"Personal Computer Hardware" at Wikipedia.org
I think this article did a fairly decent job of summarizing the most important parts of computer hardware. I was already somewhat familiar with all of these terms and components since I helped a friend build their own computer, but I found the article most helpful for explaining the differences between the types of media devices. I find this kind of simple knowledge of computer hardware an essential for any modern librarian; since computers are becoming such a huge staple in libraries and research, knowing how a computer is put together is great knowledge for troubleshooting and general understanding of one's tools.
"Moore's Law" at Wikipedia.org and video at scientificamerican.com
I read the article, watched the video, and then read the article again. Moore's Law basically refers to the fact- an observation, not a natural law- that the number of transistors occupying an area with double every two years at an exponential rate. This is rather astounding- as the video stated, this kind of advancement is practically unheard of in other technologies- and points to an interesting dilemma for librarians. Technology is continuing to grow smaller and smaller, advancing at a rate so fast it's hard to keep up. We should be aware of this so that we can keep in mind that technology upgrades are not a one-time occurrence; this exponential growth has not yet reached its plateau, and so information brokers must continually keep pace.
Computer History Museum page at computerhistory.org
I wasn't aware that there even was such a place until I read this article. The museum looks like an interesting but unique place. For one thing, museums generally collect artifacts from hundreds to thousands of years ago. Computer technology has expanded so quickly that an entire facility was opened to contain just the history of less than a century. This speaks again to the same fact as Moore's Law- we in the information business need to keep up! What I found most interesting was the huge difference between the Babbage Engine- the first "computing" prototype made in the 1820s- and then the tiny computers we have today (thanks to Moore's Law). Such striking differences in size and technological sophistication really bring home the point that information technology is a hugely intricate and historically based field of study.
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I had only heard about certain aspects of the computer hardware from my friends in high school who were always competing with each other to build a better gaming computer. Helping someone build a computer must have been an invaluable experience!
ReplyDeleteThe issue of technology upgrades was huge at my hometown public library. Only the library director and I (and I was only a library page hired for the summer) knew how to fix general computer problems in the first place, much less to install programs. We didn't even have funding for software for the computers. Rather than having MS Office, we downloaded open office. Our computers were about five years old in 2007, and when I went back there this summer they hadn't been replaced yet. Librarians really have to fight for funding to get new technology for their patrons.