LIS News

A four-page review of MISO data discussing student 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 show a preference in importance for web-based resources, and strong indications of the importance of some physical infrastructure such as academic computing labs and wireless networking services.

Beginning in the 2008-09 academic year, Luther will collect a technology fee from students which will provide and enhance access to technologies supporting academic and residential life at Luther. A definition and scope for the fee is included below. Funding will be managed by LIS in consultation with an advisory panel of students. LIS will report in full to the community how these funds were used to support these initiatives. Additional questions regarding the technology fee can be directed to Christopher Barth (barth@luther.edu) in LIS.

Definition

The first of several reports intended for the broader Luther community reviewing our MISO (Merged Information Service Organization) Survey results has been published to lis.luther.edu. The initial report in the series to be published is a six-page overview of all survey results with general observations and analysis included. Subsequent reports will focus more specifically on aspects of the survey for target constituent groups.

The survey asks the following research questions:

On April 1st, 2008 the Academic Planning Committee (APC) application will switch to a new and upgraded version. The APC application has been improved to include the suggestions from the faculty feedback that LIS received from the original application. The database, menu, and screens have been simplified for easier use. Users have the ability to see the proposals that you have created and easily sort and select courses that you wish to review.

LIS is pleased to announce a plan to implement Google Apps for Education at Luther under the name Norse Apps. This online productivity suite will include Luther-branded versions of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Documents, and iGoogle (Google Start Page). Implementation will begin in Spring 2008 and complete by summer 2009.

LIS has been piloting use of these services since mid-2007 and based upon our review, some significant benefits to Luther to implementing these services would be:

The Microsoft Office Work At Home Program is now available to Luther employees. The Work at Home Program allows Luther employees to install Luther licensed Microsoft Office on one home computer for use for work purposes only. Budget director approval will be requested prior to distribution of installation media, and a small fee for purchase of installation media and program administration will be charged to departmental accounts.

Biological Abstracts is the newest research database available through Preus Library. Biological Abstracts indexes journal articles (1926- present) in biology and all other life sciences including botany, microbiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, evolutionary ecology, neurology, and toxicology. This is not a full-text database; however, you can link to items the library subscribes to in full-text.

There is no power at EBSCO’s Cary, Illinois, office this morning. They
are working to fix the situation and may provide updates.We do still have access to EBSCO databases, but I wanted to put this
announcement up in case others discover a service interruption.