WML Tech Updates

The following resources have been updated globally in the current WML website:

• General Business File ASAP (link fixed)
• General Business File International (link fixed)
• Forrester (removed throughout)
• Reuter’s Research on Demand (link fixed)
• Computer Database (added - Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) resource)
• National Newspaper Index (added - another TEL resource)

Question: What other resources listed on the TEL website should we consider adding to our list of databases? For example, should we add “Health Reference Center Academic” or “Military & Intelligence Database”?

Also, the database called “What Do I Read Next?” sounds like a lot of fun, and although it’s not business focused, it might be fun to mention to our users.

1) Kilimanjaro - As we all know, Kilimanjaro hasn’t exactly been the perfect printer since being implemented in mid December. There have been mysterious paper jams, odd errors, and Tray 1 has been insistent on wanting to be used, despite the number of times we alter the settings. Danny has been vigilant on trying to resolve these seemingly perpetual problems. Fortunately, he noticed something funky with the port settings, and Cliff from VU ITS came out on February 14th to inspect. He adjusted and maximized the port speed to match the printer, and things should be working smoother. However, everyone is still baffled about why so many print jobs attempt to go to Tray 1. While Danny investigates and monitors this issue, please assist those patrons who don’t read the little sign about pressing the checkmark button when the screen indicates that Tray 1 is empty.

2) Public Workstations - If you have ever opened in the morning, or had to reboot the public workstations, you may have noticed that background was in Active Desktop Safe Mode, an annoyingly bright white screen. For some odd reason unknown to me (as well as Dennis Boswell and Danny Sulkin), this was occurring after every reboot. I have found a solution to the problem, and things seem to be working much smoother.

Unfortunately, there are still problems, though. Computer #8 won’t login to the Owen network, although it does get an internet connection. Computer #10 (the one upstairs) needs to be reimaged to match the computers downstairs. Reimaging it might also help with the login problems on that computer. Rachel has alerted Danny about this and hopefully it will get taken care of in a somewhat timely manner.

3) VUprint - If you saw that email that David forwarded about VUprint, you may have noticed that printing has gone down in every library except ours, where printing volume has risen significantly. This could be due to the new duplex printers, or the types of assignments students have. Although we have heard through the grapevine that printing has risen dramatically in the Eskind Biomedical Library, they aren’t using VUprint (yet) and therefore weren’t included in the report. In the chart below (thanks to Bill Hook), observe the change in printing volume in the various libraries.

VUprint Volume

4) VUprint Task Force Meeting - This meeting, on January 5th, was called by Bill Hook to provide an opportunity to reflect on how VUprint worked this semester as well as to talk about establishing a structure or process for making decisions about VUprint enhancements and policies. Bill emphasized that although the library is seen as the implementer of VUprint, the library shouldn’t be, or seen as, the only advocate for VUprint. Also, since it’s implementation, VUprint seems to be working rather smoothly in every location except for the Science & Engineering Computer Labs within the school.

5) VU Web Developer’s Forum – The Spiders group on campus is mostly a virtual network of people who deal with technology and web development on both the academic and medical campuses. They usually meet once a month at the Kennedy Center on Peabody’s campus and have a topic for discussion. This meeting, however, was a gathering of over 60 web developers and folks interested in technology, and it was held in the new Student Life Building. Many topics were discussed, including the search engine used on VU’s homepage, layout and links on the main page, new technologies being implemented throughout campus, and an intro to all the nifty things on VUCast, which is Vanderbilt’s new news site. There was great discussion on RSS and podcasting, and Tim Moses from Sitemason was also there to demo all the new, neat features in Sitemason. He even created a little podcast in front of everyone in about 3 minutes. The meeting concluded with a discussion on what topics people would be interested in seeing, sharing, or learning, for upcoming 2006 Spiders meetings. There were about 8 people from the library system present.

6) ATLAS.ti Software – You may have noticed the little signs sticking up on 2 of the public workstations. This software, bought by Professor Torsten Ringberg, is also installed in his office and on 2 computers in the Owen 2nd Floor Computer lab. What does it do? “ATLAS.ti is a powerful workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies of textual, graphical, audio and video data. It offers a variety of tools for accomplishing the tasks associated with any systematic approach to “soft” data - i.e., material which cannot be analyzed by formal, statistical approaches in meaningful ways.” (UPDATE:  We no longer have this software in the library system or in Owen as of January 2007.)

7) SDC Platinum - This database, which is client-side (meaning, it’s installed on the computer and isn’t loaded on a server somewhere else where it would be accessible via a network or the Internet), is now installed in the Owen 2nd Floor Computer Lab. It’s traditionally only been installed in the library, but PhD students wanted more access than what library hours could provide. A password is needed to gain access to the resource, so be sure the patron asks for help at the Reference Desk before using this resource.

8) Technology Support Coordinators Meetings - There has been several meetings since the last Friday Tech Update, but most of the discussions have revolved around the email and SMTP server problem across the campus or new computer deployment. VU ITS and LITS are working hard to improve email and spam handling. Our email here in Owen works fine (besides the occasional spam) because we are on a separate network and Owen IT uses different technologies and servers than what VU ITS and the Heard Library uses. However, at February’s TSC meeting, Jody reminded us that viruses and spam and malware are running amuck and getting harder to manage. He thought it might be good for LITS to host some sort of workshop how to safeguard one’s home computer with various security measures. This may take place in April or in May.

9) VUnet ID and Password - You may have seen the email from ITS or from Jody earlier this month about changing your password yet again. Yes, it’s the third time the database was hacked into in 6 months, but ITS is working hard on improving the security. They also have lots of “alarms” in place to alert ITS staff once the system has been hacked. Jody Combs estimates that it still may take a while for the security system to improve drastically. Also, if you do receive a message asking you to change your password, and you aren’t 100% convinced that it’s legit, feel free to call LITS to double-check. They really don’t mind, and appreciate that you are paying attention!

10) SFX Project Team - You may or may not have heard, but Rachel got appointed to the SFX Project Team with Dale Poulter, Ann Ercelawn, and Rick Stringer-Hye. Why should you care? Well, when you are using Acorn or a database, and the FindIt@VU button isn’t quite working as expected, or you discover journals that should be SFX-ized, you will be able to contact me and I can investigate it. But until I get a handle on using the complex and most unfamiliar administrative interface, please continue to submit the problems to LITS via NetFix

11) Cover Sheets on the Color Printer - I asked Danny to look into why some print jobs that are sent to the color printer have cover sheets, and others don’t. Usually the setting for a separator page affects all jobs on the printer. Danny did some digging and found a separator page setup and removed it for both the PostScript and PCL versions of the printer. This may or may not take care of the problem. If you still occasionally get a cover page, please let me know.

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

1. VUprint - Bill Hook has added to the VUprint website more detailed information on how alumni are to get cards, get a username and password (which is their registered email address and assigned PIN), and how to put money on their card. He also reassured me that he would talk to Randy Crafton and the staff at the Card Office regarding consistency and providing accuracy in the information they are telling their patrons.

The information that Bill only recently learned was that the PIN users receive when they go to the card office is their password for VUprint. That PIN DOES NOT work as the password for the web interface. There is an overnight delay is in their EMAIL address being added to the web login. After registering their email with the card office, they must then ALSO register on the web site, but can not do so earlier than the day after going to the card office. So it is all the more important that users be instructed to add money to their account when they go to the card office initially. Clear as mud, right?

I have included the link below to step-by-step directions that Bill complied for Alumni. We may want to print out this page and give it to alumni when they come into the library who haven’t encountered VUprint since its implementation. http://vuprint.vanderbilt.edu/index.php/Main/Alums

Also, see the page for LUC users: http://vuprint.vanderbilt.edu/index.php/Main/Access

2. Blackboard - Blackboard and WebCT recently announced their agreement to merge. The combined companies have over 3,700 academic clients. “Under terms of the agreement, Blackboard will acquire WebCT in a cash transaction for $180 million, which values the offer at approximately $154 million, net of WebCT’s August 31, 2005 cash balance of $26 million. The ultimate value of the offer will vary depending on WebCT’s cash balance at closing. The transaction will combine two pioneering academic e-Learning organizations into a single company with the client base, resources and expertise to uniquely meet the rapidly evolving needs of educators around the world.”

http://investor.blackboard.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=177018&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=767025&highlight=

In addition, Blackboard has launched a new portion of its Web site, http://www.blackboard.com/webct, where anyone can track the latest news and information about the merger.

3. Numbers - Rachel recently numbered the public workstations, the one upstairs, and the 3 student workstations. This will not only make it easier to report which computer is malfunctioning if there are problems, but it also makes it easier for Rachel to manage the frozen computers.

4. Database Update - The Information Services team recently tested new databases, but due to an already maxed out electronic resources budget, it seems that no new resources will be considered the rest of this fiscal year. Upgrades might still be considered, however.

5. Public Workstations - They have been re-reimaged and seem to be very happy. However, on the occasional reboot, the background is white and on the desktop is a message wanting to know if you want to restore your active desktop. Click on the button that says “Restore Active Desktop” and all will be back to normal. Rachel is looking into why this occasionally happens.

6. Digital Suggestion Box - Just a reminder that it exists and that it if for casual discussion of library topics (and the occasional silliness that inevitably occurs). But do remember that what is said there is seen by the world!

7. GIS Brown Bag - Rachel and 2 other members of the GIS Task Force will be doing a Brown Bag session on GIS later next month. This information will be advertised again in the November Staff newsletter (in it’s new form). But you are the first to hear about it!

Brown Bag: GIS, Vanderbilt, and You
Have you ever heard of GIS? Want to know why it’s increasingly being included in the curriculum and how it aids in research? Then come to this session on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) on Wednesday, November 16, 2005, from 12-1 pm in the GLB Room 612A. Three members of the GIS Task Force (Rick Stringer-Hye, Rachel Vacek, and Brian Christens, Director of Vanderbilt’s Census Information Center) will introduce the fundamental principles of GIS, cover how GIS services are being utilized in peer libraries, and highlight resources already available at Vanderbilt, such as data repositories, GIS labs, and the various GIS services that are currently being provided.

8. Acorn Upgrade - This is just a reminder that LITS plans to upgrade Acorn from U2003.1.4.5 to GL3.0.1.1 beginning October 24th at 12:01 am and finishing by October 24th at approximately 6:00 am. This upgrade will also require rebuilding some indexes and a client update. We will not be upgrading to the new Workflows java client (http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/WFJava/newfeatures2.htm) at this time, although this upgrade will enable us to begin using the new Workflows java client for testing in our production environment.

Rachel has a copy of the Workflows updates on CD-Rom in her office in case the upgrade doesn’t go a smoothly as planned. Webcat will be unavailable to the public between 12:00 am and 6:00am on that Monday morning. Should anyone attempt access during these times, a maintenance notification with contact email address will be presented. Reports should finish by 9:00am on Monday morning.

9. Heard Library Staff Newsletter Format - You should have heard by now that the Heard Library Staff Newsletter is changing format starting November 1st. It will no longer be just a plain, boring, HTML page, but will be more robust and give Celia Walker more features than she ever imagined. There will be daily digests, more links, committee meeting agendas and summaries, pictures, as well as an RSS feed. Below are 3 feeds that you can already subscribe to. If you have questions, just ask Rachel!

Heard Library Staff Newsletter feed: http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/newspub/jKwZYA/rss
LITS feed: http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/newspub/hYPrPi/rss
Vanderbilt University Daily Register feed: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases/rss

10. New WML Website - Rachel is making slow progress on the new website and the Staffweb.

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

1. VUprint - Never a week goes by without an update about VUprint. But Rachel feels confident that written policies and procedures will be coming soon from the OUL on Library Use Cards, who can print, and much more.
   David, Rachel, and Brent are still figuring out the administrative VUprint/copy cards issue. Once it’s figured out, rest assured that you will be informed! WML will be also receiving a print release station next week. It will be near Kilimanjaro on the circulation desk so that library staff can more easily help confused patrons. Also, Rachel anticipates 1 of 2 possible events for the future.
   1. There may be another open house type session for training on VUprint and all the policies and procedures that accompany it.
      The Tech Support Coordinators may be responsible for the training of VUprint. In this case, Rachel would be the VUprint trainer for WML, and would hope Brent would collaborate in this.
   • LITS has been working hard with the people who make the CSprint software, and all of the known problems have been fixed. The libraries are probably going to be turning on pay-for-printing prior to the labs, as they aren’t all ready yet. Why not wait till everyone is ready? The library feels most pressed to start charging very soon for printing. According to Bill Hook, the libraries recorded 250,000 pages printed in just the first 2 weeks of Sept, a 25% increase over last year’s September activity. Holy printing, Batman!
2. New Network Port - Someone from VU ITS will also be arriving early this week to install another port by Kilimanjaro. LITS arranged this, and Rachel also assumes that someone will then also activate the port for use.
3. Possible New Printers - David, Danny, Barry, and Rachel met last week to discuss the replacement of Kilimanjaro and Matterhorn. Something formal is being written and will be presented to the Dean, so keep your fingers crossed!
4. Database Update - We have a trial to a new database: Business Monitor Online (BMO) Also, the current subscription to the Forrester database has been extended till Friday, October 14, until more discussion takes places about it’s cancellation or renewal.
5. Upstairs Computer - This computer is ready! That’s right. You didn’t misread. The upstairs computer is ready for public use. The CPU is locked in the cabinet. So if you turn off the computer, you will need the key to turn it back on. Rachel has a key, and Elaine put the second key with the opening keys. It is set to go into sleep mode after 2 hours, so there really isn’t a reason to turn it off each day.
6. Digital Suggestion Box - If you haven’t done so already, please register yourself and have a look at the new Digital Suggestion Box. Feel free to post things, but remember that this is online and available to the entire world to see, so don’t say anything you wouldn’t mind outsiders reading. See Rachel is you need any help.
7. Google - Did you know that you can now personalize your Google homepage? That’s right! You can add all kinds of information to your Google page, besides the Google search bar. You can add local weather, stock info, news, your favorite links, and even RSS feeds! It’s a piece of cake! When you go to Google, you’ll see on the top right-hand corner, “Personalized Home”. Try it out! The personalizing of search engines is something that I have been anticipating for a while now.
   Amazon is the master at this, and even some libraries have portals that are more personalized. Google is now on the bandwagon, and soon you’ll see other search engines emulating Google.
8. New WML Website - Rachel is making slow BUT STEADY progress on the new website and the Staffweb. She is meeting with David this week to discuss its progress.

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

1 ) VUprint - (You honestly didn’t think that we could have a Tech Update without VUprint being in it, did you?) On Wednesday, August 17, Rachel attended the VUprint Open House in the GLB Electronic Classroom from 2-4 pm. Bill Hook presided and answered questions from the 30+ people in attendance. Most of what was said Rachel covered at the Staff Meeting earlier this week.

Here are some helpful reminders for when printing chaos seeps into the library during your shift on a service desk:

1) Tell the patron to print from his/her laptop.

2) Ask the patron to print in the lab upstairs (if he/she is an Owen student)

3) Authenticate patron’s print jobs with your own VUnet ID/password so they can print (but I don’t recommend doing this if they plan on camping out and printing tons of things, as each print job requires authentication)

4) Tell the patron to save the file to the desktop, open his/her email client, and email the file to him/herself. Also, pay attention to file types. You should be familiar with .html, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .mdb, .pdf, .gif, .jpg, etc. If it’s not something you recognize, ask the patron what application is needed to open that file. If it’s not an application that we have in the library, then there is a good chance that it can’t be opened in the library. PDF files are still not printing consistently. But no matter what option you give patrons, PLEASE have them contact the Card Office to determine why their VUnet ID won’t work properly. Also, don’t forget to periodically check the VUprint page. This site and the policies around VUprint are still being developed. Rachel appreciate s your patience in this. She knows it’s frustrating to not be able to provide clear cut answers to our patrons.

***ATTENTION WEEKEND WORKERS : Rachel also hopes to have a temporary printing solution for the weekend folks who might deal with Non-Vanderbilt people (or anyone else who might not have a VUnet ID/password). She’ll send out something later today regarding this.

2) Database Update - No new information, and URLs are still being configured.

• Thomson ONE Banker and Thomson ONE Analytics – Dale Poulter is still working on these.
• Adcritic.com – Jason Battles is still working on this one .
• FARS – George Anglin is still working on this one.

3) Tech Training Coordinators - This group did not meet this month.

4) GIS Task Force - On Thursday , August 1 8 , Rachel and Rahn met with the GIS Task Force to formalize its mission and plan for the next phase. Between now and December 2005, the Team will complete a Heard web page describing GIS on campus and in the libraries. For the web page, the team use data already gathered in addition to surveying or visiting other Vanderbilt departments / areas about GIS software, hardware, data sets, and / or services. The Team will also contact Celia Walker about presenting a Brown Bag lunch “Introduction to GIS” during Fall 2005. As a point of information, Rachel will step up to full Task Force involvement and Rahn will shift to Ad Hoc member status.

5) New WML Website - Rachel is making slow BUT STEADY progress on the new website.

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

1. New VU website - Vanderbilt University has a new look! Check it out!
2. Public Workstations - Rachel conducted a little orientation to the public workstations at the end of the staff meeting on August 10. She will be numbering them soon, and is working with the Datastream database vendor to correctly configure the database so it will work. Everything else seems to be working smoothly. Yeah!
3. VUprint - The CSprint software is installed and currently working correctly (amazingly enough) on all 8 public workstations. Students will not get charged for it until it is working in all the libraries and computer labs across campus, and everyone is ready to go. The original date to start charging was August 15, but as that date is Monday, and several places still are having difficulty with getting consistent results, or they haven’t even installed the client software yet, charging patrons has been delayed. It was decided to just announce to the students instead that “VUprint is coming!” and not provide a definite date.Oddities about VUprint: Items that are sent to the printer remain in the printer queue for 20 minutes WHETHER OR NOT THEY HAVE BEEN PRINTED. This means, even after you printed and picked up your document, that individual job remains visible in the printer queue for 20 minutes. This will probably cause much confusion to the user. And every time you hit print, you must authenticate with your VUnet ID and password. Jody Combs said that in the next upgrade of the product, this lingering print queue issue and many other quirks and oddities hope to be fixed.Another thing to be aware of the VUprint system is that it may slow the printing process, but is estimated to cut the volume of printing by approximately 30%. If the user is experiencing difficulty printing, look at the status bar of the VUprint window that is open. After putting in a username/password, it will either say that the user is denied access or their information has been accepted. If they are continuously experiencing problems with their password, point out the bookmark in the browser that goes to the VUnet ID page, or direct them to the VUprint page. This site is maintained by the library and is still be updated and things about the program are being discovered and policies are being developed.

   Actually, Rachel encourages you to read through the VUprint wiki site, but especially the Who Can Print page which discusses who can and cannot print.

   Also, Bill Hook, who has been leading the implementation of VUprint on campus and has done an amazing job coordinating with the huge team involved in this task, has also set up a VUprint Open House which will take place August 17th, from 2:00 - 4:30pm in the GLB’s electronic classroom. Rachel plans on attending, and although she did a brief demo, she strongly encourages as many of the Access Services team to attend if possible. Being here in Owen makes us special when it comes to technology, but the VUprint team should still be able to answer your toughest questions. Please make suggestions too!

4. Databases Update
   • Thomson ONE Banker and Thomson ONE Analytics – These both have 5 simultaneous users, but Dale said that setting them up is trickier than he thought. Rachel is still discussing this with Dale.
   • Adcritic.com – Dale is still working on this one.
   • FARS – Dale is still working on this one.
   • MultexNet is now officially Reuters Research On-Demand. It is cross referenced in the drop-down menu on the databases page of the WML website.
   • Datamonitor is now officially MarketLine Business Information Centre. It is cross referenced in the drop-down menu on the databases page of the WML website.
5. Tech Support Coordinators - On Tuesday, August 9, Rachel attended the Technology Support Coordinators meeting. They met in the newly renovated Baker Building LITS suite. There were lots of announcements:
   • Dennis Boswell is the new guy in LITS. He has replaced Mill’s position, which was mostly deployment of new workstations and dealing with Deep Freeze. He has working in the VU medical system for 5 years and said he is already enjoying the less chaotic, more casual atmosphere of LITS.
   • Jody provided some statistics on printing: in 2005-2005 school year, the library spent $115,000 on paper and toner alone, and said that with the steady growth in printing over the years, every 2 years that number doubles. So 2 years from now, the estimated cost of paper and toner will be a quarter million dollar, and 4 years from now, about a half a million dollars. The library cannot keep up, obviously, with these growing costs. And it has taken a little over 4 years to come to a campus-wide consensus and commit to implementing a pay-for-print system. Anyway, out of all the libraries, the amount of paper used this past school year is equivalent to about 260 trees. Jody said we’ll save about 60 trees a year, and joked about planting 60 trees and putting little plaques on them.
   • Dale announced that the upgrade to Sirsi’s Unicorn (the new Java client version) will take place in either October or November.
6. Brown Bag - On Wednesday, August 10, Rachel and Rahn attended the Brown Bag session on LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe). It was very informative and the potential for the project to grow is enormous.
7. New WML Website - Rachel is making slow BUT STEADY progress on the new website. She thanks everyone that has contributed content and provided feedback thus far.

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

1. Recent Technology Trends - This is a list of trends, new technologies, and innovations that are affecting libraries internationally and on the minds of many librarians and technologists. Things are changing fast, and these are the hottest topics being discussed. This is merely an FYI.
   • Storage Blogs (It’s short for weblog, and is a public website where users post informal journals of their thoughts, comments, and philosophies. It’s updated frequently and normally reflects the views of the blog’s creator.)
   • RSS (This is short for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication. It’s XML-based and is a commonly used protocol for the syndication and sharing of content, originally developed to facilitate the syndication of news articles, now widely used to share the contents of blogs.)
   • Citizen Journalists (Blogs and RSS Feeds are creating these “citizen journalists,” and this is a concern for authenticity for many people.)
   • Wikis (These are webpages that are editable by visitors to the website, as opposed to conventional websites which can only be changed by the webmaster. They are usually used for community or technical sites to allow for joint authoring and ownership.)
   • E-Books
   • OPACs
   • FRBR (That’s short for Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. It uses an entity-relationship model of metadata for information objects, instead of the single flat record concept underlying current cataloging standards. People typically pronounce it “ferber.”)
   • Interface Design
   • WiFi
   • Broadband and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol, which is basically telephone over the Internet)
   • Google Print, Google Scholar, and MetaSearching (like MetaLib)
   • Folksonomies
   • Digital Rights Management
2. Proxy Migration - All of the proxy migrations are done! Owen students and alumni will no longer have to authenticate with their VUnet ID/password, but only with their Owen ID/password. Jason Reusch, Jason Battles, and Rachel collaborated to make this work.
3. Electronic Resource Usage Statement splash page - The next step to improving the electronic resources in Rachel’s eyes is to work with the Information Services team to create a standard electronic resource usage statement that would be a page that users have to click through before entering a database about ethical usage of that database, and who has access privileges to that database. Rachel hasn’t talked to LITS about this possibility yet, nor has she really discussed it in detail with the IS team yet. But she believes that there is interest among librarians to have something like this!
4. Databases Update - Thomson ONE Banker is up and running. If you experience any problems with a popup window asking you about cookies, please disregard it at the moment. Dale Poulter is fixing it. Also, Multexnet will soon be Reuter’s Research on Demand. Dale ran across several problems and is still working with Reuter’s IT people to configure it correctly. It should be up by early next week at the latest.
5. New Computers - As you are probably aware, the new computers are in, and one is in Rachel’s office being configured. Danny will be taking the image Rachel helped set up and putting that image on all the public workstations. Danny and Rachel will hopefully be setting them up next week when he returns to work. Laura, Sylvia, Marie, and the scanning station at circulation all have new computers. These computers are awesome because they are easy to open to get to the guts of the computer, they each have a CD/DVD burner, USB plugs are on the front of the computer making it easy for people with portable flash drives to plug in, and microphone and headphone plugs are also on the front of the computer. They are also lightening speed! To give you an idea of how fast these things are changing:

   Computer Speed Memory
   Old desktops 1.29 GHz 256 MB of RAM
   Current laptops 1.6 GHz 512 MB of RAM
   New desktops 3.4 GHz 1.0 GB of RAM

6. Pay-for-Print - At this time, it is undetermined if Owen students will be paying for their printing or not. No matter what decision is made, public workstations will still have pay-for-print software on them to charge non-Owen patrons who enter the library. Deb or Rachel will let you know as soon as they hear something from Dean Bradford.
7. CDROM server databases and public workstation databases - This is referring to public workstation #9 (which has FARS, Proquest ABI Inform/Periodicals Ondisc, and Simmons Choices 3 accessible on it) and to the three databases all installed on the public workstations that aren’t accessible remotely (SDC Platinum 3.2, Datastream Advance 4.0, and the Lexis-Nexis Research Software 7.2). So, what about them? Well, recently, Deb, Rachel, and Jason Reusch met to discuss the possibility of putting these on an Owen server so as to make them more accessible. After some examination of the high cost involved in doing so, it was decided that it would be better to wait and see which of the databases are going to be coming out in Web form, and to investigate how other business libraries are dealing with these more complicated databases.
   In summary, Public Workstation #9 will remain, and the three databases will be on the new public workstations when they are deployed.
8. Java Client - LITS is STILL doing some beta testing on a new Java Client for our current and upcoming Sirsi products. It is coming soon, though!
9. Webcasts - On June 15, Rachel attended the webcast: Google’s Library Digitization Project: Reports from Michigan and Oxford. On July 21, Sylvia and Rachel attended the webcast: Narrowcasting 101: Using Blogs, Podcasts, and Videoblogs in Higher Education.
10. GIS Task Force - On Wednesday, June 22, Rachel and Rahn and the rest of the GIS Task Force presented Paul Gherman and other LMC members with a final report. It summarized the current use of GIS on VU’s campus, included an overview of what is being done with GIS at comparable institutions, and gave recommendations for the future of GIS at VU and within the library system. It was decided that the task force will continue on (possibly with additional new members) and further investigate what the Heard Library can do with the various GIS resources in existence, and proceed on to the next level.
11. Presentation - On July 14, 2005, Rachel was one of the presenters at the following Brown Bag Session. Her focus was on the importance and impact of RSS in libraries.

Wikis, Blogs, RSS, Etc.: New Tools for the New Library?
With the recent implementation of the Heard Library’s new strategic plan, we are all investigating ways to be more innovative. Fortunately, there are many new open source technologies that will help us improve communication, expand cross-library collaboration, and enable us to reach many of our goals. Come and learn more about these technologies, how they are currently being used in libraries, and how they could and are being implemented here at Vanderbilt. Join Rick Stringer-Hye, Suellen Stringer-Hye, Dale Poulter, and Rachel Vacek, who are leading this brown bag discussion based on what they discovered at the LITA National Forum earlier this year and other conferences that they have recently attended.

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

1. Hours have been updated on the website.
2. Proxy Migration — Emails were sent earlier this week regarding the scheduled migration of Owen databases from one proxy server to another. This, for the most part, was successful. There were some technical problems, however, but through collaborative efforts from Jason Battles, Jason Reusch, Dale Poulter, and I, things are now working properly again. Thank you for your patience!
3. Alumni proxy server — The Alumni Proxy server, which is still separate from the other database proxy servers, and was not involved in Monday’s migration, has had an update. Jason added an email alert to be sent to him when the alumni proxy server is down. Upon detecting the proxy is down, the system will automatically attempt to restart it. This has been occurring a lot lately, and even occurred twice over this past weekend, and according to Jason, the auto restart worked each time. Yeah! Later this month, or possibly in June, we would also like to migrate the alumni proxy server to the main proxy server, too. It will be considerably easier to manage for LITS .
4. CDROM server and public workstation databases — Then, when those are settled, Rachel will be talking with Deb, Owen IT, and LITS to discuss the issues involved in possibly taking the 3 databases that are on the Heard Library CDROM server and the 3 databases that are installed on our laptops and public workstations, and making them more accessible by being on a secure Owen server.
5. On Tuesday, May 3, Rachel met with Julie Loder to discuss plans to build a website on Library Staff Computer Accessibility Information. This project is being done for the Heard Library Technology Training Coordinators, and will probably be linked off the Heard Staffweb at some point.
6. On Tuesday, May 10, Rachel attended the monthly Technology Support Coordinators Meeting in the Baker Building. There are several things to announce:
   • Baker is getting a facelift! There are several projects going on, including the building of a new server room in LITS, new carpeting in some areas, and new and improved HVAC to improve the temperature of various departments, including the server room. Where is it being built? Well, let’s just say that Dale Poulter will be office-less for about 4 weeks, and then when he gets his office back, it will be considerably smaller, but less noisy and a cooler temperature.
   • LITS will be announcing their new site (which is powered by a wiki!) sometime later this month.
   • New computer workstation deployments will start taking place in early June. Sylvia, Marie, Laura, and Brent will be getting new computers along with 9 new public workstations! Woo Hoo! Rachel will talk to each of you before your computer comes to make sure all your information is saved in appropriate locations and bookmarks are exported.
   • New circulation laptops are being deployed this week and next week. Rachel believes that we are getting one. Marie has more details.
   • LITS is doing some beta testing on a new Java Client for our current and upcoming Sirsi products.
7. The following database training sessions took place:
   • Tuesday, May 3, 11am - 12pm, Business Source Premier
   • Tuesday, May 10, 2 - 4pm, Lexis-Nexis Congressional and Statistical
   • Wednesday, May 11, 3 - 4:30pm, S&P NetAdvantage
8. Rachel is making good progress on the new website. She will have lots of things to show you all on June 1, at the staff meeting. Get excited! It IS coming!

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