WML Tech Updates

I’ve recently made the following changes to the WML website:

• Updated the Google Scholar page, which is in the section on “How do I begin my research?”
• Added a few new images for the rotation at the top of the homepage
• Changed the font and added mention of the Jean & Alexander Heard Library at the top of every page
• Added new database information: SOCRATES (Coming soon: Plunkett Research info and updated descriptions for Business Insights and MarketResearch.com)
• Removed canceled databases: Thomson One Banker, Thomson One Analytics, D&B Key Business Ratios
• Updated the Databases by Subject page and several Research Guides
• Fixed many descriptions that needed an entity instead of a particular character
• Turned many images from pngs to jpgs for quicker page load
• Incorporated the many changes Flo suggested

Things I am still working on for the WML site:

• Redoing the login pages for proxy access
• Fixing the “page not found page” - I’ve asked Suellen if I can use their perl script
• Fixing many pictures
• Imroving search engine results
• Improving the “database of databases” to better manage subject categories of databases and research guide categories (This one is time intensive.)
• Creating a web-based interface for librarians to interact with the database easier, for updating/changing and viewing information
• Improving SQL query statements
• Impriving the CSS for print format
• Creating a BIS form
• Imrpoving functionality of existing forms
• Improving the findability of heavily used pages
• Improving the Contact Us page and make phone numbers more prominent
• Working on adding additional links for the blog page on how to subscribe to various aggregators
• Waiting for BIS PDFs and other information
• Waiting for additional content from people for 2nd level priority items (Due Friday, March 16th)
• Much, much more (but at the time of writing this, I can’t think of what those things are)

Well, the poll that was on our homepage has now been taken down. It was there for about a month, and we had 25 respondents. It clearly wasn’t official, and the options were limited and slightly slanted to the positive. But I think that we can do similar polls using this handy little Sitemason tool in the future to just get a feel for what people think about things, like possible workshops, favorite databases, what they would like to see more of, etc. If you have any ideas for poll topics, please leave a comment here! I need your help in making the site fun, informative, and interactive. Thanks.

Yes, everyone, we have a new webiste! You knew it was coming. But even after getting it up today, I am still in shock. Yet, I am proud of it! It was a heck of a lot of work, and I think our users will like it. Even if they aren’t crazy about it, it’s still better than what was there.

Take a look around, and if you have any comments or see problems (broken links, etc.), please send them to me!

Thanks,
Rachel

The Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) is using Google Co-op, which is a tool that you can use to create a customized search engine (often refered to as a CSE) for your site. The search engine at OPLIN searches all 251 Ohio public library websites. It’s blended in with their Find a library search tool, where you can either find a library, or search through all the library websites.

The reason I mention this is because I decided to use this very same technology for our new website. Google CSE will search our website at the directory level. This means we can set it to only search /walker rather than at the root level, which is www2.owen.vanderbilt.edu, which is also the entire Owen website. We obviously are just interested in people finding information on our library website. It does not search through databases or through Acorn - just the pages of our site.

Our very own Hilary Rudsenske has a background in search engine optimization, and because she’s really interested in this stuff, I put her in charge of improving the WML search engine. She can do a lot more customization to it, improve rankings of various pages, include or exclude certain pages or other directories (such as removing our Staffweb from the search results), and other cool things. After things go live in January, and all our high priority needs are met, she can start improving the search features.

From the small amount of testing we have done so far, the search engine seems to far more impressive than the Heard Library Search Engine.

1) The NEW Java Client version of Sirsi - There have been many concerns and questions about implementation, training, and wondering when all this is going to take place with our impending renovation here in WML. Earlier this week, Rachel talked with Julie Loder in LITS, and rest assured, everything will be okay. Take a deep breath. There is no need to panic. But please do read through the following information.

Installing the new client

LITS will be “installing” the new version of Sirsi through the Novell network for Heard Library networked libraries. As you know, this does not include us. LITS will be sending a disk with the prorgam on it to the Law, Management, and Eskind Libraries, and they can install it however way they choose. Since we have so few computers (at least compared to some of the other libraries), it would take longer to create new images, reimage every computer, and reinstall other additional software - than it would to simply install it on each person’s computer. I may enlist Danny to help with the process.

Also, I will not be uninstalling the current version of Sirsi that we are using. Everyone will have both the old version as well as the new version on his or her computer. There will be at least a several month period where you are encouraged to try using the new version for your everyday tasks, but you’ll still have to opportunity to use the old version if you can’t figure out how to do it in the new session.

When is it going to be installed?

I also talked with Julie about not entirely knowing where we physically will be this summer (since we may have to vacate our offices and set up shop elsewhere due to the renovation), and that getting the installation done in advance would be one less thing for us to worry about. So she will be sending me a disk within the week, and I’ll start installing it. My goal will be to have it installed on every computer by the end of April. You will be able to play with it as much as you like, but keep in mind that no one here in WML, including myself, have used it before. So if you have a questions about how to do something, please just be patient and wait to ask your questions at the training sessions in May, June, or July 2006.

Training on the new client

There have been a number of people throughout the library system who have been beta testing the new client for months now. More than likely, many of them will become the trainers on various parts of the new client. For example, if an individual only worked with the circulation-related part of the new Sirsi client, then that person might volunteer to become a trainer for just that part of the client. The same goes for those who deal with serials, collection development, cataloging, and other modules within Sirsi. So in short, there will be multiple training sessions, taught by multiple people throughout the library system, at multiple times throughout the summer.

Who is coordinating the training, and when is going to happen?

Currently, LITS is aware of the individuals who have been doing beta testing, so they might be able to come up with a list of possible trainers. But there are no set dates, times, or even confirmed trainers at this time. Julie said that as it gets closer to the summer (that is, when April is over), all this information will get communicated.

It is also unclear as to whether LITS, the Staff Development Committee, or a new project team will be coordinating the overall training. I trust that Celia Walker and Jody Combs and whomever else is involved in the procress will figure something out, and that whatever is decided will get communicated to us at the appropriate time. I am also confident that someone (or a group of people) are compiling documentation on how to do various tasks within the new Sirsi client.

Questions?

If you have questions, I would be more than happy to talk to you about what I know. I will also keep you updated (either through more Friday Tech Updates, email, or at staff meetings) as I learn more. Also, bookmark this page. It’s still under development, but they will be adding more to it as time goes by. Thank you for your patience throughout this process!

2) Kilimanjaro - Kilimanjaro is behaving more than usual. Rachel assumes the fix she made on the public workstations helped, and that the network port being fixed by VU ITS is the main reason for the improvement. Still, there are occasional weird things that happen with it, as Rachel is sure Circulation staff can attest to. But for the most part, it seems OK.

3) Printer Server being Maintenanced - Rachel talked with Owen IT about performing maintenance on the print server (or any server) when the library is open, even if it seems like a slow Friday afternoon elsewhere in the school. This incident happened last time without warning, and patrons as well as staff were caught unaware. She was told that next time, they will try to communicate more in advance when services will be down for maintenance. As you noticed recently, Jason Reusch announced several days in advance that they would be doing server maintenance Thursday night through Friday morning. Rachel is glad the communication lines are open.

4) SFX Project Team Report - On February 27th, Rachel and the rest of the SFX Project Team met with some members from Order Services (Mary Ellen Wilson, Chris Waldrop, and Roberta Winjum) who wanted a clearer idea of what the project team does, how much time is spent fixing things, and how often updates are run. The team will meet again soon to discuss:

* Status of the OpenURL generator
* Status of local holdings enhancement
* Additional databases to be SFX-ized (including a discussion about other WML databases that might work with SFX)

5) Primo Demonstration - On Thursday, March 30th, 2 representatives from Ex Libris came here to talk about the library possibility of being a beta test partner with them for their new end-user information discovery and delivery tool called Primo. Rachel went to the demo and was thoroughly impressed with the product despite it still being in early development. It was very reminiscent of Amazon’s interface and Google’s search engine and features. The system utilizes FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) which, in short, takes full full advantage of all the fields in the records, and therefore primo won’t require recataloging. All information also comes from local collections (catalog, journals, repositories, etc.).

There is another tab could could work with MetaLib, the metasearch engine that searches multiple databases. We currently do not have a metasearch tool such as this, and from the trail we had last year with MetaLib, there would have to be a lot of improvement with that particular product before the VU libraries would purchase it, I believe.

Other cool features of Primo include: Reviews of books can be imported in from Amazon, and users could have the option to write their own review, as well as rate items. Users can search on similar resources, subject, other languages, editions. Tagging, as in the kind used in del.icio.us or Flickr, can also be used within Primo. There is the “People who viewed this item also viewed X, Y, and Z” feature.

Primo also utilizes faceted browsing where you can narrow your search by clicking on other related and extracted information to narrow your search. Examples are narrow your search by subject (a variety of subjects are listed), author, type of item (books, journals, audio, etc), language, publication date, etc. Basically, faceted browsing allows users to choose predefined options rather than guess. It gives the user the opportunity to refine their search and they won’t be able to hit a dead end.

Primo ranks its search results based on a relevancy ranking. This relevancy ranking algorith can be fine-tuned. You can assign more weight to some resources to make them more relevant, or appear higher in the result list. You can also analyze user statistics and make adjustments accordingly. It will also work within a Course Management System such as Blackboard

There are many, many more features, and I could say a lot more, but overall, I personally think it would be foolish for us not to partner with Ex Libris in beta testing. This seems to be the type of product our users want.

Here is a breif mention of Primo in Library Journal.

6) Public Workstations & Upstairs Computer - Rachel talked with Danny and he’ll be reimaging the public workstations, including the one upstairs, within the next week or so.

7) Update on the NEW WML Website - Rachel has made great strides on the website, and it’s at a point where some usability testing can be done again before many of the deeper pages are created. Sometime within the next few weeks, she will be showing the website to WML staff for feedback, and doing some usability testing with a few Owen students. She’s also been working on capturing every single page of the site on paper, and seeing what is done, and what yet needs to be done, and by whom. It will serve as a task list and hopefully help people know exactly what needs to be done yet. Many of the pages need much discussion on the content before deeper pages can be made. David is helping her organize this so it will be clearer as to what is done, what isn’t, and hopefully won’t be so overwhelming to people.

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

Grab a cup of’ coffee. This is another long one. :)

1. Rachel attended the monthly Technology Training Coordinators meeting over in Baker. The group has been looking at usage statistics for New Horizons, the online, self-paced training modules, and doing research on other various training tools and opportunities. Additionally, Rachel is working with Julie Loder to develop a website to aid library staff in adjusting accessibility features in Windows XP . The group hasn’t been doing much as of late due to the anticipation of the Heard Library Strategic Plan, and the hope that it will give the group more direction.
2. The monthly Technology Support Coordinators meeting was also held:
   • There have been many problems with the campus-wide email system, so be glad we are on Owen’s network! Jody is working close with VU IT Services to remedy this major problem.
   • An announcement: If you need to send an email to the entire Library Staff, you must have approval from any LMC member before doing so.
   • The Print Management Project (Pay-for-Print) is coming along. All the libraries, the deans of all the schools, student government, the VU card office, and others have been consulted regarding the implementation of the pay-for-print system. At this time, Rachel is is unaware if there was a final decision made on Owen students paying for print jobs. Nevertheless, Implementation will begin in May, and we should have about 2 months to “work out the kinks” before anyone on campus starts charging.
   • Malware and phishing has been on the rise, and the spam that you are getting is getting better at coming in disguised. For example, someone in LITS received an email that was localized (talked about Nashville and the TN Titans) and had his name on the attached .zip file. There was also a message and a McAfee logo within the email saying that the email had been run through your virus scanner and was clean. All in all, this attachment was a worm that would wreck your computer and find its way into the network. This “phish” would only be “caught” if your virus software was up-to-date.
   • LITS already has a pool of candidates and will begin interviewing soon for Mill’s position.
   • Jason Battles, one of LITS’s newest members, will be doing a lot more of the proxy server set-up and maintenance, as well as working closely with Dale on other projects. He has server, programming, and system admin experience. He also used to work for Sirsi, and since he’s from Alabama, he gets a “Roll Tide!“
3. On March 3, Rachel attended a presentation from SIRSI on some new products the Heard system will be investigating for possible purchase. One is an Electronic Resources Management System (ERMS) tool, and the other is their Director’s Station product (which would collect tons of statistics and data for management). Both sound very promising!
4. On March 10, Rachel attended the first program of ACRL’s virtual 12th National Conference. Lynch and Keller discussed issues like googlization, digital repositories, distance education, and privacy. Clifford Lynch was very insightful as usual, but this audio only program had lots of room for improvement.
5. On March 18, Rachel and Amia attended the Library as Place: Where People Want to Be Webcast. Very informative, and Rachel and Amia took great notes and got some good ideas.
6. Also on Friday, March 18, Rachel, Amia, Deborah, and Dale Poulter met to discuss new proxy configurations, database management issues, and answer many access and proxy questions. Many things have evolved as a result of this meeting:
   • We are beginning to migrate some databases that used a special proxy server over to the same one that the rest of campus uses, making it easier for Dale to manage.
   • We are confirming which databases are indeed Owen only, and which are not. Deb is assisting in this process as well.
   • We are trying to get the same configurations of databases on both the Heard page and the Walker page so there are no discrepancies and it’s easier for the students.
7. We subscribe to many print journals and magazines, and some give free online access to the electronic version via a username and password. Dale is trying to make it accessible to the Owen community with an automatic login so users don’t have to stop by the Reference desk and ask for login information.
8. Jody Combs reported that LITS is seeing an increase in staff members bringing service requests and problem reports directly to LITS staff members or reporting them through LITS email addresses rather than through NetFix. As you know, this causes several problems for LITS and for the Library. Follow up reporting can be done through email, phone, or in person–but if the request doesn’t initially get into the NetFix system, they cannot track or manage it efficiently.
9. Rachel and Amia taught a workshop on Thursday, March 24 in collaboration with the Business & Technology Club on Electronic Networking and Job Search Resources.
10. LITS is now participating in The LOCKSS Program , (for “Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe”). What is it, and why is it important?
    • The evolution of web technology is disrupting the critical library role of libraries as one of society’s most important memory organizations. Libraries without collections have no memory; they are not libraries. LOCKSS restores to libraries the ability to collect, to preserve, and to provide access to web-based materials.
    • The software provides libraries with a tool they can use to ensure that current and future generations have access to scholarly content.
    • The system is an open-source, peer-to-peer persistent access preservation system for web-based information.
    • Through the LOCKSS Program, libraries can own content they currently lease or access on the Web. Each library instructs its LOCKSS machine to preserve the content it considers important to its collection; the LOCKSS then machine collects and preserves an authoritative copy. Publishers grant libraries’ institutional users the right to access the preserved content in perpetuity. Readers see the publishers’ content, unless it is unavailable for any reason (canceled subscription, network outage, etc.) in which case they see the preserved content.
    • This is very good indeed!
11. Rachel attended a live Webcast: Teaching, Learning, & Research: Libraries and Their Role in the Academic Institution on Tuesday, March 1 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm in the Central Library Classroom . Very good webcast.
12. Through March and April, Rachel and Marie worked with Jim Toplin and Dale Poulter to get Illiad up and running on the main circulation computer. Marie will announce when we are ready for training and or launch!
13. Rachel has also been working with Mills (before he left) and Jim Toplin to figure out why Ariel wasn’t connecting with the Ariel server. Additionally, Rahn is talking with copyright experts regarding posting scanned articles to the web in a secure, password protected location. Rachel and Laura are meeting again next week to get Ariel up and running.
14. On Tuesday, April 5, Rachel and Laura attended a panel discussion on Open Access. Roberta Winjum spoke about the VU e-Archive , Vanderbilt’s institutional repository, and the other 2 panelists were faculty and editors of journals, one of which was not open access, and the other being AmeriQuests, Vanderbilt’s first online peer-reviewed Open Access journal. Laura always takes excellent notes, so if you are interested in this, please see her.
15. Rachel is working on the Staffweb and incorporating your ideas and documents to be linked. She’ll have something to show by next week’s Staff Meeting.
16. Rachel is also working on a wiki for us to use eventually. She originally wanted a wiki for the Staffweb, but she’s got a lot to learn about wikis and is not ready to show a URL for that one yet.
17. Implementation of the new Pay-for Print system should begin in May, and we will have the summer to work the kinks out. We will not begin charging until the start of classes in Fall 2005. Rachel will keep you (and Danny) updated.
18. Databases. Just the typical breaks, fixes, and horrible customer service from Ebsco. Rachel typically updates the Info Services Staff of the changes at the Tuesday Reference Meetings, which are also put in the minutes.
19. Password Management is a good thing. Hilary and Rachel are leading up the effort to gather all the usernames and passwords used within the library (not personal usernames and passwords) for things like database, workstation, and software access.
20. The new WML Website is coming along slowly. Hopefully next week, Rachel will schedule and meet with the Website Planning & Implementation Team (Rachel, Amia, Marie) and plan the goals for the site for the rest of the summe r and for August implementation. Also, the Information Services team is working hard at sprucing up and developing more comprehensive Research Guides for the new site. It’ll be exciting when they are done!
21. Public workstations. You may have noticed some changes.
    • Seven of the eight computers have been ghosted and Deep Frozen. This is good. But DataStream and SDC are not working properly on all of them, due to restrictions Danny and I put on the computer to not let the normal wmlpublic login have administrative rights. This is bad. Rachel is working hard to fix the problem and will keep the librarians informed of her progress.
    • They shouldn’t be turned off at night as that is when they will run Windows updates. Marie will be noting this in the opening/closing procedures in due time.
    • Rachel will create a list of all the programs/resources on the public workstations.

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

1. Rachel has been invited to participate in the MetaLib Task Force. What is MetaLib? “The MetaLib library portal from Ex Libris enables users to access their institution’s e-collections, obtain relevant services, and work in a personalized environment.” The group includes:
   • Janice Adlington (Central)
   • Chris Benda (Peabody)
   • Marshall Breeding (OUL)
   • Ann Ercelawn (Technical Services)
   • Dale Poulter (LITS)
   • Rick Stringer-Hye (Science and Engineering)
   • Suellen Stringer-Hye (LITS)
   • Pauline Todd (Biomedical)
   • Rachel Vacek (Management)
2. The GIS Task Force met last week. It was an interesting meeting and both Rachel and Rahn learned about the knowledge and experiences the team has with GIS and GIS technologies. Paul Gherman will receive periodic updates from the team as they determine the need for GIS training, exposure, marketing, and an overall evaluation of the value GIS can bring to the various services (like BIS) and to the Vanderbilt community as a whole. The group will meet every 2-3 weeks. The group includes:
   • Susan Erickson (Central)
   • Leigh Gostowski (Peabody)
   • Rahn Huber (Management)
   • Rick Stringer-Hye (Science)
   • Rachel Vacek (Management)
   • Amy Stewart-Mailhiot (Central)
3. Rachel and Brent are working on developing several possible logos for the Walker Website , as well as some possible slogans (based on talking with people and from the ideas hanging in the workroom). What do you envision in a logo? Books? Technology? Abstract? Modern? Fun? Professional? Business-related? Earthy? (had to put that one in!) Sharp- looking? Symbolic? Traditional? What about a slogan? Be thinking about it, and as you go shopping or open mail or watch TV over the Thanksgiving break, try to pay attention to the logos and branding you see. Rachel and Brent will share the examples they have developed at the next staff meeting, or shortly thereafter. Brent will draw it, and Rachel will try to duplicate it digitally. Keep in mind, Rachel is not a graphic artist. She just tries her darnedest.
4. Rachel, Rahn and Leslie attended an enlightening presentation on Tuesday, November 16 at the Frist. The Southern Appalachian Chapter of SLA presented “Libraries in the Age of Amazoogle,” by Alane Wilson, Senior Library Market Consultant at OCLC. It was an enlightening presentation on OCLC’s 2003 Environmental Scan on different landscapes in today’s culture: social, economic, technical, research/learning, and the library landscape.Trends seem to be that people want self-service, comprehensive information, immediate gratification, to compete, collaborate, and create. They want “collaborative meritocracy.” Library OPACs are terrible at this, and the economic landscape is grim. The new era is that technology is ever present and people are always connected – we are moving from a computer era to an access era. Learning environments are more about the people and place, not just about the technology or the quantity of books. They want communities, even a “third place” to go to. (Third place refers to not home, not work, but that third place where people go to feel comfortable and escape from the other place.There is a trend to move away from the traditional, and Alane encouraged people to develop non-traditional positions within libraries. She also encouraged us to read “The Battle for Mindshare: A battle beyond access and retrieval”, by John J. Regazzi, Managing Director of Market Development at Elsevier. One quote from the presentation that Rachel really liked:

   “The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” — William Gibson

5. Public Workstation #4 is in Danny’s Office. It’s not broken. He’s just getting the image that Rachel created so he can re-ghost all the public workstations.
6. Laura and Rachel are still getting Ariel set up correctly.

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

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!