INFORMATION SERVICES
February 2002
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to Information Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
02/28/02, With computers, more is not better
As the college continues to purchase more computers than are being retired,
our limited support staff are being stretched increasingly thin to support
and service them effectively. Since the addition of staff is not likely,
we must focus on replacing computers that we already own, rather than
acquiring more workstations. For this reason, using funds remaining at
the end of the fiscal year to purchase new computers must be seriously
cut back. For a full description of the problem, and some solutions being
put into place now, please see our Procurement Policies document at http://www.macalester.edu/infoplan/procurement.html
[Bulletin]
02/28/02, Bandwidth and you
Check out http://webboard.macalester.edu/~infoservices
for an ongoing discussion of the Internet bandwidth issue. Your opinion
is welcome and needed. [Bulletin]
02/28/02, Clean that inbox!
If you have a large number of messages in your e-mail inbox (more than
100) please delete those not needed or save them to another e-mail folder,
your local hard drive or to your account on the network file servers.
If you are using Eudora or another POP mail client, please do not set
it to leave messages on the e-mail server. Measures such as these will
help ensure good e-mail performance for everybody. The Help Desk (x6525)
will explain these procedures—just ask. [Bulletin]
02/28/02, Intellectual property conference
A symposium on "Academic Integrity: Technological Change and Intellectual
Property" will be held at Macalester Friday, April 5. This symposium,
jointly sponsored by Carleton and St. Olaf, will explore the impact of
technology on issues related to intellectual property. Topics to be covered
include the impact of technology on scholarly research, copyright and
plagiarism issues, changes in scholarly publishing and opportunities for
collaboration in teaching about ethical issues related to information.
This symposium is for faculty, students and staff. For more information
or for registration information please see www.macalester.edu/library/symposium. [Bulletin]
02/28/02, Library allocations for 2002-03
A meeting for library
representatives and department chairs to discuss library allocations for
the next academic year will be held at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 3, in
the library. Detailed information will be mailed to library representatives
and department chairs in March, but for those interested, you may wish
to mark your calendars now. [Bulletin]
02/22/02, Nigerian e-mail scam
If you receive an e-mail message purporting to be from a Nigerian (or
other international) government official or entrepreneur, soliciting your
cooperation in laundering a large amount of money and offering you a cut
of the proceeds, you are entirely correct to think it is a scam. “Nigerian
419” has become the generic name. The best thing you can do is delete
these e-mail messages and not reply to them. They have not been sent to
specific individuals, but have been "spammed" by the use of mass-mailing
e-mail tools. If you wish to take more direct action, print out a copy
of the entire e-mail—including the full header information, containing
the electronic path the message took to get into your mailbox—and FAX
it to the U. S. Secret Service’s Financial Crimes Division, at (202) 406-5031.
Do not expect any acknowledgment of your FAX. More information about this
scam may be found on the Web at http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBScams.shtml#nigerian419
or www.treas.gov/usss/financial_crimes.html#Nigerian
[Bulletin]
02/22/02, Computer replacements: two notes
If you applied to the second round of the 2001–02 Microcomputer Fund,
please know that the student/faculty/staff review subgroup of the Information
Services Advisory Committee will be making decisions on these applications
shortly. Results will be communicated to all applicants as soon as possible
thereafter. Purchasing of new computers, and recycling existing ones,
will begin at the same time. If your application is awarded, you will
be contacted about purchase and delivery. The first round of the 2002–03
Micro Fund is coming up soon! Application materials and revised application
information will be posted on the CIT Web pages by the end of February
beginning at this URL:
www.macalester.edu/cit/general/funding.html.
Feel free to look at what’s there now, but be aware that it is not yet
updated. If you have questions, please contact David
Sisk or at x6745. [Bulletin]
02/22/02, Classrooms of the Future VIII
The Classrooms of the Future symposium on May 22 is a day for presentations,
workshops and discussions about issues and applications of technology
in instructional settings in higher education. The theme of this year’s
conference is “Learner-Centered Teaching” and our keynote speaker will
be Stanley R. Trollip, director of learning strategies, Capella Education
Company. Trollip will speak on “Designing Effective Online Learning Environments—The
Tension Between Theory and Practice.” Our host site this year is Hamline
University. COTF is sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities,
the Minnesota Private College Council and the Twin Cities Chapter of the
Association for Educational Communications and Technology. The online
registration form is at www.associatedcolleges-tc.org/cotf/.
Registration is free, includes lunch and is capped at 300 participants.
Also, please note that the deadline for submitting presentation proposals
is March 15. If you have questions on the conference or would like to
submit a proposal, please contact Brian Longley at x6379. [Bulletin]
02/22/02, Current Contents trial
Our subscription to Current Contents will be changing in June. We are
testing a new version and are asking for feedback. The trial will run
through Tuesday, March 12. The trial server contains seven CC editions
and two collections with a six-month file and can be found at http://ccc.isitrial.com
. No password or login is needed. Trial access is limited to a maximum
of three simultaneous users. Any user who attempts to access the database
after three users are logged on will receive notification that the maximum
has been reached. Please note: During the trial, 50 e-mail alerts will
be available to the participants. Trial alerts will expire after four
weeks instead of after the 24 weeks mentioned in Help and Announcements.
Expiration notices will arrive two weeks and then one week prior to the
expiration date. Alerts created near the end of a trial will continue
until the system expiration. If you decide to order after the trial, your
trial alerts would have to be recreated on the live system. See Help for
details on using alerts. Minimum system requirements include Internet
access with Netscape 4.0 or higher, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0
or higher, and a monitor resolution of at least 640x480. Please share
your comments with Clem Guthro. [Bulletin]
02/20/2002, CARS downtime Saturday 2/23
The CARS system will be unavailable this coming Saturday, Feb 23rd, from
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM. During that time we will be refreshing the data in
the train database.
If you have data in the train database that you don't want to lose,
please contact the programmer assigned to your office.
[Notification-L]
02/15/2002, Classrooms of the Future VIII symposium May
22
The Classrooms of the Future symposium is a day for presentations,
workshops and discussions about issues and applications of technology
in instructional settings in higher education. The theme of this year’s
conference is "Learner-Centered Teaching" and our keynote speaker will
be Stanley R. Trollip, director of learning strategies, Capella Education
Company. The subject of Trollip's talk will be "Designing effective online
learning environments - the tension between theory and practice." Our host
site this year is Hamline University. COTF is sponsored by the Associated
Colleges of the Twin Cities, the Minnesota Private College Council and
the Twin Cities Chapter of the Association for Educational Communications
and Technology. The online registration form is at www.associatedcolleges-tc.org/cotf/
Registration is free, includes lunch and is capped at 300 participants.
Also, please note that the deadline for submitting presentation proposals
is March 15. If you have questions on the conference or would like to
submit a proposal, please contact Brian Longley at x6379. [Bulletin]
02/15/2002, Notes on computer replacements
If you applied to the second round of the 2001-02 Microcomputer Fund,
please know that the student/faculty/staff review subgroup of the Information
Services Advisory Committee will be making decisions on these applications
shortly. Results will be communicated to all applicants as soon as possible
thereafter. Purchasing of new computers and the recycling of existing
ones will begin at the same time. If your application is awarded, you
will be contacted about purchase and delivery. The first round of the
2002-03 Micro Fund is coming up soon. Application materials and revised
application information will be posted on the CIT Web pages by the end
of February at www.macalester.edu/cit/general/funding.html.
Feel free to look at what's there now, but be aware that it is not yet
updated. If you have questions, please contact David
Sisk or x6745. [Bulletin]
02/15/2002, Share your views on bandwidth
We must figure out a reasonable policy to ration use of our Internet bandwidth.
While things are going better since upgrade of the connection in January,
inevitable growth in demand will catch up with us again. See webboard.macalester.edu/~infoservices
for a community-wide discussion of the problem and weigh in with your
own views. [Bulletin]
02/15/2002, You have (too much) mail
Please delete excess messages from your e-mail Inbox or save them to another
folder. On the new mail server, the Inbox is stored in a different place
than messages that you have saved into other folders, and we have a limited
amount of room for Inboxes. Running out of space for Inboxes means no
new messages can be received, and can make the mail server crash. Large
inboxes also slow the performance of Mulberry and other mail clients.
If you receive a notice about the size of your Inbox and you are using
Eudora or another POP mail client, check to make sure that your e-mail
client isn’t set to leave messages on the server. If it is, you should
log on to the server periodically through Mulberry or Silkymail to delete
or move the messages left there. We have a large amount of space for mail
folders other than Inboxes, and currently have no limit on the amount
of mail you can store. Please contact the Help Desk at x6525 if you need
assistance with these tasks. [Bulletin]
02/13/2002, Mail Server Problems
From about 9:00 PM last night (Tuesday 2/12) to about 7:00 AM this morning
(Wednesday 2/13), people were unable to login to email. Anyone already
logged in who just stayed logged in during this time probably will not
have noticed anything. The problem was caused by a server configuration
parameter being reset during a software upgrade. Everyone should be able
to login now. [Notification-L]
02/07/2002, E-mail forwarding
Would you like to forward your e-mail to another address or set an automatic
reply while you are away? See mail.macalester.edu
to find out how. [Bulletin]
02/07/2002, With computers, more is not better
As the college continues to purchase more computers than are being retired,
our limited support staff are being stretched increasingly thin to support
and service them effectively. Since increases in staff are not likely
in the short-term, we must focus on replacing computers that we already
own, rather than acquiring more workstations. For a full description of
the problem and some solutions being put into place now, please see our
Procurement Policies document at http://www.macalester.edu/infoplan/procurement.html [Bulletin]
02/07/2002, Bandwidth discussion
We started an online forum to discuss Internet bandwidth issues and possible
policy responses. See webboard.macalester.edu/~infoservices
and say your piece! [Bulletin]
02/07/2002, CLICnet technical difficulties
As an update to the announcement that went out earlier this week, our
vendor has made our technical problems their highest priority. With the
wide range of variables to be tested, it takes some time to identify whether
it is software, network, or line problems. This is stressful for the library
staff as well, so we appreciate your patience, apologize for the inconvenience
and hope for a solution within the week. This problem is affecting all
CLIC institutions at this time. In the meantime, please contact the reference
desk at x6618 for assistance in locating materials. We appreciate your
understanding. [Bulletin]
02/05/2002, CLICnet Technical Difficulties
There have been technical difficulties with CLICnet for the
past week. If you are experiencing blank pages or the message "no data
sent," please exit out of your browser and reconnect. We have found there
are intermittent problems with Netscape 6.0, so please try using Internet
Explorer. If you do not have Internet Explorer, call the reference desk
and we'll check on title/author availability for you. We are working with
our system administrator and the vendor to find the solution to the problem.
The vendor has rated us "highest priority." If you have questions or need
assistance, please contact the reference desk at x6618. If you have complaints,
please contact Terri Fishel
or x6343. [Notification-L, Bulletin Flash]
02/01/2002, Intellectual Property Conference in
April
"Academic Integrity: Collaborating to teach respect for intellectual property"
- a symposium to be held at Macalester Friday, April 5, jointly sponsored
by Carleton and St. Olaf. The symposium will explore the impact of technology,
the role of information literacy and the opportunities for collaboration
as we strive to teach ethical use of information resources. The symposium
is the first in a series of three planned annual sessions relating to
information literacy issues. More information will be mailed to faculty
in February. [Bulletin]
02/01/2002, Stork Sighted Over CIT Offices
Two CIT staff members - Franc Garcia and David Sisk - are looking
forward to the birth of babies during the next few months. Both will
be taking parental leave at some point. Since we have a small staff
to begin with, these absences will increase the workload on our
colleagues and may delay responses to your service calls and needs.
We ask for your understanding and patience.
[Bulletin]
01/31/2002, Welcome back from Information Services!
During the holidays and January recess, Information Services
departments have been working hard to deal with existing challenges,
as well as developing new services for the campus. As we begin the
Spring semester, we want to give you a brief summary of major changes
and new initiatives in our areas that may affect you. Please share
this information with your colleagues, particularly those who may not
subscribe to Notification-L. (Of course, anyone at Macalester may
subscribe to this list on the Web at
http://subscribe.macalester.edu).
* BANDWIDTH. After ten months of prodding our
vendors to honor their agreements, we begin the new semester having
tripled our bandwidth to the Internet from 3 Megabits per second to 9
Mbps. This is progress, but only incremental progress: we must add
more bandwidth (and have proposed doing so as part of current budget
negotiations). Given the very high costs involved, we probably will
not be able to add more bandwidth during the current fiscal year. If
you notice that Internet connection speeds have slowed markedly, it is
primarily due to on-campus users downloading large files in large
amounts from off-campus sources. Some limits on daytime access from
residence halls, coupled with "packet shaping" technology that
restricts some forms of traffic (such as MP3s) but not others (such as
http), have been deployed to most effectively balance the bandwidth we
have. It takes only a couple of users downloading huge files to slow
all traffic for all users, and we are therefore working on methods of
pinpointing such users so that we can better control this
mission-critical resource. An analysis of the problem may be found on
the Web at http://www.macalester.edu/infoplan/bandwidth-progress.html.
* VACATION MESSAGES AND E-MAIL FORWARDING. Thanks to some hard work by
our Networking staff, you have two new options for managing your
e-mail more effectively. When you must be away from campus, you can
choose to set a 'vacation' message: all incoming mail will be received
and held for you as usual, but your correspondents will get an
automatic response with text you have created. For example, you may
indicate when you will return, or to whom inquiries should be directed
while you're gone. If you will be away for some time, and want to
check your Macalester e-mail through another e-mail address, you can
forward your mail from here to the address of your choice. (Of
course, if you do this, the messages will not be retained by
Macalester's mail system.) Forwarding is more useful in "extended
absence" situations such as a faculty member on sabbatical or a
student studying abroad. Both services require a Macalester username
and password. Check them out on the Web at
http://mail.macalester.edu/.
* INVENTORY AND PROCUREMENT CHANGES. Our inventory
database reveals that the College owns approximately 1,357 desktop
computers - slightly more than two computers per employee. The
inventory has grown much faster than the number of professional staff
available to assist users and service the machines (now approximately
4 persons). This does
not include computers owned by students, approximately 80% of whom
bring computers to campus (and expect support for them). If we are to
provide adequate support for desktop computers, unlimited growth in
the number of such computers cannot continue. In cooperation with the
Information Services Advisory Committee and in consultation with the
Provost, CIT has drafted some guidelines on desktop computer
procurement. Most noticeably, the unrestricted use of remaining funds
for end-of-year computer purchasing must end. Detailed information
is available on the Information Services Planning pages: see
http://www.macalester.edu/infoplan/procurement.html.
* PC OPERATING SYSTEM CHANGES. It has been clear for some months that
because Microsoft has long since discontinued Windows 98, we must move to a
newer PC operating system. But which would be better for
Macalester - Windows 2000 or Windows XP? Conflicting information from
vendors, mixed reviews from technology sources and skyrocketing costs
delayed the decision, but we have determined to go with Windows XP.
This OS will be tested in CIT and will start coming out to campus installed
on newly-purchased PCs. There are NO plans at this time to retrofit
existing PCs with the hardware necessary to upgrade to XP, so if you are
currently using Windows 98 (or even 95) on a College-owned PC, don't look
for any immediate changes or disruptions.
* SFX IS HERE! The library is now offering a new service, called SFX,
that provides enhancements for our online databases. SFX enables us
to connect users locating citations in one database to the fulltext
content in another database. This service is currently limited to
four databases: Web of Science, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts,
FirstSearch databases, and the Gale (Infotrac) databases. For more
information about using this service, see the library web pages at
http://www.macalester.edu/library/. If you want to learn more,
please contact Jean Beccone at x.6398 or beccone@macalester.edu.
[Notification-L]
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