Unit 13: Playing with Servers and Some Thoughts on the Course

Downloading a preinstalled VM would be appropriate if the main learning objectives of the course are related to experimenting with various applications that can be installed on servers like the various content management systems (Drupal, Wordpress), collection management systems (Omeka, DSpace, EPrints, Fedora), and other tools like harvesters. However, if the course is focusing on managing digital collections, I think that the server aspects are as important as the software. I think that both this course and IRLS 672 mention that the important thing in technology courses is not learning one way to do things or memorizing a set of practices that will always work—it’s about learning how to learn technology—how things work in a general sense, what the various pieces of the LAMP server do, etc. So just learning the applications user to manage collections is not very valuable if you can’t explain how they fit in with the LAMP architecture and the various financial and managerial issues that accompany server maintenance protection.

I suppose that preconfigured solutions would provide more time for developing the collection and the metadata elements and application profile that describe the collection. However, we already had to build and describe collections in our IRLS 515 Organization of Information course. I would argue that the experience of using the various software packages to implement some items from the collection for the purpose of comparing the various options for hosting digital collections is more valuable than working harder to develop the digital collection itself. I would almost prefer that each student had to describe and enter the same digital collection (or choose from 5 practice collection options or something), because deciding what to put in my collection was stressful for me. I understand the value of reading about what makes a good digital collection and then trying to follow those principles when developing your own collection, but, it seems like most post-school projects I would engage with would involve making a collection of pre-selected materials accessible digitally.

In terms of computer skills, I had no trouble conceptually or in practice with any of the exercises we did in this course. I really appreciated the opportunity to cement my knowledge and skills with LAMP servers and navigating using the command line that I developed in IRLS 672.

I think that the course’s balance of hands-on server configuration, hands-on collection management system administration, and management thinking and writing was pretty ideal for my learning needs. The secondary management set of readings and the accompanying Botticelli lectures felt out of place to me—we already have to take a management course to get the DigIn certificate, and IRLS 671 and 674 also encompass management topics, and this course talks about management in the tech portion, so why is there also a standalone management aspect to this course? Taking out the server configuration aspects would give students more time to complete this management portion, but I think that the hands-on experience that would be lost would not make this trade worth it.