INFORMATION SERVICES
December 2004
return
to Information Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
12/27/04, Printing Restored
Network printing has been restored as of about 8:30 AM. Please contact
the Help Desk at x6525 if you continue to have problems. [Notification-L]
12/27/04, Printing Problems This Morning
Network printing is down campus-wide this morning. The network staff is
working on the problem and printing should be available again a bit
later this morning.
Thank you for your patience. [Notification-L]
12/17/04, Faculty workshop: Using Moodle to Support Student Learning
All faculty are cordially invited to join colleagues and Information
Services staff for a workshop in January on "Using Moodle to Support
Student Learning." The workshop will be offered twice, from 10:00 AM to
noon Thursday, January 6, and again on Wednesday, January 19. The workshop
will include an overview of tools, then a hands-on session dedicated to
developing activities for a course you're teaching, followed by lunch
and discussion sponsored by the Center for Scholarship and Teaching. Download a full description here:
www.macalester.edu/infoservices/news/announcements/moodle-workshop.pdf.
Please RSVP to Barron Koralesky (koralesky@mac, x.6623) by Monday, January
3, to reserve your place in either of these workshops.
Moodle is course management software, bundling a variety of pedagogical
tools to facilitiate and enchance course activities and functions.
Moodle has been in use on campus during the fall 2004 semester and has
drawn rave reviews from many faculty for its positive impact on ways in
which faculty can teach their courses. Currently 30 faculty and 400
students are using Moodle in more than 40 courses in 16 departments at
Macalester. [Bulletin, also 12/28]
12/17/04, Winter Break Library Hours
Library building hours during winter break are as follows:
12/15/04, 'Tis the Season for Computer Viruses
As we head into the end of the semester and the holiday season, be
warned that both spammers and computer virus creators will try to take
advantage of your good will. Be alert for e-mail messages with subject
lines such as "Merry Christmas!," "Happy Hollydays!" and the like. If
you do not recognize the "From:" address, you'd be well-advised to
delete it unread. Even if you recognize the sender's address as that of
a friend, relative or acquaintance, be suspicious of attachments
(particularly those ending in extensions like .exe, .dll and .zip). They
could be computer viruses, automatically sent from infected computers
using hijacked addressbooks.
Not to be overly Grinch-y, but a little "Bah! Humbug!" goes a long way
in protecting your computer against viruses and spam. (For more
detailed explanations, please see some related postings previously sent
out on October 19 2004, September 9 2004, July 30 2004, March 2 2004 and
June 10 2003 (available from the "backfiles" links on this Web page:
www.macalester.edu/infoservices/news/.) [Notification-L]
12/14/04, E-Mail Interruptions
You may have noticed brief (approximately 5- to 10-minute) interruptions
in e-mail service a few times a week this semester. These interruptions
are due to the need to reboot our e-mail server. These reboots are
sometimes necessary to clear a series of e-mail transactions that become
"hung," essentially freezing all e-mail service until the reboot removes
the blockage. When this happens, rebooting is the only way to fix the
problem.
The source of this chronic problem is the software that runs the e-mail
server, not the e-mail client (Mulberry, Eudora, Netscape Mail, etc.)
running on your computer. Our dissatisfaction with this software's
erratic performance is a large factor in our current research and public
discussions toward replacing the entire e-mail system at Macalester (a
replacement that will include both new e-mail server software and client
software). You are encouraged to stay informed, as well as give comments
or suggestions about your e-mail preferences, using this Web page and
online discussion forum at www.macalester.edu/email/.
Because of the comprehensive nature of the impending e-mail change, we
want, need and highly value your feedback. Please don't hesitate to tell
us whatever you want us to know about how you use e-mail, what features
you would like to see and what is most important to you in an e-mail
system.
We will do our best to prevent or minimize disruptions due to rebooting,
but it is likely that we will need to periodically reboot again. We ask
for your understanding and patience and we are sorry for the
inconvenience this may cause you.
[Bulletin], also 12/17
12/14/04, Last Day for Interlibrary Loan
The last day of this year for students to submit interlibrary loan (ILL)
requests is Wednesday, December 15. Honors and senior seminar students, faculty and
staff may continue to submit requests after this date. In addition,
because of staff vacations during the winter break, no ILL requests will
be processed after December 17 until January 3. [Bulletin]
12/06/04, Brief E-Mail Outage
You may have noticed a brief (approximately 5- to 10-minute) interruption
in e-mail service this afternoon, around 1:50 PM. The interruption was
due to a reboot of the e-mail server. This reboot was necessary to clear
a series of e-mail transactions that had become "hung," essentially freezing
all e-mail service.
The source of the problem is the software that runs the e-mail server,
not the e-mail client (Mulberry, Eudora, Netscape Mail, etc.) running
on your computer. Our dissatisfaction with this software performance is
a large factor in our current research and public discussions toward
replacing the entire e-mail system at Macalester. While we will do our
best to prevent or minimize such disruptions, we may need to
periodically reboot again. We ask for your understanding and patience,
and we are sorry for the undoubted inconvenience this may cause you. More
detailed information will be forthcoming in the Bulletin.
[Notification-L]
12/03/04, Network Problems on Friday, December 3
We have been experiencing some network problems this afternoon that are
causing some computers to be put into a quarantine zone that prevents
them from reaching anything on the network. We have contacted the
vendor for the responsible equipment, and will be working on it until
the problem is resolved. [Notification-L]
12/03/04, Back Up Your Data and Prevent Theft
Computer theft is a chronic problem on campus. Laptops are
especially attractive to opportunistic thieves: all it takes is
an unlocked or open door and a brief absence, and you may find
your computer has vanished. The worst aspect of computer theft
is not the loss of the equipment (computers can be replaced,
after all), but the loss of your data. Are you willing to lose
months, perhaps years, of your irreplaceable work?
Take a few sensible steps to prevent theft:
12/03/04, Security Phones: Look for the Blue Light
We have installed blue lights on the following security telephones for
ease in locating them after dark:
12/03/04, New E-Mail System Discussion
We'd like to remind everyone to join in the online discussion about
Macalester's new e-mail and calendaring system. Visit www.macalester.edu/email,
where you will find a link to the online discussion forum. Post
questions, ideas, criticisms, etc. Community input is vital to the
success of this project, so visit the above Web address often!
[Bulletin], also 12/7
12/03/04, Do You Know Your AIA?
You may already know this, but it bears repeating occasionally. Every
academic department on campus can turn to an Academic Information
Associate for IT consultation. These individuals have significant
backgrounds and experience in appropriate scholarly fields, as well as
relevant technical skill sets and knowledge. The AIAs stand ready to
assist faculty in improving teaching and learning with appropriate
application of information technology.
AIAs divide responsibilities along four divisional lines:
Humanities departments, Mark Lewis (lewism@mac, x.6887)
Sciences departments, Barron Koralesky (koralesky@mac, x.6623)
Social Sciences departments, Pete Rogan (rogan@mac, x.6180)
Languages, Performing Arts and Fine Arts departments, Tom Browne (browne@mac, x.6336)
[Bulletin], also 12/7
12/03/04, Update on NIH Proposal
Congress again affirmed its support for the National Institute of Health
(NIH) to enhance public access to NIH-funded research information. This
support was expressed via language in the Conference Report accompanying
the FY 2005 Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 4818, H Rept 108-792),
legislation that includes nine appropriations bills.
The conference report language restates the NIH proposed policy of
making research articles based on NIH funding available to the public
free-of-charge. These articles would be publicly available via in PubMed
Central within six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
The language also requests that NIH provide an annual cost accounting
for implementing this policy as well as work with publishers of
scientific journals to maintain the "integrity of the peer review
system." The text is included below and is available via Thomas (page
104 of the Statement of the Managers). The report will also be available
in the Congressional Records in the next day or two. [Bulletin], also 11/29
12/01/04, Scheduled Internet Outage
On Sunday, December 19, between 2:00 AM and 4:00 AM, our Internet
provider will be performing some maintenance on their system. The
maintenance will cause a 3 to 5 minute service interruption for Internet
connectivity. [Notification-L]
[return to Information Services ] [CIT homepage] [Library homepage] [Media Services homepage]