TABLE OF CONTENTS

Electronic Books Debut in Lehigh Catalog

by Jean Johnson and Brian Simboli

The Lehigh Libraries now provide desktop access to electronic versions of over 1500 printed books, "e-books." E-books make scholarly and professional books as easy to access as electronic journals. The James and Grace Schnabel Endowment funded Lehigh's participation in the e-book collection, which Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI) member libraries jointly access through vendor netLibrary^tm.

Lehigh faculty, students, and staff can view the e-books on the web without special reader devices, software, or login. E-books are available anytime and anywhere, making their use in online learning especially convenient. Durable links for each e-book are included in ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog.

Lehigh librarians chose materials particularly suited to selective reading and full-text searching, including computer manuals and reference books. The collection also reflects the subject interests of the other PALCI member institutions. Like other library materials, e-books can be checked out. Before checking out any e-book for the first time, a user must set up a (free) account. During the three-day loan period, online reading of the book is reserved exclusively for that user. The book is "returned" automatically at the end of the three days.

Publishers represented include MIT Press and Oxford; computer books specialists such as Que, O'Reilly, and Sams; and professional presses such as Psychology Press and Teacher's College. Here is a sample of the titles :

• The Wired Professor: A Guide to Incorporating the World Wide Web in College Instruction

• Shakespeare's Romances: Comprehensive Research and Study Guide

• Managing Technological Change: Strategies for College and University Leaders

• The Bridge over the Racial Divide: Rising Inequality & Coalition Politics

• The Complete Handbook of Business Meetings

• Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Excel 2000 in 24 Hours

Each e-book is linked within the detailed ASA display. Searching on the term "electronic book" retrieves a list of e-book titles to browse. Selecting a title of interest displays the detailed ASA record. Clicking on the URL brings up a netLibrary^tm summary screen. The entire book appears after clicking the "preview" icon and the screen divides into two frames. On the left is a "tools" frame and, on the right, the book itself. The tools include full-text searching, a table of contents display, help, and the American Heritage Dictionary (with "click-able" audio icons to hear the pronunciation of a word). No login is required to preview the book in this way. Readers may "preview" (read) e-books in fifteen-minute intervals.

For more details, see Electronic Books at Lehigh.

by Jean Farrington

This fall the Banner Web for Faculty/Advisor and the Banner Web for Student products went into production bringing the LEWIS project that much closer to completion.. In late October, faculty participated in several training sessions on the Web for Faculty interface and, soon thereafter, were able to enter their midterm grades online.

In November, students began the pre-registration process for Spring 2001 courses by first meeting with their faculty advisors. Armed with PIN numbers, they were then able to go into the Web and select their courses and sections for the next semester. Students registered sequentially by class (seniors, then juniors, etc.) with each class assigned an initial two-day time slot when those students could begin registering. This made it possible for many students to complete their registration in the middle of the night!

For Lehigh students studying abroad and for distance education students in the corporate world, registering was as straightforward as logging into their computer. In the first two days, students registered from as far away as Australia, Italy, and the UK, and from such corporations as Air Products, Binney and Smith, Rodale, and IBM. Most of the registration activity came from computers in the residence halls, but significant numbers of hits were also recorded from Lehigh departmental computers and from dial-up users.

One advantage of the new online system is that it automatically keeps track of sections and courses that have reached their enrollment caps and provides this information to students along with the opportunity to be put on a waitlist. Overall, Web for Student provides better service to students as it gives them more control over and more responsibility for deciding which courses and which sections they prefer at what times. It also offers them much greater access (more hours of the day and night) to information about their own academic history and degree requirements.

The availability of academic history data (grades and courses, etc.) was another significant achievement this fall and was the result of converting more than a million lines of code from the old Student Records System (SRS) to Banner. This conversion included all of the student records going back to 1981. This was a monumental task and was successful due to the hard work and team effort of several individuals in Enterprise Systems Implementation: John Early, Phil Lawrence, Jean Nonnemaker, Mary Louise Powers, and Ron Wagner.

Many colleges and universities have already or are in the process of providing similar online services for students. Lehigh's implementation of the Banner software through the LEWIS Project puts it in line with peer institutions and makes the university more competitive in the student marketplace. For more information about the LEWIS project including recent articles in the press, see www.lehigh.edu/lewis .

Internet Bandwidth Expanded to 45 Mb/s

Information Resources will increase Internet bandwidth sometime in December to 45 megabites per second (mbs). Last year IR increased the Lehigh University bandwidth by 50% (from 6 to 9 mbs) because usage statistics showed frequent congestion. The expanded 9 mbs bandwidth was quickly congested as well, except during the summer and some "off hours" around 4 to 6 am. The graph illustrates this congestion during a week in mid November 2000 with dips below capacity only for the hours cited above.

Bandwidth is a term used to describe the size of the "pipe" and hence the speed or rate of throughput to the Internet. Bandwidth that is too narrow is experienced by the user as general slowness or sluggishness when using the Internet. There can, of course, be other causes of slowness such as the speed of one's computer and the complexity of a particular Web page being downloaded. Since most of Lehigh University's library electronic resources are on vendor Web servers external to the University, such activities as searching databases and browsing full text articles online are affected by this capacity or lack thereof.

At the same time Lehigh continues to provide access to Internet2, the new advanced research and education network. This bandwidth is very wide--155 mbs--but is available only to Internet2 institutions. The sophisticated hardware and software that serve as Lehigh's internal Internet traffic cop - known as routers or switches - separate Lehigh's outbound traffic by its destination taking maximum advantage of the wider Internet2 capacity.

Readers with a Lehigh University userid can view the changes that have taken place by navigating to: https://rover.cc.lehigh.edu/network/. After authentication, choose Network Statistics and then Throughput. This will show the old AT&T connection still in place for the time being and the new Fastnet as well as a combination of the two.

Lehigh University is embarking on a search for a campus portal to replace Lehigh's current internal web page. A campus portal is a single point of service to access different types of information based on individual preferences. Portals are designed to eliminate the need to "drill down" through many layers of web pages to find relevant information. In an ideal world, portals present information as needed rather than requiring the user to search for it.

In today's world of information overload, the true power of information resides in the quality of the information one receives not the quantity of information one can find. Companies are beginning to develop intelligent portals that change based on a person's usage patterns. Intelligent portals incorporate "push" technology, which informs the user of information when it becomes available based on his or her personal profile. For instance, if students are wait-listed for courses, they would be notified through their portals as soon as a place becomes available. Overall campus communications would also be improved by having a central point to broadcast campus-wide information rather than using campus mail.

A campus portal should be easy to use and allow access to all services through a secure single username and password. In the late 1980's Lehigh developed a system incorporating these features called the Network Server. With its phase-out this semester, its functionality, such as bulletin boards, discussion groups, and electronic mail access, needs to be incorporated into the new portal. Two other key areas that need to be incorporated are online courses and administrative services. The online course component at Lehigh is currently provided using a product called Blackboard while administrative services are provided through the LEWIS project's SCT Banner.

Information Resources has appointed an internal technical committee to evaluate existing portal products with particular attention devoted to the integration with Blackboard and Banner. The committee, chaired by Tim Foley, Director of IR Client Services, is charged with delivering a draft recommendation by early March to the LEWIS Steering Committee, augmented with several faculty members for the purpose of considering these products and their suitability for the Lehigh environment. Members of the IR Technical Committee are: Tim Foley, Blair Bernhardt, John Early, Gale Fritsche, Joe Lucia, Steve Oblas, and Steve Roseman. Members of the LEWIS Steering Committee are: Bruce Taggart (Chair), Sharon Basso, Bruce Correll, Jean Farrington, Tim Foley, Roy Gruver, Bruce Hargreaves, Lorna Hunter, Tom Hyclak, Richard Sanders, and Jim Tiefenbrunn.

by Bruce Eisenhard

Over the summer wireless LAN connections were installed in several locations around campus. The areas where wireless access is currently working include:

• Fairchild Martindale Library and Computing Center (Media Center, floors 3 and 4, and the courtyard)

• Linderman Library (reading room)

• Rauch Business Center lobby

• Maginnes Hall commons area

There are plans in place for the spring semester to expand wireless access to Packard Lab and additional areas of Linderman Library. A new wireless classroom inMohler Laboratory 355-356 is nearing completion. Equipped with 33 wireless laptops, dual projection systems, and a smartboard, the classroom is designed to demonstrate some of the latest technologies available.

Students, faculty and staff are now able to sign out laptops with wireless adapters from the Media Center for four hours. The software on the Media Center laptops has been updated to accommodate wireless connectivity. With these wireless laptops, individual users can connect to both the Internet and the campus LAN from any of the wireless locations on campus. New laptops are being prepared now for loan from Linderman Library under the same program.

Individuals who already have their own laptop and want to use it at the wireless locations on campus can purchase a wireless LAN card. The Lehigh University Bookstore is currently able to special order the IR recommended wireless LAN adapter.

About 12 students have been enrolled in a structured feedback program designed to help Information Resources gather information about how students use laptops, what their problems are, and how to improve the program. These are students who have their own laptops. They have received wireless cards and have agreed to complete monthly surveys about their usage patterns.

The wireless pilot was initiated through a gift from a WIRED student consultant's parents who were impressed with the program and wished to encourage more programs in student networking technology.

Further information about wireless connectivity at Lehigh University is available at the Wireless web page at www.lehigh.edu/wireless. This page contains information about the wireless hardware, installation instructions and drivers, as well as an updated list of wireless locations on campus.

A Lehigh student tests out the new Gateway Profile computers now installed at Linderman Library. In a few weeks three Apple Power Mac G4 Cube computers will be installed nearby. The Linderman public site and supporting network infrastructure will also be completely upgraded before spring semester.
 
 
 

IR People

Sherri Yerk-Zwickl has been appointed IR Team Leader for the College of Business and Economics and Instructional Technology Consultant. Sherri previously served as an Enterprise Systems Consultant.

IR welcomes new staff: Applications Assistant Kelly Decker, Help Desk Assistant Steve Sakasitz, and Computing Consultants Sara Rodgers (Academic & Admin Team) and Maryann Karweta (College of Education.)

In October Telecom Analyst Monica Herrera made a presentation entitled "10 Years of Voice Mail at Lehigh University" at the International Octel User Group Conference in Florida and served as facilitator for the College & University Forum Session. Monica was recently promoted to the position of Telecom Analyst.

Director for Information Management Joe Lucia made a presentation at the annual meeting of the Sirsi Unicorn Users Group International in Huntsville in May on "Tools and Techniques for Automated Management of Electronic Resources." Joe also was elected Co-Chair for Users Group meeting.

Team Leader Sharon Wiles-Young and Cataloger Judy McNally presented a workshop on cataloging electronic resources at the Pennsylvania Library Assn. Conference and at the Tri-State College Library Cooperative meeting. Sharon also conducted the pilot session on basic holdings statements for the Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program in preparation for a "train the trainers session" she will do at the Library of Congress in January.

Team Leader Elia Schoomer published "Classrooms 2000: Innovative Approaches to Classroom Technology" in College and University Media Review and has been appointed editorial assistant for the Facilities column in the quarterly CCUMC Leader. He also led a Current Issues Roundtable in October at EDUCAUSE on "Electronic Classrooms and Buildings of the Future."

Help Desk Assistant Valerie VanBilliard was elected 2000-2002 Membership Chair for the Council on Library/Media Technicians and will serve on its Board of Directors.

On November 22, 1985 Linderman Library’s  Bayer Family Room and the Bayer Galleria of Rare Books were dedicated. These newly renovated facilities, coupled with the hiring of a full-time curatorial staff, marked the beginning of a new emphasis on Special Collections at Lehigh. Curator Philip Metzger and his staff have used these excellent facilities to integrate Special Collections resources more and more thoroughly into the academic program of the university.

Information Resources and the Friends of the Lehigh Libraries will celebrate this occasion during the spring semester. To launch the celebration John Y. Cole, Director of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, will speak on February 7, 2001. Cole has served as Director of the Center since its founding in 1977. Under his leadership its programs have expanded to fulfill the mission of stimulating public interest in books, reading, and libraries and encouraging the study of the role of books and print culture in society.

This spring Cole was the recipient of the American Library Association Lippincott Award which recognizes distinguished service to the profession of librarianship. He also served as co-chair of the steering committee for the commemoration of the Library of Congress’s Bicentennial this year. Cole, who holds a PhD in American Civilization from George Washington University, has also published extensively about the history and role of books and libraries in society and the history of the Library of Congress.