INFORMATION SERVICES
January 2005
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to Information Services
Announcements from the Bulletin, Today, Notification-L
1/28/05, Have a Telephone or Voicemail Question?
Check out Telecom's Web site at www.macalester.edu/Telecom/. You
can also find it via the online directory, linked from Administrative
Offices and linked from both the Information Services and CIT Web sites.
Please check it out; we hope you find it informative. If you have any
questions, or don't find the information you are looking for, please
contact Telecommunications at x6566.
[Bulletin, also 2/1]
1/25/05, Sign Up Now for CIT and Library Classes
Registration is now available for CIT and Library classes for spring
semester. Register on-line at
www.macalester.edu/infoservices/classes.
Topics include Web page creation, safe computing, Microsoft Office
applications, library research tools and navigating the network.
All faculty and staff should have received a brochure this week
outlining available training options. If you didn't, please contact
Bonnie Alexander (alexander@macalester.edu). [Bulletin, also 1/28]
1/24/05, Inbound Calling Problems
There seem to be some inbound local calling difficulties - that is, with
telephone calls coming into campus, not those going out from our system.
Our local service provider is looking into the problem, and may require
us to take telephone service down for a short time at a moment's notice.
We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to get the the problem resolved
quickly. If you have questions please contact Kelly Borke,
Telecommunications Manager, at x.6566. [Notification-L]
1/21/05, Pete Rogan's Departure and Interim Contacts
Peter A. Rogan, Academic Information Associate for the Social Sciences, left
the college at the end of December. Pete has accepted an offer from
PLATO Learning, an international educational software company with U.S.
headquarters in Bloomington (http://plato.com/). He brings PLATO a
formidable body of expertise both in education and information
technology, at the K12 and higher-ed levels. Pete will be missed by his
colleagues in Information Services and in the Social Sciences. We wish
Pete well in his new position!
A search will begin shortly to hire a new AIA-Social Sciences. As we
have done in previous AIA hires, this search process will include
Carnegie faculty from multiple departments on the search committee.
There will be open meetings with top candidates that will be announced
to the entire division. Watch this space for further information.
During the interim, Social Sciences faculty and staff needing assistance
with IT endeavors and problems have two recourses for personalized
service from CIT experts. They are Mark Lewis, AIA-Humanities (Old Main
212; x6887; lewism@macalester.edu), and Tom
Browne, Director of the Humanities Resource Center and AIA-Foreign
Languages & Fine Arts (Humanities 115; x6336; browne@macalester.edu). We
recognize the need for a full-time dedicated AIA for the Social Sciences
and will move quickly to fill that position with the best candidate we
can attract. [Bulletin, also 1/25]
1/14/05, Productivity User Group: Join Us!
The Office Productivity User Group meets the third Thursday of each month
from 1:30-2:30 PM in Humanities 302. Scheduled dates and topics for January and spring
semester are: January 20 (Excel Databases), February 17 (Favorite Web
Sites), March 17 (PowerPoint Animation), and April 21 (topic to be
decided).
Everyone is welcome to join the group. If you would like your name
added to our e-mail list, please contact Bonnie Alexander (alexander@mac) at
x6625. [Bulletin, also 1/21, 1/25]
1/13/05, E-Mail Glitch: Forwarding Messages
What happened to e-mail messages that arrived during the e-mail outage
early this morning? They were not lost, but because of a software
glitch, all such messages were delivered to a single administrative
account. We are working now to forward these messages to their
appropriate recipients.
Although no messages were lost and the text of all messages remains
unaffected, formatting (such as colors or boldfacing) may be garbled.
All messages will appear as coming from "postmaster@macalester.edu" and
all subject lines will be empty. Attachments are particularly
vulnerable, and most attachments will be unreadable.
If you receive a message with a damaged attachment, the best solution
is to contact the original sender (don't reply to postmaster!) and ask
for the attachment to be re-sent. In cases of critically important
attachments, especially those that are time-sensitive or cannot be
re-sent, network staff will attempt to recover the attachment.
As much as possible, spam messages will be deleted without being
forwarded.
If you have questions, please contact Geri Olson at x.6171. [Notification-L]
1/13/05, E-Mail Problems Thursday Morning
Required system patches unrelated to e-mail were applied to the e-mail
server last night. The patches caused problems with sending and
receiving messages. Those problems have now been resolved, and e-mail
is again functioning normally. [Notification-L]
1/11/05, Internet Interruption Thursday Evening
We must take down Macalester's Internet connection on Thursday, January
13, beginning at 4:30 PM. The interruption will last 2 to 3 hours, in the
absence of problems. We will upgrade the equipment that connects us to
the Internet, permitting a higher speed connection. Specifically,
Macaester will connect to Internet2, the new, faster network
(http://www.internet2.edu/). We
will explain more about that soon. We will keep the Help Desk line at
x6525 updated with the status. The timing of the downtime is based on
the availability of outside expertise and our wish to get this done well
ahead of classes.
If you are on campus, you will be able to read and send e-mail, access
files on the network file servers, print, and access Macalester Web
pages during the interruption. You will not be able to reach
non-Macalester Web pages or Internet resources, including the CLICnet
library catalog. E-mail messages from off-campus will be delivered when
the Internet connection is restored, and any messages you send to
off-campus addresses will be held for delivery until the connection is
restored. If you are off-campus, you will not be able to access your
Macalester e-mail, files, or any Macalester Web pages until the Internet
connection is restored.
We regret the interruption of service but hope for your understanding of
the need. [Notification-L]
1/07/05, Information Services Departments Closed Monday
Message #1: All information services departments, including Computing
and Information Technology, the DeWitt Wallace Library and Media
Services are closed for an all-staff retreat on Monday, January 10.
[Bulletin Flash]
1/06/05, Mail Server Downtime on Thursday, January 6
The e-mail server will be unavailable on Thursday, January 6, beginning
at 4:30 PM. We will be upgrading the system to resolve the problems that
we were having during fall semester. We expect e-mail to be down for 3
or 4 hours. You can call the Help Desk at x6525 for the status of the
server. We apologize for the short notice about the scheduled downtime. [Notification-L]
1/05/05, Mail Server Down on Thursday January 6
The e-mail server will be unavailable on Thursday, January 6, beginning
at 4:30 PM. We will be upgrading the system to resolve the problems that
we were having during fall semester. We expect e-mail to be down for 3
or 4 hours. You can call the Help Desk at x6525 for the status of the
server. [Notification-L]
1/04/05, CLICnet Upgrade Completed
The system upgrade for CLICnet has been completed. Early testing
indicates that the library databases as well as the CLICnet OPAC are now
accessible and available for use. If you encounter any difficulties
with library databases or CLICnet, please send us a notice using our ASK
US form accessible from LESTER or the Library Web page at www.macalester.edu/library/about/askus.html.
Thank you for your patience during the system downtime. [Notification-L]
1/03/05, CLICnet Upgrade 1/04/05
Reminder - CLICnet, the online library catalog, will be down on Tuesday,
January 4 for a system upgrade. This will affect our access to our
online resources as well as for those on- and off-campus. We apologize
for this inconvenience, but we anticipate that all systems will be back
in operation on Wednesday, January 5. Please direct questions to Terri
Fishel, Library, x.6343.
[Notification-L]
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