UL Meeting with Library Systems Group, October 22
1.What are the 4-5 great things you are doing?
A. SUPPORTING TECHNOLOGY NEEDS OF UIC FACULTY, STAFF and STUDENTS

Main responsibilities (see “Major Areas of Responsibility”)

Making sure users have access to all electronic resources, administering the ezproxy
server ~ALL/DE/WS/LW/ES

80 workshops per year, 1000 visitors per year to InfoTech Arcades ~LF/SB

“Bootcamp” classes for staff during intercession ~ALL/LF/SB/DE/FK/

Working with Terry McElwee on campus-wide Copyright site ~ARCADE

Creating database for ARL statistics/tsdc (#32 and #33) ~ES bkgrd/LO,GS
programming

Working with ACCC (Academic Computing Center) and ITL (Instructional Technology
Lab)/adding “Library Resources Link” to Blackboard ~all, ACCC DE/FK/ES/WS; ITL BB
stems from CIC CMS seminar ~ES/LF/SB/
B. INNOVATION

Successful management of the InfoTech Arcade daily operations, open hours,
assessment, evaluation ~LF/SB

Syslist (web-based hardware and software inventory management system for all
public and staff computers, network hardware, and software) ~FK

Ezproxy (proxy software used to extend web-based licensed databases to UIC remote
users) ~DE/WS

ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity) driver, extracting data into mysql database for
Voyager users ~LO

Questionpoint/Ask A Librarian for Systems ~ALL/DE/

LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) ~FK

OAI data harvesting (Open Archives Initiative) for First Monday, EADs, Filemaker
databases; CIC-OAI partnering and portal ~ES/GS/PS

Open Source software initiatives and successes (MyLibrary Portal, RT: Request Tracker,
php Bulletin Board, GroupOffice for Reference Department, OWL Intranet, Plone for
Team Vision 2010) ~FK

Federated searching (qUICsearch/qUICsearchVEL), integrating openURL across ~ES

Institutional Repositories, eg, Dspace, etc ~SB/FK?
C. SPECIAL LIBRARY PROJECTS

Building digital collections (ePlants, vPlants, City2000, A&A slide library, Sasjuam
Brubaker, Carberry, Jim Parker Collections) ~WS/DE/LW/ES

Getting the Digitization Lab set up ~WS/FK

Supporting Special Collections and University Archives, Finding Aids Parser, EADs in
OAI, Filemaker databases ~ES/PS/LF/SB

WebWise videos, multimedia projects ~SB/LF/FK

Sparkle things – library scrapebook, 3-D military miniatures from Casper Collection
~LF/SB

Oasis project ~SB/LF??

eMedia collaboration and absorption into InfoTech Arcade ~SB/LF/WS

Photo Services server at the Library ~FK/FH

Working with library committees, task forces, staff; serving as technical and system
resources ~all (add list of committees we serve?)

Integrating content across applications, eg, eresources in WebVoyage, MyLib, Web
pages, SS portal, qUICsearch; branding our resources ~all – other examples?
D. EXTERNAL OUTREACH

WebWise 2004 and 2005 ~SB/LF/FK

IVPA (Illinois Violence Prevention Authority) ~SB/LF/WS

Bowen Country Club

Cook County Hospital ~SB/LF/WS

First Monday ~SB/LF/WS

Chicago Botanic Garden Eplants and Vplants

Carberry/Images of the Caribbean Book Covers ~ES/LO/PS

Addis Ababa University ~ES/FK/LO
E. INFRASTRUCTURE

Equipment/software maintenance – desktops, laptops, printers, scanners, across 8
sites for public and staff use. ~FK

Keeping computers safe from viruses, cracks, etc.; teaching staff self-reliance (staff
does virus checking and windows upgrading, respond quickly to security warnings);
minimal filtering ~FK/DE,all

backing up/ADSM, Veritas, Retrospect ~FK/DE

Syslist for staff/public computers, network hardware and software Inventory ~FK

RT (Request Tracker) for ticketing and tracking problems ~FK

Computers for Everyone ~FK

Converting Printing to U-Print (students can use their ACCC print quota at Library print
stations) ~FK

planning to move servers to ACCC (eg, clioweb, pok) ~DE/FK/ES
2. What are 2-3 things you are not doing but should?
A. Give everyone a state-of-the-art desktop computer; better public terminals ~FK/ALL
B. Not making enough headway on

digitization projects ~WS/LW?

ssh, sftp rollout, switching to mailserv ~DE/FK?

dynamic web pages, xhtml, integrating applications, single sign-on ~WS/

asp sites accc on linux ~FK?

exploring open source solutions – RSS and Feed readers/Blogs, Wikis, Instant
Messaging/Jabber ~FK/all

Libsys brownbags, eg, LOCKSS, wireless, opensource~FK/all

writing documentation, online tutorials ~all/SB/LF
C. Mission statement for the arcade – includes LHS arcade in limbo strategic planning,
research on what people need, our clients as well as work with students, assessment,
evaluation on Arcade, many universities have their own budget with less focuses and
we do need at least one GA if we’re still expected to provide ; need a grad assistant to
free up our time so that we can do it. ~LF/SB
What's preventing us?
A. budget
B. staffing
C. ACCC not ready
3. What are 2-3 things we could stop doing?
A. Using mailto on Web site ~FK/DE/WS
B. Ghosting staff machines ~FK
C. Having to remind people to backup ~FK/DE/all
4. What are the big issues confronting your department and the library?
A. LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), single sign-on and authentication across
all applications ~DE/FK/ES/all
B. Digital collections - Hyperion, Insight (Luna) and CONTENTdm coming via ILCSO
~LW/WS
C. Aging equipment ~FK/DE/all
D. Network upgrade for Daley ~FK
E. Copyright/licensing ~LF/SB
F. Frustrations being dependent on other party (such as ILCSO) ~LW/LO
G. ILCSO digital products decision impact on UIC ~LW/all
H. Enough Graduate Assistant staff ~LF/SB/ALL
I. Program initiatives frequently require technical support in the process, but due to
decentralized position the cost is not clear to the Systems team – eg, IR, training,
copyright issues. The committees deal with some issues, but not all issues – and we
have to write tools, support, etc. ~SB/ALL
5. What else would you like us to know?
A. Our group reaches into every other department
B. We’re a revenue and partnership catalyst