Computer Science 402

Digital Libraries

Assignment 6 - Some notes about the projects

Here are some very general guidelines concerning your "area of concentration project".

• You should picture yourself as part of a project team - our class. Suppose that we are heading up a digital library project. We are doing background work on digital libraries before undertaking the development of the actual digital library. We have not been given assignments as to who will actually work on which part of the project. You are developing an important source of information for your team members. So, your final report should be an attractive presentation of information that will be informative and easily digested by the members of the team. Having done lots of investigating, you will try to consolidate your findings in a single, coherent report. Others should be able to read your report and have a good understanding of the topic and how it relates to the digital library "big picture". Of course, there will be links and references for those who want to go deeper or to see the individual sources you have used. Take pride in your work.
• You should also picture your report as being part of a single team report. That is, taken together, all of the individual reports become a single report on our findings on digital libraries. So, feel free to share findings that will be helpful to your co-workers. Take pride in the collective work.
• As a way of keeping track of what you have done, a way for your team mates to gain from your efforts, and as a way for us to help steer the progress, you should keep an online log file showing what you have done and when. Such a log file will be valuable to you as your prepare you report. Also, you could picture this as being available to the people who actually work on this aspect of the actual digital library.
• In evaluating the projects, we will consider not only the final product, but also the process. We do not consider waiting until the last few days for a big push as a good process to follow. We hope to see the final report as the result of steady, reflective progress toward a goal.
• The reports are due on the next to last class meeting of the term - Tuesday, May 29.