INFORMATION SERVICES
September 2002
return
to Information Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
09/26/02, Spam spam e-mail and spam
Spam is unsolicited e-mail, usually unwanted advertisements (not to be confused
with SPAM, all caps, produced by Hormel
Foods in Austin, MN). Spam may be offensive or pornographic; spam
unquestionably clogs Inboxes and frustrates everyone. Spam is not simply a
problem at Macalester, but at many other colleges and universities. The Chronicle
of Higher Education published an excellent overview of the problem in its September
27 issue: we encourage you to read this article, accessible by permission at
http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i05/05a04701.htm.
What action is CIT taking against spam? If there were a simple, universally-applicable way to prevent spam, we would do it. Unfortunately, short of cutting off e-mail altogether, there is no such blanket solution. We can take some incremental technical steps to cut down on the volume of spam, and have done so. These include:
None of these steps is completely effective at blocking spam, and for this reason we are considering taking further incremental actions, such as:
What CIT cannot, and will not, do is to scrutinize incoming individual e-mail messages. Aside from the scope of the task (impossible with our current staffing levels), this would violate user privacy and severely undermine the principles of academic freedom. A message that is spam to one person may well be useful to, or even wanted by, someone else. Just as the Post Office does not sort your paper mail to remove the junk, leaving that task up to your individual judgment, CIT cannot sort your electronic mail to remove all spam. This is why so many of the incremental spam-fighting steps mentioned here depend on individual awareness and action. [Bulletin]
09/26/02, x6777: What's That?
x6777 will direct you to Macalester departments and on-campus people, by using
your phone keypad and simply spelling the department name or last name of the
person. It's available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Please call x6777 and
try your own name. (Admissions and Athletics personnel are not accessible via
x6777.) If you don't find yourself, please call Telecommunications at x6566.
[Bulletin]
09/26/02, I Want To Stay Informed
And we want to keep you informed. If you are not already subscribed to
Notification-L, point your browser to http://subscribe.macalester.edu/notification-l/
and do so. Notification-L is Information Services' quickest method for getting
the word out regarding IT issues of general interest, particularly planned and
unplanned system events. All Information Services postings to Notification-L,
Bulletin and the Today are archived on the Web at www.macalester.edu/infoservices/.
[Bulletin]
09/25/02, CARS Unavailable 9/29/02
The CARS system will be unavailable this coming Sunday, September 29, from 8:00
AM until 3:00 PM. We will be refreshing the data in the train database. If you
have questions, please contact Ramón Rentas at x.6633. [Notification-L]
09/20/02, Harmon Reading and Research Series
Our first event for the new academic year will take place at 3:30 PM Wednesday,
September 25, in the Harmon Room of the Library. In celebration of Hispanic Heritage month,
Juanita Garciagodoy, Spanish, will be sharing a paper entitled "The Once and
Future Text: Twenty-first Century Shock at Fifteenth-century Mores in Oliveros De
Castilla, a Romance of Chivalry." This event is open to all faculty, staff and
students. Refreshments will be served. We hope you will be able to join us. [Bulletin]
09/20/02, Notification-L: What and Why
"What is Notification-L? Why am I getting messages on it?"
Notification-L is an e-mail-based distribution list, dedicated to informing the Macalester community about scheduled repairs and maintenance on CIT's network and telecommunications equipment. These types of repairs generally require temporarily shutting down parts of our network (such as the CARS system or one of the file servers). Occasionally, Notification-L is used to announce upcoming changes in network operating systems or software. In cases of scheduled upgrades or repairs, we print notices in regular campus publications, including the Bulletin and the Today. For such planned system downtimes, Notification-L is a redundant method of communication, a supplement to regular publicity channels that many of our clients find convenient. Postings to Notification-L arrive via e-mail for all subscribers.
Notification-L is also our best way to quickly communicate with users concerning what we euphemistically call "unplanned system events," such as emergency shutdowns, reboots, etc. These are network or telecommunications problems that arise unexpectedly and require a rapid response. In these cases, we are faced with the need to immediately notify as many people as possible of the situation so that our clients may plan accordingly.
Beginning Fall semester 2002, all e-mail accounts at Macalester are automatically subscribed to Notification-L. If you wish to stop getting these postings, you may unsubscribe whenever you wish. To change your subscription go to www.macalester.edu/subscribe/. Click on the link for Notification-L and follow on-screen instructions. If you have difficulty, please contact Computing's Help Desk at x6525. Postings are archived at www.macalester.edu/infoservices.
Notification-L is NOT a method of announcing and publicizing events of general interest to the campus community. These types of announcements are handled through the College Relations Office, including its electronic distribution list, Bulletin Flash. [Bulletin]
09/20/02, New Phone Books At Your Fingertips!
QwestDex is now providing the traditional phone books for St. Paul & Minneapolis
digitally. Below are links to QwestDex Live! - a digital replication of our local
phone book. This product gives you the convenience and benefit of having the
local Qwest Dex directory right on your desktop! This improved solution
includes:
09/20/02, Need a Student's Telephone Number?
You have many available options. The on-line directory available from the main
Macalester Web page (www.macalester.edu) includes all on- and off-campus
students. You can also be connected to on-campus students' phones by using x6777,
our automated directory of on-campus departments and people. If you have any
problems using these resources, please contact the switchboard at x6000 or
Telecommunications at x6566.
[Bulletin]
09/20/02, What NOT To Do When Mailing to Large Groups
If you're sending an e-mail message to a large group of individual addresses (not
to a single list address), it's better to put all those addresses into the "BCC:"
field. BCC: means "Blind Carbon Copy," and each recipient of the message will not
see the long list of everyone else's address. Even more importantly, if anyone
replies to such a message, the response will not be sent along to every single
address that originally received it.
[Bulletin]
09/13/02, New Library Service Added
ACM Digital Library/Portal. This fulltext resource provides information for the
computer science field. It includes bibliographic information, abstracts,
reviews, and full-text for articles published in ACM periodicals and proceedings
since its founding in 1947 as well as selected works published by affiliated
organizations. Tables of Contents for ACM Newsletters published since 1985 are
also available in the Digital Library. You can access this service from the
library resources page www.macalester.edu/library/resources/indexes or directly
at www.acm.org.
[Bulletin]
09/13/02, Help Desk Help
Your patience and understanding during this difficult period of the academic year
is appreciated. During the first five days of classes, the Help Desk recorded
over 250 work requests. At the same time, regular staff were training new
students into their difficult Help Desk jobs and spending evenings in the residence
halls, trouble-shooting student computers. We WILL get to your request!
[Bulletin]
09/13/02, Free Software For You!
Visit www.macalester.edu/cit/services/software
for lots of important software downloads. You can download Windows XP Service
Pack 1 there, which will be a MUCH faster download than from off-campus; Norton
Antivirus for Windows and Macintosh platforms; the latest Novell clients, and a
ton more. NOTE: the Novell client for OSX arrived only days ago so pioneering
users must await documentation and experienced support in a few weeks. All of
this is at no charge to you because of your affiliation with Macalester.
[Bulletin]
09/13/02, New Phone Books At Your Fingertips!
QwestDex is now providing the traditional phone books for St. Paul & Minneapolis
digitally. Below are links to QwestDex Live! - a digital replication of our local
phone book. This product gives you the convenience and benefit of having the
local Qwest Dex directory right on your desktop! This improved solution
includes:
09/13/02, Need a Student's Telephone Number?
You have many available options. The on-line directory available from the main
Macalester Web page (www.macalester.edu) includes all on- and off-campus
students. You can also be connected to on-campus students' phones by using x6777,
our automated directory of on-campus departments and people. If you have any
problems using these resources, please contact the switchboard at x6000 or
Telecommunications at x6566.
[Bulletin]
09/12/02, Notification-L: What and Why
"What is Notification-L? Why am I getting messages on it?"
Notification-L is an e-mail-based distribution list, dedicated for informing the Macalester community in advance about scheduled repairs and maintenance to C.I.T.'s network and telecommunications equipment. These types of repairs generally require temporarily shutting down parts of our network (such as the CARS system or one of the file servers). Occasionally, Notification-L is used to announce upcoming changes in network operating systems or software. In cases of scheduled upgrades or repairs, we print notices in regular campus publications, including the Bulletin and the Today. For such planned system downtimes, Notification-L is a redundant method of communication, a supplement to regular publicity channels that many of our clients find convenient. Postings to Notification-L arrive via e-mail for all subscribers.
Notification-L is also our best way to quickly communicate with users concerning what we euphemistically call "unplanned system events," such as emergency shutdowns, reboots, etc. These are network or telecommunications problems that arise unexpectedly and require a rapid response. In these cases, we are faced with the need to immediately notify as many people as possible of the situation so that our clients may plan accordingly.
Beginning Fall semester 2002, all newly-created accounts at
Macalester are automatically subscribed to Notification-L, and will receive these
postings. If you wish to to stop getting them, you may unsubscribe whenever you
wish. To subscribe or unsubscribe, open a Web browser and go to this URL:
http://www.macalester.edu/subscribe/
Click on the link for Notification-L and follow on-screen instructions. If you
have difficulty, please contact Computing's Help Desk at x.6525. Postings are
archived at http://www.macalester.edu/infoservices.
Notification-L is NOT a method of announcing and publicizing events of general interest to the campus community. These types of announcements are handled through the Office of College Relations, including their electronic distribution list, Bulletin Flash. [Notification-L, Bulletin]
09/12/02, Server Maintenance TODAY at 4:30 PM
Today, Thursday, September 12, 2002, at 4:30 PM, the Academic and Admin servers
will be restarted. Some additional software has been installed on each that
requires a restart to be activated. The servers will only be down a few minutes.
While Admin is down, e-mail will also not be available. [Notification-L]
09/12/02, No Reboot Necessary
Thursday, September 12: We were able to complete the work we needed to do on the Admin and Academic
servers without needing to reboot them, so you don't need to log off the servers.
They won't be going down today. [Notification-L]
09/05/02, Your Understanding Is Appreciated
It's that time of year when Help Desk staff and others in Information Services
are working through backlogged help requests from new and returning faculty,
staff and students, many of the latter with personally-owned computers. If the
response to your request seems slow, please understand that these folks are
working seven days per week in an attempt to keep up.
[Bulletin]
09/05/02, Installing Software on XP
If you have a new Windows XP machine and you're not having luck installing
applications, you are probably not logged into Windows as an administrator. If
you don't know how to do that, please refer to the document that was printed when
we set up your printer connection. If you can't find it, e-mail
delivery@macalester.edu and we'll send you a reply with the document as a Word
attachment.
[Bulletin]
09/05/02, Do You Know Where Your Computer Is?
You haven't received that computer or printer that you have been awarded? There
are two ways to get on the schedule. You can simply send an email to
delivery@macalester.edu; or, you can now request a specific date and time for
delivery by using CorporateTime. Open CorporateTime as usual, then just open the
agenda for Delivery (File > Agenda > Open, then put "delivery" in the space
provided). You will be able to see which times are already filled. To request a
time slot, double-click your preferred date/time and include whatever information
you think we need. When CorporateTime asks if you would like to send an e-mail,
you may click Yes if you have questions or specific instructions. (The e-mail
addressed to delivery@macalester.edu will be forwarded to Marty Raymond.)
[Bulletin]
09/05/02, Library Website Has New Look
The library web site has been redesigned this summer. This also means that pages
from the old site that you may have bookmarked may no longer work. We are hoping
that our new site will be easy to navigate, but if you are seeking information
you can't find, please try the site search feature on the main page
http://www.macalester.edu/library/#sitesearch.
[Bulletin]
09/05/02, LESTER-Campus Portal
LESTER is an acroynm and stands for your Link to
Electronic Services,
Technology and Educational
Resources. LESTER is also part of MacaLESTER. MyInfo has evolved
into LESTER and MyInfo will retire effective September 1, 2002. Your settings,
choices, bookmarks, etc. will migrate from MyInfo to LESTER. The address for LESTER
is lester.macalester.edu.
New features in LESTER include:
09/05/02, No More Firstsearch Passwords
During the summer we activated IP recognition for FirstSearch and you no longer
need to enter a password to access FirstSearch databases. Each link from the
database page will take you directly to the database you selected.
[Bulletin]
09/05/02, Where Do I Find eReserve Readings?
eReserves are now accessible directly from CLICnet. You may search by course or
by professor. A reserves search link is available from the main library web page.
For more information on reserves see our web page on Reserves,
www.macalester.edu/library/resources/reserves/.
[Bulletin]
09/05/02, Copyright Permissions Service
Faculty should have received a copy of a letter announcing the new copyright
permissions service for Reserve materials. A web based form is available to
submit requests at www.macalester.edu/library/forms/permissions.html. If you
have questions about this new service, please contact us at
copyright@macalester.edu.
[Bulletin]
09/05/02, Urgent Letter to Faculty: MINITEX In Peril
9/03/2002
To the Faculty,
A state-sponsored service critical to interlibrary loan and access to bibliographic databases is in peril and we need your help to save it. We need to hear from you if you have benefited from the use of Science Direct, American Chemical Society journals, Gale (Infotrac, Expanded Academic Index), First Search or Project Muse for your research and teaching. Comments, and examples from you on how these services have helped your scholarly pursuits would demonstrate why Minnesota should continue investing in state-wide library sponsored access to these services.
Here is the background. While you are probably not familiar with MINITEX, the name of this coordinating agency appears on most interlibrary loan materials that we obtain for you beyond CLIC. MINITEX is our regional network supporting state-wide interlibrary loan service and consortial subscriptions and discounts to many of our electronic services. The funding agency for MINITEX, Minnesota Higher Education Services Office (MHESO) is holding hearings to decide whether to continue funding at current levels. Last year the MINITEX budget was reduced by 14%. Due to the continuing state budget shortfall, MINITEX faces a potential 10% reduction in the funding for 2004-2005. If that happens, the services named above are imperiled.
Please contribute comments on your use of interlibrary loan (beyond CLIC) and of electronic databases to share with HESO! Reply to fishel@macalester.edu or send directly to HESO (but, please cc: fishel@macalester.edu). We need your comments by Sept. 11th. The MHESO address is MHESO Communications, 1450 Energy Park Drive, Suite 350, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, or fax 651-642-0675, or via e-mail to lewenstein@heso.state.mn.us.
Thank you![return to Information Services ] [CIT homepage] [Library homepage] [Media Services homepage]