INFORMATION SERVICES
MAY 2003
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to Information Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
05/29/03, In The Good Old Summertime
The Information Service departments will accomplish a long list of
projects over the summer, some of which will affect your use of our
services. To review the plan, go to www.macalester.edu/infoplan/.
[Bulletin]
05/29/03, Help Desk Volume
The Help Desk services are in higher demand than last year but we are
operating without our usual roster of student assistants to speed the
process. Your patience is appreciated as we catch up!
[Bulletin]
05/29/03, Clearing Accounts
Accounts for continuing students, staff and faculty will be left open
over the summer. Accounts for graduating and non-returning students,
staff and faculty will be closed on June 1. Please save any messages or
files you wish to keep before that date. If you have a graduating
student who will be working for you over the summer, or are a
non-returning faculty member who will be on campus over the summer, and
need to keep your account, please contact Geri Olson at x6525 or by
e-mail at olson@macalester.edu about extending your account.
[Bulletin]
05/29/03, E-mail Options for Summer
If you won't be on campus over the summer, here are some things you can
do to keep from being swamped with messages when you return in the fall:
You can forward all your messages to another e-mail account that you
will be using over the summer, or you can set a vacation message to let
people know that you aren't reading your e-mail. Either of these
options can be set on a web page at
You can read your Macalester e-mail from off-campus by either installing
Mulberry on your home computer, or by using Silkymail to read e-mail
through a web browser. Mulberry can be downloaded from http://www.macalester.edu/cit/services/software/index.htm
if you have a Macalester username and password. The Silkymail web
interface can be reached at http://webmail.macalester.edu.
Please sign off any mailing lists you are on if you won't be keeping up
with e-mail on a regular basis. Mailing list traffic can fill up your
Inbox quite rapidly. [Bulletin]
05/23/03, CARS Offline 5/24
The CARS administrative system will be taken down starting at 8:00 AM on
Saturday, May 24, so that the 'train' database may be refreshed. It is
expected that the system will be brought back up at approximately 2:00
PM the same day. If you have questions about this downtime please
contact Ramón Rentas, Database Manager, at x6633.
[Notification-L]
05/22/03, CARS Back Up
After a brief recovery, the CARS database is now up and running. Thank
you for your patience. [Editor's note: total downtime was approximately seventy minutes.]
[CARS allusers mailing list]
05/22/03, CARS Database Down
The CARS database engine has been down since around 3 PM this
afternoon. Ramon Rentas, the Database Administrator, is working on
bringing it back up. The database is currently in "recovery mode", but
it may take up to 4 hours to completely recover. We will send out
another message when the database is back up. Please do not try to log
in until then. We are sorry about the inconvenience.
[CARS allusers mailing list]
05/22/03, Trolling For Suckers
Another new virus is making the rounds, and many people at Macalester have
received it. The virus arrives in an e-mail, which appears to be from
'support@microsoft.com'. The subject of the email will be one of these:
05/15/03, Farewell Reception for Clem Guthro
Please join the library staff at Macalester in wishing Clem well as he
heads off to his new position as Director of the Library at Colby
College, Waterville, Maine. A reception will be held in the Harmon
Reading Room, main level of the library from 3:30 to 4:30 PM Wednesday,
May 21. Clem's last day will be Wednesday, June 18th.
[Bulletin]
05/15/03, Library Closed May 27-May 30
The library will be closed during the last week of May in order to
complete processing for returned books, do lost-book billing, clear
interlibrary loan records, and close out our accounts for the year-end
reports. We appreciate your understanding.
[Bulletin]
05/15/03, Filter Out That Annoying Spam
Are you getting too much junk e-mail? You can do something about it:
filter out unwanted email automatically. View this web page:
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/docs/xplatform/mulberry3 for information
on how to use PMDF Mail Filters and Mulberry Mail Filters to have that
junk e-mail automatically deleted.
[Bulletin]
05/15/03, Summer E-Mail Tips
If you won't be on campus over the summer, here are some things you can
do to keep from being swamped with messages when you return in the fall:
You can forward all your messages to another e-mail account that you
will be using over the summer, or you can set a vacation message to let
people know that you aren't reading your e-mail. Either of these
options can be set on a web page at
You can read your Macalester e-mail from off-campus by either installing
Mulberry on your home computer, or by using Silkymail to read e-mail
through a web browser. Mulberry can be downloaded from http://www.macalester.edu/cit/services/software/index.htm
if you have a Macalester username and password. The Silkymail web
interface can be reached at http://webmail.macalester.edu.
Please sign off any mailing lists you are on if you won't be keeping up
with e-mail on a regular basis. Mailing list traffic can fill up your
Inbox quite rapidly.
Graduating seniors can contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@macalester.edu
if they would like to have their e-mail forwarded to another address
over the summer. Forwarding addresses set via the web page will be lost
when the account is closed.
[Bulletin]
05/15/03, Account Closure
Accounts for continuing students, staff and faculty will be left open
over the summer. Accounts for graduating and non-returning students,
staff and faculty will be closed on June 1. Please save any messages or
files you wish to keep before that date. If you have a graduating
student who will be working for you over the summer, or are a
non-returning faculty member who will be on campus over the summer, and
need to keep your account, please contact Geri Olson at x6525 or by
e-mail at olson@macalester.edu about extending your account.
[Bulletin]
05/15/03, Media Requests for Fall Semester
This is a reminder that faculty members are asked to their send e-mail
and on-line reserve requests for videos and DVDs to Media Services by
August 25th to insure availablity. Please submit semester reserve
requests with titles, call numbers and showdates to Kristi Wheeler
(wheeler@macalester.edu).
[Bulletin]
05/09/03, Library Hours, May 12-18
Monday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Tuesday-Friday, 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM (No Services)
Sunday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (Commencement, No Services)
[Bulletin]
05/09/03, Library Under Seige
Please bear with us over the next few weeks as we work our way through
the thousands of books that are all returned during a few-day period at
the end of the term. The item you need may be checked in, but may not
have made its way back to the shelf yet.
[Bulletin]
05/09/03, Library Summer Hours
Regular summer building hours begin Monday, May 19th and are as follows:
Monday-Thursday 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Friday 10:00 AM-12:30 PM
Virtual library hours remain 24 X 7 at http://www.macalester.edu/library,
and questions can always be submitted to
askus@macalester.edu. Response time is usually well
within 24 hours.
[Bulletin]
05/09/03, The End of Voicemail
If you will be gone for a day or all summer, please, please change your
voice mail greeting to reflect your status. It's a great courtesy to
your callers, and to the switchboard operator! To change your greeting,
access your voice mail box, press 4, then 3, then 2.
Student voice mail boxes will be deleted the week of May 19. Those
students staying on campus will have their voice mail boxes "moved" to
their new rooms on May 22. The voice mail boxes of Staff and Faculty
that have termination dates of May 31 (per Human Resources), will be
deleted on June 2. If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact Telecommunications at x6566.
[Bulletin]
05/09/03, Learn All About It
Faculty and Staff Seminars are scheduled for Thursday, May 15.
Registration materials were sent to your post office boxes earlier in
the week. You can also register via the web: www.macalester.edu/cit/services/classes/seminars.html
Call x6625 for further information.
[Bulletin]
05/09/03, Microcomputer Fund
Decisions have been made in the second (and last) application round of
the 2002-03 Micro Fund. Letters will be sent to all applicants shortly
announcing decisions. All new equipment awarded will be purchased
immediately; all equipment awarded, both new and recycled, will be
delivered before the beginning of classes in Fall 2003.
The first round of the 2003-2004 Micro Fund will open shortly. Recall
that the primary focus will be automatically replacing computers that
are four years old or older. We will calculate the Macalester ID number
of relevant items and announce that so that you can check. Too, you
will be able to apply to replace items that are not yet four years old,
or to request new equipment where none now exists. Watch this URL for
updated information: http://www.macalester.edu/cit/general/funding.html
[Bulletin]
05/09/03, End-of-Year Hardware & Software Purchasing
Our Business Services Office mandates that all items purchased with
2002-03 funds must be delivered to campus before May 31, the end of the
fiscal year. While it may be tempting to spend remaining funds on
computer-related items, please recognize that it is not always possible
to take delivery as soon as we'd like. Too, spending money on hardware
or software solely because the funds remain is not the best use of
College resources.
[Bulletin]
05/09/03, Late Night Computing
It may be useful for faculty and staff members to know that computer
labs (other than those in academic departments) are open into the early
morning hours at this busy time of year. Students can use computers in
Humanities 314, the Library, Dupre, Kagin and other locations.
[Bulletin]
05/05/03, Admin Server Restarted
The Admin server will be restarted at 10:50 AM this morning. At that
time, please have your work saved and files closed. It should only be
down for about 5 minutes.
[Notification-L]
05/02/03, Learn All About It
Faculty and Staff Seminars are scheduled for Thursday, May 15.
Registration materials were sent to your post office boxes earlier in
the week. You can also register via the Web:
http://www.macalester.edu/cit/services/classes/seminars.html
Call x6625 for further information.
[Bulletin]
05/02/03, The End Is Near
If you will be gone for a day or all summer, please, please change your
voice mail greeting to reflect your status. It's a great courtesy to
your callers, and to the switchboard operator! To change your greeting,
access your voice mail box, press 4, then 3, then 2.
Student voice mail boxes will be deleted the week of May 19. Those
students staying on campus will have their voice mail boxes "moved" to
their new rooms on May 22. The voice mail boxes of Staff and Faculty
that have termination dates of May 31 (per Human Resources), will be
deleted on June 2. If you have any questions or concerns, please
contact Telecommunications at x6566.
[Bulletin]
05/02/03, Passwords Are Like Motor Oil
Because you should regularly change yours. We're making it easier for
you to change your password by enabling you to choose a new password
through a Web page at http://mail.macalester.edu/. A
single password is used for logging on to the network, e-mail, and
Corporate Time, so this will change the password for all of those
services.
Some tips for choosing a good password are:
05/02/03, Talk Back and Be Heard!
Don't forget to press # when you are finished recording that reply. You
can reply to messages left in your voice mail, provided the call was
left by someone with a Macalester voice mail box; just press 8 after
listening to the message. However, the voice mail system does not
always tell you that you must press the # key after recording your
reply. After you press 8 to reply, record your reply, and press # to
"send" the reply. The voice mail system will then ask you if you want to
delete or save the original message. If you simply hang up after
recording your reply (and don't press #), your reply is negated.
If your voice mail box does not tell you to press # after recording your
reply, and you'd like it to, please call Telecommunications at x6566 for
further instruction.
[Bulletin]
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