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A nice little video from A New Zealand library explaining the difference between a search engine and a database. I noticed a bit of confusion about this on exam 2.

This is an article about the PostgreSQL development team has announced the release of PostgreSQL 9.3, the latest version of the world's leading open source relational database system.

I found this helpful, tell me what yall think.

Yep, that's a pretty useful page. I probably should have taught y'all the term "DBMS" -- Database Management System." That's really what Oracle and MySQL and so on are.

For all the journalists, there are some top media databases for you can choose.

Really interesting and quirky introductory video on what SQL is and what it does. Explains one of the exercises given to us in our notes.

"In a world where databases are present everywhere" -- so true! Very amusing, Erin, thanks. As I mentioned to Vincent, you guys won't need to learn SQL for this class, but that video is actually very useful on just the concept of databases and of what SQL is, so that's useful.

This link gives information on the difference between a directory and a folder. The reason I found this link so useful was because it outlines the difference between the two for Mac and PC users.

Congratulations, Gordon, on being the very first to post! :) I will say I'm not very impressed with the link, though -- it's a bit fuzzy on whether there is or is not a difference between a directory and a folder, except in a technical sense on Windows Vista. (I'd argue that in general there isn't, though I grant you there are special cases.) And you can't tell who wrote that piece, and it comes from the support database of a particular software company rather than from a site that's dedicated to explanations / teaching / learning / education. At least Wikipedia is deliberately trying to educate people, and it's better on this issue, I'd say, and provides a clearer argument that a directory is something structural in an OS whereas a folder is a visual "metaphor" for a collection of files, which may or may not be an actual directory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directory_(computing)#Folder_metaphor

Good link, Claire, and because it comes from Microsoft you can be pretty sure it's good info. Don't forget to comment on the link you share, though, with a brief evaluation of what you've shared. I'll give you credit this time, though.

You can use Google to search for magazines and magazine articles that date all the way back to the 1960's.

Hey, that's super-useful, Talia, thanks! When Google scanned things from research libraries, that included a lot of magazines. Or maybe Google made deals with the publishers directly for these. There are some weird titles in there, though -- no Time, no Newsweek, but you can search through _Torque_, "Singapore's best homegrown car magazine" :)

I attended one of the events during Open Access Week about the future of libraries and Wikipedia. Jake Orlowitz, recipient of a Wikimedia Foundation Individual Engagement Grant, spoke about "The Wikipedia Library." The Wikipedia Library was a new project he founded in 2012 for the goal of connecting Wikipedia editors with the reliable information sources they need. In the first part of his presentation, he discussed much of what wikipedia is and how it is run. He basically summed up much of what most people don't know about wikipedia and a lot of assumptions that people make about how unreliable information on wikipedia is. Then he went on to discuss more about the wikipedia library and how it would benefit wikipedia editors with vital current reliable sources that they need to do their work. I thought the presentation given by the presenter was very informative and interesting. I learned more about wikipedia and how its more useful than I thought. The most interesting point he raised during his presentation were the benefits of the Wikipedia Library. The thought of connecting university libraries with the wikipedia library will present students and many others information that is reliable and easy to access. Many scholarly articles and information from databases we usually have to pay for will be available for universities to provide students at a much lower cost.

Thanks, Rebecca. I'll add 5 points to your Exam 2 grade.