Notes by Ross Atkinson
Oliver joined us to discuss current progress in wireless services in CUL. CIT is installing access points in libraries and across campus. Full information on the Cornell wireless project will be found on the CIT Web site at http://www.cit.cornell.edu/redrover/. So far, CIT has installed wireless access points in Olin, Kroch, Uris, Engineering, Mann, Vet, FAL, and Music. Access points will be installed in the remaining units in the course of the fall semester. CIT is concerned, Oliver explained, about security and accountability, so they will require that, in order for a wireless card to have access to the Cornell wireless system (RedRover), the card will have to be registered with CIT; each card will receive a unique MAC address (media access control), which CIT plans to link to a specific netID. Since CUL intends to circulate laptops and/or wireless cards, we will need to work out a method for doing this that is acceptable, from a security perspective, to CIT. Oliver suggested that the Library simply take responsibility for such circulated cards, and then we would ensure that only current Cornell users are allowed to borrow them. It may be that CIT will want us to keep records of who borrows these cards; we will then need to decide how this relates to our privacy policy and what procedures would need to be put in place. These are issues that PSEC, and ultimately probably LMT, will consider. In response to questions from Marty Schlabach and others, Oliver said he would ask CIT about the extent to which they are, or will be, monitoring computer use: what use data are they gathering, how long do they keep it, how much do they analyze it, and are they notifying computer users of this?
Martha Walker explained that CIT has produced a pamphlet explaining RedRover use, and that she has ordered copies of these for the Library. We should also refer users to the RedRover Web site, on which CIT hopes shortly to include an FAQ. The site will also contain maps of wireless zones, which will show which parts of libraries have wireless access. [Angela Horne has subsequently told me that the map for Olin is complete. See http://www.cit.cornell.edu/redrover/maps/olin.html.] Martha will also obtain posters from CIT for libraries, and stickers that can be put on signs that indicate where wireless is available. Martha will be working with Beth on distributing this information to units. Oliver noted that the RedRover Web site also contains a recommendation by CIT on the type of wireless card to purchase, so students interested in purchasing such a card from the Campus Store should be referred to that page.
[Update - 20 Aug.: Oliver has kindly sent the following detailed correction to last week's PSF notes on wireless installations for the fall semester. ---Ross
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 13:57:41 -0400
Ross,
Wireless, via CIT's RedRover, will be available in 14 library units before the first day of classes (August 30th, Thursday). That's all campus library units except for the Annex, JGSM, Law, and Hotel. I'm sorry I didn't clarify this commitment from CIT to us.
Libraries done (as of August 14th):
To be done before August 30th:
To be considered after August 30th:
During the Fall semester, CIT will continue on non-library installs (ResLife and the Campus Store), thus completing "Year 1" planned coverage areas. Also during the Fall, CIT and CUL will begin "Part B" of the Library wireless installations. This includes:
During our meeting last week, someone asked about the health risks of wireless. CIT has a brief blurb on wireless and health that people can be referred to. CIT doesn't confirm or deny any health risks, but they do assert that the risks are less than for cell phones. They in turn refer people to a white paper on the subject (by the manufacture of the campus wireless system) in which they explain why they believe the system to be safe.
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/redrover/faq.html#healthrisks
Yours,
-Oliver ]
To: ra13@cornell.edu (Ross Atkinson)
From: "Oliver B. Habicht"
Subject: Correction: Public Svcs Forum Notes 8/13/01
1. Olin*
2. Kroch
3. Uris*
4. Mann*
5. Fine Arts (Sibley)
6. Music (Lincoln)
7. Engineering (Carpenter)*
8. Vet*
9. Math (Malott)
* had NOMAD
10. PSL (Clark), waiting on current construction.
11. ILR
12. Entomology
13. Africana, waiting on CIT/CUL walk-through.
14. Geneva, which is not being installed by CIT (AP provided by CIT, however.)
15. Annex
16, 17, 18. JGSM (Sage), Law (Myron Taylor), Hotel (Statler), pending local approval and the technical work required to ensure coexistence with local IT's wireless network.
Oya Rieger summarized the University’s distributed learning effort at this time, which falls into three categories:
(a) First, there is E-Cornell, which will be offering its first full-scale certificate program this fall. This will be offered through the ILR School--and Oya and Deb have been working with E-Cornell on the planning for this since April.
(b) Second, there are non-profit courses aimed mainly at residential students, but which may also serve non-residential students. The Provost has charged the Dean of Continuing Education (Glenn Altschuler) and the Vice President for Information Technologies (Polley McClure) to coordinate this work. A grant program has been created, called Faculty Innovation in Teaching, which will fund the work of twenty faculty members from throughout the University to create technology mediated components for their teaching. The program provides an opportunity for CUL, CIT, Continuing Education, the Media Center, and the Center for Teaching and Learning to collaborate in creating new distributed learning programs. Oya noted that Sarah and Polley have written a document that defines the collaborative responsibilities of CUL and CIT in distributed learning.
(c) Third, there are individual distributed learning courses that have been developed independently in schools and colleges. While these may be of value to residential students, they are aimed mainly at remote students.
Oya reported that the Library’s Office of Distributed Learning is taking the lead in an effort to bring together the various stakeholders from throughout the University who have concerns about copyright--so that we can effectively divide responsibilities on managing the copyright issues that will arise in the distributed learning environment. The Library will be assuming key responsibilities in this area, some of which will require tracking down rights holders. CUL and CIT are working together now on a database, which will reside in CUL, of copyright information for material in the Cornell Adult University’s CyberTower; we expect this database will eventually contain copyright records for other distributed learning programs.
The Library’s Office of Distributed Learning is constructing a Web page, which contains some key documents, and will be found at http://www.library.cornell.edu/DL/. Oya will be providing a second forum, for any CUL staff who are interested in discussing distributed learning, on Thursday, 16 August, 2:30-3:30, in Olin 703. Efforts are also underway to use a future Academic Assembly meeting as an opportunity to bring together some of the key players in distributed learning on campus to discuss and take questions on their various activities and visions.
Jim LeBlanc presented an update on authority records in Voyager. The long and short of it is that we have not loaded any authority records since we migrated to Voyager sixteen months ago. When planning the migration, we decided that we would no longer need to outsource our authority work to WLN, as we did for NOTIS--we could now manage it ourselves, more cheaply and effectively in Voyager. The new method entails our loading the entire Name Authority File in Voyager, with weekly updates, rather than only selected records, and we will then use that file to do authority control in Voyager. When we tried to load the NAF in Voyager-1999, however, we ran into difficulties, and what we had loaded needed to be removed. We then waited to start loading anew until Voyager-2000 was in place, only to find that the V-2000 loader was defective and unable to load all of the NAF records. The most recent V-2000 patch Endeavor created apparently corrected this problem, but it introduced new problems in the OPAC. The new patch for the patch apparently corrected the OPAC problems (without introducing any new ones), so the path now seems clear to load all of the authority records. Still, the very large number of records in the NAF (4.7 million) means that loading those records locally, even with the repairs to the loader, would still take a very long time. It is possible, therefore, that we might contract with Endeavor for them to do a one-time (“slam”) load of all the NAF records for us, and then we would locally load the updates from the past sixteen months. A slam load would require, however, that the system be brought down in its entirety for a certain amount of time--so all of this is still being considered and negotiated.
Jim explained the implications of not having loaded authorities in the past sixteen months. He used as an example something by or about Mommar Qaddafi, whose name has ca. forty variant spellings. If we acquired in the past sixteen months a publication that spells his name yet another way, we would have added that new spelling to the NAF, but anyone looking up that item with that spelling in an author or subject search in our catalog would not find it. As another example, Jim talked about a French translation of a work by a Thai author, Saneh Sangsuk, which we have recently acquired. In Thailand, he publishes under a pseudonym, which is the heading we use for him in our catalog--and therefore the name under which we have cataloged the French translation; so even though the book in French is by Saneh Sangsuk, and says so on the title page, no one will be able to find that book in our catalog through an author search under that name until the corresponding authority records are loaded. The longer we wait, therefore, to add authority records--both the NAF backfile and our updates--the more problems like this will arise.
Lenore suggested that, if we need to bring down the system for a slam load during the fall semester, we might consider trying to do that during fall break.
Susan Currie reported that the effort to make e-reserve capabilities available to all units in the fall semester is proceeding very well. Uris, Mann and ILR are up and running. Equipment should be in all units before the semester begins. While this will mean that most units will not be able to have all of their materials digitized in time for the semester, they can scan those materials once the semester starts--a method Mann used last semester that worked well. Susan noted that, while paper reserves in Uris were beginning to decline, the availability of e-reserves have caused them to skyrocket. These services are very well liked by both students and faculty. An e-reserve contact person has been named in each unit library, and those staff will be receiving an initial briefing very soon. Each library needs to be dealt with individually, since ImageServer is a separate system from Voyager. Mann will be working specifically with Vet, Geneva, Entomology, and Hotel; OKU will be working with the other libraries. It is important for students to understand that access to the e-reserve database is not through the netID, but depends rather upon the student being in the patron file. To gain access, students need to put in their Cornell ID number, and they need to know the name of their course instructor. At present, Susan noted, there is no mechanism for counting hits for e-reserve--so there are and will be major uses of electronic resources which are not in our statistics. Lydia is looking into whether something can be done about this. Bringing up e-reserves, Susan said, has been a major collaborative effort, involving Desktop Services, Library Systems, CTS, and access services staff from throughout CUL.
StaffWeb Index | Back to Committee Index | Back to Public Services Forum Index
8/14/01, jwg; rev. 8/23/01 jwg