University Library Reference

Message from Mary Jane
Folks, While University and Science Libraries are relying on the
ITS Help Desk for tech assistance this summer, Dewey still has
some hours of ITS Consultants. I checked with ITS, and they are
fine with librarians and staff from University and Science Libraries
calling the Dewey ITS Consultant when the ITS Help Desk is
closed.

Hours that Dewey ITS Consultant is on duty and ITS Help Desk
is closed:
Sundays 2-6pm
Monday-Thursday 5-8pm
To reach Dewey Consultant, call Dewey Circulation Desk 2-3693.

Thanks to Cathy for suggesting this. -- Mary Jane

Posted by Jean McLaughlin at 12:18 PM | Permalink

Hi all,
Just a heads up on a few things concerning the ITS consultant at the ULIB reference desk. :
1) We are trying to get everything in place for the consultant. They will have their own PC and Peter has a chair on order for them. I have cleared a temporary drawer in the low side of the desk for them to use but that may change. They will share the reference desk phones for business calls. The word reference has been removed from the block sign over the desk and will be replaced with “reference & technical assistance”

2)There will still be a consultant in the far wing (LI103). And when there is enough help also someone in LI-137. Priority for available ITS consultants in ulib should be a) the reference desk b) LI103 and c) LI137

3)Hours for the ITS consultants will be posted on the library hours page along with the usual reference desk/meebo hours information.

There is an information commons meeting on Tuesday so I may have further updates at the reference alliance meeting.
Let me know if you have questions.
Thanks
cathy

Posted by Jean McLaughlin at 10:53 AM | Permalink

Here are the hours that we have been promised Tech help for Fall 08

Tech Consultant Schedule for the Information Commons

When a Tech Consultant is not available, call 442-3700 x2 (Mon-Fri 8:30a-5p) or submit a Help Request.

========================================================

Fall 2008 Semester: Monday August 25, 2008 - Monday December 8, 2008

When classes are in session, Tech Consultants are available in the Information Commons -

IC @University Library: Mon-Thurs 10am-11pm, Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 12noon-5pm, Sun 12noon-8pm

IC @Science Library: Mon-Thurs 11am-11pm, Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 1pm-5pm, Sun 12noon-8pm

IC @Dewey Graduate Library: Mon-Thurs 2pm-8pm, Fri 2pm-5pm, Sun 2pm-6pm

Exceptions: Tech Help hours may change on holidays and when classes are suspended.

E-mail from Barbara Via on 8/13/08

Posted by Jean McLaughlin at 09:30 AM | Permalink

Hello All.

Yesterday, I helped a patron who wanted to print out an Open-Office document. Since we do not have the Open Office program in public computers, I had to use online word processor such as Google
Document.(http://docs.google.com/)

You have to have a Gmail account for this service. Then, you can upload the open office file to your Google Document account and edit it from there or print it out. Google Doc can handle below file formats;

Microsoft Word (.doc),
Rich Text (.rtf),
Open Document Text (.odt)-Open Office
Star Office (.sxw).
Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps).
Comma Separated Value (.csv).
Microsoft Excel (.xls)
OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).

Peter

Posted by Jane Kessler at 04:01 PM | Permalink

Hello, everybody. I've been getting a lot of questions about students with a problem sending attachments in Blackboard: the "my computers" icon does not appear so that the student may browse and attach their files, only an "x." All the student will need to do is right-click on the "x"
and choose Java, and then he/she will be given the option to browse files.

Another way to correct this problem is by choosing "run" when the Java message first pops up, rather than "ignore."

Phil (Intern)

Posted by Jane Kessler at 11:50 AM | Permalink

Protocol for Reporting After Hours Information Technology Services (ITS) Service Interruptions
August 23, 2007

ITS is responsible for many core enterprise services that are available on a 24x7 basis. Below is the protocol for reporting outages to those services after normal business hours. This protocol is in place between 5 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. Monday-Thursday, after 5:00 p.m. Friday, all day Saturday, Sunday, and all NYS holidays.

Dissemination of this document is to the University Libraries Library Systems Department. It is not intended for general distribution to faculty, staff and students.

While some servers that provide mission critical IT services are set to automatically alert the appropriate ITS personnel (Exchange, IAS, DHCP) and others are monitored on an ad hoc basis, there will be instances when it will be necessary to alert ITS of a failure of enterprise wide services outside of normal business hours. When a major service outage is discovered, it is expected that the technology support personnel will assess the symptoms of the problem to identify as accurately as possible the service(s) affected, the severity of the outage on the service and the possible impact of the outage on the general user population. It is expected that the following protocol will not be invoked unless the severity is high and/or the outage affects a high percentage of the user population.

After the appropriate triaging has been done, all reports of outages of critical ITS services during non-business hours should be directed to the Plant Customer Service Center (CSC) 442-3480. When contact is made with CSC, identification of the problem should indicate which service(s) are affected. The list of mission critical ITS services covered by this protocol is available below.

CSC will then route the call to the appropriate ITS personnel, based upon the identification of the problem as described by the local technology support personnel. Since CSC staff are not information technology professionals, the routing process will be more effective if the tag words listed for each service are used when reporting the problem. CSC simply routes the call based on which service has been identified as experiencing a major outage. It does not provide diagnostic or triage assistance in these matters.

Please note that ITS does not have personnel on call and relies on the good will and conscientiousness of employees to respond after hours. As a result, the response to emergencies, while usually timely, is nonetheless based on a best effort basis.

In a general campus emergency the protocol outlined above will not be needed. ITS will respond as prescribed in the Campus Emergency Plan and ITS Service Interruption Plan. Under these plans, emergencies that will invoke an ITS response include: (1) Health and safety issues or (2) Significant loss of mission critical IT services to a wide segment of the University user population. Health and safety issue emergencies should be reported to UPD which in turn will notify ITS personnel if needed. In the event of a major campus emergency, the protocol for the Campus Emergency Plan will be put in place.

List of mission critical ITS services covered by this protocol:

I. Data network outage: a building or the entire campus does not have network or Internet access. This does not include residence halls, see IX below.

Keywords: Internet is completely down in our building, the whole campus.

II. Campus telephone service – no phone service in a building or the entire campus.

Keywords: Telephones do not work at all on campus or in a building.

III. Mail services: Unix or Exchange mail outage.

Keywords: problems (with) Exchange, Webmail. sending and/or receiving email, Outlook Web Access (OWA).

IV. Information Commons problems: failure of all of the IC workstations in a Library building; failure of the Uniprint service (public access printing) in a Library building.

Keywords: Uniprint, Printing is down, All the PCs are down

V. IAS: Integrated Administrative System (PeopleSoft, IAS) and/or MyUAlbany outage

Keywords: problems (with) Integrated Administrative System, IAS, MyUAlbany, PeopleSoft, Student Records, Student Administration System

VI. Webserver: failure of main University web server (www.albany.edu).

Keywords: UAlbany web server, UAlbany home page, www.albany.edu

VII. WebCT/Blackboard (Course management system) outage.

Keywords: problems (with) on line course system, Blackboard, WebCT, Course Management System, CE6, Blackboard Learning System, BLS

VIII. Internet Access in the Residence Halls

Keywords: problems (with) Accessing the Interne in the Residence Halls (includes wireless). Problems with ResNet. Problems with Apogee.
Students should be told to call Apogee directly at 1-866-478-8861 to report the problem

Note the following exception:

For the Library electronic online catalog system problems.
The Library Systems Dept. is the initial contact point, not the Plant CSC. In the event of server problems the Library Systems Dept will contact ITS Systems Management and Operations directly.

Posted by Jane Kessler at 09:43 AM | Permalink

For any technical issue that occurs in the Library when “Tech Help” (a student consultant) is not present, the person experiencing the problem can submit a Help Request (www.albany.edu/its/help). We have signage that is placed on the “Tech Help” desk when a consultant is not on duty in LI-137 and LE-152 that explains how to contact the ITS HelpDesk. We’ll also have this signage in LI-103 when the new desk arrives.

When a Librarian discovers a technical problem occurring with a computer supported by ITS, the Librarian can submit a Help Request. We will need to know the location (i.e. LI-103, LE-152) and the computer’s name (label is on tower) along with a description of the problem (i.e. error message, what occurred, involved student’s name/netid, when problem occurred if the Help Request isn’t being submitted immediately, etc.)

During regular University business hours, Mon – Fri 8:30am – 5:00pm, an end-user or Librarian have the option of calling the HelpDesk office (LC27) 442-3700 to report a problem.

Posted by Jane Kessler at 03:44 PM | Permalink

I was at a meeting this morning where a possible student password issue was pointed out. It doesn’t affect any of our computers since we don’t have Vista, but it might affect students arriving with their own computers.

For this problem to arise, the following two things must be true:

1. The computer is running Windows Vista
AND
2. The student is using Internet Explorer 7

If these things are true, a student who clicks on the button to reset their password will get a message that Internet Explorer cannot load the page.

This is due to the way Vista and IE7 handle some type of security issue, and can be solved by doing the following:

1. In IE7, click Tools->Internet Options->Advanced
2. Scroll down to ‘Security’ and UNCHECK ‘Use TLS 1.0’

According to my sources, this should solve the problem.

Posted by GB at 02:16 PM | Permalink

Laura Cohen updated these Web pages to provide some additional linking, which will help in remote access troubleshooting. She’s added some screen shots so that we can see what the users should be seeing. If you encounter recurrent problems or other needs for remote access troubleshooting procedures, please let Laura know. I also consulted an EZproxy Troubleshooting Flowchart in Libstaff, which was helpful. Jean McL

Posted by Jane Kessler at 05:04 PM | Permalink

When public photocopiers are out of service library staff should report them as follows:

Monday – Friday 8 am – 3 pm: Contact Jim Scalera at 437-3963

Evenings & Weekends: Report the problem to the Circulation desk in each library.

Please do not report copier malfunctions on REFPROB; only UnipriNT problems are reported on the distribution list. A simple call to the Circulation desks usually results in getting the copier up and running again. Failure to properly report the problem will result in delays

Peter Recore-Migirditch

Business & Facilities Manager

Posted by Jane Kessler at 02:22 PM | Permalink

Hello,

Over the last couple weeks I’ve had this question a few times, so after asking Fred about it, I wanted to let everyone know what the story is.

Students have access to the ‘S’ drive through their ITS accounts.
Because they have to personally log in to the workstation to get to it, the drive is not available from the reference area pcs.
If you have a student who needs to access files on this drive, you can direct them to 137, or any ITS computer, and they can login with their netID to access this drive.

Thanks,

Greg

Posted by Jane Kessler at 01:46 PM | Permalink

Troubleshooting reports of authentication problems
to MyMinerva or databases off-campus

1. Verify that the user knows their NetID/UNIX cluster password combination:

a. Ask the user to go to webmail.albany.edu and to enter their username/password combination. If the user cannot log in, then the combination is incorrect and they must request a reset. [Go to the About the Libraries page, click on NetIDs link, and see the link under “Forgot your UNIX cluster password…?”.]

b.If the user is a courtesy borrower, then:
i. They do not have access to databases remotely.
ii. To access MyMinerva, they must use their barcode/verification code combination instead of NetID/password. Contact Circulation at 442-3569 to get a verification code (re)assigned.

2. If the user can access Webmail but cannot get access to MyMinerva or databases off-campus, then assume it is a problem with their circulation record. Please ask the user to contact Brenda Hazard by phone (442-3578) or by email (bhazard@uamail.albany.edu). Do not automatically refer the user to ITS since they cannot resolve these problems.
a. The user’s NetID may be missing from their patron record. This commonly occurs if the circulation record was created manually by library staff.
b. Their borrowing eligibility may have expired.
c. They may owe fines in excess of $10 ($3 for courtesy borrowers). This affects access only.

3. Complex problems will be resolved through collaboration with Library Systems, the web administrator, and/or ITS.

Thanks.
Brenda
Feb 21, 2006

Posted by Cathy Dwyer at 01:03 PM | Permalink

An EZproxy Troubleshooting Flowchart is available on the Staff Intranet. The flowchart will help you to analyze problems reported about off-campus access to library resources and to come up with solutions.

Follow this link to the EZproxy Troubleshooting Flowchart.

Posted by at 08:17 AM | Permalink