Students asked, and we provided!

Thanks to Dean Cadoret and others, Armstrong Library group study rooms now have equipment for video and laptop viewing.  For computer use, researchers can bring their own laptops or check out a laptop from the Circulation Desk.  For videos, a DVD player/VCR is already in the room.

This is another outcome based on feedback received from the Post-It note bulletin board Carrie MacFarlane did at Armstrong last year. Carrie and Brendan Owen, Digital Media Intern, will be doing a presentation on this effort next week at The October Conference , Space 2.0 : Small-Scale Library Redesign Projects, at Dartmouth.

Nice teamwork, Carrie and Brendan!

You are registered, right?

Voter registration materials are available in the Main Library atrium. If you or anyone you know, are not registered to vote in the November elections, stop by to pick up the materials.

Thanks to Brenda Ellis and Jean Simmons for getting the materials, Joseph Watson for helping with the display, and Morgan Connor for the brilliant picture.

Here’s what we’re doing:
Team

* Working on change management methodology for the lockdown project
* Hyperion System 9 preparations
* Banner 8 research, new functionality investigation, and database cleanup

Dave

* In a cooperative effort between the Administrative Systems group, Database Applications and Systems group, the Budget Office and the CCAL office, a new application for student organization budget reports was put into place for the start of fall term (as reported in the recent issue of Unbound).
* Developing new journal upload for Reprographics
* Working with Facilities Services to get P-card file uploaded to FAMIS
* Analysis of load process for potential loading of Monterey budget adjustments
* Applying Banner patches to all Banner modules (version 7)</
* Acting as change management lead for promoting objects into Production database

Cindy

* Analyzing and preparing data for Monterey general student data load to enable programmatic email account generation
* Implementing Banner security, review and cleanup of Banner Student module access
* Cleaning up Hyperion folders, removing unused reports, removing outdated access to reporting groups
* Developed new Hyperion dashboard for Donna McDurfee in the office of Academic Affairs

Liane

* In conjunction with Karin Hall-Kolts in the office of the Dean of the College, implementing the 4/2 residential life system in the Commons (junior and senior room designations will be tracked with a singular commons code scheme).
* Setup access to housing reports for Keith Bishop in Public Safety
* Working with other LIS staff to resolve directory population issues

Julie

* Open Enrollment changes and enhancements for 2009
* Spending a significant amount of time on the Hyperion and Banner upgrades (learning about what’s changing and database cleanup work
* Set up scripts to enable the Student Employment Coordinator to terminate student jobs en masse at the end of the summer
* Researching problems, assisting HR with cleanup of data entered incorrectly, and changes to move from summer to fall term

Rogelio

* Conducted workshop on how to identify and correct Banner duplicate person records, which was very popular and well-attended by staff from Admissions, Registrar’s Office, College Advancement, Language Schools, Bread Loaf School of English, and LIS
* Analysis and research for Monterey general student data load to enable programmatic email account generation
* Assisting John Nordmeyer in resolution of duplicate person data, debugging SQL code used in Hyperion reports, and changes to the Alumni Program application
* Educating himself on the Student Employment module and the payroll data feed to the Financial Aid module; working with Student Financial Services to develop a way to ensure award amounts are not exceeded when work study funds are exhausted
* Training users in the Bread Loaf School of English; resolving change of term issues on inquiry reports; correcting duplicate person data

John

* Developing two new applications for Public Safety, Open Container Citations and Fire Safety Violations, which will include new Oracle forms, shell scripts, and several PL/SQL scripts to post fines to the Banner Accounts Receivable module

Marcy

* Banner 8 work has begun with the build of a new database with UTF8 character set; installation and testing of new Oracle application server software; cleanup and reorganization of tablespaces; testing a new Pro C compiler which Mark installed for us on diamond
* Managing work for lockdown project (creation and maintenance of Oracle data privileges and developing Banner change management process)
* Automating startup of Banner java payment client for Banner credit card processing
* Implementing Financial Aid Self Service as a separate product (for delivery of upgrades independent of the Student Self Service product
* Attended NERCOMP IT Manager’s Workshop in Boston
* Setup and review of Banner accounts for student work study employment across campus

Peter Schilling, head of IT at Amherst, published an interesting index of IT factoids at Academic Commons (a site that I help to run) which the Chronicle picked up on. Look for a similar Midd-centric index coming soon to our magazine. Are the changes Amherst notices also happening here?

With 17 class days in September, Librarians will have presented 53 classes. That’s a rate of 3 per day since the beginning of the academic year. Perhaps you can understand why getting these scheduled into rooms with adequate equipment, e.g., smart classrooms with computers for students has us tearing our hair.

First Year Seminars represent the greatest percentage of classes at the beginning of the term. New students need a basic introduction to LIS resources and services. Classes will often be back for in-depth instruction in subject resources when research papers are assigned.

It is interesting to see the range of subjects addressed:

Date — Course — Title — Librarian
4 FYSE 1066 Voices Along the Way (Judy)
4 FYSE 1236 The Malleable Human (Carrie)
8 FYSE 1215 Empires (Brenda)
8 CHEM 0322 Biochemistry of Macromolecules (1) (Carrie)
8 CHEM 0322 Biochemistry of Macromolecules (2) (Carrie)
8 CHEM 0322 Biochemistry of Macromolecules (3) (Carrie)
9 HIST 0600 History Research Seminar (Brenda)
9 HIST 0600 History Research Seminar (Andy)
10 FYSE 1020 Crime & Punishment in America (Andy)
10 FYSE 1253 The Brain in Sickness & in Health (Bryan)
10 FYSE 1048 Ecology and Conservation in Vermont (Carrie)
10 FYSE 1237 What Is Life? (Carrie)
11 FYSE 1062 Brother Can You Spare a Dime? (Andy)
11 FYSE 1248 The Trojan War (Cynthia)
11 FYSE 1249 Food and Choice (Joe)
11 JAPA 0275 Seminar in Japanese (Joy)
11 FYSE 1174 Andy Warhol (Judy)
12 FYSE 1236 The Malleable Human (Carrie)
12 FYSE 1244 Geology of National Parks (Carrie)
15 Hist 0700 Senior World History Seminar (Brenda)
15 Hist 0700 Senior US History Thesis Seminar (Andy)
15 HARC 0214 Art in the Middle Ages (Judy)
16 SOAN 0302 Resch: Ethnography Qual Methods (Jean)
16 PSYC 0202 Research Methods (Bryan)
16 GEOG 0100 Place and Society (Carrie)
17 Econ 0700 Senior Research (Brenda)
17 FYSE 1258 Performing Culture (Judy)
17 FYSE 1244 Geology of National Parks (Carrie)
18 SOAN 0302 Rech: Ethnography Qual Methods (Jean)
18 HIST 0397 The U.S. and the Pacific (Andy)
18 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (1) (Bryan)
18 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (2) (Bryan)
18 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (3) (Bryan)
18 FYSE 1245 Sound: the Aural Ether (Joy)
19 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (4) (Bryan)
19 PSYC 0105 Intro. To Psychology (5) (Bryan)
19 FYSE 1021 Love & Death (Bryan)
19 FYSE 1236 The Malleable Human (Carrie)
22 GEOL 0400 Senior Thesis Seminar (Carrie)
23 REFWORKS (Brenda)
23 FYSE 1264 Race Difference in 20th C America (Andy)
23 FYSE 1250 Songwriting (Joy)
23 FYSE 1211 Godel, Escher, Bach (Judy)
23 CHEM 0311 Instrumental Analysis (Carrie)
23 HARC 0219 Northern Renaissance Art (Judy)
25 FYSE 1255 The Collapse of Complex Societies (Jean)
25 FYSE 1254 Liberation and Literature (Joy)
25 REFWORKS (Richard)
29 PSYC 0700 Senior Research (Bryan)
29 FYSE 1256 Captains, Kings, Caudillos (Joy)
29 SPAN 0300 Hispanic Literature (Joy)
29 FYSE 1048 Ecology and Conservation in Vermont (Carrie)
30 REFWORKS (Jean)

Basic technology instruction is included in a large percentage of these classes, introduced either by a Technology Liaison or by the Librarian. Classes that involve intensive use of digital media generally schedule classes separately. Some of that activity will be reported at a later date.

RefWorks has made some significant improvements to its Windows version of Write-N-Cite –version III- -  making it possible to edit and add references to formatted papers. Jean Simmons has requested similar updates for Mac users. Jean has attended two online training sessions to learn about this as well as other new features, e.g., switching between versions of W-N-C, importing from RSS feeds, creating bibliographies from materials in several folders with “My List,” working offline, appending attachments to a record. . .  . Ask her what you may not know and please sit in on a RefWorks workshop. RefWorks can be helpful to anyone who needs to keep book lists, citations, or bibliographies in order..

Thanks to Brian Foley, LIB 105 already has Write-N-Cite III and Armstrong 161 will have it soon.

Join Middlebury College Geography students and other volunteers in a workshop this Saturday to learn how to contribute to the an inventory of farm buildings in Vermont. Then, on October 18-19, participate in the Vermont Barn Census. This Saturday’s workshop is at Judy Watts’ home in Cornwall. Contact Mike Plummer via email at Mike.Plummer@state.vt.us or at (802) 828-1220.

LIS graduate interns Brendans Owen & Smith have started work on a portal for the lecture archive as well as enhancements to the search function in CONTENTdm which will allow browsing by subject and lecturer name.

The Library’s subscription to Theatre in Video, a database of plays in streaming video from Alexander Street Press, was a pleasant surprise to students in Cheryl Faraone’s Theatre History class who are using it to view online several of the Greek dramas required for the course.

The first lecture of the 2008-09 Faculty Lecture Series was given on September 18 by David Stoll, Department of Sociology and Anthropology. That lecture, as well as an Athletics Department presentation by Dan Doyle, the founder of the Institute for International Sport, has been added to the lecture archive. If you have a chance, look at the multimedia presentation that precedes Professor Stoll’s lecture. As Media Services refine use of the Accordent video system you’ll see more of this.

The Internet Movie Database, a popular and comprehensive online database of global film information, is now offering free viewing of an advertised 6,000 feature films and television shows. Here’s a review of the service by Jason Kinkaid at TechCrunch.com.

A new feature has been added to Midcat.  When viewing the full record of an item you will see a link labeled Cite this title (via OCLC). For most titles, clicking that link will take you to a page at OCLC which will show you the correct format for citing the title in a number of different styles, such as APA, MLA and Turabian.

Oherwise you’ll see a page indicating that citation information may not be available.