Pilots and Partnerships: University Academic Computing (IS&T)

and University Libraries

Chris Freeland Senior Director, University Academic Computing

Chris Huels Manager, Student Technology Services

Twitter: @chrisfreeland

Purpose of session   Overview of my background in & around libraries   Describe new role in IS&T and initiatives   Review the recent STS Help Desk pilot in Olin Library

(Explain why you’ve seen me in suite 314)

Library as community center   Library as social space

  Field trips  Reading programs  Not just materials for loan

  Library as service provider  Air conditioning in 1970s  Wifi/labs in 2010s

Background M.S., Biological Sciences

Eastern Illinois University, 1997 B.S., Environmental Biology

Eastern Illinois University, 1996

Circulation staff, Booth Library

Director, Center for Biodiversity Informatics Missouri Botanical Garden, 2007 – 2012

Technical Director Biodiversity Heritage Library, 2007 – 2012

Center for Biodiversity Informatics Mission: Provide innovative technology solutions to the global community of life science scholars in order to collect, mobilize, integrate, and repatriate data about the world’s biodiversity.

Funding

  All expenses funded through the support of private foundations and US federal agencies, including:

Cornerstone Projects

  Tropicos  Botanical data

from collecting expeditions

  Biodiversity Heritage Library  Published Literature  1400s – 2010s

Tropicos manages: Gerrit  Davidse  People  

Specimens  

Names  

References  

Loca8ons  

Images  

Davidse  19490        27  Nov  1981  

Rhipidocladum  sibilans  Davidse,  Judz.  &  L.G.  Clark  (Poaceae)  

Venezuela,  Anzoategui    10°01'N  064°13'W  -­‐  10°02'N  064°17'W  (10.0166600,  -­‐64.2166600)    Distrito  Libertad:  Road  from  El  Vigia  to  Buenos  Aires,  8-­‐15  airline  km  ENE  of  Bergantán.  Mountain  savanna  (Trachypogon,  Byrsonima,  Curatella)  interdigitaMng  with  deciduous  forest  in  the  drainages.    

Angel  C.  González  

• SQL Server backend • C# .NET web & client • Multiple APIs • Integration with ESRI ArcGIS

Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)   Consortium of world’s leading natural history

libraries, founded in 2007   Goal of digitizing public domain biodiversity

literature, and in-copyright materials where negotiable  Pre-1923 in US, other dates internationally

  Built to provide page-level access & deep linking   Text mining, data mining, semantic markup

  Open scholarship, open data

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org

MARC MARCXML PDF OCR JPG

>100,000 books, > 39 million pages, > 70TB data

Original Description

Memoir of a Tour to Northern Mexico: connected with Col. Doniphan's Expedition in 1846 and 1847 107. 1848.

Using scientific namefinding algorithms: - TaxonFinder by uBio.org - NetiNeti by Marine Biological Laboratory Have identified more than 100 million scientific names within 40 million scanned pages.

Impact of Tropicos + BHL for scientists:

Single-click access to library resources & scientific data

“I arrived back at work from holidays today to be greeted by Michael, an [sic] colleague researching wasps. He was excited that he had discovered in the Biodiversity Heritage Library a copy of an obscure 1860s book:

Saussure, H. de & Sichel, J. (1864). Catalogue des espèces de l'ancien genre Scolia, contenant les diagnoses, les descriptions et la synonymie des espèces, avec des remarques explicatives er critiques. Genève & Paris : Henri Georg & V. Masson et Fils pp. 1–350

This book was not in our library, probably not in Australia, and almost impossible to get hold of without travelling to the northern hemisphere. Thanks to the BHL for their work in providing access to works of importance. Michael is now able to use detailed content of this book in his work.”

-John Tann, Australian Museum

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/9323

Thinking about change

New role: Sr. Director, University Academic Computing, Information Services & Technology

  IS&T worked with other campus leaders to define a need for enhanced organization around administrative and academic computing:  Efficiencies in the way WUSTL staff use systems  Modernization of systems to benefit students

  Why on tech side?  Connections to existing infrastructure and

development teams

WUSTL Information Services & Technology University

Administrative & Academic

Computing

Network Services

Customer Services &

Shared Technologies

IS&T Administration

University Academic Computing

Telecom Services Media Services

Incident Response Technologies

Denise Hirschbeck

Application Development

Computing Operations & Infrastructure

Network Engineering &

Operations

Communications Infrastructure

Network Security

Workstation support

Training

QA

SW Licensing

Shared Solutions

People Care

Financial Care

Craig Hager Rick Tyler Marsha Koch

Data Warehouse/ Info Analytics

IS&T University Academic Computing

Undergraduate Admissions

Student Information

Systems

Student Technology

Services

New Initiatives   Blackboard & Blackboard Mobile   Portfolio pilot & launch   Degree audit integration   Data analytics, data warehousing

 Pulling together data from across the University, make available for reporting & analytics

  SU involvement  SyllabiCentral   iTunes U

  Mobile computing  Circ app for iOS (Android in dev)  WUSTL Courses app in iOS and Android

Making systems more student-friendly

(mobile)

Collaborating with students to solve tech problems

Circ app

Help Desk Pilot Chris Huels Manager, STS

Decide the need for STS support services on the Danforth Campus.

Determine if Non-South Forty students need basic STS services.

Examine if STS student staff could support this service long term.

Determine technical collaboration between STS and Library.

STS Student Staff

Library Staff

Customer

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Tickets Recorded

Wireless - 6 Printing - 8 Email - 4 Other - 8

22

4

Students Helped

Non-South 40 South 40

Twenty-two not living on the S40, and four S40 students were assisted

•  Develop communication strategy

•  Scope of service

•  Clarify lines of responsibility

•  STS student staff felt comfortable and still part of the STS “TEAM” while working there

•  Library staff was able to refer technical questions to the STS desk

•  Students that received service were very satisfied

Questions? Chris Freeland Senior Director, University Academic Computing Washington University in St. Louis

Chris Huels Manager, Student Technology Services Washington University in St. Louis

Email: chris.freeland@wustl.edu

Twitter: @chrisfreeland

Blog / info: chrisfreeland.com

Email: cjhuels@wustl.edu