Monthly Archives: April 2010

Sunday Downtime Notice for April 11, 2010

LIS will occasionally perform maintenance on systems during a scheduled window of Sunday 8AM-10AM EST. The following systems may not be available during that time this Sunday, April 11, 2010. If you have questions or concerns, please contact the Helpdesk at helpdesk@middlebury.edu or (802) 443-2200.

  • Segue and Concerto
  • WordPress
  • Museum of Art website
  • Undergraduate Research funding database
  • Study Abroad course information database
  • Archive of old Content Management System
  • HEAT, the Helpdesk’s ticketing system
  • Blackberry Enterprise Server
  • ILLiad
  • Key Survey
  • Athletics Scoreboard and Roster database
  • Sports medicine database

Additionally, editing on the college’s main website (www.middlebury.edu) will be disabled for a few minutes while we import student employment job descriptions into the database.

Curricular Technologies: Ideas and Suggestions

In an effort to tap into the collective wisdom of the Middlebury community, the Curricular Technology team has set up a Google Moderator “series” for Curricular Technology Ideas/Suggestions.  Check it out and add your ideas or vote on existing ideas.

For those of you who can’t keep up with all the tools and services Google has out there, Moderator is a site where you can aggregate input from a large number of people, similar to UserVoice, a site LIS has used to brainstorm on a number of topics.

I first discovered Moderator in a Google Buzz post about How to Fix Google Buzz, set up by a former Google employee (see: Ex-Googler Creates Voting Site: “How to Fix Google Buzz”, Read Write Web, 2/17/2010).

LIS Website – Student Survey Results & Recommendations

I’ve compiled the results from the LIS Website Team’s survey of LIS students workers where we asked about familiarity with areas of the LIS website and knowledge of web technologies. This was a shorter survey than the staff version with 20 students responding to the 2009 version and 17 completed 2010 surveys. Before I present the results of the student survey, I want to share my recommendations based on the results of both surveys. These are just my initial thoughts. The LIS Website Team will compile its recommendations based off this data, the comments included with both surveys, and usability testing we’re conducting this month.

[Reminder: If you want to participate in usability testing, reply to the all-campus email that was sent Wednesday, April 7 with the times when you would be available.]

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LIS Website – Staff Survey Results

Thanks to all the LIS staff who responded to the LIS Website Team’s survey! There were 63 responses to our 2009 survey, prior to the redesign of the LIS Website, and 24 responses to our more recent survey, after the launch of the new site. In this post, I will share some of the results of these surveys and compare the feedback between the two surveys. I’ll discuss the student survey in another post.

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Strategies for Selecting Technologies

As the Curricular Technology team has been researching platforms to replace Segue, we have been trying to define some strategies for selecting technologies and then making the case for a particular selection criteria.   The first strategy we have published is related to open source and open standards.

In a nutshell, the team has taken the position that we favor “open source technologies because they allow LIS designers and developers to integrate such technologies with other systems on campus including other open source projects.”  As well, the team has taken the position that it favors “technologies that use open standards because they help to prevent lock in to a given application or vendor.”

Its important to note that this preference for open source and open standards does not preclude the use of proprietary software or formats, particularly if proprietary solutions better meet the needs of the college community.  Find out more at:

Segue from Segue » Technology Sources and Standards

Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program

One of the Internet resources featured in the latest issue of the Internet Scout Report, at http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2010/scout-100402.html, is the Monterey Terrorism Research & Education Program, at http://www.miis.edu/academics/researchcenters/terrorism.  Based at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, the Monterey Terrorism Research & Education Program (MonTREP) “conducts in-depth research, assesses policy options, and engages in public education on issues relating to terrorism and international security.”  Their team of scholars looks at violence-prone extremist groups and their historical evolution, organization structure, and operational methods. Most people will want to look at their Islam, Islamism, and Politics in Eurasia Reports (IIPER).  The IIPER is a bimonthly compendium of news and analysis on politics involving Islam in the former Soviet Union.  The reports are written and edited by Dr. Gordon M. Hahn, and the series also accepts independent submissions as well. Visitors are welcome to browse through the reports here, and they may end up forwarding them to friends and associates. Finally, the site also includes a “News & Student Stories” area which reports on the activities of current members of the team, alumni, and students.