Minutes of April 21, 2009 Meeting

Present:

J. Abraham, S. Bartz, M. Belasco, A. Bijur, A. Butman(recorder), J. Gibson, N. Gonzaga, P. Johnson, J. Maxymuk, K. McGuire, R. Sandler, D. Voorhees

Absent:

Au, J. Hartstein, K. Kuehl

Move to Private Address Space

• Dglss move to private space is complete. Issues with e-copy not being able to email continue to exist. A. Butman will have appt. setup to discuss with vendor
• Kilmer will be next to move during week of 4/27

Carpet Installation

• Carpet installations at Alexander and Kilmer, originally slated to begin 5/18 have been held up and, to date, there is no firm start date. Vendor selection is still in process; once that is complete installation date will be forthcoming. Discussion of access to public computers during installation was discussed. Library public machines will be available in areas not being worked on although the number of available machines will be greatly limited at Alex while this work is being done. AB will check on ports in Alexander Library in the Access Services area along the wall with windows overlooking SCILS. If ports are functional they can be turned on so that more machines can be provided for public use. OIT labs will, most likely be shut down for entire period of carpet replacement-this could be the whole summer. AB will also check the port needed for the temporary reference desk.

PC Plan: Spring '09

• New staff machines have been received and imaging has begun. E. Smith will deliver Newark's machines on 4/21. Systems will handle scheduling of replacements for departments and libraries without UCS' and local UCS' will handle scheduling and swaps for their respective libraries. Systems staff are available to help if needed, contact A. Butman for assistance. Systems staff will train UCS' currently not familiar with swaps.
• Goal of this replacement is to eliminate all gx240, gx260 and gx270 model machines with less than 1 gb of memory. Once UCS' have scheduled installs they will request number of machines needed for week or 2 week period, Systems will image and send out machines as requested.
• Machines being replaced will be reassigned or sent to surplus accordingly. All machines being sent to Surplus will be recorded on Material Services Surplus request sheet. Three copies of that sheet should be made, one for the local library, one for Systems and one for Material Services. Building AAs or BMs will contact Material Services for surplus pickups.
• Given the large number of installs for the Alexander UCS A. Butman will contact J. Abraham to work out collaborative install schedule between him and Systems staff.

Illiad Update

• Illiad's open URL capabilities will be made accessible and tested by RUL ILL Dept. designees beginning on 5/11/09. Once all material types have been tested and group is confident service is working acceptably announcement of availability will be made to general public.

Server Backup Solution

N. Gonzaga afforded the group two possible backup solutions for the Windows network, one low end solution which included adding hard drives to existing servers and the use of tape media and one higher end solution which was a direct attached storage solution. Group reviewed documentation submitted by N. Gonzaga outlining possibilities. Discussion regarding realistic life expectancy, upgradability, need for staff intervention, and cost of use over long term for both units were discussed and it was decided that in the end, the direct attach solution, although higher in price, was the most acceptable. J. Maxymuk will write up proposal, send draft to the group for comments/changes and once document is finalized he will submit it to G. Agnew for approval and purchase.

New/Old Business

• J. Abraham will be offering 3 training sessions, 4/23, 4/28 and 4/30 on Office 2007 Troubleshooting Skills. This will be particularly helpful given the enthusiastic adoption of use for Office programs now available on public workstations by patrons. Flash media is required for session and Libraries Public Relations Dept. has agreed to has make available drives for those interested in participating in sessions but do not have access to such media.
• K. McGuire commented on how users at Kilmer are gladly taking advantage of this offering; representatives from other units concurred with positive experiences.
• The success of the use of the Office suite has spurred on requests for access to OIT printers. This is something that was pursued late last year by A. Butman and D. Voorhees however nothing has transpired to date. A. Butman will contact OIT again and ask about possibility of making this available to patrons. Similarly, J. Abraham questioned possibility of pdf distiller on public machines so that patrons could save html files and such to print later without compromising the integrity of formatting. Systems will look into having this available for fall '09 image.
• In an effort to resolve "lingering" users and fraudulent use of netid restricted machines J. Abraham has created a logoff button to be displayed on the upper right corner area of desktop with dialog bubble reminding users to log off (There is currently no dialog bubble, just a button. The reminder to logoff is taped to the monitor.). Likewise, in an effort to display Title 17, US Copyright law on public machines, J. Abraham has made dialog bubble that will linger just below browser choices on all public workstation desktops. Heretofore this law has been displayed via slips of paper adhered to monitors or computers. This new display will eliminate possibility of removal. S. Bartz will take screenshot of new desktop to USC for review at their April meeting.
• J. Abraham has been working with G. Stein of OIRT in assessing Wimba and Elluminate products. Possible use of product exists in reference areas though support of product by RUL has not been established.
• Issue of VPN access to RUL Windows network was discussed. N. Gonzaga felt that access was acceptable and security risk did not exist however members of the group disagreed and, in the end it was established that should faculty or staff members need access to Windows network while off campus these instances would be dealt with on a case by case basis and rulib shares would be shut down by N. Gonzaga.

Video Conferencing

• New Lifesize unit in Camden has been installed, tested and verified to be working well.
• Those responsible for video conferencing equipment will need to contact S. Ellis and S. McDonald so that Bookroom and web page entries can be appropriately updated to reflect equipment currently available.
• R. Sandler reported he is currently interested in pursuing grants to upgrade existing Polycom equipment as it is the oldest in the system and sees this as a proactive way of ensuring compatibility of devices in the future.