New IT Help Desk

Earlier this month, a new IT help desk opened on campus to meet the needs of north campus students. Located in the student center, the help desk occupies a former travel office (note the groovy bar stools). I think it's terrific that IT continues to move its help desk services to where the students are, and this place should be hopping during the lunchtime rush.

Around the same time, IT also launched a new Tech Tips guide for students.

Student Technology Forum

Last night the Hub was host once again to the second annual Student Technology Forum (last year I wrote quite a bit about the event). I think we had a bigger crowd this year; definitely IT offered more prizes--24 of them, including a Dell netbook! The purpose of the forum is to introduce students to IT staff (as well as Libraries and staff from the teaching and learning group) and solicit opinions on what works well, what doesn't, etc.

In my mind, it is primarily a nice student appreciation event, but I think we also get a lot of good information from the survey that students complete for the prize drawing. One very clever marketing move from IT was to offer a "second chance" drawing among the students who become fans of IT's Facebook page by the end of today. I bet they'll end up with a lot of fans.

I love hosting events in the Hub--great exposure for our space--and hope we'll plan another event together soon. This did remind me that Hubbub number four is only six months away!

Photos by Tony Jenkins

Help Desk: One Call Does It All

From the creative team who brought you The Hub: The Video, I'm delighted to announce a new production advertising our campus help desk:



The video is to further promote the Help Desk (IT Customer Service Center), particularly as that group takes over support of Blackboard. IT, TASC, and the Libraries have been partnering together more frequently over the last two years. This is another example of collaboration between these groups, in this case IT and TASC, as they work more closely together on providing Blackboard support.

Microsoft DreamSpark

Have you heard of Microsoft DreamSpark? Basically any high school or college student can download professional Microsoft developer, designer, and gaming software through DreamSpark at no charge. Titles currently include:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Expression Studio 1.0
• Microsoft Expression Studio 2 Trial Edition (includes Web, Blend, Media, and Design)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition
• IT Academy Student Pass

The idea is to encourage student creativity and hopefully foster student interest in science, mathematics, programming, etc. Universities can learn more through the University Administrator FAQ. (Thanks for the tip, Peggy!)

Are Computer Labs Still Necessary?

Earlier this week the University of Virginia announced that they have begun a three-year plan to phase out student computer labs. A Chronicle blog post about this yielded a number of comments, largely negative ones. Certainly this conversation is happening at more and more institutions as we look at ways to cut costs: are computer labs still necessary? Historically labs are needed for three primary reasons.

Provide computers for students who do not have them. We often make assumptions about our students. Today's net generation students are always connected, so they must all have a laptop, right? The 2008 ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology reports that 16.8% of survey respondents own a computer older than four years and 1.5% own no computer at all. While this is a minority, there are students who still have no computer at all or have one so old it is likely not much more than a glorified typewriter. This doesn't account either for those students who might have a computer but still have dial-up access; my step-sister falls into that category and certainly she would choose a campus lab over trying to work over a painfully slow connection. Granted, the percentage of students who own a laptop increases each year, but it still isn't all students, and short of a mandated laptop purchase program, it probably won't be for quite some time.

Access to specialized software and equipment. For those connected students who do have a fairly new personal laptop, it is likely that they do not have access to SPSS, Matlab, ArcView, and other specialized software packages. Even Photoshop or other components of the Adobe Creative Suite--why pay for those applications if you only need them for a single class? For those students who run an alternative OS at home, they may need access to Windows or a Mac platform. In addition to software, labs usually offer scanners and printers that students may not have access to at home. Space in a typical residence hall room is at a premium--if you even own a printer and/or scanner, why would you take up precious space when you could use the shared resource in the lab?

Convenience. If you have a short break between classes, it usually isn't worth going back to your room. This is particularly true of commuter students who often camp out for most of the day on campus. What a great opportunity to get some work done in between classes--check the course management system, email, Facebook of course, and maybe start writing a paper or doing some research with library databases. For those who have a laptop, who would want to lug it around all day, particularly if it is a 4+ year old brick. Even if the laptop is light, why carry it and risk theft or damage--the parents would not be happy! So enter the computer lab (and the library) for computers available for general use at students' convenience. I realize the convenience argument has less weight in these difficult budget times, but knowing students, I suspect it remains a much higher priority for them than we realize.


So what's the answer? "Yes, but..."?

Obviously there will be fewer and fewer students who need the labs because they have no other computing access. It will be a slow process for 100% of our students to be connected, but that doesn't prevent us from slowly reducing the number of lab machines.

As far as specialized software, more institutions are looking toward virtualization, something that I personally find very appealing. If I bring my own computer to the lab, why can't I use campus-licensed software on it? There are several notable virtualization projects out there already, and I expect we'll see more of these in the next couple of years. I hope many institutions consider putting resources into this area.

So as we are slowly reducing our number of machines, perhaps reducing our entire footprint on campus by consolidating labs as well, and we are working toward a more virtualized environment, what do we do with our lab spaces? As a commons person, I do like Virginia's solution:

ITC understands that students need collaborative space where they can bring their laptops and mobile devices to conduct group work, especially as the curriculum becomes increasingly team- and project-based. As one example of how this need might be addressed, the computing lab on the fourth floor of Clemons Library was recently repurposed. This space has been transformed into a technology-rich collaboration area in a joint effort between the Libraries, ITC, Office of the Provost, Facilities, and Housing.

Basically they have transformed the area into a commons-like space. Very cool.

I hope this becomes a trend to reinvent computer lab spaces in this fashion. Last year IT on my campus reduced the number of machines in a few labs and added/rearranged furniture to create spaces that were more comfortable and conducive to group study. These redesigned spaces have affectionately been dubbed "hublets" as IT sought to capture some of the elements of the Hub in these labs. More on that in a future post.

Merged IT and Library Organizations

This eight minute podcast from EDUCAUSE is a conversation about the Merged Information Services Organization (MISO) Survey. The MISO Survey focuses on all of the services--library and IT--in a merged environment.

I tend to read or listen to anything related to libraries and IT working together. Even if your organization is not officially merged, it is very likely that you are offering merged services in your commons environment.

Student Technology Forum

So often we make assumptions about what students want, based upon our reading or casual observations or our own experiences as students. Instead of making assumptions, why don't we talk to students more often?

Last semester a few colleagues from IT and I met with Student Government (SGA) leadership to discuss technology and library issues on campus. What's working, what's not, what can we do to provide better services for students? I did not expect some of our best students--our campus leaders--to admit to Googling for resources for a paper or to not know about many of our services such as chat reference and one-on-one consults. The students in the group who used library resources tended to stick to just one database such as JSTOR or Academic Search Premier. The discussion was lively and enlightening, and we decided to offer a much larger student forum in the spring.

I was delighted that SGA and IT took me up on my offer to hold the student forum in the Hub. We felt that offering the event in the evening in a heavily trafficked location like the library would provide a much bigger turnout. The previous event was entirely attended by Student Government leadership, likely because it was in the middle of a Thursday afternoon in a small meeting room. Plus there were no incentives like free pizza or giveaways.

So on Tuesday, February 17 at 7:30 pm, IT and SGA invited students to come to the Hub to talk about technology but also to take advantage of free pizza and a drawing for the iPod Touch (five of them!). The date and time were carefully chosen--away game, wasn't televised until 9 pm--to draw maximum attendance. IT advertised on Facebook and sent an email to all students. We posted flyers around campus, and about an hour before the start of the event, we talked to students on every floor of the library and distributed flyers.

To our amazement, over 250 students came to the forum. While it was nearly impossible to have a substantive discussion with a group this large, we did ask them some questions before we turned them loose on the pizza. What they told us wasn't too surprising--they wanted more wireless on campus, particularly in their rooms in the residence halls, they wanted more cell phone coverage inside of campus buildings, they loved the Hub (hooray!) and wanted more places like it around campus. In general, they greatly preferred wheeled furniture and wanted more whiteboards. When I asked them if they had ever used "the help desk" or even knew why it was there, I got a lot of blank looks and had to explain. Several students made comments about individual issues, and I suggested they visit "the help desk" in the Hub. They appreciated the advice, though that made it even clearer that they were unfamiliar with our services.

Once the pizza line formed, many of us mingled with the students and asked more questions. I found it useful to talk with students in the pizza line--captive audience, can't escape. Seriously, I had some good conversations and heard many of the same comments repeatedly about wireless, furniture, and so forth.

The ticket for the prize drawing was a short survey about their communication preferences, what kinds of devices they own, what services they are familiar with, what other services they would like to see, etc. IT staff are still compiling the results, and I am very curious to see the responses. I have heard already that some students answered the "what other services would you like to see" question with: moving sidewalks, Segways for all, deer with antler-mounted lasers. At the very least, these will be fun to read.

So what to do differently next time?

We had some obvious logistical issues, but that happens when you have events that large. I've learned a great deal about these things from my experience with the Hubbub parties, so we'll just add our observations to the list of things to do differently next time.

While I love hosting events in the Hub, we may move the forum to a new location next semester to attract a different group of students. Several of the campus computer labs have been designated as "hublets" by IT--basically spaces that are information commons-like, so perhaps one of those locations will be the next host. We are also considering holding a forum focused more on faculty and graduate students--perhaps a wine and cheese party?

Photo by Tony Jenkins

It's Complicated: More on the Library/IT Relationship

The current issue of C&RL News includes an article about how library and IT staff can effectively work together, "Hang Together or Hang Separately: Improved Information Services through Communication and Culture." Those of us in a commons environment are often particularly interested in building better relationships between the library and IT. I know our commons would not be nearly so successful if we did not have such an excellent relationship with campus IT.

One of the things that particularly interested me with this article is that it is written by a library staff member who moved into an IT department and an IT person who moved into a librarian position. As I was an IT librarian for several years, I appreciate those who can work well in both camps. Some of the points are fairly obvious, particularly when it comes to respect and communication among both groups, but it is still worth a read. Read the full article online.

Rethinking Public Computers

Yesterday over on the Translational Technologies blog, I wrote a little about how the library public computing model as we know it will change if we start relying more heavily on cloud-based technologies. I managed library public computers for over six years before moving into the commons role, so this remains a topic near and dear to me. In the commons environment, how the library public computers are managed remains a critical service issue for us.

With this new model, basically the overkill days would be over--we would no longer use individual desktops that are far too expensive and robust for the simple web browsing and typing function they serve. (Keep in mind that these are library public computers, not lab computers which can easily offer hundreds of instruction-related applications--those are a different animal entirely.) For those of us who have been around for awhile, essentially our public computers would be like thin clients/dumb terminals: the operating system, applications, and storage are centralized. So yes, everything old is new again.

Michael Stephens offers a nice summary of what cloud technologies might mean for libraries in his 10 Technology Trends for 2009. If you haven't seen that post yet, make sure to take a look at it at least for trends two and three: the changing role of IT and the value of the commons.

New Blog on IT in Higher Education

Since I moved from an IT support position into the commons, I have continued to remain engaged with IT issues in higher education. I post about some of those issues here, particularly as they pertain to the commons, and I will continue to do so.

Recently I have been working with a colleague on a couple of presentations and an article focused on the drastic changes ahead for IT on campus. As this is such a significant and important discussion, we decided to launch a blog related to these issues. From funding to consumer technologies to cloud computing to changing student needs and attitudes, we know that the IT organization will evolve into something different. We are already seeing it with partnerships such as the information commons and the merging of library and IT support into one integrated service to better meet student needs. We see these changes and many more ahead and plan to share our observations as well as important reading. If higher education IT is of interest to you, consider subscribing to our blog, Translational Technologies.

More on the Library/IT Relationship

As a followup to the Tech Therapy podcast on libraries and IT, the Chronicle's Wired Campus blog published this letter to the editor about the library/IT relationship. The authors, the Dean of Libraries and the CIO of Indiana University, describe the essential nature of our partnerships:

As traditional boundaries of the two groups blur and we act jointly to address common needs of our communities, we must also strengthen our relationships with each other and our institutions. The result will be revealed in bigger and greater actions to the benefit of not only the users on our own campuses, but also the academic and scholarly communities worldwide.

It's interesting to note that for the first time, this year ARL has a metric for collaboration. So in addition to measuring collections and budgets and other typical things in our statistics, we are now looking at collaborative relationships as well. How wonderful (and how necessary) that we are recognizing the importance of partnerships in building successful campus services.

Most Popular Tech Therapy Episodes of 2008

Continuing in the grand tradition of "best of 2008" lists, the Chronicle has posted a list of the most popular Tech Therapy episodes of 2008. These are well worth a listen over what I hope is a long and relaxing holiday break for you. I mentioned two of the podcasts previously: Libraries vs. IT and The Future of the College Library, among the most popular episodes this year.

Improving Laptop Support in the Commons

I enjoyed reading this post from Brian Mathews about what we might offer students to enhance library laptop use. When we think of support, most of us typically think in terms of desktop support/customer service/help desk: "I can't get on the wireless network!" or "My laptop won't power on!" While that is important (we too offer that kind of support in the Hub), he moves beyond that by asking students what else they need, such as:

• Specific kinds of furniture, like ottomans, desk chairs, etc.
• Extension cords
• Flash drives
• Wireless keyboards and mice
• Docking stations
• And so on...
  

He includes many other things on the list, some of which had never occurred to me but are terrific ideas. I like their idea of packaging some of these items together and offering a sort of "laptop kit" for checkout.


We offer laptops for checkout at the Hub but haven't moved much beyond that yet. Our labs offer headphones and a "power bar" of sorts (various power adapters available for checkout). I've mentioned previously that I'd like to see us offer more. We certainly get the requests from students, though I suspect it's unlikely we'll expand our offerings in the current budget climate. Still, it's vital to keep asking the questions and have some ideas and proposals ready should a funding opportunity arise.

Photos courtesy UK IT

Building on the Library/IT Relationship

The latest "Dear Ulla" column from the SLA Leadership and Management Division focuses on fostering a successful relationship between the IT department and the library. While this is special library focused, Ulla's suggestions could easily be applied to any library type. What particularly caught my attention was her third suggestion, which is basically to frame all requests as patron/customer requests which meet a specific goal, not simply as something that is wanted by the library:

Job 3 is to cast any request for support into an enterprise business case: The knowledge workers are asking for X and we have done Y but now need the support of IT to accomplish Z. Under no circumstances should a request for support be interpretable as a "request from the library". Under all circumstances should such a request be presented (for example) as "employees are in need of ... so they can perform their jobs to meet [organizational goals]; while the required content is indeed available, IT support is required to now present it to the desktop".

This is an excellent way to help us get away from the us vs. them mentality ("oh, what does the library want now?" or "gosh, why do they never do what we need them to do?"). This kind of thinking encourages us to work together to meet a common goal which is becoming even more important as budgets shrink and staff positions are cut. As she concludes:

The bottom line is ... make the case with a view to organizational gain. It's not about what the library wants (do discard any library lingo). It's about what the organization needs in order to succeed.

I encourage you to read the entire post.

Millennials Relying Less on Traditional IT Support

ReadWriteWeb reports on a study of millennials and their technology support preferences. The study finds that millennials are increasingly supporting their own technology needs at work, in fact often going around the IT department. More than one third of those surveyed indicated that they were dissatisfied with workplace technology offerings. This is particularly true of millennial employees using social software applications, and over 25% of those surveyed use these technolgies without support and even against company policy. And as far as IT policy:

A staggering 60% of the employees surveyed by Accenture argue that they are unaware of their companies' IT policies or that they are simply not interested in following them.

We're already seeing this on our campuses as students turn to Gmail over campus systems (or even avoid email altogether in favor of texting or Facebooking). What we support and how we support it will have to change in order to better meet student desires.

Tech Therapy: Libraries vs. IT

Tech Therapy is a regular podcast series from the Chronicle which examines important IT issues on campus. This particular Tech Therapy title caught my eye a few weeks ago. Libraries vs. IT? Wow, I definitely had to check that one out, as I've always seen myself in both camps or in the middle--never only a librarian or only an IT professional.

The hosts do a good job of identifying differences in our cultures but at the same time highlighting similarities of our missions. Are we really Mars and Venus? I encourage you to give it a listen.

Undergraduate Student Use of IT

I've just been reading the key findings of the 2008 ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology. I read this one every year as I often cite numbers from this report in some of my presentations. I like that the response group is pretty large (27, 217 students from 98 U.S. institutions), and I really like the year-to-year comparisions as well as the new questions that are added each year. Some of my notes:

• More than 80% of students bring a laptop to campus. This is up again--not surprisingly. In 2006, 65.9% brought a laptop compared to 82.2% this year.
• Those laptops aren't all old clunkers, either: 71.1% of freshmen have a laptop less than one year old.
• 66% of respondents have Internet-capable phones, though they still aren't surfing regularly due to a variety of factors: 25% use the Internet from a phone at least monthly, 17.5% weekly.
• These students are spending an average of 19.6 hours per week online.
• This year offered even more questions on social networking software (SNS). A few highlighsts: 58.5% use SNS daily; of those respondents 18-24 years old, about 95% are SNS users; nearly 50% of SNS users are making it part of their academic lives by using it for course-related purposes.
• This year included a question on information literacy. Disturbingly, but not surprisingly, 79.5% of respondents consider themselves able to effectively use the Internet to find information. Half of those rated themselves as "very skilled" and one third considered themselves "expert."

There's much more here. Even if you don't have time for the full report, at least take a minute to scan the key findings.