LTS Connection welcomes Julia Maserjian, Digital Library Project Coordinator, as guest editor for this issue. Julia, an individual with many talents,
joined LTS in early 2004 and has been planning new projects including the one described in this issue. Sue Cady

by Tim Foley

EDUCAUSE, the premier organization for managing information technology in higher education, presented Lehigh University with its award for Systemic Progress in Teaching and Learning on October 19 at its annual meeting in Denver, Colorado. Lehigh received the award for its work in fostering best practices in teaching and learning through the Lehigh Lab. The Lehigh Lab concept is founded on the idea that the University as a whole is a laboratory in which faculty, staff and students work and experiment together, across departments and disciplines, to advance learning. The Lehigh Lab initiative was made possible largely through extensive reorganizations during the late 1990s and early 2000s that united academic computing, media services, administrative computing, distance education, digital initiatives, library services, and faculty development into a single organization with the goal is advancing a vision of systemic change in the classroom.

The EDUCAUSE award announcement stated "The Lehigh Lab is far more than the sum of its parts. The effective integration of proven techniques, the commitment to organize support structures around these techniques, the clear evidence of long-term institutional resource commitment, and the incorporation of assessment focused on learning outcomes, make the Lehigh Lab a model worthy of emulation and deserving of the EDUCAUSE Teaching and Learning Award."

Pictured below is the EDUCAUSE award ceremony October 19 in Denver, Colorado

Back (l to r): Greg Reihman; Sandra DeCastro, SunGard Collegis; Michael Berman, Teaching and Learning Award Committee chair; William Graves, SunGard Collegis; Gale Fritsche; Brian Hawkins, EDUCAUSE president.

Middle (l to r): Sherri Yerk-Zwickl, Christy Roysdon, Bruce Taggart, Bob Kendi, Robin Deily

Front (l to r): Roy Gruver, Tim Foley, Jack Lule, Elia Schoomer

Lehigh Receives Best of the Web Award

by Tim Foley

Lehigh tied for first place in the Higher Education Web site category of the Center for Digital Education's Best of the Web (BOW) contest. The Center is a leading source of information, knowledge and opportunities on information technology in K-12 and Higher Education. Lehigh was named in the contest as part of the Digital Education Achievement Awards program.

The award recognized Lehigh's work in creating the MyLehigh portal, the development of the First Year Student portal, and the integration of a MyLibrary portal. The First Year Student portal allows incoming students to participate in their summer orientation on-line through targeted personalized information. The MyLibrary portal allows users to personalize electronic library subscriptions and databases. The award also highlighted Lehigh's overall web strategy and recognized the combined efforts of University Relations and Library and Technology Services in creating a personalized view of the University for internal and external clients.

The top BOW winners in the Higher Education Web site category are: 1st Place (tie): Lehigh University and North Shore Community College, Massachusetts; 2nd Place: North Orange County Community College, California; 3rd Place: University of Texas at Dallas, Texas

Linderman Renovation Update

by Roseann Bowerman

Faculty who will be affected by the closing of Linderman Library during its 18 month renovation will want to start working with LTS librarians now in order to maximize the likelihood of access to materials. This article will outline some of the plans being put into place to make library resources available during the renovation. It will also suggest strategies that faculty can use to assure that certain materials are available.

Linderman closes for renovations after exams in May 2005 and will remain closed through the Fall 2006 semester. The anticipated date of re-opening is January 2007. During those months many materials will be retrievable only by request. In order to make more materials readily available, a "mini-Linderman" collection will be created on the main level of Fairchild-Martindale Library. This mini-Linderman collection will contain any new books in the humanities cataloged after approximately March 2005, humanities books returned by users after approximately April 2005, high circulation Linderman books identified by library circulation records and most importantly books identified by faculty as being needed during the renovation.

In addition to the usual course reserves requests, we are asking faculty to submit their course-required and suggested reading lists for classes conducted during the Linderman renovation. We will make every effort to move these materials to the mini-Linderman area.

Faculty are encouraged to check out as many materials as they anticipate needing during the 18 months Linderman is closed. We also encourage graduate students to plan ahead and check out the materials they need. We will be offering generous renewals to grad students. In addition to Lehigh materials, the Library has a number of consortial agreements and borrowing methods that should allow faculty and students to easily obtain materials.

During the Linderman renovation, maintaining the level of service Lehigh users have come to expect will require a significant effort. We are asking for faculty help and cooperation to assure that we fulfill our shared mission of supporting the academic needs of the Lehigh community throughout this transition. Contact Roseann Bowerman (rb04) or Kathe Morrow, (kem6) with any questions, to submit course reading lists or to suggest other materials.

General information about the renovation, including a "Linderman Transition FAQ" can be found at http://www.lehigh.edu/lts/linderman.

Because of limited space in our temporary quarters at Fairchild-Martindale, there will be a moratorium on accepting book donations of more than one carton from now until Linderman reopens.

Feel free to contact Helen P. Mack (Acquisitions & Gifts Librarian, ext. 83035 or hpm0@lehigh.edu) for ideas on how and where to dispose of books.

Special Collections Launches Online Exhibitions

by Ilhan Citak

Online Exhibitions (http://dig.lib.lehigh.edu/projects/exhibits.asp) features highlights from the Special Collections physical exhibitions displayed regularly at Bayer Galleria and in the Linderman Library lobby. Exhibitions are curated by Special Collections staff, sometimes in collaboration with other Lehigh librarians. Designed and implemented by the Digital Library team, the Online Exhibitions contain sample images to demonstrate the artistic qualities and uniqueness of the original materials on display. Three exhibits are currently encompassed: "The Fifteenth Century at Lehigh University", "A Dante Club Reunion" and "Heavenly Spheres: Works in Early Astronomy at Lehigh." Questions and suggestions are welcomed at inspc@lehigh.edu or 610-758-4506.

Lehigh Acquires Site License for ArcGIS Desktop Software

by Bruce Hargreaves

Geographic Information System (GIS) software combines software and data for creating electronic and printed maps and enabling creation and analysis of spatial data. The leading GIS package called ArcGIS runs on desktop and mobile PCs, servers, and even Windows PDAs. Its maker, ESRI, promotes applications in research and management of spatial data in far-ranging fields within industry, higher education, and government.

This Fall Lehigh acquired a site license for ArcGIS to enable the expansion of this software across the campus. This acquisition provides additional support for Lehigh's Environmental Initiative. For several years LEO and LTS have supported a small number of licenses for ArcGIS version 8.3 at two performance levels (ArcView basic level and ArcInfo advanced level). The new ArcGIS Desktop 9 site license will soon provide essentially unlimited installation of any software performance level on University-owned computers. Version 9 promises to be easier to use and more powerful, and it includes many modules and extensions plus free access to ESRI's "virtual campus" of online courses.

Lehigh Earth Observatory (LEO) has partnered with LTS, Lehigh's EES Department, and external foundations (e.g. Wildlands Conservancy) in supporting GIS software, building GIS data sets, and providing GIS instruction. To date, Lehigh's EES Department has made the greatest use of GIS software on campus, but many other disciplines are likely to find exciting applications.

LTS People

LTS welcomes the following new staff members: Julie Rose, Executive Secretary to Bruce Taggart; Judd Hark, Instructional Technology Consultant, Arts & Sciences Team; and Ilena Key, Instructional Technology Consultant, College of Education. Prior to coming to Lehigh, Julie held several administrative positions most notably with the Vanguard Group. Judd previously held a position at Princeton University and most recently is working toward his Ph.D. in Technology in Higher Education. Ilena comes to LTS from Stony Brook University where she was Associate Director of the Electronic Extension Program.

Several LTS staff members recently received university awards. Special Collections Assistant, Ilhan Citak, received the Helen & Louis Zirkel Library Staff Award at the 2004 staff dinner in May. Several individuals in LTS recently received Spot Bonus awards including: Diana Toolan, Lending Services Assistant, for her coordination of the Library Materials Center integration project; Brian Hearn, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Systems Implementation, for his support of Banner online real time credit card processing. Tradition of excellence individual awards went to Anthony Casamassa, Grace Chiang, John Hutchinson, Gerald Lennon, Gail Sheek, and Randy Wambold.

Sherri Yerk-Zwickl was invited to present at three conferences this fall. "Surveys in a Snap" was presented at the Pennsylvania Libraries Association conference in Valley Forge in late September; "Window to a New World: Online Freshman Orientation via Portal" was presented at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGUCCS Conference in Baltimore, MD in early October; and "Building Portal Communities" was presented at the EDUCAUSE Conference in Denver, CO in late October.

The annual Cybertools Conference featured presentations and seminars by many members of the Instructional Technology Team. Instructional Technologists Jason Slipp and Peggy Kane presented a workshop entitled "Creating Videos with Camtasia Recorder"; Robin Deily presented "Other Neat Features of Blackboard" and "Blackboard Gradebook to Excel Tricks & Tips" ; "Bringing Internet 2 Into the Classroom" was presented by George Motter; Media/Design Technologist, Johanna Brams, presented "Open Mind-Concept Mapping Software" and "How to Create a Webpage in Dreamweaver" sessions and "How to Incorporate Classroom Technology into Your Teaching" was presented by Team Leader, Elia Schoomer.

Tim McGeary, Sr. Systems Specialist presented "Organizing E-Resources in a Portal Environment using MyLibrary" at the SIRSI Superconference in April and in October Tim presented "The Campus Portal as a Solution to Electronic Resource Presentation" at the LITA National Forum in St. Louis. Also, at the LITA conference, Rob Weidman, Digital Library Technical Coordinator, and Brian Simboli, Science Librarian, gave a poster session, "Library Digital Projects: Crossroads for Collaborations." Brian also submitted material, "Are Chemical Journals Too Expensive and Inaccessible?" for a panel discussion in October at the Chemical Sciences Roundtable of the National Research Council held at the National Academies in Washington, DC. He also did a poster session titled "Science Information Literacy: Faculty-Librarian-Vendor Collaboration" for the ACRL Science and Technology Section at ALA in June.

In April, Stacey Kimmel, Team Leader, and Librarian, Jenne Heise, presented reference interviewing techniques to Air Products library staff. Stacey joined Glenn Piper, Library Computing Assistant, at the PALA annual conference in Valley Forge in September in presenting "Is Anyone Getting This Down? Tracking Questions and Problems in Reference Services."

Brad Price, Senior Computing Consultant, completed certification in May as an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator for Mac OS X.

Congratulations to Cataloging Librarian, Rhonda Miller, who was inducted into the Sigma Chapter of Beta Phi Mu in October at Drexel University and Sr. Computing Consultant, Steve Lewis, who received a B.S. with honors from Lehigh in September.

Meet Dickens in your Pajamas: Access Special Collections' Treasures Digitally

by Megan Norcia

Meet Charles Dickens in your pajamas; invite Walt Whitman to your office; have lunch with Albert Einstein or Charles Darwin; welcome Babe Ruth or 36 former presidents (from George Washington to Richard Nixon) to your classroom; or spend an hour puzzling over a Civil War letter written in a code which hasn't been cracked in over 140 years. The new Digital Library project, I Remain: A Digital Archive of Letters, Manuscripts, and Ephemera, showcases Special Collections' material, allowing users access to the writings of literary luminaries, scientists, entertainers, politicians, and presidents. Lehigh's treasure trove of letters, manuscripts, and ephemera spans five centuries and includes over 400 famous pens.

Beginning with William Pyx's 1484 deed of sale, the collection includes seventeenth-century letters from scientists and philosophers, as well as eighteenth-century letters from representative figures active in the American Revolution and early republic; the nineteenth-century holdings comprise letters from major writers in Europe and the United States as well as communications from significant scientists and artists. Continuing through the Cold War period, the twentieth-century archive includes presidential correspondence as well as notes, telegrams, and letters from governors and members of Congress.

The digitally accessible collection presents users the opportunity to study the evolution of communication, to trace the development of social networks for business and politics, to examine cultural ephemera, and to gain an understanding of the way working writers and scientists shaped their ideas and shared their insights. Users will be able to search for specific letters by author name, date, or material type; for those interested in "grazing" in the fertile fields of genius, the archive will be grouped into categories.

These texts offer fruitful opportunities not only for researchers and scholars who will be able to incorporate this new evidence to reevaluate historical figures, movements, and trends, but the archive will also be a useful tool for constructivist teaching and learning. Students could be assigned to place the texts in a meaningful historical context or within a specific disciplinary frame; language classes can translate the non-English language letters in the collection, sharing the resulting work across disciplinary lines. These collaborative learning partnerships will make the past come alive and create new opportunities for research, teaching, and learning.

The first of hundreds of letters are available online, with more to be added in the months to come. This and other online collections can be found on Lehigh's Digital Library projects page (http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/). You don't even have to dress for the occasion.