Reading Notes- Week 6

Local area network-

I was familiar with the basic concept of LAN prior to reading this. I wasn’t aware that Ethernet and wifi was considered LAN, (which probably proves that I was mistaken when I said I was somewhat familiar with LAN). I was aware that LAN was a form of connection for computers and devices; I just hadn’t associated the term with wifi. I found the information in the Wikipedia article interesting. It helped me become much more familiar with local area networks.

Computer Networks-

Since we are always signing into networks, I am glad we were given this reading. While this is much more broad than local area networks, it is interesting to learn more about computer networks because of their necessity in this digital age. I found it interesting that the internet is used as part of overlaid networks. I was surprised that the hardware of computer networks were familiar to me.

Video-

Personal area network is the most common.

LAN (within one building)

Wide Area Network

Metropolitan area network- city

This video was informative about the most common networks. I was unfamiliar with Metropolitan Area Networks as a term.

Coyle, K. (2005). Management of RFID in libraries. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(5), 486-489.

Radio frequency identifier- I was not familiar with this before I read the article. It was interesting that RFIDs are advanced forms of barcodes that use magnetic fields to read the chips. As I was reading this, I kept imagining the little plastic strips that are sometimes found in books or other items that when you open them up, there is a metallic strip inside. Does anyone know if this is the same thing? I have always wondered what those little strips were for, but thought they were more for security rather then identification. (If they aren’t RFIDs, can anyone tell me what they are?) I think the implementation of RFIDs in libraries would be useful. The article states that the cost for RFIDs is much greater than barcodes, but I wonder how much more it costs. It would make more sense to use this technology for retail because the prices of the items could be increased (not that consumers would like to pay more for items because of their tagging devices).