[Stephen Francoeur (he/him)]

Library Technology Subcommittee: Notes from 17 April 2015 Meeting

Location

Baruch College, Vertical Campus Building, 14-275

Attendees

• Madeline Cohen (Lehman College)
• Iris Finkel (Hunter College)
• Stephen Francoeur (Baruch College)
• Ben Franz (Medgar Evers College)
• Joan Kolarik (CUNY Office of Library Services)
• Stephen Klein (CUNY Graduate Center)
• Miriam Laska (Hostos Community College)
• George Otte (CUNY OAA)
• Anthony Picciano (CUNY Graduate Center)
• Maura Smale (NYC College of Technology)
• Megan Wacha (CUNY Office of Library Services)
• Michael Waldman (Baruch College)
• Dave Williams (Queens College)
• Stephen Zweibel (Hunter College)

Introductions by meeting attendees.

Projects for the Subcommittee to Consider

– Campus printing for visitors. No uniformity to the way that printing works for CUNY students who are visiting another CUNY library as a guest. We should do an audit of how guest printing works at each campus. Data points in that audit should include: is there a way for guests to print; cost per page; allotment for students at their own school; printing system used (e.g., Pharos); steps required for guests to print; how students at that school authenticate for their printing accounts. A draft of the audit will go out for feedback before a final version is released.

– Web conferencing platforms for online workhops. There was interest in exploring options for web-based systems (such as Adobe Connect and WebEx) that will let libraries run workshops online.

– Server space. It would be helpful if CUNY offered a system that let us set up servers that we could configure with software for various projects.

– Media server space. CUNY should offer system-wide storage for media (e.g., Kaltura, MediaCore). It was noted that CUNY CIS is already thinking about this after it was raised in the CUNY Committee on Academic Technology (CAT) after discussions in CAT about the limited storage space for instructors in Blackboard.

– Other integrated library systems. It was suggested that we haven’t taken a look at a different ILS in a long time. The option to also consider getting a universal resource management (URM) system like Alma or Intota is also something we might want to consider.

– Faculty profile systems. With the launch of the institutional repository (CUNY Academic Works), it would be good to work on systems that offer faculty profiles. There is already a grant from the Sloan Foundation that is being used to look at how Academic Works can be integrated with the CUNY Academic Commons. Also, the vendor for Academic Works offers an additional product called SelectedWorks that offers profiles of contributors. We also discussed that in the coming years, we may migrate content from Academic Works to a new platform that combines Fedora and Hydra. Some CUNY schools also use Digital Measures as a system for faculty to generate CVs and for their school’s administration to track overall scholarly output. One thing that will be an issue is coming up with workflows for faculty who are expected to use some of these systems. How these systems can talk to each other is also an issue.

– Enterprise authentication. At the last meeting, this seemed to be the project that we talked about the most. At today’s meeting, we discussed doing an audit of all the library systems and services that require our students to have a username and password. At Lehman College, students and faculty have a password management system that they can use. We alo discussed Shibboleth as an option for database authentication.

News from the CUNY Library System

– CUNY Academic Works. About one half of the campuses have had library staff trained or set up in the new IR. A handful of schools have already added content. It was noted that Academic Works is for scholarly and creative work, special collections, and OER content.

– New blog from CUNY Office of Library Services.

– OneSearch. There is a new, improved solution coming for handling authentication for off campus users who want to access ebooks found in their school’s OneSearch instance. Recent weeks have seen a number of design improvements to the interface, including new icons for format types and better labels. Some schools have completed local usability tests recently or will soon.

LibGuides. Thanks to a central purchase by the CUNY Office of Library Services, all CUNY libraries now have their own LibGuides accounts. One school has also recently exported an XML file of its guides for inclusion into OneSearch (thereby allowing users in OneSearch to discover relevant research guides).

Next Meeting

Our May meeting will be held at Medgar Evers College. The date will be announced shortly.

• This topic was modified 9 years, 7 months ago by Stephen Francoeur (he/him).

[Stephen Francoeur (he/him)]

Library Technology Subcommittee: Notes from 17 April 2015 Meeting

Location

Baruch College, Vertical Campus Building, 14-275

Attendees

• Madeline Cohen (Lehman College)
• Iris Finkel (Hunter College)
• Stephen Francoeur (Baruch College)
• Ben Franz (Medgar Evers College)
• Joan Kolarik (CUNY Office of Library Services)
• Stephen Klein (CUNY Graduate Center)
• Miriam Laska (Hostos Community College)
• George Otte (CUNY OAA)
• Anthony Picciano (CUNY Graduate Center)
• Maura Smale (NYC College of Technology)
• Megan Wacha (CUNY Office of Library Services)
• Michael Waldman (Baruch College)
• Dave Williams (Queens College)
• Stephen Zweibel (Hunter College)

Introductions by meeting attendees.

Projects for the Subcommittee to Consider

– Campus printing for visitors. No uniformity to the way that printing works for CUNY students who are visiting another CUNY library as a guest. We should do an audit of how guest printing works at each campus. Data points in that audit should include: is there a way for guests to print; cost per page; allotment for students at their own school; printing system used (e.g., Pharos); steps required for guests to print; how students at that school authenticate for their printing accounts. A draft of the audit will go out for feedback before a final version is released.

– Web conferencing platforms for online workhops. There was interest in exploring options for web-based systems (such as Adobe Connect and WebEx) that will let libraries run workshops online.

– Server space. It would be helpful if CUNY offered a system that let us set up servers that we could configure with software for various projects.

– Media server space. CUNY should offer system-wide storage for media (e.g., Kaltura, MediaCore). It was noted that CUNY CIS is already thinking about this after it was raised in the CUNY Committee on Academic Technology (CAT) after discussions in CAT about the limited storage space for instructors in Blackboard.

– Other integrated library systems. It was suggested that we haven’t taken a look at a different ILS in a long time. The option to also consider getting a universal resource management (URM) system like Alma or Intota is also something we might want to consider.

– Faculty profile systems. With the launch of the institutional repository (CUNY Academic Works), it would be good to work on systems that offer faculty profiles. There is already a grant from the Sloan Foundation that is being used to look at how Academic Works can be integrated with the CUNY Academic Commons. Also, the vendor for Academic Works offers an additional product called SelectedWorks that offers profiles of contributors. We also discussed that in the coming years, we may migrate content from Academic Works to a new platform that combines Fedora and Hydra. Some CUNY schools also use Digital Measures as a system for faculty to generate CVs and for their school’s administration to track overall scholarly output. One thing that will be an issue is coming up with workflows for faculty who are expected to use some of these systems. How these systems can talk to each other is also an issue.

– Enterprise authentication. At the last meeting, this seemed to be the project that we talked about the most. At today’s meeting, we discussed doing an audit of all the library systems and services that require our students to have a username and password. At Lehman College, students and faculty have a password management system that they can use. We alo discussed Shibboleth as an option for database authentication.

News from the CUNY Library System

– CUNY Academic Works. About one half of the campuses have had library staff trained or set up in the new IR. A handful of schools have already added content. It was noted that Academic Works is for scholarly and creative work, special collections, and OER content.

– New blog from CUNY Office of Library Services.

– OneSearch. There is a new, improved solution coming for handling authentication for off campus users who want to access ebooks found in their school’s OneSearch instance. Recent weeks have seen a number of design improvements to the interface, including new icons for format types and better labels. Some schools have completed local usability tests recently or will soon.

LibGuides. Thanks to a central purchase by the CUNY Office of Library Services, all CUNY libraries now have their own LibGuides accounts. One school has also recently exported an XML file of its guides for inclusion into OneSearch (thereby allowing users in OneSearch to discover relevant research guides).

Next Meeting

Our May meeting will be held at Medgar Evers College. The date will be announced shortly.

• This topic was modified 9 years, 7 months ago by Stephen Francoeur (he/him).