LIBR 512: INDEXING Winter 2004 - 2005 , Term 2 School of Library, Archival and Information Studies The University of British Columbia

Assignment # 2: WWW Index

DUE by the beginning of class on April 7, 2005

This assignment is done on an individual basis. You may discuss the assignment with your classmates [which I encourage], but each of you must do the actual work yourselves. For this assignment you will be creating an index for a WWW site. .

This assignment will be awarded a letter grade using the evaluative criteria given on the SLAIS web site. Based on these criteria, when there is a range of quantity given in assignment specifications, in order to be considered for a mark of A- or higher you will need to move beyond the basic assignment requirements and do all your work at a high level of quality. If you receive a mark such as A-/B+ you should interpret it as a low A-, likewise a mark of B+/A- should be interpreted as a high B+. [The top mark represents the awarded letter grade, and the bottom mark indicates the relative position of the numerical equivalent in the range for the letter grade as given on the SLAIS web site.]

Assignment Instructions

NOTE: All work on this assignment is to be done using the files you will download using FTP. You will NOT be working with the actual site mounted on the WWW.

Download the entire A2 folder from your l512download FTP folder. I suggest you print out the files to work on your index.

You will be creating an online index for a web site on libraries in Scotland.

You MUST index the following pages from the web site:

For additional credit you MAY index from some or all the following additional pages:

Examine the site and get an overview of the content, and create a paper draft of your index. I have put some sample assignments from past terms in the l512download FTP site if you wish to examine them.

Create an alphabetically arranged index in the form of a single HTML file named my_index.htm. Put this file inside the A2 folder. If you add any graphics to your index the file names MUST NOT contain any spaces. You may use frames if you wish, but they should be "invisible" frames. See for example: http://www.asindexing.org/site/backndx.htm. If any photographs or paintings appear on a page you should should include them in the index. You are indexing a small number of pages and I would expect your index will also be relatively small.

Each entry in the index will be actively linked to top of the relevant page [using the files downloaded via FTP] -- this is Approach #1 [see below].

OR

Each entry in the index will be actively linked/targeted to the specific point on the relevant page [using the files downloaded via FTP] -- this is Approach #2 [see below].

Approach #1
At a minimum you will create the links to go to the top of the relevant page. This is similar to a standard back-of-the-book index where a page number is given as the locator. This is the easier and less time consuming of the two approaches. There aren't a lot of examples of this approach, but check out [for at least some of the entries on each site]: http://www.archives.state.ut.us/siteindex.htm, http://www.bucknell.edu/site_index.html

Approach #2
For additional credit you may create "target" links that will jump to the specific referenced point on a page. Examples of this approach [for at least some of the entries on each site] can be seen at: http://www.asindexing.org/site/backndx.htm, http://finitesite.com/info/site-ndx.htm, http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/the_index.html, http://sumweb.syr.edu/ir/apm/lookup.html

You are not required to do any special design work unless you choose to do so for extra credit. That is, you may use a simple font on a plain white background, or you may choose fonts, colors, graphics, etc. to increase the aesthetic value of your index.

Submission Instructions

Once you have completed the index create a folder using the format First Initial_Last Name. For example for me it would be M_Stephenson. Inside this folder goes the A2 folder you downloaded. Put your index [my_index.htm] along with all the other HTML and media files/folders inside the A2 folder. If you create your index using Approach #1 [see below] the original HTML files will be unchanged from when they were downloaded. If you use Approach #2 [see below] the original HTML files will be modified to contain the embedded targets linked to entries in your index.

Create a RedMe.doc file. In this file give me your name, e-mail address, and a list of the additional files [if any] you indexed. Tell which web design software programs you used [Composer, Dreamweaver, 1st Page 2000, etc.] You may also use this file to tell me anything you think I need to know to evaluate your assignment.

FTP the First Initial_Last Name folder and its contents to your own FTP account [not the one from which you downloaded the files]. Once it has been FTP'ed you may check your files, links, and graphics using the pattern: www.slais.ubc.ca/YourFTPName/FirstInitial_LastName/A2/my_index.htm. For example for me it would be: www.slais.ubc.ca/mss2/M_Stephenson/A2/my_index.htm.