LISC Meeting October 26, 2015
2015-16 Council on Libraries, Information Systems and Computing (LISC)
Minutes
October 26, 2015
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
ITB 108
Attendance: Dave Mamorella, Chair; Boris Goldfarb; Debra Dickerson; Rebecca Mugridge; Allison Craig; Cathleen Green; Mathias Vuille; Carole Sweeton; Kimberly Van Orman; Guest: Brian Heaton, Client Support Services
1. One Drive for Business, Brian Heaton, CSS
Brian was asked to speak to the Committee on One Drive for Business and answer questions. One Drive is shared space that comes with your UAlbany mailbox and is a part of Office 365’s suite of services. Faculty and staff get a U: drive for a place to store your files. Office 365, and in particular One Drive for Business, is a storage for UAlbany mail, and because it is a web-based produce, one can get to it from any location. UAlbany also has a One Drive for Business app for mobile phones. You can also sync your Office 365 with your computer, and One Drive for business will look like your personal “U” drive. However, One Drive is not being used heavily by faculty and staff. Less than half of them are using it. One Drive is a great collaboration tool with both internal and external members. One would need to, however, have a Microsoft account to see the shared files. If you share and then do not act on the “file”, it will go away in 7 days. Brian advised the group that he and his staff are available to work with faculty and staff one-on-one. He recommended putting in a Footprints Ticket to the HelpDesk if anyone is interested in learning more about One Drive for Business.
2. Approval Minutes
The September 21, 2015 Minutes were unanimously approved by the Committee.
3. Report from Interim CIO, Carole Sweeton
UA 2020 Research Collaboration. Development of a SharePoint community site for each of the four 2020 cluster areas. The sites will enable researchers involved in each cluster to collaborate around funding opportunities and submit grant proposals. Team subsites will be offered as well.
Office 365. Continued development and implementation of services offered in Office 365 (Skype for Business, OneDrive, Yammer). The migration to Office 2013 in support of Skype for Business initiative is on track.
Open SUNY Initiative. Participation in the Open SUNY initiatives that are designed to maximize online-enabled learning opportunities for all SUNY students.
Information Commons. The PC work spaces in the Commons are being reconfigured as a MAC lab.
Network Infrastructure Upgrade. ITS/EIS is working to begin upgrading the network infrastructure to replace aged out equipment and improve network connectivity and traffic flow throughout the University, and has also begun to hybridize our previously Cisco only network environment by introducing Juniper equipment in some strategic locations, that while effecting an upgrade to the infrastructure has also created a significant fiscal savings to the University
Upgrading to 10GB. ITS/EIS has completed upgrading all WAN connections across the University to 10Gb, and have also upgraded our commercial internet connections to 1Gb each, and will very shortly be implementing the upgrade to our Internet2 connection from 1Gb to 10Gb.
Network Monitoring Tool. ITS/EIS and RIT have begun introducing PerfSonar monitoring into our network to effect compliance with a relatively new requirement for many NSF and other federal grant programs, as well as providing ITS with additional information to allow us to better manage and support networking resources.
Wireless Network. ITS/EIS has completed a significant expansion of our wireless network across the University, and planning for additional expansions are progressing as fiscal resources allow.
Virtualized Academic Computing Space. ITS/EIS has begun working on a pilot implementation of a virtualized academic computing space with Dr. Sanjay Goel and the Digital Forensics program that once fully implemented, will serve as the foundation for expanding this as a new service across the University that can be extended not just for on campus experiences, but also for distance learning opportunities and allow anytime anywhere access to critical academic applications not previously available in this manner.
VMWare Contract. The University is now part of the statewide VMWare contract, allowing us to take advantage of highly discounted pricing and access to additional products to help us further expand our virtualized environment.
Digital Strategy Design. With the engagement of the new VP of Communications and Marketing, ITS/EAS is moving forward on engaging a vendor to design a digital platform that provides an enterprise wide CMS allowing for integration of advancements that the library website and information management has and needs to continue to grow.
CIO Search. The search for a new CIO and Vice President for Information technology is on schedule.
4. Report from Interim Dean of the Libraries, Rebecca Mugridge
Acquisitions budget. The Libraries had requested additional funding to our base to cover the increased cost of our electronic journal and database subscriptions. We will be given some additional funds to cover part of the inflation cost and continue the discussion with the Provost. Additional concerns are new degree programs and disciplines that will require new resources to support them.
Status of vacant positions. The Libraries are in the process of filling two professional positions in Access Services: a Lending and Access Services Associate and a Resource Sharing and Reserves Associate. There are also two librarian and several clerical positions that we are looking to hire in the near future.
Group study rooms. We held an event on October 9 to promote the nine new group study rooms and the Mac lab on the first floor. ITS supported the event by providing the refreshments. We had a number of visitors, primarily library staff and students who were studying in the vicinity.
Open Access Program. The Libraries celebrated Open Access Week with a program on October 20, with 36 in attendance. Presentations included “Academia and Open Education” by UAlbany Professor P.D. Magnus, and “Open Sesame: Negotiating Access to Your Research and Publications.” Lindsay Van Berkom, Scholars Archive Administrator, gave a demonstration for the University’s institutional repository, Scholars Archive, available at: http://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/
Student Advisory Board (SAB). The first SAB meeting was held October 19, with 20 in attendance. A second meeting is scheduled for mid-November. They reported being very happy with the additional outlets installed over that past year (600), but were still disappointed with the wireless service. In spite of additional wireless hubs, they found that the service was spotty and that they got dropped frequently. They also do not like the consolidated printing area and find the lines are too long at the quick print stations. We will investigate these issues more thoroughly in future SAB meetings.
SUNY Council of Library Directors (SCLD). Rebecca attended the SCLD Fall meeting in Fairport, NY, October 14-16. The hot topic at the meeting was the need to migrate to another integrated library system. The SUNY Office of Library and Information Services (OLIS) put out a Request for Information in the spring and received information from six firms: Ex Libris, Innovative Interfaces Inc., SirsiDynix, OCLC, ProQuest, and EBSCO. (Since that time, ProQuest has purchased Ex Libris, further consolidating the field.) OLIS will put together another group to gather information with the goal of putting out an RFP no later than June 30, 2016.
5. New Business
Dave reminded the members that if they had any feedback on the six SUNY proposals that were handed to the committee at the September 21, 2015 to please forward to him and he will compile them for the Senate. Allison asked if these documents could be shared with other departments. Dave will check and get back to Allison.
6. Adjournment
A tour of the new ITB facility was offered for those members who wanted to participate. The next meeting is scheduled for November 23 at 3:00 p.m. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
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