WML Tech Updates

Go get a cup of coffee and put your feet up. This is a long one.

1. Rachel had a wonderful time at the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) National Forum back on October 8, 9, and 10th in St. Louis. Dale Poulter, Rick and Suellen Stringer-Hye also attended the Forum. She learned a lot more about various technologies and received insight on how to utilize these new and upcoming technologies within a library setting.
2. One topic that Rachel is flirting with is the possibility of creating the Walker Staffweb entirely within a wiki. What is a wiki? A wiki is “a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser.” In other words, a wiki will let you edit the webpage while you are viewing it in Internet Explorer – no code necessary. Hence, anyone would be able to update it, anytime, anywhere. Pretty cool, huh?
3. Rachel will be getting more involved with LITA in the future as well. In 2006, the LITA National Forum will come to Nashville , and Dale Poulter will be the man in charge. But she hope s to help out.
4. Two new 21” Dell monitors have arrived. One is in Rachel’s office for web development and the other is currently in Laura’s office and will be used with the new scanner for document delivery purposes.
5. What’s that? A new scanner? Yes, an HP ScanJet 8250 scanner has been ordered, and arrived this afternoon. It will temporarily go in Laura’s office. Once it is set up, we will begin experimenting with Ariel. Rachel is talking with Deb about getting Ariel training.
6. The new hard drive for the computer that will be going upstairs has arrived and is ready for Danny to install. We need to decide on what type of furniture the computer will be sitting upstairs, and where it should go. Connectivity is an issue that will impact location.
7. Public workstation #4 is ready for Danny to have its image ghosted onto the other public workstations. Then Deep Freeze will be installed and all the computers can be maintained by Rachel’s computer in her office. There will be a background that says Welcome to the Walker Management Library and it will have the Owen logo, too.
8. A new “team” has been established with the Walker Library! It’s the Tech Team, and will consist of: Rachel Vacek, Danny Sulkin, Marie Swearingen, and Rahn Huber.
   • Q: Will there be tons more meetings? A: No. More than likely, this team will meet once a month or less, depending on projects, reports to staff, and implementations.
   • Q: What will this team do? A: What Rachel envisions is that this group will look at the big picture: How has technology influenced the library and the services that we provide? Where are we now technologically? Where should we be? How are other libraries using technology effectively? How do we get to where we think we should be? Etc.
   • Q: Will there be sub-groups? A: From this team, there will be several other small sub-teams that will actually accomplish the goals. Rachel thinks that this group (maybe plus a few other people) will be able to give a lot of valuable input into the strategic planning process.
9. The resource guides are still being updated on the current website. Thanks to all who helped!
10. From the Technology Support Coordinators Meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 12, Rachel wants to support that she volunteered to be a part of the “Workstation Application Software Categorizing Task Force.” What is this? VU Internal Audit recommended that LITS do an audit of library software. This audit was done automatically to all the computers connected to the Heard network, and there were over 1,000 different products found. The Walker Library was not included in this audit. This task force will separate the software into 3 categories:
    • Supported software (e.g.- Sirsi, Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat Reader, etc.)
    • Allowable unsupported software (e.g.- iTunes, Google toolbar, Bible Study software, WS_FTP, etc.)
    • Disallowed and unsupported software (e.g.- Bit torrent, kazaa, weatherbug, etc..
    • You may be wondering why Rachel is involved with this since the audit didn’t include the Walker Library. She thinks that being more aware of what people are using, and what is legal and or dangerous software to have might be helpful in problem solving in her own library, and this is also one way to keep current on software. Anyway, the results of this task force’s work will be presented to the Tech Support and Tech Training Coordinators, and then LITS will submit a final list to LMC for approval, along with recommendation on how to manage future software audits. Rachel hopes to figure out a way to get Walker involved in future audits, too.
11. From the Technology Training Coordinators Meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 26, Rachel wants to report that within the next month, there will be a training session on accessibility and how to best modify the accessibility settings within Windows XP. Someone from the Opportunity Development Center (ODC) might be willing to do a session on this (we are in the process of asking), but it may resort to Rachel and Julie Loder doing a training session on this for the Heard Library System instead.
12. Rachel attended a live webcast on Usability on Thursday, Oct. 28. The blurb: “As libraries and organizations strive to improve their websites to better serve their users, they are finding usability testing to be a valuable part of the redesign process. By focusing on a user-centered design, web developers can learn what works, what doesn’t and what their users want. While the results are sometimes surprising, usability testing is a key ingredient in designing a web site that meets the needs of its users.” Overall, Rachel found it helpful and a refresher on methods she has used in the past. She plans on implementing some of the testing methods discussed for the new site as it comes a little further along.
13. There was a Spiders meeting on Friday, Oct. 29. This is the groups of web designers across campus who meet monthly to discuss various implementations of technology and to share, learn, and network. They discussed the upcoming changes to the Vanderbilt homepage. If interested, you can read the notes.
14. From the Diebold Printing Demonstration Meeting that Rachel, Marie, and Flo attended on Thursday, Nov. 4: As you know, Vanderbilt is moving toward Pay-for-Print. Diebold is just one of the vendors that VU is considering. Here are the options with Diebold:
    • Option 1: CS Print Client, where software is installed on each individual computer and it communicates with the printer server. This option is Windows only. You deal with pop-ups and can use your username/id to authenticate. Authentication is configurable and can be IP based. There is no card swipe or terminal/release station. Money and amount of money remaining is shown to the user via a pop-up window.
    • Option 2: Network Release Station, where the user hits print, puts in a name, and then when standing near the printer, must swipe a card, select his/her print job, and then print it. Money and amount of money remaining is shown to the user on this “release” screen. This option is available on Macs, PCs, and Unix/Linux machines. If the user has multiple print jobs, he/she would have to swipe multiple times (no batch printing)
    • Both of these options are configurable (mostly). Students and faculty can have ## free prints before they get charged for printing if this is what people want. Settings are based per print server and not library or computer lab. So for example, if all the printers for Owen are on ONE print server, then all the printers in Owen would have to have the same settings.
    • Both Option 1 and Option 2 are supposed to be able to work simultaneously, if so desired. If just Option 1 was installed, Mac users couldn’t print at all (unless you had a printer set up just for Mac users, and they’d be printing for free.)
    • There are 6 different authentication options, but username/password is most popular, and it would probably be Owen ID, but this would be a problem for guests and non-Owen Vandy people. Printing is a first come, first serve and could result in lines when using the card swipe. Students may or may not have access to printer queue.Can designate by print server who pays how much for printing (e.g.- Owen vs. Law)
    • Administrator can override a job if necessary, but both options seem limited in what can be done if someone prints someone else’s stuff, or if a refund is needed.
    • Cost: You pay for a license on one print server, and you can install it on as many print servers as you want, but you also pay per client.
    • We aren’t sure when the next presentation is. I’m sure Bill Hook will let us know.
15. New website – content needed. As it is now November, please remember to continue working on your areas of responsibility for the new website.
    • If you are creating fresh content (stuff that isn’t on the current site), please get it to me by Friday, November 19th.
    • If you would like a form (to gather or request info of some sort), please write, type, or draw what you have in mind by Friday, November 19th.
    • If you think you were supposed to do something, but have misplaced your info or it’s still a bit foggy on what you needed to do, please let me know as soon as possible, and I would be HAPPY to talk with you.

Have a good weekend, everyone! Thanks for your attention and time!