Archive for the ‘Areas and Workgroups’ Category
November 19th, 2009 by Carrie Macfarlane
We’d like to get some quick feedback on 2 potential changes to the left-hand menu in the new library site. If you go the library site in Drupal (under development!), you can see how these changes would look.
- Change the name “Library Departments” to “Contact Us.” The purpose of this page is to give users quick access to departments like Reserves, Interlibrary Loan, Collection Management, etc. Using the word “Contact” in the name of the page brings more attention to the page, we think. It also might allow us to remove the long list of contact info that otherwise could be needed on the library collections pages.
- Create a new subpage under “Library Collections” called “Collections,” and nest pages like College Archives, Government Documents and Digital Collections in it. This decreases the number of subpages under “Library Collections” to 6. White Whale recommends no more than 8 subpages, and without this change, “Library Collections” has 11. We considered nesting some of the collections under “Main Library,” but we think that nesting them under “Collections” gives them a little more prominence.
We think these changes will make it easier for most users to find what they’re looking for. Do you agree?
November 19th, 2009 by Elin Waagen
Thanks for your time yesterday at the all-LIS staff meeting. I know that your time is an extremely valuable resource , and I appreciate that you took time away from other pressing work to learn a little bit about what the web team is doing.
I have listed below the link to the Information Architecture site – I hope you’ll take a closer look.
LIS Website
It is a work in progress and we welcome your thoughts and ideas. You best know who your users are – and your feedback will help build a fabulous place for our users to discover LIS and all the resources and services we provide. Many thanks to those of you who filled out comment cards and asked questions at the meeting. We will take your comments and questions to heart and carefully evaluate them as we further develop and test the usability of the site.
We have some very exciting web tools and platforms to work with in developing the site. We hope that the intersection of multiple platforms on the LIS web site will give our users the best possible experience in navigating and accessing our services and resources – and also give LIS a chance to feature the great work we do.
Please be in touch. We can reached by blog, phone, email, and also in person. 
Elin, on behalf of the web team Ian, Barbara, Carrie, Liz, Jim, Jess and Doreen
November 18th, 2009 by Alex Chapin
I attended part of the LIS website team meeting today and gave a presentation of the ShadowBox theme and some of the new features that will be available in the next version including updates to author pages, more custom header options and most importantly, higher contrast text in comment fields. I also gave a preview of some new ShadowBox variations based on the new college website design. Below is a screencast from that meeting:
November 17th, 2009 by Brenda Ellis
Got this via email. Sharing in case others are interested…
The Future of the Library
How the Library Ecosystem is Evolving to
Support 21st Century Information Demands
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 • Time: 12:00 pm EST/9:00 am PST/1700 GMT
Free Registration: www.libraryjournal.com/futureofthelibrary
(more…)
November 17th, 2009 by Carrie Macfarlane
This semester, we’ve been using the Suggestions Board in the atrium of the Main Library to get feedback on how we might be able to save money. We’ve asked library users to tell us what’s most important and what they can do without. The most popular comments so far are, “What’s wrong with the printers?” and “Why is wireless so slow?” Our responses are now posted to Suggestions Board and the LIS Suggestions blog.
November 16th, 2009 by Alex Chapin
I recently created a version of the ShadowBox theme for Measure, an instance of Moodle used at Middlebury for online assessments. As a starting point, I used the Anomaly Theme Pack, created by the Patrick Malley, the Themes Manager for Moodle.org and the Creative Director of the NewSchool Learning design shop. I merged some of the styles and markup Patrick had developed with code from the WordPress ShadowBox theme to create a similar look and feel to the WordPress version. This is a great example of the power of open source to build upon and synthesize the work of others (much of this theme designers current work in no longer open source…)
 Screenshot of Measure ShadowBox theme header
The goal is to create a more unified user experience (UX) and make it easy for faculty and students to move from one platform to another. You’ll noticed that Measure has links to WordPress and Segue in the upper right corner. These same links can be put in the same place on WordPress blogs that use ShadowBox. I’d also like to put these same links on all Segue sites to help with the transition away from Segue to other platforms.
 As new platforms are introduced, they can be added in much the same way as Google Apps lists its various applications.
For more information about Measure, see the Measure Blog.
November 14th, 2009 by Margaret Fischel
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091112/NEWS0213/91111028&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
The preceding Burlington Free Press article was published on 11/12/09. In addition to Middlebury, UVM and St. Michaels College recently removed their room phones. But I do find UVM’s claim that they saved a half million dollars supporting 2800 student phone lines rather amazing.
November 13th, 2009 by Alex Chapin
As libraries and technology services merge, librarians and technologists also need to merge, at least what they know. Mike Roy and David Wedaman (Brandeis) have organized a seminar whose objective is to develop a curriculum for academic information professionals. Librarians and technologists from Middlebury, Brandeis and Mount Holyoke are currently defining that curriculum through a series of presentations that make up the MBMH Seminar.
Joy Pile and I, along with Chrissa Godbout from Mount Holyoke and Karrie Peterson from Brandeis gave the first presentation of the seminar on “Blending Education and Entertainment” in late October. A summary of the presentation is posted on the MBMH Seminar blog and slides are available from Google Docs. Bryan Carson along with Mary Glackin from Mount Holyoke, gave a presentation this afternoon on the topic of “Do Students Learn Differently?”
November 12th, 2009 by Margaret Fischel
LIS announced to students earlier this week that telephone services will be removing dial tone and telephone equipment from residential hall rooms unless a student requests that we keep their service in place. The deadline for those requests is Sunday, November 15. From then through December we’ll be working to re-route remaining dorm telephone lines and remove port cards with a goal of reducing our active landlines by 2000. Ginnie Bukowski is shepherding this part of the project working with our contractor and facilities services. During the week of December 7, recycling services will place bins in dormitories where students can deposit their telephones. The phones will be moved to the Recycling Center where the equipment will be processed for either re-sale or recycling of parts.
The consequence of reducing our maintenance costs is that we no longer have full-time telecommunications maintenance services. Thus, there may be a delay for individual telephone and network repairs and installations as of January 1, though major repairs will continue to be a high priority.
November 11th, 2009 by Joseph Antonioli
This is the fourth biweekly update from the Web Programming work-group. (more…)
November 10th, 2009 by Jeffrey Rehbach
Working together with Facilities (taking advantage of their project to upgrade fire alarm wiring), we have just installed a number of Wireless Access Points to give wireless service throughout all floors of Painter Hall.
(from Howie McCausland)
November 10th, 2009 by Carrie Macfarlane
Watch it online! Capture: What it is and Why It’s Cool (video)
LISterine Workshops: LIS Technology, Endeavors, and Resources in Need of Explanation: Cool and refreshing! Cleans and protects against boredom and stagnation! This workshop series gives LIS a firsthand look at trends, tools and techniques that influence our work. Read more about these workshops. Want to present a workshop? Want someone else to present? Vote for it in the LISterine Feedback Forum!
November 6th, 2009 by Alex Chapin
The Curricular Technology team is working on the figuring out how to document technology, no small task… We are all in agreement that it would be good to have some sort of “quick start” documentation that provides people with the basics to get started with a given tool or a given task/objective. Below is a screencast of a “quick start” demo I did for how to capture.
See: Capture > Presentation > How to do it.
This screencast is definitely too long for a quick start, but the idea of using a screencast in conjunction with step-by-step instructions for quick start documentation is appealing. For other examples of screencast quick starts and/or overviews see:
Using audio/video from MiddMedia in WordPress
Segue > Step-by-Step Instructions > Adding Text and Images
Alas these screencasts are a lot of work and am not sure how effective they are or how they can be improved… Though I think generally they should be as short as possible.
November 5th, 2009 by Mary Backus
Dean proposed a template for any/all blogs that we submit reflecting results of the weekly meetings.
Elin Waagen will perhaps give us a few how-to’s on this.
1)Discussion of reduction in services proposals and ramifications.
With the rollout of new website in early 2010 it was determined that important service level updates be included in this
Scott will be writing draft of Videotaping guidelines with cost analysis and brought up possible charging for services
His DLA team is also looking at needs and guidelines
Stewart has been charged with writing a draft on revised screening policy
Possible training of designated students( by professor) in booth projection spaces.
Dean and Charlie will be writing a draft for equipment loans
Each of these drafts will be due on the 18th of November
2) Charlie will take responsibility for meeting with language school directors during the winter around equipment distribution needs in the past /present and future. Will be working closely with a computer tech who will oversee the distribution of computers and peripherals
3) Room 140 was discussed as an upgrade option and several ideas were discussed;
Using slim-clients and a virtual machine.
Black box?
Eliminating laptops in that space entirely and having students ( if needed) take from circ.
The future of ILC 1, 2, 3, 24 hour lab SDL 202 and possible reductions in computer lab space.
4)Emergency line coverage was discussed with the understanding that we will be down to 3 people
The importance of phone coverage from 8 -5:00 pm was discussed with an increased awareness that this is a priority of Media Services. We, as a group, must be aware that emergency phone coverage is crucial.
5)Discussion of the Arts Technical Support group and its impact on us as a group if this becomes a sanctioned process.
November 4th, 2009 by Elin Waagen
 LIS will once again be offering 24/7 to our students 11/29 – 12/12.
Here is your opportunity to experience the Main Library at night!
Interested in flexing your schedule and adding a little excitement to your work week? Working nights instead of your usual ho-hum day schedule?
If so, check with your supervisor and be in touch with your availability.
The shifts are 12 midnight – 4 am and 4 am – 8 am. All nighters also welcome.
The deadline for letting me know is Thursday 11/12.
Movies, music, snacks and caffeine will be available.
Questions – please be in touch!
Many thanks.
Elin
November 3rd, 2009 by Alex Chapin
I made a ShadowBox theme introductory screencast during a presentation of the theme to Academic Consulting Services. This screencast describes some of the WordPress UI challenges I was trying to solve with this theme. The first was finding a consistent way to display the log in link and information about a given user’s role on a blog. I also wanted to create a UI for setting theme colors and layout and other options. Finally I wanted to more consistently map some of the blog editing UI onto the blog itself so people could more easily add new posts or edit existing posts.
(click on the  button to view video in full screen mode)
Am working on a new release of ShadowBox that includes the display of category and tag RSS links, custom author pages and more header options. For more information, see ShadowBox Changelog. Contact me know if you would like to see a preview of this new version.
October 30th, 2009 by Ian McBride
The new website for the Monterey Institute of International Studies went public on September 15th and is a combination of efforts from many areas of both Middlebury and MIIS, as well as brand new designs from White Whale Web Services. During this project, I got asked a lot, “So if you’re not building the new site, what are you up to?” And I thought I’d take this opportunity to answer that question, tell you how we developed the site, and give some previews of how we’re using what we learned to build the Middlebury web site.
(more…)
October 29th, 2009 by Terry Simpkins
I was asked this today, and it seemed like such an innocuous question. So I decided to do some investigating. I was expecting, oh, I don’t know, maybe 5,000 or so. Was I ever wrong!
First, the definition of the question took some untangling. Does this mean current subscriptions? Does it mean individual subscriptions that we choose specifically to receive, or does it count the titles we receive as part of “big deals” from vendors like Elsevier? Does it mean stuff we pay cold hard cash for, or does it include freebies, such as the 4000+ open access journals that are readily accessible on the web (and which are all included in the library catalog)? Or does it mean just the print stuff we receive in hard copy?
After some hemming & hawing, I decided the most interesting questions were: 1) how many journal titles do we have access to altogether, both current & ceased? and 2) how many journal titles do we currently subscribe to, regardless of format, regardless of cost?
With help from the cataloging, acquisitions, and serials departments, I discovered that:
1) we currently have access to an astounding total of approximately 42,443 journal titles; and
2) of these, approximately 38,000 are current.
Furthermore, about 5,100+ are print titles (current & ceased) and we have free web access to about 4,300+ titles from the Directory of Open Access. Catalog records for all of these titles are in MIDCAT.
This is an incredible resource for our students and faculty (and staff!), and many thanks to all the people — acquisitions & collection development folks, catalogers, systems people, infrastructure people, librarian liaisons & selectors, etc. etc. — who have worked hard over the years to make this possible. And this is just one small part of the many many many services LIS provides. Really amazing.
October 29th, 2009 by Hans Raum
Horace Ward Bailey was a native Vermonter who served the state in many capacities, from state Senator and U. S. Marshall to State Railroad Commissioner and member of the Champlain Tercentenary Commission, but he may well be best remembered for his collection of Vermont pamphlets, which “was one of the most complete in the country and included some of the rarest known specimens of the early days of the history of the State,” according to a memorial volume written by his friends.
After Mr. Bailey’s death in 1914, his collection of Vermont pamphlets was purchased from his estate for the library at Middlebury College. For many decades this collection of 130 bound volumes of pamphlets had a paper index, but was otherwise uncataloged and unused. Thanks to a recently completed ten-year project by the Catalog Department, the pamphlets have been cataloged, and the most unique and interesting pamphlets are being digitized as well.
The earliest pamphlet in the collection dates back to 1794 and other pamphlets date from the very early 1800’s to Bailey’s death in 1914 and cover a broad range of topics, from town histories to railroad annual reports and a report on the Dred Scott decision on slavery. As we celebrate the quadricentennial of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain in 1609, it is worth noting that there is an extensive collection of materials on the Lake Champlain and Hudson River Tercentenary among the Bailey Pamphlets.
All of the cataloged pamphlets (well over 900) can be found in Midcat by doing a title search on Bailey’s Collection of Vermont Pamphlets. The pamphlets are shelved in the locked portion of the Vermont Collection, which is in Special Collections.
Many thanks go to the staff of the Catalog Department for their hard work and tenacity in completing this ambitious project.
October 28th, 2009 by Adam Franco
This is the third biweekly update from the Web Programming work-group. We are moving to a cyclical task and project planning work-flow in order to better prioritize our work. We acknowledge that requests will always come to us in a variety of ways and do not wish to burden members of the Middlebury community with overly formalized request processes. At the same time we also need to acknowledge that institutional and departmental priorities often shift over time and therefore we must have a work planning process that allows for flexibility that addresses the needs of the community, and maintains a healthy work environment for our staff.
(more…)
|