Libstats: Overview & Demo August 15, 2007
Posted by Rachel in Brown Bags & Webcasts.add a comment
If you were unable to attend the presentation today that Hilary Rudsenske and I did for the Heard Library System, then check out this presentation. If you’d like to create an account for use in your library here at Vanderbilt, please contact LITS (specifically, Dale Poulter).
TTSC Meeting Notes – August 14th August 14, 2007
Posted by Rachel in Computers, Primo, RSS, TTSC Meetings.add a comment
The Technology & Training Support Coordinators met again today. We had a full room – 20 people! And there was a full agenda! So this post is rather long, but bear with me!
1) Update on AlphaSearch plan for year 2 (Primo) -It’s now being reviewed by the library. Please let them know just how rapidly evolving the product is. It’s constantly being updated and problems are being addressed and resolved as quickly as possible. The Digital Library Steering Committee is doing formal acceptance testing for the licensing in the Spring. There will be a “soft launch” (and possibly a version 2) for the public and other libraries to play with, also in Spring. Anticipated full roll-out of the production version is Fall 2008.
2) Discussion of replacement for VUcal and Mulberry – VUcal is going away, and a replacement for shared private calendaring, etc. A direction has been recommended from ITS – move to the Exchange Servers (which means Microsoft Outlook). There are other clients that work with exchange servers, but ITS recommends the Outlook platform. LITS will be figuring out how and when to do the migration. It may happen by December.
People’s folders will be copied over, and people will be able to still send mail from Mulberry, but once the switchover happens, people will be strongly encouraged to use Outlook. Jody talked for a bit about distribution lists and the difficulty they are having recreating and moving certain structures over to
Jody is eliciting volunteers to help with training (people who are familiar with or currently use Outlook), and the Staff Development Committee will manage the training.
LITS’s goal: Be VUcal-free by January 1, 2008, and to have Outlook going and training underway, and still have Mulberry available (to have access to group mailboxes and distribution lists that will still work).
3) Discussion of plan to upgrade Unicorn to Oracle – There are many other ILS’s that use Oracle, and it’s just a good thing if we move to that platform. We’ll be able to better integrate services with Unicorn if we are using Oracle. There was a discussion about downtime, and the timing of doing the migration. There will be no percieved downtime except those regularly scheduled downtimes.
GL3.2 = Symphony, formerly Rome. (It’s basically just the fancy name for the next version of Unicorn.) Any questions about the Oracle migration or about the next version of Unicorn can be directed to Dale Poulter.
4) Walker library desktop support changes – Over the course of the year, LITS will be supporting us more with desktop support.
5) RSS for the Divinity Library Lectionary – Jody has been working with Anne Womack and Bill Hook to create an RSS feed for the lectionaries. They created the XML themselves for the RSS feed. They are also using SiteMason to help with the ease of use and maintenance of the feed. This will be going live soon.
6) Workstation replacement plans – They are targeting to remove the Dell 270’s and get new Dell 745’s. There are approximately 100 computers to replace over the course of the year.
7) Patch Tuesday – 49 patches were released today from Microsoft. They will be released to Heard networked staff the next day.
8) Update on search for systems librarian (Jason Battles’ former position) – They have several applicants so far, and the deadline for the position is tomorrow.
9) MS Vista and Office 2007 – Jody would like to come up with a mini boot camp for Vista and MS Office 2007 to help those who work with the public who are already dealing with Vista and Office 2007.
10) They are trying to consolidate idendidty management on the campus – it’s a huge project. They are also trying to work with those who aren’t current Vanderbilt entities, such as alumni, community users, etc. Basically, it will be a huge improvement.
11) ContactVU – a new system that will contain all our personal information used by the Vanderbilt Operators. The Sun Identity Manager and this new ContactVU system will be linked together and be much more secure than it currently is now. Multi-factor authentication will also be used eventually (a thumb as well as a password, for example).
Beware of public email scams August 1, 2007
Posted by Rachel in Announcements, Spam & Viruses.1 comment so far
In the interest of promoting better network security and increasing awareness of possible security threats, ITS asks that you review the article below and distribute to your colleagues.
FBI WARNS PUBLIC OF E-MAIL SCAMS
Washington, D.C. — The FBI today warned the public against three separate Internet scams that continue to flourish through spam e-mails. The warning comes after the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received a rising number of complaints from citizens over the past few weeks.
In one scam, an e-mail recipient receives an electronic greeting card containing malware (malicious software). The cards, which are also referred to as e-cards or postcards, are being sent via spam. Like many other Internet fraud schemes, the perpetrators use social engineering tactics to entice the victim, claiming the card is from a family member or friend. Although there have been variations in the spam message and attached malware, generally the spam directs the recipient to click the link provided in the email to view their e-card.
Upon clicking the link, the recipient is unknowingly taken to a malicious web page.
In another scam, fraudulent e-mails misrepresent the FBI and/or Director Robert S. Mueller III and give the appearance of legitimacy due to the usage of pictures of the FBI Director, seal, letter head, and/or banners. The types of schemes utilizing the Director’s name and/or FBI are lottery endorsements and inheritance notifications.
The third is spam e-mail which claim to be from an official of the U.S. military sent on behalf of American soldiers stationed overseas. The scam e-mails vary in content; however, the general theme of each is to request personal information and/or funds from the individual receiving the e-mail.
These spam e-mail messages are hoaxes and should be immediately deleted. Consumers need to be wary of unsolicited e-mails that request them to take any action even if that means just clicking on an attachment. It is possible that by “double-clicking” on attachments to these messages, recipients will cause malicious software — e.g., viruses, keystroke loggers, or other Trojan horse programs — to be launched on their computers.
For further information on computer safety tips please visit the FBI website and the IC3 website.
If you have any questions, please contact ITS Partner Support at its-partner@vanderbilt.edu or call 615-343-9999.
For more information about upcoming and recent outages, see: http://its.vanderbilt.edu/outage.php
For more information about anti-virus efforts at Vanderbilt, see: http://its.vanderbilt.edu/antivirus
