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Area 51 notes, Dec. 20, 2012

January 15, 2013 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present: Chris, Doreen, Carol, Mike, Mary, Terry

In advance of meeting, Chris distributed the latest version of the Data Classification Policy for review.  The policy describes various types of data classification (e.g. sensitive) and how they should be handled, but does not discuss policy enforcement.  The Data Classification Taskforce may suggest names of people to serve as “data stewards” within functional areas, but it will be up to the FA to appoint the data steward.

Some suggestions from the ADs were to:

  • provide training for data stewards, possibly in conjunction with the Training & Education and Security Teams
  • provide training for new employees
  • edit the policy to reflect current thinking about how we write policies, e.g., lay out the “why this is important” up front and recast the preamble in plainer language.
  • create a timeline listing activities and who will be responsible for these activities

Next Steps:

  • Data Classification Taskforce should begin conversations within their areas
  • Have this discussion added to the LEADS agenda (possibly February 18th)
  • Mike would like to present this to President’s Staff, possibly at their March 2013 meeting

Chris also announced that the PCI Policy (Policy for Accepting Credit Card and eCommerce Payments) has been approved by Patrick Norton and has been posted to the Controller’s website.  An early January email from Patrick to all staff explaining this policy will be sent out.

A brief discussion was held regarding the eNewsletter and how we communicate to the college community.  Should this discussion be to move this to the Communications Taskforce?  Since their current charge is to evaluate internal communications, this could be something to consider in a subsequent phase, either with this group or a new one focusing on external communications.

We made good progress on finalizing Education and Training Team membership.  We still need to have a few conversations with staff before announcing, but stay tuned.

Mike asked the ADs to think about how we can improve our project prioritization practices. An AD meeting in January will be dedicated to this topic.  Specifically:

  • how do LIS priorities fit with College priorities
  • how do ad hoc projects get integrated into existing planned commitments?
  • how do we keep focused on high-level (e.g. data classification, information literacy, SLAs, etc.) issues and make reviewing projects habitual?

Thanks for reading,

Terry & Doreen

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Area 51 Notes, Dec. 13, 2012

January 8, 2013 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present:  Mike Roy, Chris Norris, Carol Peddie, Mary Backus, Terry Simpkins and Doreen Bernier

Mike provided a summary of his CLIR-CIO meeting in Washington DC.  Some of the topics discussed were:

  • MISO survey
  • Digital scholarship
  • On-line education
  • Classroom design
  • Quiet zones in the library
  • Security
  • Organizational structure
  • Collection development issues

The Dec. 20th optional all-LIS staff meeting has been canceled.  Happy holidays

Chris led a discussion about next steps regarding our policy review (aka, Policy Summit). We looked at some of Gartner’s recommendations for policy management. After reviewing notes from the Policy Summit meeting and survey results, the following topics stood out:

  • Data ownership, privacy, classification
  • Education and awareness
  • Technology enablers (ie. tools)
  • Governance and enforcement

A consolidated list of next steps was generated:

  • Inventory all LIS policies and policies that affect LIS
    • What do we have? What’s missing? What’s no longer needed?
    • Where are the policies? When were they last updated? Who is responsible for each policy?
    • Does the policy work? Would it work if it was enforced? How to deal with exceptions?
    • Is it an LIS policy or a College policy (or other, such as a guideline, practice, or procedure)?
  • Determine institutional temperature of policy
    • Who should be leading this effort? Who should be involved?
    • Relationship to the data classification taskforce work?
    • What should the priorities be (i.e., currency, legal)?
    • What is the institutional philosophy around policies (e.g., comprehensive, prescribed? simple, broadly worded?

Chris reported that the final draft of the Data Classification Policy (created by the Data Classification Taskforce) has been completed. A review of this draft will be added to next week’s AD agenda for further discussion.

Chris has contacted Donna McDurfee, who sends out yearly update notifications on handbook policies, to request a spreadsheet containing an inventory of the current policies as a starting point.

Discussion touched the issue of which policies (vs., for example, guidelines or procedures) to prioritize.  There was at least some sentiment to focus on policies with an element of enforcement to them (as opposed to, for example, something like the library gift policy that mainly provides guidance to staff as well as donors).

A second round of Policy Summit discussions will continue during the January Optional All-Staff meeting on January 17th.

The ADs discussed whether the LIS Strategic Directions need to be updated.  It has been several years since the last revision. Sentiment varied as to whether we have the time, and whether it is worth the effort, to engage in this now.

Thanks for reading,
Terry & Doreen

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Area 51 notes, Dec. 13, 2013

December 20, 2012 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present:  Mike Roy, Chris Norris, Carol Peddie, Mary Backus, Terry Simpkins and Doreen Bernier

Mike provided a summary of his CLIR-CIO meeting in Washington DC.  Some of the topics discussed were:

  • MISO survey
  • Digital scholarship
  • On-line education
  • Classroom design
  • Quiet zones in the library
  • Security
  • Organizational structure
  • Collection development issues

The Dec. 20th optional all-LIS staff meeting has been canceled.  Happy holidays

Chris led a discussion about next steps regarding our policy review (aka, Policy Summit). We looked at some of Gartner’s recommendations for policy management. After reviewing notes from the Policy Summit meeting and survey results, the following topics stood out:

  • Data ownership, privacy, classification
  • Education and awareness
  • Technology enablers (ie. tools)
  • Governance and enforcement

A consolidated list of next steps was generated:

  • Inventory all LIS policies and policies that affect LIS
    • What do we have? What’s missing? What’s no longer needed? – Chris has contacted Donna McDurfee, who sends out yearly update notifications on handbook policies, to request a spreadsheet containing an inventory of the current policies as a starting point.
    • Where are the policies? When were they last updated? Who is responsible for each policy?
    • Does the policy work? Would it work if it was enforced? How to deal with exceptions?
    • Is it an LIS policy or a College policy (or other, such as a guideline, practice, or procedure)?
  • Determine institutional temperature of policy creation
    • Who should be leading this effort? Who should be involved?
    • Relationship to the data classification taskforce work?
    • What should the priorities be (i.e., currency, legal)?
    • What is the institutional philosophy around policies (e.g., comprehensive, prescribed? simple, broadly worded?

Chris reported that the latest draft of the Data Classification Policy (created by the Data Classification Taskforce) has been completed. A review of this draft will be added to next week’s AD agenda for further discussion.

Our discussion touched the issue of which policies (versus, for example, guidelines or procedures) to prioritize/focus.  There was at least some sentiment to focus on policies with an element of enforcement to them (as opposed to, for example, something like the library gift policy that mainly provides guidance to staff as well as donors).

A second round of Policy Summit discussions will continue during the January optional all-staff meeting on January 17th.

The ADs discussed whether the LIS Strategic Directions need to be updated (please… hold your applause).  It has been several years since the last revision.  Sentiment varied as to whether we have the time, and whether it is worth the effort, to engage in this now.  We will continue to poke at this.

Thanks for reading,
Terry & Doreen

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Managers Meeting, Oct. 11, 2012

October 23, 2012 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present:  Lisa Terrier, Joe Durante, Pij Slater, Peggy Fischel, Mike Roy, David Ludwig, Jim Stuart, Joe Antonioli, Joseph Watson, Chris Norris, Carrie Macfarlane, Terry Simpkins, Rebekah Irwin, Mary Backus, Ian Burke, Dan Frostman, Petar Mitreviski and Doreen Bernier

Mike Roy shared early results of the staff survey showing improvements from last year in every area.

Preparations for the Dalai Lama visit were briefly discussed.

Mary reviewed the process for selecting a new incident tracking system (we currently use HEAT) for LIS.  Two finalists were selected,  Parature and Web Helpdesk.  Parature is a hosted solution while Web Helpdesk, after recently having been acquired by Solarwinds, Inc., no longer offers hosting services.  After analysis, Parature was eliminated because they could not find enthusiastically positive reviews of the product.  For a hosting solution with Web Heldesk, a third-party service, Loop1, will be selling hosting for Web Helpdesk.  Cost and impact are being investigated.  Other tidbits from the discussion:

  • Dan and Mary also agreed to be application co-administrators.
  • A kickoff meeting to analyze how support will flow through the organization and to prepare an implementation plan will be organized soon.
  • Jim Stuart asked if departments outside of LIS would also utilize this new ticketing system?  Would it be prudent to look at it in a larger campus wide context?  Mary stated that this was only being looked at for LIS and if it went campus-wide, someone other than LIS would need to organize and budget for it.
  • Web Helpdesk will not hold concurrent licensing.  Individual licenses will be needed for staff to use this product. She asked managers to give Dan names of students and other staff who may need access.
  • Mike noted that workgroups will be involved in these conversations, and staff should try to find time in our schedules to dedicate to this project within the next 3 -5 months.
  • We also recognized the need for Service Level Agreements to be incorporated into any new ticketing system we implement.
  • Finally, Mary also asked the workgroups to let Dan know if they have a specific set of data that they want to have tracked.

LIS has launched the LIS Tech Partners group, comprised of LIS staff and department tech leads (i.e. those staff charged with providing tech services to other departments on campus.

Mike created an online form for managers to describe how things went with the startup of the Fall semester.  What went well and what didn’t?

  • One of the themes extracted from the results was on Printing.  Suggestions were made to either have a staff member available to assist with printing problems or to develop a  troubleshooting video to assist students.
  • Jim Stuart asked why is there still so much printing?  Should there be more of a campaign to promote electronic submissions?   We still have students that prefer to study in print and a conservative faculty.
  • Joe Antonioli noted that communications between workgroups seemed better this year.
  • Because the pool of student help at the beginning of the year is so small, should we find temporary help to assist with fall semester?  Mary noted that Circulation has a pool of subs who can be trained and to contact Dan if temporary student help is needed.
  • There were fewer course data fixes this year.  Data from Banner seemed to be more accurate than in years past.
  • Was everyone aware that student workers had not been paid? Student employment said that it  could take them up to 3 weeks to manually enter authorization forms into the system.  We should confirm mid-August next year to make sure the students will get paid in a timely fashion.
  • Next year at the July Manager’s meeting, we should discuss the school year startup.  This should also be reviewed in May for Language Schools.
  • Petar commented on communications – we should integrate the  ticketing system with events scheduling to assist with venue and event time changes.
  • Petar also mentioned that we need more time for classroom tech upgrades

Mike led a conversation about the next phase of staffing requests by indicating we currently have 4 open positions.  Through a voting process, managers believe they need 8 new positions.  He asked managers to be thoughtful in analyzing their staffing needs, and be cognizant of the costs associated with increasing staff resources.  We agreed the managers and ADs need to gather info from workgroup leaders and hold another open meting and discuss ideas.  ADs would then use their next retreat to prepare the phase 2 staffing plan to present to SRC.

Joe Antonioli noted that on August 31st Segue was officially decommissioned.  Woohoo!

Thanks for reading, Terry & Doreen

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Managers Meeting, Sept. 13, 2012

October 23, 2012 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Present:  Chris Norris, Peggy Fischel, Mike Roy, Joe Durante, Pij Slater, Ian Burke, Lisa Terrier, Dan Frostman, Carol Peddie, Joseph Watson, Rachael Manning, Carrie Macfarlane, Jim Stuart, Joe Antonioli, Petar Mitrevski, Chris Tangora, Terry Simpkins, Rebekah Irwin and Doreen Bernier

Pij led the managers through a discussion about the Education and Training Team’s recommendation to include new language in all LIS job descriptions, indicating what technology skills are expected for all LIS staff members.  The Education & Training team recommends adding the following general phrase to all LIS job descriptions in the section labeled “Other”:

Demonstrate proficiency in general computing skills, such as e-mail, word processing, and use of web-based applications and resources.

Ability to operate in a networked computer environment, including the appropriate use of file storage, understanding security best practices, and a willingness and ability to develop new competencies.

Pij explained that this contains only the “minimum” requirements for LIS staff positions. For current staff members who do not maintain the skills set by these minimum requirements, educational opportunities will be made available, should your current position require them.

This topic will be discussed at the next All LIS Staff meeting.

Joe Antonioli presented the following plan created by the Communications Taskforce.  He described the basic survey and information gathering process.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12o26-W5h-1zQCu3w3aYjyGNyVlBy2XPERYDc3Mx8Zek/edit  This will also be presented to staff at the next All LIS Staff meeting.

Thanks for reading,

Terry and Doreen

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Area 51 notes, Oct. 11, 2012

October 23, 2012 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

 

Present:  Mike Roy, Mary Backus, Terry Simpkins, Chris Norris, and Doreen Bernier.  Special guest: Joseph Watson.

We talked at length about the next round staffing needs.  The ADs will work with managers to identify and/or clarify staffing needs within their areas, and the ADs will address the topic at the next retreat, scheduled for early Nov.  We will also have another open staff meeting just prior to the retreat to give staff another avenue for input.

The College-wide goals document has been simplified.  ADs wll review for accuracy and correct.  Doreen will share the version of the document with the ADs.  Once vetted to confirm that all stakeholders agree to the goals, the list will be shared broadly.

On a related topic, the quarterly goal updates, normally due Oct. 1, are pushed to Nov. 1.

After discussion, we agreed that the project directory in Roadmap is too labor intensive to keep up to date, so it will be discontinued. Mike is asking each director to provide him with a list of what projects have been recently been completed, what are we working on and what is on the horizon.  Mike will prepare a summary to ADs to share with workgroups.

We reviewed items from the quarterly update, focusing on staff morale issues (““How we do our work”) – see:  http://sites.middlebury.edu/lis/files/2012/09/lis-quarterlyupdate-summer2012.pdf.  It appears we are making good progress!  We will add two items from this discussion to future updates:  governance and reviewing management training with workgroup leaders.

Joseph joined the meeting for a discussion and review of the list of space requests to send to Facilities Services.

Chris talked about a new assessment tool: Gartner’s ITscore.  From Gartner: “Gartner’s ITScore is a tool that quantifies the maturity of both the IT organization as a provider and the enterprise as a consumer of information technology. Enterprise and IT leaders can use ITScore to identify and remedy constraints on their ability to leverage IT.

Roles (ie. assessment questionnaire areas)

  • Enterprise Perspective
  • Application Organization
  • Business Intelligence and Performance Management
  • Business Process Management
  • CIO Perspective
  • Enterprise Architecture
  • Infrastructure and Operations
  • IT Sourcing and IT Vendor Management
  • Program and Portfolio Management
  • Security and Risk Management

For more information, there is a video at: http://my.gartner.com/html/itscore/itscore-video.html

Thanks for reading,
Terry and Doreen

 

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AD Meeting Notes, month of September

October 3, 2012 by
Categories: Midd Blogosphere

Special quadruple-size bonus issue to catch up, since I’ve again gotten behind with these… Most recent notes at the top.  TS

————–
Sept. 27, 2012
Present: Mike Roy, Carol Peddie, Mary Backus, Terry Simpkins, Chris Norris, Shel Sax and Doreen Bernier

We talked about the membership of the Education and Training Team.  Terry will consult with the possible new members.

Mary led a discussion about the SLA response time recommendations.  After reviewing these recommendations with workgroup leaders, we will extend the recommended response times so that they are consistent across LIS.

Mike shared a list of potential topics for the optional all-LIS meetings.  We will share LIS staff for suggestions.

Shel gave an informative but bleak presentation on the Future of Higher Education.

Thanks for reading,
Terry & Doreen

————–
Sept. 20, 2012
Present: Mary, Carol, Terry, Mike, Chris
Absent: Doreen

We agreed to have a semester start-up debriefing at the October managers meeting.

We will have a DiSC conversation in October for all-staff.  The assessments will go out in advance and the meeting will focus on results; no one will need to retake the assessment who has already taken it recently (e.g., for management training)

In looking more at the 306 goals that departments across campus have compiled, we reviewed those which might have a large impact on LIS and assigned each area director to follow-up with certain College offices where we need more information.  The point is to obtain more information on these goals and work to provide feedback on the goal viability from our point of view. This could involve stopping projects already in motion to work on new ones, or delaying new ones until we have capacity.

Thanks for reading,
Terry

————–
Sept. 13, 2012
Present: Mike, Terry, Carol, Chris, Tim
Absent: Mary, Doreen

Tim Spears joined us as we reviewed a tentative (and incomplete) list of goals from other departments with potential impact on LIS.  We also spent time talking about MIIS, BL, and LS, etc. (not yet in the list of dept. goals) and their potential impact on LIS and how we will get more information about these projects.  We will need to review the goal list to identify projects for which we need more information, projects to dismiss, or projects which we think we can handle with the available resources.  This needs to happen within 3 weeks.

Other points of discussion with Tim:

  • staffing issues, especially in light of how some of the new initiatives under consideration will impact technology and LIS;
  • innovation TF recommendations will go to EAC for approval of “low-hanging fruit”
  • how does the Middlebury community engage the ongoing questions about college costs vs. relevance?  These conversations could also generate more goals and projects involving technology;
  • how do we (LIS/The College/everyone) foster innovation and creativity? LIS often seems to be a combination of utility company and experimentation zone

Following Tim’s departure, we had a brief discussion of the Security Team membership. Chris as sponsor will follow-up.

————–
Sept. 6, 2012
Present: Mary, Carol, Terry, Mike, Chris
Absent: Doreen

Reviewed the directors’ updates and calendar.

Discussed SLA response times

Chris reported a flaw in Java runtime v6 and the recommended path for security reasons is to upgrade to v7. Some of our critical systems do not support the upgrade.  Carol and Chris will investigate more.

The About LIS page needs some updating (MR will do)

Joy & Kellam have sent out a request for information regarding this year’s debriefing on Language School support, still to be scheduled.

Facilities Services has put out their annual call for project requests.  Some that come immediately to mind:

  • data center refurbishing;
  • info desk refurbishing;

We will check with Joseph Watson about any projects remaining from last year.

We began talking about budget requirements for next year and new projects/requests LIS might be looking at.  We should be discussing needs and preliminary thinking with managers, especially viz-a-viz projects/requests involving capital costs that will subsequently roll over into operational costs.  More discussions in early October.

Reviewed topics for various upcoming meetings: managers, directors, open meetings, and all staff meetings:

  • Communications Task Force;
  • Curricular Technology support;
  • Staffing plan;
  • Innovation task forces (James Davis);
  • DiSC workshop (October);
  • Policy summit;
  • Amy McGill from MIIS could talk about current activities on the Left Coast;
  • Review goals from other areas of the College that will or might impact LIS (once shared with us)

We also talked about pulling conversations about our shared values into specific topic discussions, as this may inform why and how we do some of the things we do.  Directors should also talk with managers about what we are doing to incorporate the values into the worklife/workday.

Talked about team assessments: what issues are out there that we need to work on?  What do we expect when we begin inviting teams to Friday directors meetings?

  • Each team needs a clear, agreed upon charge;
  • Membership issues – are the right people on the right teams?  Are there people who want to rotate off?  Should we have terms?
  • Communications/updates;
  • Do we have the right teams? What work wouldn’t happen if a particular team didn’t exist? Can we afford to lose it or not?
  • Should teams be ongoing or project based?

Reviewed the recommendation of the incident tracking (HEAT) system replacement committee.  Carol stressed the need for an application administrator to oversee patches, work with central networking, etc., regardless of the system we choose, whether hosted or not.  We agreed that we need an implementation plan for Web Help Desk, especially looking at what it will take to host locally.  What will that take time away from?  We still have concerns over the matter of hosting/not hosting.  If we can’t support implementing Web Help Desk, we agreed we may need to go back to the drawing board and look for a new system.  We may also need to consider other models for providing support, but that may not work within our culture and expectations of support levels.  This will be considered a critical system, and taking on the hosting locally will involve considerable overhead to support this, overhead which we have not planned the staffing resources for.

Thanks for reading,
Terry

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