v.4 no 2
April 2000
On Monday,
April 24th, Provost Nelson Markley sent the following message to the Lehigh
campus:
“I am extremely pleased to announce that after a search for a Vice Provost for Information Resources, I have appointed Bruce Taggart, executive director of the Office of Information Technologies at Portland State University, to assume this important responsibility. He will assume his duties on July 1, 2000.
In this position, Bruce will provide strategic planning coordination,
budgetary management, and leadership for the information resources unit,
which includes the University libraries, academic computing, administrative
computing, networking, and telecommunications.
At Portland State, Taggart has been responsible for the overall planning,
management, and direction of campus and administrative computing, as well
as networking, telecommunications and television services. He has also
overseen distance learning resources, classroom technology support, and
technology development and training for faculty and staff.
Under Taggart’s leadership, the Office of Information Technologies at Portland State has been instrumental in bringing new technologies and services to the university community. Chief among the accomplishments were the design and creation of a state-of-the-art 300-seat multimedia classroom and the establishment of an Instructional Development Support Center to assist faculty with technical support related to technology, instructional delivery, and curriculum development.
Taggart successfully facilitated several significant grants and donations of hardware and software for Portland State from regional high-tech partners. He was instrumental in leading Portland State’s participation in Internet 2 and in planning the Abiline/Internet 2 project with the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. He also oversaw Portland State’s successful implementation of the SCT/Banner Web-based Student Information System.
Taggart has a Ph.D. in education from the University of Connecticut, where he also earned his master’s in public administration. He earned his B.S. in public administration from Nichols College (Mass.).
Throughout the interview process, Bruce demonstrated a true understanding and appreciation of the needs of the campus community, especially students’ needs. At Portland State, he and his team are well known for their excellent customer service and their commitment to the academic mission. I am confident that under his leadership the operations of our Information Resources area will rise to an even higher level of performance.
I would like to thank Ed Shapiro, chair of the search committee, and all the committee members for their outstanding and efficient work in completing this successful search. Further, I would like to thank Don Bolle for his excellent leadership of the Information Resources area during this interim period. Under Don’s leadership we made great progress on the LEWIS project and successfully installed our connection to Internet 2.”
Other members of the Search Committee were David C. Angstadt, graduate student in mechanical engineering; Sharon Basso, Dean of Students; William A. Bettermann, Computing Consultant for the IR Arts & Sciences College Team; Terry Boult, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Karen M. Collins, Associate Professor of Accounting; Jean W. Farrington, IR Director for Staff and Resource Development; Richard H. Sanders, Associate Vice President for Finance and Controller; Christine Spodnick, class of 00; Jennifer M. Swann, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences; and Benjamin Wright III, Associate Professor of Religion Studies.
In a Web-based world, the text-based interface to the Network Server is becoming increasingly problematic. Whether it is attachments to electronic mail (e.g., an MS-Word document included with e-mail), the lack of HTML support, or the inability to use encryption and digital signatures, the text-based interface to the Network Server no longer meets the campus requirements.
To remedy this problem, Information Resources will be migrating all Network Server functions to a totally Web-based environment. The primary impact to users of this system will be to those who use the text-based interface of the Network Server to read e-mail. The vast majority of individuals at Lehigh are already using Netscape Messenger or a similar application for e-mail; Information Resources will be providing migration assistance to those who have yet to make the move. It is anticipated that text-based access to the Network Server will be removed from service for the majority of users by the end of 2000.
Usage Trends
Using data from the second week in February for the years 1996 through 2000 as a basis of comparison, the number of unique individuals logging in to the Network Server has dropped to less than a third of what it was two years ago. The majority of this drop-off occurred within the last year and is primarily due to a concerted effort to move people to IMAP-based e-mail; incoming students weren't told anything about using the Network Server for mail, and Information Resources has been installing IMAP-based e-mail clients on all new machines (of which there were many this year due to year 2000 concerns). The implementation of roaming profiles within Netscape allows individuals to easily read e-mail at public sites between classes or between meetings. All user classifications, undergraduate student, graduate student, faculty, and staff, displayed a similar usage pattern within the last two years.
Other Functionality
Apart from the text-based interface, there is still feature-rich functionality
of the Network Server that compares quite favorably to Web-based portals
now in use elsewhere. A long-term solution to replacing the entire Network
Server software package must include an easy to use and easy to reference
data structure as well as acccess to new data such as that organized through
the LEWIS Project. To this end, IR will continue to work on difficult challenges
that are part of a comprehensive long-term migration after this first step.
LEWIS, Lehigh's Enterprise Wide Information System, is soon to become more of a reality for faculty and students when fall pre-registration begins on April 10th. The LEWIS Project is a two-year effort to install new hardware and software for handling admissions, student registration and course management, financial aid, finance, human resources, and alumni activity. The goal of the project is to replace the separate legacy systems that now exist for finance, student records and the like and to integrate them into one on-line system with one database. Eventually, there will be several Web products which will enable staff to easily find out about their benefits, allow faculty to manage course grades on-line, and permit students to apply, register for courses, and check their bills and their course requirements on-line. Lehigh has contracted with the SCT Corporation based in Malvern, Pa. to install their Banner2000 software product. This is an ambitious project and the implementation schedule is an aggressive one.
Portions of financial aid went live in mid-February, financial aid award letters were produced from the new system in late March, and the registrar's office will use the new software to register students for their Fall 2000 courses. For the first time, undergraduate students will register by class with priority being given to rising seniors, then juniors and so on. Class size may be capped and LEWIS will be able to track and monitor this.
The lion's share of the responsibility for converting data, merging
separate databases, and seeing that the various components of the system
operate as they should is in the hands of the Enterprise Information Systems
Implementation staff led by Manny Pena. Several Information Resources
staff, however, are also actively involved. Debbie Feldman and Jane
Frounfelker, from the Client Services area, are both currently on loan
to the LEWIS Project. Debbie is working on financial aid and Jane is leading
the accounts receivable team. Gail Fullman is also spending a portion
of her time with the human resources and payroll system implementation.Behind
the scenes staff in Steve Roseman’s Systems & Networking Team
are providing analyst and operational expertise for the computing environment
that supports Lewis.In addition, Jean Farrington, Tim Foley,
and Roy Gruver serve on the LEWIS Steering Committee, and Don
Bolle is one of the three members of the LEWIS Executive Committee
along with Nelson Markley and Rhonda Gross. For more details,
see the LEWIS Web page at: http://www.lehigh.edu/lewis.
InfoDome is a Web-based "research advisor" under development by Lehigh's librarians. Customized to disciplines taught at Lehigh, InfoDome combines under one "roof" key resources and discovery tools for particular subjects. Each InfoDome topic page includes a catalog of evaluated and annotated Web sites, licensed databases, publications, and a section comprised of news and features written by library subject specialists. Cross-disciplinary topics, general reference, and Web search tools are included too.
The graphic identity for InfoDome, the spectacular stained glass skylight of the original Linderman Library, evokes the beauty of Lehigh's nineteenth-century library. The dome's spectra of colors and richness of design is a kind of metaphor for the diverse, complex and powerful ideas that libraries help to preserve and keep alive over generations.
InfoDome's integration of important resources is a valuable and reliable resource for faculty to feature in their Web-based course materials. For students, it will reinforce what they have learned in class or in the libraries. The option of an automatic link from CourseInfo to InfoDome is planned.
This service is a natural outgrowth of the library's traditional contribution to the academic enterprise by way of resource description, catalog creation and maintenance, and subject materials expertise. The selection of Web sites for cataloging is an ongoing collection development responsibility of Lehigh subject bibliographers Roseann Bowerman, Bill Fincke, Jean Johnson, Kathe Morrow, Brian Simboli, and Sharon Siegler. In addition Jenne Heise, Stacey Kimmel, George Motter, Christy Roysdon and Neil Toporski are all contributing their special skills to create and maintain InfoDome. A large number of diverse software programs have been employed and integrated for this project including SIRSI WebCat (for ASA, Lehigh's online catalog), SIRSI Workflows Client, Microsoft Access, OCLC's CORC, Macromedia Dreamweaver, PhotoShop, and Netscape Composer.
The Web site feature of InfoDome relies on the expertise of librarians Judy McNally and Sharon Wiles-Young who enhanced records in ASA to generate the InfoDome category lists. Their enthusiasm led to Lehigh being one of the charter members of OCLC CORC (Cooperative Online Resource Catalog), an international library collaboration to describe Web resources (see IR Connection Sept.1999 issue).
Other enhancements planned for InfoDome include durable links to expert
searches and current journal lists by disciplines. An advisory group, comprised
of faculty and graduate students, will be formed to help evaluate InfoDome's
usefulness to the campus. Faculty are especially encouraged to explore
by connecting to www.lehigh.edu/library/infodome/
("Subject Resources" on the Library menu) and choosing their discipline.
Please keep in mind that the Web sites catalog is expanded continuously
so frequent visits are recommended.
IR Leaders Tim Foley, Roy Gruver, Lizanne Hurst, and Carol Lidie gave presentations to middle school students on various aspects of computing and telecommunications at the Lehigh Valley Science Fair on Saturday, March 25th.
Instructional Technology Consultant Gayle Fritsche conducted a computer literacy workshop on March 8th for the Reading Leadership Institute.
Communications Assistant Monica Herrera has been elected treasurer of the Mid Atlantic Octel (voice mail) User Group.
Instructional Technology Consultant Kristen O'Hara made a presentation at the February 19th meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. The presentation was on the use of desktop videoconferencing as a medium for collaboration between instructional designers and intern teachers.
In March Special Collections Curator Philip Metzger presented a workshop on "Preservation (of family records) at Home" for the Nazareth Public Library.
A gift of $50 or more for library materials purchases a book that is personalized with a bookplate that has the name of the honored individual(s) inscribed on it. In addition there will be an entry in ASA, the online catalog.
The first contribution came from English Professor Edward Gallagher's children and grandchildren who were looking for a special Christmas gift to honor him. To identify the books purchased with this gift search ASA under Keyword for the phrase "given in honor of Edward J. Gallagher." A keyword search under "Bitting Family Collection" lists the 175+ books purchased with funds from a recent gift to the History Department.
A number of Friends of the Libraries Board members and Lehigh staff have also helped to jump start this program. In its initial phase, this program, known as Bookmark, has raised more than $2000. The minimum gift for a book is $50.
In addition large gifts and bequests can underwrite named endowments for the purchase of books and other library materials in honor of an individual or group. IR and the Lehigh Development Office are happy to work with donors on such projects.
Please contact Susan Cady at 610-758-4645 or sac0@lehigh.edu for a brochure or more information.