are generally the best, and DSL is usually
acceptable. Wireless broadband may not be adequate, and dial-up access is not acceptable.
Lectures and office hours (especially technical support ) require a robust connection using WebEx.
Students are responsible for working with WebEx to troubleshoot any problems that prevent them from
connecting or maintaining a stable connection.
Students must configure their system so that there is no extraneous noise of audio feedback during
lectures. The best solution is the use of a USB headset (earphones and microphones) similar to the
Logitech USB Headset H390 (http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/stereo-headset-h390?crid=36),
which retails for approximately $25.
Students must have a webcam; an internal webcam in a laptop is acceptable. Microsoft’s Lifecam
Studio USB webcam (https://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/lifecam-studio/ ) retails for
approximately $50.
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COURSE SCHEDULE
Note: Assignments and readings may be adjusted during the semester.
7 Jan ― 1. Introduction and Orientation
The Web rapidly became more than a technology. It has become pervasive,
affecting work and play, disintermediating services, and collapsing distances. The
web provides both challenges and opportunities for recordkeeping and archives,
both as a source of records and as a means to provide access to their collections.
Assignment 1.
Create a web development environment.
Due: 16 Jan.
Learning outcomes
- To describe the origins of the web, including distinctions among the web, the
internet, extranets, and other internet-based applications.
- To define hypertext and HTML.
- To distinguish various roles involved in web development.
Readings
Bush, Vannevar. “As We May Think,” Atlantic Magazine July 1945.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/3881/
Leiner, et al. “Brief History of the Internet.” On Internet Society [website].
http://www.internetsociety.org/internet/internet-51/history-internet/briefhistory-internet
“Twitter Donates Entire Tweet Archive to Library of Congress,” (Library of
Congress, 15 April 2010). http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-081.html.
“Update on the Twitter Archives at the Library of Congress” (Library of Congress,
January 2013).
http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2013/files/twitter_report_2013jan.pdf
Haugney, Christine. “After Pinpointing Gun Owners, Paper Is a Target.” The New
York Times (6 January 2013).
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/nyregion/after-pinpointing-gun-ownersjournal-news-is-a-target.html
Optional
Bilfil, Melih. “History of the Internet” [video, 7 minutes].
http://vimeo.com/2696386?pg=embed&sec=2696386.
14 Jan ― 2. The Web: Behind the Scenes
A browser (client) requesting content from a website triggers a response from a
server. How the server responds depends on a number of factors, including the
website software and the organization of the content.
Learning outcomes
- To define common webservers (IIS, Apache) and hosting solutions (cloud, private,
development).
- To define content management system and give examples (e.g., Drupal,
CONTENTdm, Omeka).
- To locate Apache configuration files in a Linux environment.
- To describe a client-server interaction under http.
- To describe the relationship between dev and prod.
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Term project.
Create a website with
dynamic content.
Due: 29 April.
Assignment 2.
TBD
- To create a dev environment and sync files with prod.
Readings
Robbins. Ch. 1-3.
Hutchinson, Lee. “How to set up a safe and secure Web server: Learn a lot by
doing it yourself instead of going with a hosting company.” Ars Technica (27
November 2012). http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/how-to-set-up-a-safeand-secure-web-server/
-----. “Web served, part 2: Securing things with SSL/TLS.” (30 November 2012).
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/11/securing-your-webserver-with-ssltls/
-----. “Web served, part 3: Bolting on PHP with PHP-FPM.” (4 December 2012).
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/web-served-part-3bolting-on-php-with-php-fpm/
-----. “Web Served, part 4: Get your database on.” *11 December 2012).
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/web-served-part-4get-your-database-on/.
-----. “Web Served, part 5: A blog of your own.” (20 December 2012) .
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/12/web-served-part-5-ablog-of-your-own/ Optional.
21 Jan ― Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
No class.
28 Jan ― 3. Information Architecture
Setting policies and procedures to organize the content on a website will make it
easier to manage and can make the site easier to use.
Learning Outcomes
- To articulate a policy for the audience, content, and outcomes of a website.
- To describe conventions for organizing websites, including key components (for
example, home page, contacts, about us, index, privacy)
- To discuss naming conventions for files and directories.
- To develop and implement a simple web architecture.
- To describe the difference between simple, static sites; database-driven sites with
dynamic content; content management systems.
- To describe templates and includes to structure shared content.
- To discuss style guides.
- Writing for the web.
Readings
Rosenfeld and Morville, “What Makes a Website Work?” and “Organizing
Information,” in Introduction to Information Architecture for the World Wide Web,
2nd ed. (O’Reilly, 2002), p. 1-9, 22-40. GA View.
Pearce-Moses, Richard, and Joanne Kaczmarek, “An Arizona Model for
Preservation and Access of Web Documents.” Originally published in DttP:
Documents to the People 33:1 (Spring 2005), p. 17–24.
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Assignment 3.
Describe an information
architecture.
Due 6 Feb.
“Writing for the Web,” in Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines (US
Government Printing Office, n.d.), p. 158-168.
http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/guidelines_book.pdf
4 Feb ― 4. Usability and Human Computer Interfaces
The organization and presentation of information is more than a matter of
aesthetics. Good design makes it easy to find and use websites and other
applications. Conventions and principles provide a good starting point for effective
design, but even basic testing can significantly improve usability.
Assignment 4.
Usability analysis of a
website.
Due 13 Feb.
Learning outcomes
- To discuss what makes a website easy to use.
- To describe the fundamentals of how users navigate a website and common
practices to facilitate navigation.
- To list common mistakes in designing website navigation.
- To define guerrilla usability and heuristic analysis
- To demonstrate search tips (site:, + and -).
Readings
- Jakob Nielsen. “Content Design” in Designing Web Usability (New Riders, 2000), p.
100-127. GA View.
- Bruce Tognazzini, “First Principles of Interaction Design.” AskTOG (Norman
Nielsen Group, n.d.). http://www.asktog.com/basics/firstPrinciples.html.
- Jakob Nielsen. “Ten Usability Heuristics,” on Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox (Norman
Nielsen Group, 1 January 1995). http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usabilityheuristics/
- Jakob Nielson. “How to Conduct a Heuristic Analysis,” on Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox
(Norman Nielsen Group, 1 January 1995).
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-to-conduct-a-heuristic-evaluation/.
- “Design Process and Evaluation,” “Design Process and Evaluation,”
“Accessibility,” “Page Layout,” and “Usability Testing,” in Research-Based Web
Design and Usability Guidelines (US Government Printing Office for the Dept. of
Health and Human Services, n.d.), p. 1-28, 45-57, 189-197.
http://www.usability.gov/guidelines/guidelines_book.pdf.
11 Feb ― 5. Markup I
Basic elements of web markup. Variety of web development environments
ranging from plain-text editors to Visual Studio, CS5. Demonstrate use of Firebug to
inspect code.
Learning outcomes
- To create a simple page using doctype, head, title, html, body, h, p, br, ol, ul, li,
dl, dt, dd, b, i, cite, blockquote, hr.
- To transfer files to a server using ssh.
- To describe the principles of valid and well-formed code; to use Firebug to
validate html.
- To use online validators to check code.
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Assignment 5.
Create a web page.
20 Feb.
Optional:
Bring up other websites
and inspect their design
using Firebug.
Readings
- Robbins, Ch. 4-7, 10.
Optional Readings
- HTML DOM Tutorial. http://w3schools.com/htmldom/
18 Feb ― 6. Midterm exam
The exam will be available on the website at 6:30 p.m. Completed exams must be
submitted by 9:00 p.m.
25 Feb ― 7. Markup II
Structuring and formatting webpages. Common conventions and usability.
Learning outcomes
- To create links, including external, relative, internal (<a name=””> / #).
- To use the elements table, th, tr, td, colspan, rowspan, form, input, selection,
option, textarea.
- To describe the alt, metatags elements .
Assignment 6.
Create a web page.
Due 27 Feb.
Optional (extra credit)
Install trial version of
Dreamweaver and
experiment.
Readings
- Robbins, Ch. 8-9
1 Mar ― Midterm
Last day to withdraw from class and receive a passing grade (W). Withdrawing
after this date automatically receives a WF (failing).
4 Mar ― Spring Break
No class.
11 Mar. ― 8. Markup III
Cascading style sheets and semantic markup.
Learning outcomes
- Style sheets, including internal, external, cascading
- To distinguish markup based on content rather than appearance.
Assignment 7.
Using templates.
Due: 20 Mar.
Readings
Robbins, Ch. 11-17.
http://www.maxdesign.com.au/articles/css-layouts/
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_layout.asp
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_examples.asp
Optional
Nixon, Ch. 18-19.
Archon manual, Chapter 7.
18 Mar ― 9. Graphics
Introduction to editing graphics.
Assignment 8
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Learning outcomes
- Scanning basics, including appropriate resolutions for the web, color balance
- Simple editing using the GIMP
- Inserting graphics: still and moving
- To define color depth (pixel depth)
- To describe the RGB color model and how to represent colors using the model
- To define common image formats: TIFF, GIF, JPG, PNG
- To do basic image manipulation, including resizing and cropping
- To be able to discuss aspects of sizing graphics for the web
Install GIMP.
Edit images to specified
sizes, resolution, color
balance.
Due 27 Mar.
Readings
- Robbins, Ch. 18-19.
- Federal Agencies Digitization Initiative (FADGI) - Still Image Working Group,
“Technical Guidelines for Digitizing Cultural Heritage Materials: Creation of
Raster Image Master Files,” (August 2010).
http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/FADGI_Still_ImageTech_Guidelines_2010-08-24.pdf.
Optional
Cohen, Jason. “Color Wheels are wrong? How color vision actually works.” A
Smart Bear 31 January 2011. http://blog.asmartbear.com/color-wheels.html.
25 Mar ― 10. Coding I
Introduce the basic elements of procedural programming. Overview of common
web languages, including ASP, PHP, JavaScript, VBScript.
Learning outcomes
- Types of variables and how to declare them; strongly typed v. weakly typed
languages
- Common naming conventions for variables, importance of conventions
- A simple statement
Assigning value to variable strOut = “My name is” . strName ;
- Conditionals if mid(strName, 1, 1) = “A” then . . . else if . . . end
- Case
- Loop, incrementing counters
- Commenting code and documentation.
- To map basic programming concepts to PHP.
Readings
Ford, Matt. “Programming for all, part 1: An introduction to writing for
computers.” Ars Technica (23 Dec 2012).
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/12/programming-for-all-part-1-anintroduction-to-writing-for-computers/
Ford, Matt. “Programming for all, part 2: From concept to code.” Ars Technica (30
Dec 2012). http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/12/programming-for-all-part-2from-concept-to-code/
Ford, Matt. “Programming for all, part 3 . . . ” and subsequent parts.
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Assignment 9.
Write a simple program
using PHP.
Due: 3 Apr.
- Nixon. Chapter 3, Introduction to PHP, and Chapter 4, Expressions and Flow
Control in PHP.
Optional
- PHP Essentials. http://www.techotopia.com/index.php/PHP_Essentials
- PHP Tutorial (W3Schools). http://w3schools.com/php/default.asp
1 Apr ― 11. Coding II ~ Functions and Strings
String manipulation functions.
Learning outcomes
- To describe the elements of a function prototype
- To parse strings, including substr, trim, concatenation.
- To describe the use of regular expressions for pattern matching
Readings
PHP String Variables. PHP Tutorial (W3Schools).
http://www.w3schools.com/php/php_string.asp
Reference (optional)
- “String Functions,” in PHP Manual (http://php.net/manual/en/ref.strings.php).
8 Apr ― 12. Dynamic Content I
Many webpages are templates that pull information from a database. Easier to
maintain content, fewer pages to update.
Learning outcomes
- To connect to a database.
- To identify and modify a simple database query and display results in the web
page.
Readings
- http://w3schools.com/php/php_mysql_intro.asp
15 Apr ― 13. Dynamic Content II
Continued discussion of previous week
22 Apr ― 14. Search Engines
Web design can have a significant impact on how pages are indexed and ranked
in searches.
Learning outcomes
- To discuss basic search engine optimization.
- To describe web analytics.
- To use sitemaps to enhance discovery by search engines.
- Use of robots.txt to control search engine access to a site.
- To describe webmaster tools from Google and Bing.
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Assignment 10.
Write a webpage that
displays content from a
database.
Due: 24 Apr
Readings
- Prom, Christopher J. “Using Web Analytics to Improve Online Access to Archival
Resources,” The American Archivist 74:1 (Spring/Summer 2011).
- About, creating, and submitting sitemaps. At WebMaster Tools Help (Google).
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8476
- “About /robots.txt,” http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html and “Frequently
Asked Questions,” http://www.robotstxt.org/faq.html, including the links to
about 35 short subsections.
29 Apr ― 15. Student Presentations
Students will share their website with the class and discuss their design decisions.
6 May ― 16. Student Presentations (con’t)
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Term project due.