Area 51 notes, Feb. 14, 2013

Present: Terry Simpkins, Mary Backus, Mike Roy and Doreen Bernier
Space Team Members: Joseph Watson, Peggy Fischel and Hans Raum

The Space Team joined us to present an update of their activities:

  • Earlier this year, the team presented their recommendations to the ADs for the future use of the information desk in the library atrium.  The team recommended the space be used as an information kiosk with an electronic directory and handout display.  Mike brought this recommendation to the larger campus space committee, which approved $5,000 for an architectural study for FY13-14
  • Joseph will coordinate with the architect to develop a design for the kiosk, removing the information desk and incorporating an electronic directory and display for handouts.  He will also have the architect develop a less expensive option, leaving the desk in its current position and repurposing it to include the electronic directory and handouts display.
  • We will need to create a small group to work with various service points within the library to develop an electronic directory.
  • The space team will also be reviewing office space needs for LIS now that SRC has approved some of our position requests.
  • The team will investigate the issue of how to increase student carrel and study spaces within the library.
  • We need to think about a long term space study to look at overall use of library space, the utility of installing additional compact shelving to the stacks, etc.  The team agreed to propose a timeline to the ADs.

This week Mike Roy, Chris Norris and Jim Stuart had a preliminary meeting to revisit our overall cloud strategy.  Areas of focus will include:

  • Email
  • Storage
  • Telephone (VoIP)

More at a future meeting.

Dining has requested assistance with project management efforts for their current CBOARD food management system, which tracks food usage and costs.  These project management needs would be temporary; dining staff would maintain the system once up and running.  The current implementation has been used for about 10 years and it needs to be upgraded.  Dining doesn’t have the capability to handle a project this size and asked for our assistance.  We discussed some possibe options, but the project requires further discussion and analysis.

Thanks for reading,
Terry and Doreen