Subject: IR Digest - July 6 Issue
From: Lori Marchand (lsm2@Lehigh.EDU)
Date: Thu Jul 06 2000 - 13:19:36 EDT
IRDIGEST July 6, 2000 Lehigh University Information Resources CONTENTS: - ELECTRONIC HUMAN RELATIONS AREA FILE (HRAF) - BLACKBOARD PUTS ON A NEW FACE - NETWORK SERVER UPDATE - NEW BOOK DISPLAY & LOUNGE AREA RENOVATIONS - SHIFTING IN FAIRCHILD-MARTINDALE LIBRARY - PROGRESS ON INSTALLING NEW PUBLIC SITE COMPUTERS - LEWIS UPDATE - EXPANDED ACCESS TO LABVIEW - LIBRARY DATABASES -- NEW FIRSTSEARCH - SUMMER LIBRARY AND COMPUTING CENTER HOURS Subscription, archive and contact information are at the bottom of this digest. ELECTRONIC HUMAN RELATIONS AREA FILE (HRAF) A collaboration between Information Resources and faculty member Nicola Tannenbaum of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology has resulted in a membership in the Human Relations Area File consortium and access to the eHRAF database (http://www.hti.umich.edu/e/ehraf/). HRAF is a consortium of educational, research, cultural organizations, and government agencies; its mission is to encourage and facilitate the study of human culture, society, and behavior. Now available from the Lehigh library database list (http://www.lehigh.edu/~inref/databases/index.html), eHRAF facilitates systematic cross-cultural comparative research on over 75 cultures. It contains the complete digitized and indexed texts of a broad and deep range of source material, including texts by missionaries, anthropologists and governments. The content of the eHRAF materials is augmented on a regular basis with new as well as retrospective sources. Tannenbaum received a Ventures Initiative grant that provides seed money to fund the HRAF membership and supports her new course, Comparative Cultures Research: the Electronic Human Relations Files. With its focus on a wide range of cultures, ethnic groups, immigrant groups and its multicultural dimension, HRAF will be of value to faculty and students in such varied programs as Religion Studies, Sociology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture, Education, International Relations and History. BLACKBOARD PUTS ON A NEW FACE Blackboard 4.0, formerly known as Blackboard CourseInfo, made its debut this summer with a new look. Blackboard is a Web-based software product that supports faculty construction of online teaching and learning environments, providing an easy and effective way to enhance traditional classroom instruction and deliver distance learning. Check it out at http://www.lehigh.edu/ir/connect/blackboard.html NETWORK SERVER UPDATE As mentioned in the April issues of both IR Digest and IR Connection, the text-based interface to the Network Server no longer meets the requirements of the campus and is being phased out. A committee has been formed to investigate alternatives for Network Server functionality and it is anticipated that the text-based interface to the Network Server will be removed from service by the end of the year 2000. It should be noted that a Web-based interface to the Network Server has been available for a number of years now; look for "Bulletin Boards" toward the bottom of the main Lehigh Web page ( http://www.lehigh.edu and click on "LUNA" to access this interface. (You can also enter the location directly as http://www.lehigh.edu/~www/cwis.html ) In either case, select the "Manual login as valid user" option to log in for the full range of Network Server functions. While the vast majority of individuals at Lehigh are already using Netscape Messenger or a similar application for electronic mail, some individuals access email through the text-based interface to the Network Server. Information Resources will be contacting these individuals and providing them with assistance to migrate to a more modern email interface. The move away from a text-based interface to the Network Server is not simply to convert existing functionality, but also to provide a base from which new capabilities can be offered. Future announcements will be forthcoming as progress is made toward this goal. NEW BOOK DISPLAY & LOUNGE AREA RENOVATIONS The new bookshelves in Fairchild-Martindale Library have been moved just inside the Mart Wing next to the door to the Circulation Office area. The entry lounge area is being renovated this summer and will include new furnishings, display cases for faculty publications, and a new security system without gates. Installation will take place in July. SHIFTING IN FAIRCHILD-MARTINDALE LIBRARY Shifting of books will continue through much of the summer on the top floor of Fairchild-Martindale and on the 2nd floor of the Mart Wing. Some books and bound periodicals have been transferred to the Library Materials Center on the Mountain Top so that the stacks will be less crowded as new materials are received. Records in ASA, the online catalog, are still being updated to show which materials are now at Mountain Top. Help Desk and Circulation Desk staff can help you locate materials. PROGRESS ON INSTALLING NEW PUBLIC SITE COMPUTERS New computers and printers have been installed at EWFM 180, Grace Hall 28, Mudd 464 and Fritz Lab 605. These machines are running Microsoft Office 2000. The EWFM 180 and Grace Hall site networks have been upgraded to 100Mb. The new machines in the Grace site have also now been installed. For information on other computing site improvements and schedules, connect to: http://www.lehigh.edu/~lucc/operations/facilities/sitenews99.html. LEWIS UPDATE Software Upgrade Plans are underway to upgrade to Banner 4.x in mid-July. This software release will greatly increase the functionality in the Finance module as well as offering new features in other areas as well. Upgrading to Banner 4.x will also resolve many of the known bugs in the current release and will allow for a more stable production environment for the Financial Aid, Admissions, Alumni, and Student systems. This is just the beginning of periodic upgrades to the software for the LEWIS project. Currently, the target date for this 4.x upgrade is July 15th. Watch for more details as the date approaches. Fewer Custom Forms Under the guidance of the Enterprise Systems Implementation team, the number of customized forms [screens] to be brought forward to the new Banner version has been reduced to 10 or fewer. This nicely meets the mandate from the LEWIS Executive Committee to make Lehigh's implementation of Banner as "vanilla" as possible. This is a notable achievement and will directly translate to easier installations of future software upgrades and releases from SCT. LEWIS Web site For the latest information on equipment needed to run Banner, LEWIS newsletters and press coverage, and a link to SCT, the vendor for the LEWIS project, see the LEWIS homepage at: http://www.lehigh.edu/lewis EXPANDED ACCESS TO LABVIEW IR has just acquired the "teaching license" version of LabView 5.1. This includes the professional development version of the software (for Windows/NT, Mac, and Linux) and most of the ToolKits. LabView is a widely used graphical programming environment for instrument data gathering, analysis, and presentation. In a new wrinkle for software licensing, this one is restricted to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. As usual, the distribution is by WinInstall, which will serve the CE&AS buildings. IR will continue to serve LabView 4.0 (the student version) to academic buildings. LIBRARY DATABASES -- NEW FIRSTSEARCH A series of sweeping changes to our popular FirstSearch Databases will provide enhanced searching capabilities as well as direct links from retrieved records to ASA (Lehigh's Library Catalog). A new integrated Interlibrary Loan form captures information about a desired item and is forwarded directly to ILL staff for processing. Other new features of the service include relevance ranking, database-specific thesauri, and multi-database searching capabilities. Testing of New FirstSearch will continue throughout the summer, but users are invited to try the service at http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org/fsip/. After Aug. 20, users will be automatically directed to the new service. FirstSearch provides Web-based access to many popular and unique reference databases. The Lehigh Libraries subscribe to thirty-six of these including such high-use titles as WorldCat, PsycINFO, the MLA Bibliography, and Education Abstracts. A reference service from OCLC, a worldwide consortium of libraries, FirstSearch was introduced on the Network Server in 1991 for online searching of periodical indexes and worldwide library holdings. FirstSearch databases have been on the Web since 1996. SUMMER LIBRARY AND COMPUTING CENTER HOURS For detailed Library Hours consult: http://www.lehigh.edu/ir/irhelp/irmain.html For detailed Computing Hours consult: http://www.lehigh.edu/ir/irhelp/computreg.html ************************************************************************* Send your comments or suggestions for future topics by replying directly to the list. TO SUBSCRIBE TO IRDIGEST: Send email to: Listproc@lehigh.edu Type in the body of the message: Subscribe irdigest <your name>. Call the IR Help Desk (84357) if you have any difficulty in subscribing. IRDIGEST archives are located at: http://www.lehigh.edu/lists/archives/irdigest
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