October 21, 2013 Meeting of Administrative Council

1.  1:30pm – Update on IT production activities – Jim Dohle 
 
2.  Patron Privacy – Working group to present Charge and Scope for a Committee – Rudasill
 
3.  2:00pm – Library security, the recent changes that have been made, and what that means for the Library – Jeff Schrader
 
4.  Facilities improvements that have been done in main, UGL and other libraries in conjunction with NSM. Are there things that need to be done in units that have not been consolidated to refresh them? – Jeff Schrader
 
5.  Facilities Advisory Group that could take suggestions from libraries regarding what things they need, like signage or aesthetics, and prioritize them. Maybe find a way to make the building spaces more cohesive instead of looking like individual spaces. This group may also be able to report out to the Library the reasons that things are being done the way they are and what the long-term plan is. – Jeff Schrader

John Wilkin, chair; Melody Allison, Susan Avery, Jenny Johnson, Mary Laskowski, Beth Namachchivaya, Chris Quinn, Lisa Romero, Lynne Rudasill Mary Schlembach, Sue Searing, Tom Teper, Sandy Wolf; Visitors – Jim Dohle, Jeff Schrader; Recording – Kim Matherly

1.  1:30pm – Update on IT production activities – Jim Dohle 

Staffing – There are currently two openings in IT; an academic hourly in Workstation/Networking Support and a Content Management Specialist on the Web Team.

Workstation/Network Support (WNS) – did instructional space upgrades, added new PCs in ACES 509 and UGL 291, installed 250 workstations for public use in the past year, installed the first of four microform scanners. SSHEL is first to get the new microform scanner and should be on line in the next two weeks.  WNS also completed an equipment inventory database sweep and cleanup project over the Summer. WNS has been working with Digital Content Creation to support problems with its high speed scanner. WNS is looking at what they have and what needs they will have for specialized equipment in the future. They have also added conference room resource phones and they are now available in 230B, 323C and 428 Library.

Infrastructure Management and Support (IMS) – working on the creation and revision of a service catalog that inventories all IT servicing systems in main and Grainger. The main point is to first to figure out what IT is supporting and apply labels to it; how to enroll services from Grainger and main into the new data center that we set up in DCL. 75-80% of the services in the Main Library have transitioned into DCL. They will be working on migrating Grainger services this fall. They have a storage and virtualization infrastructure project that Jason Strutz was working on last fall that spawned two projects; web application migration and database upgrade. As they pull in web services from Grainger and main, they are consolidating central servers in DCL. That should allow them to be able to provide a more robust, reliable and supportable network environment. This was the result of the audit findings from three years ago done by University IT Audits. Jim has been working with them for the past year to determine what Library IT still needs to accomplish. This summer they brought online the Tier Two Storage which is to be used for a variety of things; the main thing being a place to aggregate and organize content that will eventually go into various repository systems including HathiTrust, Medusa, etc. They had a lot of storage in a lot of different places including some highly unstable sources. With this stable source, University Archives, DCC and Preservation can aggregate and organize content prior to repository ingest. They’ve had a conversation with Tom Habing about support for the institutional repository, Medusa and the storage system that underpins that. They talked about ways they can handle the various scenarios and the ways they can support it going forward for the next 3-5 years, not just a one-time purchase, but ongoing.

Help desk – Mike Fleming has been doing a lot of work with video conferencing. They set up a small group to tour various places on campus to get a sample of what they have. From that we have a pilot video conferencing setup that is going in 225 Library. The device is currently on back order. Eventually there will be a 70” flat panel display that has a touchscreen with a built in camera and built in speakers. It will be a Windows 7 computer that is Lync enabled that can also connect to Google Hang-out and Skype. There is a lot of interest in the Library in video conferencing.

Michael is working with Jason on the trouble ticket assessment and replacement because the current OTRS system is aging and could use some updates. There are twelve different trouble ticket queue owners; not just IT and facilities, but also CAM and three to four other interesting users that use the ticketing systems in various ways. They are trying to figure out a workflow for how the different groups use it. Library IT will use the information as they build specifications for the next generation of trouble ticketing systems. They will start to pick up prospective systems later this fall and start implementation as early as spring semester.

Michael is also working on an undergraduate printing survey. He worked with the Assessment Group (Jen Yu) to work with undergraduate students to get a feel for how they view printing. They will run the survey in the beginning and middle of the fall semester and then again next semester to gauge opinion and see what can be improved and then move forward to make decision on how we can improve public printing. Jim and Michael are putting together a summary of the Tablet pilot that occurred this summer. They also did a subsequent mini pilot with facilities that occurred later in the summer. They will pull the information they have from both of those and produce a document that outlines what they did and a summary of findings that talk about the chief lessons they learned from the exercise. They had six feed-back sessions and exit survey, so they had a lot of information to go through.

Web team- – The Web Advisory Group was formed and has been meeting every three weeks. Their charge was to provide some direction to the Web Team in terms of what kinds of projects they should be work on. Robert Slater also does digital signage and has been working with Jeff Schrader. The signage has been successful and they are looking at things they can do in the future. There was a small group interested in using touch screens for way finding.  Robert went to an accessibility summit on campus. He’s taking a Google accessibility class and he’s updated on the latest trends on website and accessibility requirements, a project of his own undertaking. He will be working on a CMS state of the state talk to discuss the different aspects of CMS and the operations he sees going forward in replacing the CMS.

There are a few general things IT is working on. Tom Habing is working on project portfolio creation and management. This is a way of showing all the projects they are working on and what things they will be working on in the future. Jim wants to adopt this with the Web Team to give them a good perspective on their work load and set priorities. They would like to work with this all through IT, with the managers developing a list of projects.

Jason Strutz & service life cycle planning and management. How do services go from an idea to development to production to eventual retirement? This is a big thing in the Library, for people to figure out where good ideas are coming from, that some people are using and then a lot of people are using. Then figuring out who supports the software, etc. This is something they will be working on next year.

With the help of Beth Namachchivaya and Susan Edwards, Jim will be working on IT spending assessment and budget planning for the coming year to figure out how their resources have been spent and where they can be spent in the future, by anticipating some needs and how to allocate funds in the future.

IT organization operations planning along with hiring forecast planning – They are facing some expansion from efforts like RDS and potential other things. 424 Library can only hold so many people, so they’re working on a plan to adequately accommodate everyone in the spaces allotted for staff.

One of the things that Beth mentioned about the project portfolio management approach is that it really helps them to visualize what they are doing and how much they are doing. They can really visualize how much time and effort is going to different types of work. That’s a question that comes up often in the Library. People want to know when what they need is going to be addressed and how much time is being allocated to what it is they need to have done. Tom Habing implemented this well in the software development group and will be really helpful in terms of planning and talking with the Library about how we can shift these forces to address things that are becoming more important to the Library .

John is happy about the video conferencing piece.

Jim let us know that the MondoPad going into Main Library room 225 will be an endpoint for any video system, like Skype, Lync , etc., as opposed to an enterprise global system where you have nodes and people you call into. It doesn’t participate in a server oriented thing. Our UA technology support (AITS) uses a Polycom system; an enterprise type video conferencing system. The MondoPad is an endpoint but it’s not actually an enterprise system. There are different levels. UA supports Springfield and Chicago also. The scope of video conferencing capacity provided to Library IT was well beyond just the three UI campuses. There was not a single standard that they could apply, so they chose a device that could participate in a number of things.

John mentioned the email that went out about the databases being down. It has a cascading effect on other things. He was troubled because we have not separated our production and development activities. We should buffer ourselves from these kinds of things. What are we doing to attend to that?

Jim replied that, historically, Grainger and Main Library IT staff have different ways of doing the same things. Going forward as a single entity, identify production services are identified, it’s critical to determine what the service does and provide appropriate resources. The service John referred to is part of antiquated database.  They try to keep self-contained applications (ex: LAMP stacks) on their own servers because the application is often designed to have all required resources on only one server. For other applications, like various IIS and Apache web services, services will be divided onto different servers based on system classification, such as production, development, grant, and sandbox. Library IT supports a lot of organic development, and SDG, IMS, and Web groups are working with Faculty and staff to develop standards and best practices.

IT has four groups: Work Station and Network Support (WNS), managed by Lee Galaway. They are responsible for network, public and staff workstations, and printers. Infrastructure Management Support (IMS), managed by Jason Strutz. They are responsible for all the servers and systems. The Help Desk is managed by Mike Fleming. They are responsible for staff support and unified communications support. They are in the Sys Admin Group and are the IT liaisons for administration. The Web Team was created in the spring and managed by Robert Slater.

There are 23 people currently in 424 Library.
 
2.  Patron Privacy – Working group to present Charge and Scope for a Committee – Rudasill
Lynne Rudasill, Sandy Wolf, Cherié Weible and Jim Dohle worked on the charge for this committee.

We need to review where we are currently with policies. They need to be consolidated into one place. We need to explore ways of accommodating retention of data and retention of records to support services.

The Committee will look at these issues and others. They will push for providing a report by June 15, 2014. They will rearticulate the charge and scope and send it to EC for approval.

3.  2:00pm – Library security, the recent changes that have been made, and what that means for the Library – Jeff Schrader
Jeff sent out the following announcement in August:

The University Library has recently transferred the management of Library Security to the Division of Public Safety. The previous guard staff positions were transferred in mid-August.

Security Guard Supervisor – Brett Byrd
Lead Guard – Riccardo Bell
Guard – Michael Haley
Guard – Ben Mingo
Guard – Jeff Bohlmann
Guard – vacancy to be filled
Their direct supervisor is Ryan Johnson, Security Coordinator for Public Safety.

The guards’s duties and responsibilities remain the same, see http://www.library.illinois.edu/administration/facilities/security.html and they will maintain the office in 450S Main Library.

New items:
All guards are now carrying a two way radio and have direct communication with Campus Police Dispatch.  Starting Tuesday, September 3, 2013 the telephone number for Library staff to call to speak with a guard will be the Campus Police non-emergency number 217-333-1216 (also known as Campus Police Dispatch).  The current Library Security number 217-841-7874 (cellular telephone) will continue to be answered for Library security questions and concerns until Friday, September 6, 2013 at 5pm.
All guards are now wearing new uniforms consisting of a black shirt, charcoal pants and black shoes.
All guards are now displaying UIUC Public Safety ID badges.
All departmental library circulation/reference desks will be issued a Library security logs to kept at each desk for use by the guards.
All guards will soon be utilizing a Public Safety vehicle to perform a portion of their site observations and discontinue use of the Library van.

The Division of Public Safety has experience providing security guard service, making the transfer of management a positive step in providing and maintaining a safe and secure environment for all faculty, staff and students.

If you have questions, comments or concerns please direct them to me, Jeff Schrader. jschrade@illinois.edu .  I will continue to be the contact for the Library Security Guard service.

There are now logs in the libraries that the guards fill out when they enter and leave the libraries.

Melody Allison appreciates the guard logs and knowing when they are there and any instances that happen. She would like facilities employees to also have a log. Jeff replied that the facilities employees just don’t have time to stop and log in.
Mary Schlembach mentioned that the security guards list low, medium, and high usages. She’d like to know how they determine the usage. Jeff will find out and let AC know.

Some in AC would like more communication after they log an OTRS for facilities. They don’t always hear whether the ticket was received and if the issue has been addressed. Jeff will work on better communication.
 
4.  Facilities improvements that have been done in main, UGL and other libraries in conjunction with NSM. Are there things that need to be done in units that have not been consolidated to refresh them? – Jeff Schrader
See attached document listing the projects since 2007.

They will be completing phase 3 of SSHEL—Nancy O’Brien’s office, corridor and back room—in time for the open house event 10/24.

They are getting ready to start Archives, they are waiting for the new dean of Vet Med to start before moving further on the Vet Med Library, the Humanities Hub is still being reviewed and the changes for Illinois History and Lincoln Collections does not involve any facilities changes.

The plan is for CAM to move to 1 Library in preparation for the Humanities Hub. Preservation is moving out of 44 to the 4^th Floor, south side and CMS will move to 44 Library.

Facilities will also be working with F&S to replace light fixtures in the reading room.
 
5.  Facilities Advisory Group that could take suggestions from libraries regarding what things they need, like signage or aesthetics, and prioritize them. Maybe find a way to make the building spaces more cohesive instead of looking like individual spaces. This group may also be able to report out to the Library the reasons that things are being done the way they are and what the long-term plan is. – Jeff Schrader

Jeff brought a possible charge and membership for an advisory group. The committee talked about the amount of time needed for the group to be productive.

Currently, Jeff meets weekly with the Dean to discuss facilities issues and on a regular basis with the AULs and, in the past, with the NSM coordinator as needed.

The issue was tabled for the time being and will be discussed at another AC meeting.