Headline of the Week: LIS Recruiting Season
As folks in LIS are aware, we are approaching the final review portions of our current recruitments for a Help Desk Specialist and Programmer Analyst. I always find a recruitment to be one of the more interesting we do, especially given all the interesting and good people we have the opportunity to meet and get to know. Would that we could hire more of the ones we find! Recruiting is also a process that takes time and deliberation. As I say to recruiting teams, the decision we seek to make will not only affect us now as we seek to bring on a new colleague, but could continue to shape our organization for years to come. That is the principal reason we invest time and energy up front to ensure as best we can we select the right person to join our team.
I want to thank everyone who has participating in reviewing candidates so far, and everyone who participate in our next stages of review coming up. It is my hope that everyone in LIS, and others on Luther’s campus with particular interest in LIS support participate and engage with our process. So, as you have an opportunity to review candidates, please send along your thoughts and impressions. Every voice and perspective is valued.
LIS Blog Highlights from the Week
The following articles are sampled from those available on the LIS Blog [1]:
- Connecting to Licensed Resources Update [2]
- JSTOR/Mac Preview issues resolved [3]
- Ryan Gjerde, III & Illiad systems contact [4]
- NAXOS 2.0 Arrives [5]
- User Services Meeting [6]
- Datatel UI 2.2 bugs [7]
- Members of LIS Selected to Present at 2009 ACRL Conference [8]
- Instructions for subscribing to the Luther Datatel User Group listserv [9]
- Customize your web with Platypus [10]
- Help Desk Candidate On-Campus Interviews [11]
- Web time entry enabled on my.luther.edu [12]
- LDAP Hardware Failure – Updated [13]
- Library professional staff meeting 9-22-08 [14]
- AED (automatic external defibrillator) now available at the circulation desk [15]
- Books.luther.edu Maintenance 9/25/08 [16]
- Retirement Reception for Jim Veeder [17]
- Illiad server maintenance 9/25/08 [18]
- New NITLE Events Scheduled [19]
- Residence Life Computer Rollout [20]
- Norse Apps now uses SSL encryption [21]
- Wireless Network Extended to Cover Ockham House [22]
- JTerm and Spring Registration dates [23] [Old Link]
- Lab Machines Installed in Sampson Study Lounges [24]
LIS Website Changes
- Some system upgrades were made this week.
- Permissions changes have been adjusted for site administrators.
- Our taxonomy for visibility has been added to book page content types to facilitate the upcoming migration of our emergency response plan to the LIS website.
Notes from LIS Council
LIS Council did not meet this week
NITLE Opportunities
As a member of NITLE (National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education), Luther has the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of developmental and training programs intended for faculty, librarians, and information technologists. Events listed at the link below are currently open for registration by Luther participants. LIS Staff who are interested in participating in an event should speak with Christopher Barth. Faculty who are interested in participating should speak with Lori Stanley. Participation is contingent upon available funding and program acceptance.
The following new NITLE opportunities are available:
- Crossing Borders: Multimedia Storytelling for Study Abroad. A special instance of ‘Multimedia Narrative: Communicating with Stories.’ [25] Program Dates: November 16 – 18, 2008. Location: Hobart and William Smith Colleges. 8 program units.
- Teaching Science in the Digital Age [26]. Program Date: January 16, 2009. Location: Stonehill College. 4 program units.
Special Topics for Instructional Technologists
- How Instructional Technologists Support Faculty Designing Online Collaborative Work. An instance of the ‘Special Topics for Instructional Technologists’ series [27]. Featured presenters: Jason Alley (Instructional Technologist, Lafayette College) and Patrick Rashleigh (Faculty Technology Liaison, Wheaton College). Program Date & Time: December 5, 2008, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Delivered online via MIV. 1 program unit.
Community-based Collaboration
- Teaching with Tablet PCs in Varied Disciplines
DePauw University has announced a workshop entitled “Teaching with Tablet PCs in Varied Disciplines.” The workshop will explore Tablet PC usage across disciplines and will consider pedagogies that are appropriate when only faculty members have access to Tablet PCs as well as pedagogies that make sense when Tablet PCs are available to each student in a class. The program will consist of presentations by those who already have experience with Tablet PCs, hands-on demonstrations, discussion among workshop participants, and opportunities to build a community of practice.
This workshop was awarded support from the NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund, enabling workshop planners to cover the cost of registration, meals, lodging, and up to $350 per person for travel (exceptions to the travel limit will be considered as funds permit) for up to thirty faculty members and instructional technologists from NITLE participating schools in the Midwest. Funding may be available for participants from other NITLE participating schools. Space may also permit participation by additional self-funded individuals beyond those whom we can fund. To be considered you must complete a registration request form.
Space at this workshop is limited. Fullest consideration will be given to those who complete a registration request form by 5pm on Monday, October 6th. When it makes sense, please consider applying to send a pair of individuals from your school.
The workshop will be held at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, starting with dinner on Friday, March 13th, 2009, and extending through noon on Sunday, March 15th. To complete a registration request form please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=BxbbgGlDrDQEIgU5mn358A_3d_3d [28].
The workshop planning committee will let you know the status of your request by the end of October.
Workshop Planning Committee: Dave Berque, DePauw University; Michael Gough, DePauw University; Melinda Kraft, Albion College; Logan Mayfield, Monmouth College; Carol Smith, DePauw University; Lisa Wiebenga, Coe College. More details: http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/3653 [29].
- The Outdoor Classroom: Recent Advances in Mobile Computing for the Field Sciences
A workshop supported by awards of the NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund and the ACM Faculty and Career Enhancement (FaCE) Project. June 16 – 18, 2009. Workshop Conveners: Jeff Clark (Lawrence University) and Sue Swanson (Beloit College). Guest Speaker: Peter Knoop (University of Michigan). Location: Lawrence University’s Björklunden Vid Sjön, Door County, Wisconsin.
This workshop will bring together faculty members in the field sciences (e.g., archaeology, ecology, geology, environmental science) for a workshop and discussion of how GPS-enabled field computers can enhance their teaching and research. The workshop is open to faculty and staff from Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) campuses and campuses participating with NITLE who are interested in utilizing mobile computing technologies. Workshop planners can accommodate up to two individuals per campus. Additional attendees will be accommodated on a space-available basis; a wait-list will be created in the event of over-enrollment. Those interested in participating in “The Outdoor Classroom: Recent Advances in Mobile Computing for the Field Sciences” should apply by the February 9th deadline. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by March 2nd.
More details: http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/3655 [30].
Complete List of NITLE Opportunities [31]
Next Week in LIS
- September 29 (Monday) Help Desk Specialist Candidate Presentation – 1:30p
- September 29 (Monday) Finding an Internship: Leaving No Stone Unturned [32] – 4:00p
- September 30 (Tuesday) Windows Vista Tips & Tricks [33] – 8:30a
- September 30 (Tuesday) Norse Docs [34] – 10:00a
- September 30 (Tuesday) KATIE Workshop – Gradebook and More [35] – 12:00p
- October 1 (Wednesday) LIS General (for LIS Staff) & Programmer Analyst Candidate Presentation – 9:00a
- October 1 (Wednesday) Faculty Brown Bag: Strengthening Students’ Learning – and Our Teaching [36] – 12:15p
- October 2 (Thursday) Programmer Analyst Candidate Presentation – 9:00a
- October 2 (Thursday) The Genographic Project: Using DNA in the Classroom [37] – 1:00p
- October 3 (Friday) Programmer Analyst Candidate Presentation – 9:00a
- More information on upcoming training opportunities [38]
Notable Internet Resource of the Week: Umbrella Today? [39]
Simplicity is a good things generally, and Umbrella Today? aims to hit the mark when it comes to knowing the weather each day. Once the website is armed with your ZIP code, it will tell you simply “Yes” or “No” to the question, “should I take my umbrella today?”
You can then schedule a text message to your cell phone on any day when you should prepare for inclement weather. Of course, we’ll have to see how it handles the more solid form of winter precipitation …
On the web at http://umbrellatoday.com/ [39]
Around the Web
Here are a few links to interesting developments over the past week:
- Culture, Economy, and Business
- Best Buy nabs Napster for $121 million [40] [CNET News]
- Technology Doesn’t Dumb Us Down. It Frees Our Minds. [41] [New York Times]
- How Many Web Services Can One Person Use? [42] [New York Times Blog]
- It’s Not Information Overload; It’s Filter Failure [43] [Internet Evolution]
- Study: Work e-mail use creeps into off hours [44] [Yahoo! News]
- Office Emails Loaded with Lies [45] [LiveScience]
- Report: workers spend 25% of work time goofing around online [46] [ars technica]
- Google
- Book Search everywhere with new partnerships and tools [47] [Official Google Book Search Blog]
- The dreaded bibliography [48] [Official Google Docs Blog]
- The intelligent cloud [49] [Official Google Blog]
- New in Labs: Right-side Labels and Chat [50] [Official Gmail Blog]
- Google Moderator [51] [Google Operating System]
- Coming soon: Changes to the spreadsheets interface [52] [Official Google Docs Blog]
- Hardware and Technology Tools
- Turn That Computer Off When You Leave [53] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- Higher Education
- Athletics Raises a College From the Ground Up [54] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- Thwarting the Copycats [55] [Campus Technology]
- Social-networking sites viewed by admissions officers [56] [Chicago Tribune]
- The Tell-All Campus Tour [57] [New York Times]
- The Camera-Friendly, Perfectly Pixelated, Easily Downloadable Celebrity Academic [58] [New York Times]
- House Passes Bill That Would Require Campuses to Set Emergency-Response Plans [59] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- U.S. Department of Education Unveils College.gov [60] [Resource Shelf]
- I’ll Take My Lecture to Go, Please [61] [Inside Higher Ed]
- Emergency Overload [62] [Inside Higher Ed]
- Amherst Administrator’s ‘IT Index’ Highlights Trends in Student Technology Use [63] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- Lecture Capture: No Longer Optional? [64] [Campus Technology]
- Economic Pressure Could Make Their Jobs Tougher, Admissions Experts Say [65] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- As Endowment Returns Fall, Colleges Lower Expectations [66] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- Innovation
- Library Innovation Requires Regularizing the Irregular [67] [The Medium is the Message]
- Internet and Networking
- Comcast Discloses Throttling Practices — BitTorrent Targeted [68] [Wired Threat Level]
- Internet Customers Must Change Expectations [69] [Internet Evolution]
- Tech boom means China will run out of IP addresses by 2011 [70] [ars technica]
- Law, Intellectual Property and Intellectual Freedom
- The Future of Copyright [71] [CATO Unbound]
- RIAA rejects damage award, forces trial, looks hypocritical [72] [ars technica]
- Update: Anti-Piracy Firm Seeks to Monetize Illegal Filesharing [73] [Daily Tech]
- Colleges Should Stand Up to the Entertainment Industry [74] [Inside Higher Ed]
- Bush administration opposes RIAA-based copyright bill [75] [CNET News]
- Thomas verdict overturned, making available theory rejected [76] [ars technica]
- Libraries and Librarians
- Information is Power – Even When it’s Wrong [77] [ACRLog]
- In Digital Age, Federal Files Blip Into Oblivion [78] [New York Times]
- Smithsonian to put its 137 million-object collection online [79] [CNN]
- Tomorrow’s Libraries Will Be Online [80] [Internet Evolution]
- U. of Michigan Library Installs ‘ATM of Books’ [81] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- Sudden Thoughts And Second Thoughts [82] [ACRLog]
- Media and Publishing
- Don’t Buy That Textbook, Download It Free [83] [New York Times]
- The End [of the Book Business] [84] [New York Magazine]
- Expensive college textbooks [85] [Christian Science Monitor]
- College Bookstores to Begin Selling eTextbooks on Demand [86] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- College bookstores turn to kiosks to stem e-textbook tide [87] [ars technica]
- Mobility
- Users Are Tossing Their Landlines Overboard [88] [New York Times]
- The future of mobile [89] [Official Google Blog]
- Cellphones, Handy Tools for Emergency Alerts, Could Be Used for Cheating [90] [Chronicle of Higher Education]
- Google Introduces a Phone With PC Features [91] [New York Times]
- Wireless Companies Struggling with Data Demand [92] [BusinessWeek]
- Open Source and Standards
- 7 Things You Should Know About Zotero [93] [Educause]
- Security and Privacy
- Pew study: cloud computing popular, privacy worries linger [94] [ars technica]
- Norway sends entire citizenry’s ID info to media [95] [The Register]
- Email Password Tradeoff: Simplicity or Strength [96] [Internet Evolution]
- Service and User Experience
- Fake popup study sadly confirms most users are idiots [97] [ars technica]
- Software and Operating Systems
- A Gloomy Vista for Microsoft [98] [Newsweek]
