Tag Archives: Oct 31 2008

Update from Database Applications and Systems

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Submitted by Chris Norris

Here are some of the projects and tasks that DAS staff members have been working on during the past month…

Mike Schuster
– Modifications to a Banner custom process for the Registrar’s office that creates student class codes to meet new business rules.
– Modifications to the “LS Stats- new” Hyperion report to display applications for students applying to language schools at Mills College.
– Assisting with applying the Banner financial aid SSB upgrade in the DEV2 database.
– Investigating issues with Banner custom database triggers that create “away” and “returning” general student records for students going on leave.

Rob Pekor
– Modifications to the Phone-a-thon data interface for College Advancement.
– Gathering requirements for the data feed for the Harris online community project.
– Refinement of the Banner/ListManager (Broadcast Email tool) integration model with Travis.
– Loading MIIS gift history for Monterey and College Advancement.

Travis Stafford
– Refinement of the Banner/ListManager (Broadcast Email tool) integration model with Rob.
– Transitioning the Alumni office and CSO towards use of the self-service WordPress cformsII plug-in for all “new” non-eCommerce forms.
– Clean-up of code and adding functionality to Project Tracker.

Liz Whitaker-Freitas
– Ongoing work related to the Hyperion System 9 Upgrade/Migration (one line item, but this is a BIG project).

Ian McBride
– Completed development on a News Dashboard for College Communications (http://web.middlebury.edu/systems/newsboard). This will soon replace the main Public Affairs News home page and aggregate news content from several sources.
– Supporting CMS content providers and other web-related requests.
– Participating in the Web Makeover team meetings.

Chris Norris
– Migrated GO.middlebury.edu to a more stable prod environment, implemented GO.miis.edu for Monterey.
– Refinement of service-level monitoring, including addition of escalation groups.
– Project Phoenix BIA reviews, planning, specification for remote DR web presence.
– Pre-migration configuration, testing, troubleshooting of eCommerce web forms.
– Supporting ListManager newsletters, conducting ListManager workshops (only a couple more to go!).
– Contacting various folks about outstanding FileMakerPro requests, pre-migration web forms questions.
– Working on updated SWOT analysis of the DAS workgroup.

Highlight of the Fall NEMLA conference

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Submitted by Joy Pile

On Friday Oct. 17, I attended the Fall conference of NEMLA (New England Chapter of the Music Library Association) which was held at Bennington College. Among the sessions given, was one that focused on a couple of projects the library helped to sponsor as part of a class. The most innovative of the two projects was one which resulted in the creation of a Lib2.0 book recommendation site – not unlike the one Mary Backus demonstrated in the brown bag session – with physical objects designed to highlight a book in the stacks. For more information, and photos of this very creative project go to <http://bookmarks.bennington.edu>.

LIS Area Director Notes from October 23rd

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Discussed Sassafras Keyserver timeline.  This project could provide considerable savings, but there are some concerns about security for mobile users.  It may be possible to have implementation and communications completed in time for the spring semester

Liaison program discussed by the Faculty LIS Advisory Committee (FLAC).  The proposal would shift the existing model from a two-liaison per dept model to a single liaision per dept model. Judy to work with RDS and CTLR on next steps towards implementation.

Institutional Research/Datamart – it would be great to have a DBA dedicated to this project.  Jeff has agreed to assist in exploring this, but no firm commitment of LIS resources can be given to this project until we better understand the scope and effort required.

6-month password expirations – Only 1 month away.  Campus communications should ask that users make their password changes early.  A notice should be supplied to Middpoints and listed on posters throughout the library

All LIS Staff Meeting – The agenda was reviewed for the All LIS Staff meeting to be held on Friday, October 24th

Zipcars – should we use them?  Doreen will talk with Tom Corbin for an overview of the program.  Does it benefit LIS?  Are costs lower than other college vehicle rentals

Travel – the travel budget has been reduced by 20% for the year.  ADs will review within individual areas and approve travel for the year, possibly resulting in further savings.

Preparing for budget cuts – Compile all ideas for cuts.  Evaluate:

o what we spend now

o what can be cut

o actual costs

o primary group(s) affected

o long term consequences of this change

Print management – time to officially launch.  Schedule a kick off meeting for the 1st week of November to devise a detailed plan with timeline of going live by January.  Mike will create a draft plan.  Who should attend meeting?  J. Beauchemin, J. Lahaie, T. Cutter, M. Backus, C. Peddie, J. Rehbach, A. Dobucki, B. Foley, N. Burt, P. Mitrevski, M. Roy and E. Waagen.

Notes from LIS All-staff Meeting

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LIS Staff Meeting
Friday October 24, 2008
3:30-4:30
Harmon Reading Room

Agenda

1. Announcements (5 minutes)

  • LIS Holiday Party: Dec. 18, 3pm-5 PM in the lobby
  • Jeff is making progress on the Annual Report
  • Welcome Jim Beauchemin, new Manager of the Help Desk!
  • Web makeover project launched; see http://sites.middlebury.edu/webredo/
  • Print management project underway; stay tuned for details!
  • Goals for 08-09 : beyond what we’ve always done, what new things are we going to do (projects, changes in policy, improvements to spaces, etc. )
    See https://mediawiki.middlebury.edu/wiki/LIS/LIS_Goals_2008-09

2. College Budget and the LIS Budget (10 minutes)

  • Please do try to attend Patrick Norton’s presentation of our financial situation at Dana Auditorium from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 12.
  • submit ideas about how to save money to the budget group (need url)
    http://sites.middlebury.edu/budget/
  • All travel needs to now be approved by Area Directors
  • Hiring freeze means that we will need to focus even more intently on being more efficient in how we do things, and in making sure that we are working on the right things.
  • This is a fluid situation: ADs are creating a list of possible areas for savings to avoid ad hoc decisions. We are trying to be creative and do things that will have the least impact on our users, and which will advance other goals (e.g. print management, student dialtone, software licensing via keyserver–> need YOUR creativity and ideas

3. Re-organization Update

Initial thinking of the main areas of LIS is:

user services
collection management
infrastructure & systems
enterprise systems
academic resources and technology

We will be meeting with people who would be most directly affected by these changes (Judy’s group, Tom’s group) to talk about our ideas and the questions we have, and to give people a chance to have input into the decision and provide feedback. Look for posts on the re-org site soon!

Upcoming Open Sessions to Discuss Re-structuring:

11/17 from 11-12 in Harmon

11/18 from 3:30-4:30 in Harmon

12/3 from 6:30-7:30 in LIB

Deadline for SWOT analyses is Monday November 3rd.

We’ll be doing LIS-wide business process analysis in the spring; what that actually means to follow.
4. Brainstorming and critiquing team proposals (40 minutes)

  • break-up into groups of 8 (spread out within library)
  • appoint a facilitator and notetaker (separate person)
  • for 20 minutes, discuss existing proposals for teams (good idea? bad idea? what’s missing? what’s confusing? what questions need to be answered about how this team would function? ) and also brainstorm ideas for new teams
  • notetaker posts comments and ideas for new teams to the re-structuring blog
  • go around the room and collect from each group 1 or 2 ideas for new teams (10 minutes

    • We need these notes posted. If you were the notetaker, please POST asap.