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April 2002 Council on the Libraries minutes

April 4th, 2002
Joint meeting of Council on Computing and Council on Libraries
Topic: Computing Services Goals and Projects

Present: Jim Aronson (JA), Ehud Benor (EB), Susan Bibeau (SB), Malcolm Brown (MB), Richard Callahan (RC), Robert Ditchfield (RD), Otmar Foelsche (OF), Teoby Gomez (TG), Scott Grafton (SG), Robert Gross (RG), Sarah Horton (SH), Gurcharan Khanna (GK), Ken Korey (KK), Chris Langley (CL), Larry Levine (LL) Richard E. Lucier (REL), Barbara Mellert (BM), Kathy Moore (KM), Brad Noblet (BK), Cyndy Pawlek (CP), Sam Reasoner (SR), Barry Scherer (BS), Cindy Shirkey (CS), Gail Wallin (GW), Mark Williams (MW), John Winn (JW)


JW called the meeting to order at 12:10.

Council on Computing minutes were approved.

Council on Libraries minutes were approved.


JW framed the presentations of the day by saying they were going to look at how Computing Services can support and fit into the Digital Library Initiative.

BK went first on Technical Services. He said their main goal is to provide infrastructure that will work when it is needed: stable, effective and always-on infrastructure. He then outlined a series of Strategic Initiatives his group has adopted:

1. Fill all positions
2. 7X24 operation
3. Convergence – network data infrastructure should support streaming data & telephone infrastructure
4. Remote Access/Telecommuting
5. Capacity & Performance – manage bandwidth more effectively
6. Navigation – make authentication & profiling easier
7. Security – balance need for secure environment with ease of use (PKI Mellon Grant)
8. Teaching & Learning

BK then finished by talking about specific projects his group is working on:

1. Dial-up stabilization
2. I1/I2 bandwidth upgrades
3. Virtual printing: Greenprint
4. Universal file system/Email for sharing across platforms
5. Unified authentication for both local & remote users
6. Redundancy/Security

REL commented that the infrastructure is absolutely critical to the Library’s ability to work with faculty and students effectively, and that he’s pleased BK and his group are communicating with the Library so well.

MB then presented on Academic Computing by starting with a brief background on the group, which comprises Consulting Services, Research Computing, Curricular Computing and Instructional Services.

MB outlined some of the projects Academic Computing is involved in:

1. Video Encyclopedia
2. Classics Department database
3. Consulting support: Ellen Young
4. Digital Library Planning: MB and Barbara Knauff
5. Fall Biomedical Conference
6. Linguistic Discovery
7. Music 37 (Opera course with listening assignments online)

MB said that Academic Computing is also looking into other areas of collaboration with the library such as online reserves, standards development, and the integration of Blackboard and library resources.

REL complemented MB on hiring such good staff members.

GK then went next and talked about Research Technology. He said that his group is looking at campus-wide initiatives such as the Bioinformatics project, research and development projects such as those undertaken by the Experimental Computing Group and collaborative efforts such as educational and governmental contracts.

JW wrapped up the meeting at 1:35.