Table of Contents

by Kevin Weiner

On September 18, 1998, Lehigh received a High-Performance Connections grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to facilitate participation in the Internet2 project. The proposal requested $350,000 over a two year period to help fund a high-speed connection to support specific meritorious research projects, and to jump-start plans to bring higher speed connectivity to the rest of the campus. Vice Provost for Information Resources Arnold Hirshon noted that "Both the facilities at Lehigh and the international reputation of Lehigh's engineering and science faculty were major factors in procuring this grant. We are pleased that these additional (NSF) resources will allow IR to support advanced compute-intensive faculty research at Lehigh more readily."

The NSF grant guidelines and the Internet2 initiative both emphasize the importance of actual research applications. More detail about one of Lehigh's planned areas of application, leading-edge electron microscopy, illustrates the benefits to be derived by the research and scientific community. Through the Remote Access Digital Imaging and Analysis Laboratory (RADIAL) being developed by David Williams, Chair, Materials Science and Engineering Department, unique digital electron microscopy instruments can be made more efficiently available to a larger number of researchers. For instance, Lehigh has one of only four 300 kV field-emission scanning transmission electron microscopes in the world and scientists travel here regularly to make use of it in collaborative projects. The scanning electron microscope in Whitaker Lab pictured here will be used in applications supported by the grant.

This type of real-time viewing of large (> 1 GB) images will be done through Lehigh microscopes for national laboratories (Oak Ridge, Lawrence Berkeley), universities (Illinois, Penn, Drexel and others), and corporations (Air Products, Kodak, Alcoa and others). Chemical, structural and other kinds of analysis of very high resolution images of surfaces is important in areas like medical research and semiconductor development. Traveling to make use of these facilities presents numerous problems: training time on the particular interface of each machine, unanticipated downtime, lack of analog output of images and diffraction data, and more. Many of these problems can be eliminated with access over the new high performance network and the development of standard interface software, also part of the planned work. In referring to the collaborating agencies, Professor Williams stated that "We plan to expand both our use of their instruments, and their use of ours as part of the Internet2 project." In addition Lehigh graduate and undergraduate students will be able to receive training on instruments at remote sites instead of passively observing and vice-versa.

One of the other two initial applications at Lehigh is research in computational fluid dynamics led by Professor David Walker, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics. The three-dimensional separation processes in fluid mechanics and heat transfer are difficult to determine experimentally but can be studied alternatively in high performance computing environments by direct numerical simulation of flows. The third initial area is magnetic fusion energy research under Professors Arnold Kritz and Glenn Bateman. As plasma physicists they require the higher communications bandwidths to build and evaluate effectively large international databases of research related to tokamak plasma containment devices.

The university is a charter member of the Internet2 (I2) project, a collaboration of 130 leading educational institutions, working in concert with government and corporate partners. Internet2 is not a network, but a development project to build the applications and services that will define the next generation of research and education networking. Of course, without actual higher speed networks, these development efforts remain academic. The I2 project is initially using the NSF's vBNS high-speed backbone network (developed to connect the nation's supercomputer centers) as a principal test bed for I2 activities. Additionally, the I2 consortium, now incorporated as the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), has negotiated with vendors including Qwest, Nortel, and Cisco to create a separate high-speed network called Abilene as a dedicated backbone facility.

Plans are underway to connect Lehigh to these advanced networks at speeds up to 25 times faster than our current Internet connection. A local provider will be used to connect Lehigh either to the NSF private backbone or to the "Abilene" network. At this time there are myriad complexities in making these arrangements, including trade-offs in cost, flexibility, speed, and reliability. At the campus end the higher speed connectivity will be provided first at facilities used primarily by the faculty whose applications are part of the Lehigh grant as described above. At the same time, IR will be expanding backbone network capacity and working with departments to increase local capacity in order to provide high-speed end-to-end connectivity with Internet2 schools and other locations of interest, such as national laboratories.

Lehigh's Internet2 representatives in IR are: Arnold Hirshon, Institutional Representative; Kevin Weiner, Applications Lead; Mark Miller, Engineering Lead. For more information, contact these individuals or visit the Internet2 web site at www.lehigh.edu/i2.

by Bill Brichta

During semester break Information Resources will install a new Octel 350 Message Server to replace the voice mail system originally installed on campus in 1990. This upgrade will provide major benefits: a completely new hardware platform; increased port capacity that reduces the likelihood of voice mail busy signals during peak demand; and the capability to "hot swap" key components, greatly reducing system downtime during maintenance and repair. Further, Lehigh will now be able to consider implementing sophisticated new messaging and communications features.

Voice-mail will be unavailable only for the actual day of implementation, tentatively scheduled for December 17^th. The next day voice-mail subscribers will notice minimal change in mailbox operation. Greetings, passwords, distribution lists, and saved messages will be converted automatically from the previous system to the new one. There will be no need to re-initialize your mailbox. System phrases and prompts may sound somewhat different because they will be rerecorded by Octel as part of the 350 Message Server release. Messages left in subscriber mailboxes on the new system may sound better because the Octel 350 uses Digital Signal Processing technology--the industry standard--to digitize and encode messages, an improvement over the proprietary Octel voice encoding methods used previously. Please contact Bill Brichta at 85032 if you have questions.

by Joe Lucia

In response to a demand for easier ways to make use of the Web in support of instruction, this fall Information Resources began a pilot implementation of two software packages designed to aid faculty in adding a Web component to their courses. The software packages involved in this pilot program are MadDuck Technologies' Web Course in a Box (WCB) and the University of British Columbia's WebCT.

WCB provides a template-driven, "scaffolded" method for loading basic course material on the Web, building Web-based "lessons," and providing secure access to threaded discussion forums and chat services. It enables rapid creation of a standardized course-oriented Web environment with only limited customization. WebCT is a more sophisticated instructional management package for the Web, incorporating all of the functions of WCB and supporting additional features such as automated testing and grading, calculated surveys, detailed student tracking and monitoring, and substantial lesson organization and lesson development utilities. Because WebCT is a more powerful and more complex software package, it requires a greater investment of instructor time than WCB.

This pilot program is a direct result of discussions held by the Teaching and Learning Technology Roundtable during the spring, 1998 semester. Those discussions revealed significant faculty interest in the Web as a medium that can enhance the scope and extend the reach of traditional classroom-based instruction. These new software packages make it possible to go well beyond the first step many faculty take on the Web, which is to mount a course home page that includes such things as a syllabus, assignment handouts, problem solutions, and lecture notes.

Ed Gallagher, Professor of English, is one of the participants in the pilot project. He is currently using WebCT in both his freshmen writing class and in his course on the films of Oliver Stone. Professor Gallagher has found that the value of the software is its integration of a variety of tools, utilities, and resources in a single uniform environment. When asked, he stated that "WebCT provides a way of doing several things I was already doing on different systems in one place." Professor Gallagher has also broken new ground by trying out the online quiz functions with his Oliver Stone class.

Another faculty member involved in this pilot is College of Business Professor Sue Sherer who notes that "WCB demystifies the web process for someone who wants to use the Web without having to deal with technical complexities." Professor Lee Tuscher in the College of Education is using WebCT as an instructional design environment in a graduate Educational Technology course. Several other faculty are also currently using some level of this software. For more information about this software and plans for expanding its use, contact the development team: Joe Lucia (jpl3, 84999), Jennifer Heise (jahb, 84072) or Paul Wallace (ptw2, 85896).

Volunteer staff from five administrative departments recently completed a four month training program to serve as computing liaisons between their departments and IR. Under the leadership of IR Computing Consultant Bill Bettermann, liaisons learned how to perform Windows 95 configuration and management. For example, they learned how to troubleshoot both LAN printer problems and local printer problems. As part of the program, participants and trainers will continue to meet together informally on a regular basis to share problems and knowledge.

Participants in the pilot were: Jesse Blackwood, Ann Shadler, Don Knowles, Jim Meleta, Michele Fisher, and Wendy Bossons. Based on the evaluations, participants feel that their own knowledge base has expanded and that they can be instrumental in enhancing the efficiency of their office. One stated: "I learned a lot interacting with other folks at those sessions. Picked up some valuable information." Another liaison commented that "I always felt we could bring anything to the table and being that we were all on the same level of understanding made it easier."

Over time both the breadth and depth of the program will be expanded to include additional topics and all departments. In January all administrative departments will be invited to participate in the next phase of the program. Academic and Administrative Department Team Leader Stacey Alderfer noted that the goal is to enhance communication between IR and its clients and to minimize computer-related downtime.

by Lizanne Hurst

The 610 telephone area code region will be receiving a new "overlay" area code beginning December 5, 1998. Currently active numbers (all university numbers, as well as existing home phone numbers) will remain in the 610 area code. Lehigh has reserved the range of numbers from (610) 758-0000 to (610) 758-6999, which means that any new numbers assigned on campus will fall in 610. Most new home or business numbers, however, will be assigned to area code 484. So while your home number is in area code 610, your new neighbor is likely to be assigned a number in 484.

Wherever overlay area codes are implemented, the FCC requires all calls (local, local toll, and long distance) to be dialed with 10 digits. Accordingly, beginning in January, all calls traveling off campus must be dialed with the area code plus the 7-digit phone number. Bell Atlantic will offer a permissive dialing period between December 1998 and June 1999 where calls can be dialed both the old way (7 digits) and the new (10 digits). However, our campus telephone system will not accommodate permissive dialing, so the university will need to switch over to the new dialing plan in early January 1999.

The overlay area code will have no impact on how calls are billed since rates are based on distance from campus, not phone number. Local calls, though dialed with 10 digits, will still be free from your campus phone. Local toll calls (to outlying areas of 610) will continue to be billed at current rates regardless of area code.

Because university numbers will not be changing, you will not need to change the area code on your stationery, business cards, resumes etc. When the time comes, you will need to change speed dials and autodials on your campus telephones as well as campus fax machines if applicable. As the implementation date gets closer, we will send out another reminder along with a new dialing guide to insert in your campus directory. We will also provide instructions on changing the speed dials on your campus phone. The advent of 10-digit dialing will also affect off-campus users dialing into campus networks. Information for these clients will be forthcoming at a later date, since off-campus users will be able to take advantage of permissive dialing through June 1999 (as described above).
 

IR conducted a general user satisfaction survey (mailed to all faculty, staff, and students) in February 1998 to identify areas in libraries, computing, media and telecommunications that need attention and improvement. 476 surveys were returned. The 25% response rate from faculty was the largest from any single group. The overall satisfaction rate was 74%. Areas that were rated highly (>85%) included: electronic collections, interlibrary loan, government documents, library hours, library facilities and seating areas.

Areas that need attention (< 70%) included: administrative systems, quality and availability of computing consulting and advice on purchasing computers, shelf-order in the library bookstacks, communication about new and existing IR services, information as to whom to contact, IR listings in the university telephone book, reliability of instructional technology maintenance in classrooms, printing at public sites, and microfilm reader/printers. IR leaders are presently effecting improvements. Focus groups are planned to augment survey data on exactly what is needed in some areas and to solicit alternative solutions to problems. Improvements already made just prior to or soon after the survey include:

    General Services

• 1998-99 telephone book listings revised, with full and direct entries under common terms such as libraries, computing, media, telephone and LAN services
• IR Web pages reorganized and redesigned to be more consistent & easy to use
• Frequently asked questions pages made available on the Web

    Computing Support and Services

• Hired new and reallocated existing staff for the IR help desk
• Client Services began phase I of a new departmental liaison program
• New Web pages created on purchasing computers
• New Help Desk software purchased (to be implemented by January)
• SGI computers installed, replacing aging IBM workstations
• New administrative mainframe installed, which has increased processing speed and made critical functions more readily available (e.g., degree audit)
• Rauch Business Center computing site checked weekly for failed equipment
• Installed computing/video technology in 5 additional classrooms

    Library-related Services

• Proxy server created to allow non-Lehigh ISP connection to library Web resources
• Elsevier electronic journals and other new electronic resources made available
• Random spot-checking of student shelving work initiated
• Shelf-reading and inventory process in both libraries begun, concentrating initially on areas with high usage patterns. Approximately 60% of the stacks in both libraries complete at this point.
• Services from new photocopy contractor (Copico) stabilized
• Microform reader/printers replaced

Japan Foundation Donates Books
 
 

Professor Kiri Lee of the Modern Foreign Languages Department examines several of the 110 books donated to Lehigh University by the Japan Foundation. Professor Lee assisted in selecting the English language titles which cover a full range of subject matter relating to Japan.

IR People

At the ACUTA (Association of College and University Telecommunications Professionals) Conference in July Bill Brichta, Team Leader for Communications & Computer Operations, co-presented "Reorganizing the Information Technology Department." Bill serves as a member of the Board of Directors and as Board Advisor for the ACUTA Journal Publication Committee. Bill also gave a joint presentation at the recent Octel Users's Group meeting on university applications and voice mail services.

Sue Cady, Group Leader for Administrative Services, presented a session on "Microfilm Technology and Information Systems" at the ASIS (American Society for Information Science) Pre-conference on the History & Heritage of Science Information Systems in Pittsburgh October 25^th.

The recent book by Special Projects Librarian Jean Farrington, Serials Management in Academic Libraries: A Guide to Issues and Practices, was selected for the first annual Library Journal roundup of "The Year's Best Professional Reading".

Tim Foley and Roy Gruver, Group Leaders for Client Services and Technology Management respectively, and Team Leader Sharon Wiles Young co-presented a session on "IR Service Standards" for the Educom Conference in Orlando Florida on October 14^th. Tim and Business & Economics Team Leader Blair Bernhardt presented a pre-conference session on "The University as an Internet Service Provider: Legal, Social, Ethical and Policy Issues" at this meeting. The session will be repeated at CAUSE in December.

On October 7^th Gale Fritsche, Arts & Sciences Computing Consultant, presented a session on "Computing and the Internet" to the Reading (School District) Leadership Institute.

Jennifer Heise, Information Management Senior Specialist, published "Providing Access to IP-restricted Databases for Off-campus Users: A Problem Statement" in the 1998 issue of IATUL News, a publication of the International Association of Technical University Libraries. Jennifer has also been appointed to the American Library Association Machine Assisted Reference Planning Committee.

Monica Herrera, Communications Services Assistant, was elected Chairperson of ERAC (Employee Relations Advisory Committee). Her term runs from July 1^st 1998 through June 1999.

In June Vice Provost Arnold Hirshon was presented with the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award, which honors an academic librarian for improvements in library automation and management. This award is sponsored jointly by four divisions of the American Library Association.

Stacey Kimmel, Team Leader for Student and General Services, has coedited Interdisciplinary Education: A Guide to Resources to be published in November by The College Board. On October 10^th Stacey made a presentation entitled "The Webullient Researcher: Interdisciplinary Searching in the Digital Age" at the Association for Integrative Studies meeting in Detroit.

In late October Tim Foley participated in a debate entitled: "Library/Computing Center Mergers: The Shape of the Future, or an Evil Fad?" at the SIGUCCS (Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services) Conference in Bloomington, Indiana. Along with others, Group Leaders Christine Roysdon and Tim Foley presented a paper on "The Road to Integration: A Look into Efforts to Combine Computing, Libraries and Telecommunications" at the same meeting.

Sharon Wiles Young, Information Organization Team Leader and Linda Novak, Information Organization Assistant, co-presented a workshop on "What Happened to the Serials Cataloger: Copy Cataloging of Serials" at the annual meeting of NASIG (the North American Serials Interest Group) at Boulder in June. Sharon also presented a day's workshop on "US MARC Format For Holdings" for PALINET, on October 5th. PALINET is the regional cooprative through which Lehigh receives some of its automated library services.

Virus Protection Program

by Doris Oravec

This past summer, Information Resources' Collection Management Team obtained a campus wide site license for Command AntiVirus (with F-Prot Professional) from Command Software Systems. Command AntiVirus provides protection from computer viruses at all access points including:

• the Internet
• e-mail
• floppy disks
• shared files.

Under the terms of this site license, faculty, staff, and students (full and part-time) may use this software on Lehigh-owned or personally-owned computing systems. These systems may be located on- or off-campus. The following platforms covered in this license include: Windows 95/98 clients, Windows NT clients, NetWare servers, and Windows NT servers.

The Windows 95/98 and NT versions of the anti-virus software are available through WinINSTALL on all LUIR local area networks. The Windows 95/98 and NT versions are also on the Lehigh University Personal CD V4.0 available for purchase through the Bookstore ($5.00). For more information about this license, contact Software Specialist Doris Oravec at 86247 (e-mail dao1). Additional product information is available on Command's World Wide Web site at: http://www.commandcom.com.

Dell Deal Reminder

 Don't forget to order departmental PCs under the special pricing from Dell Computers no later than December 1st. Contact your IR computing consultant for configuration help and the Lehigh Purchasing Office for placement of orders. The Dell Optiplex GX1/MT+ (P6350 w/ 100MHz) in this program costs $1444.00, a discount of approximately 21% (as of September 17, 1998). Details on the offer can be found at: www.lehigh.edu/~inmic/dept/delldeal.html. This special pricing results from the large volume purchase taking place by the Provost Office on behalf of Arts & Sciences faculty bundled with the normal IR purchase for site upgrades.

Pilot Program Tests Laptop Connections at Information Commons

by Doug Reese

A new experiment in connectivity is underway at the Fairchild-Martindale Library. In the Information Commons area, the group study tables in the south wing have been fitted with network jacks so that students, faculty, and staff can bring their laptops and "plug in." The primary beneficiaries of this new program, at least at first, will be users who already have their laptops set up to operate on Lehigh's network.

While connected, the computer has access to the full range of TCP/IP services, including remote terminal sessions (such as most people use to connect to the Network Server), file transfer via FTP, electronic mail and news, and, of course, the World-Wide Web. You can save the results of library catalog searches to your own hard drive, download software from the Internet, and more.

In order to use these network connections you need a laptop computer, and a 10BaseT Ethernet card and cable. (Some laptaps may come with Ethernet built-in, but most will require a PCMCIA adapter card, which usually costs between $150 and $300.) The user is responsible for installing the card in his or her computer, including the appropriate driver software (usually supplied by the manufacturer of the card), and correctly configuring TCP/IP.

If your computer has already been used on a network elsewhere on campus (such as for WIRED or a departmental LAN), this will already have been done. You will also need any TCP/IP client software you plan to use (such as Netscape) locally-installed on your laptop's hard drive.

Certain services, such as printing and access to the shared applications on the public file servers, require more than just TCP/IP. (They require support for Novell LAN services, which are somewhat more complex to set up.)

If your computer has already been set up for use on a campus network, you may have relatively little difficulty. Our tests so far indicate that most people should not have problems, at least with basic TCP/IP services. However, support for this new facility is limited at present because we need to gain more knowledge and experience with this new computing environment on campus.

Campus Recognition of IR Staff & Teams

Last spring Information Resources invited the Lehigh community to nominate IR staff for special recognition of outstanding service. The response was most gratifying. IR recognized individuals and teams with multiple strong nominations (listed below) through gift certificates or team dinners.
 
 
 
 
 

Bob Kendi, Team Leader and Computing Consultant for the College of Business & Economics, pictured here received particularly clear and frequent praise from his clients for service and was given special recognition by Information Resources..

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Also receiving letters of commendation were the following IR staff members: Monica Booth, Roseann Bowerman, Johanna Brams,Tony Casamassa, David Cooper, Jane Frounfelker, Deborah Henritzy, Monica Herrera, Barbara Holva, Margaret Holzinger, Lizanne Hurst, Jon Hutchinson, Peter Ivanick, Jean Johnson, Dean Krause, Steve Lichak, Carol Lidie, Stephen Lidie, Lisa Luchini, Keith Meeker, Kathy Miller, Mark Miller, Dan Moyer, Pat Murphy, Gayle Nemeth, Barbara Parenti, Connie Rice, Michael Schadler, Dan Schwartz, Denise Shelhamer, Richard Silvius, Larry Simek, Neil Toporski, John Troiano, Pat Ward, Craig Warrick, and Fred Wehden.

It is always appropriate to recognize staff and the recognition form remains available at: www.lehigh.edu/ir/greatstaff.html.