LIS News

When you go to www.luther.edu and click on the FACULTY/STAFF/STUDENTS link in the top right corner of the page, you will find that a new link has been added for Norse Mail. In addition, a link for Norse Mail has been added to the content on the page. The Webmail link will remain; the content for it has been updated to include a note about Norse Mail. We now have over 1300 faculty, staff, and students using Norse Mail.

Report from the Datatel Users Group conference held March 8-12, 2008 in Washington, D.C.

I attended a number of sessions that provided valuable information that we can put to use in the next year.

* Performance tuning – I attended several tuning sessions covering Datatel Colleague Release 18 (R18), Web Advisor, DMI listeners (used in R18) and web load performance testing. I gathered lots of information that should help us understand more about the database administration functions that need to occur on the Datatel and Web Advisor servers to help improve performance.

Microsoft has released the first major update to Windows Vista in Service Pack 1. More information and the download link are available on the web:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-4...

We are reopening a process to review our emergency response plans and procedures that will be coordinated by Cindy Hansmeier. If you have previously been involved in preparing emergency response plans for any of our services/service points here’s what you can expect.

• Cindy will be going through the plan and bringing the primary person responsible for a service a copy of the current plans and asking for any updates to be made. Please note these changes and return that information to her so our central document can be updated.

A four-page review of MISO data discussing staff opinions of the importance of and their satisfaction with LIS resources and services is now available from the LIS website. This data was used for discussion during the LIS midwinter planning day, and has been slightly reworked and expanded in its focus. The data shows very strong overall satisfaction for LIS resources and services, though generally Luther staff rate resources and services with less importance than staff at similar colleges nationwide.

Many folks at Luther received email messages today purporting to be from the Technology Help Desk asking for personally identifying information, including login information. This is phishing scheme where someone is attempting to gather account information for improper use. LIS will never ask for account information via email.

A four-page review of MISO data discussing faculty opinions of the importance of and their satisfaction with LIS resources and services is now available from the LIS website. This data was used for discussion during the LIS midwinter planning day, and has been slightly reworked and expanded in its focus. The data shows strong overall satisfaction for LIS resources and services, though generally Luther faculty score significantly lower than the national average when it comes to importance and satisfaction with academic technology.

CBORD provides our Dining Services, Campus Card, and Housing Management System for Luther

February 29, 2008

CBORD is pleased to announce our acquisition by Roper Industries, Inc. As an investor in CBORD and as a long-term “CBORDian” (as we like to call ourselves), I have a great deal of personal pride in CBORD’s growth and development. I view this new partnership with Roper as a very positive development for all our current and future customers.

NITLE has announced a Moodle User Community Meeting at the University of Pugent Sound in June. Nominations for participation are due Monday, March 3rd. Proposals are due Friday, March 28th.

More information:

Yesterday, Google added a new application to their online productivity suite known as Google Apps (or locally as Norse Apps). Google Sites allows one-click publishing of content to the web and interfaces directly with other products in the suite such as Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presentations.