19 research outputs found
Cloud collaboration: Using (Microsoft) SharePoint as a tool to enhance access services
No full textOutline
•About Us
•Intranet overview
•Cloud computing overview
•Move to SharePoint
•SharePoint Wiki for Remote Circ Locations
•SharePoint as Comprehensive Cloud Intranet
•ConclusionCloud Collaboration:
Using (Microsoft) SharePoint as a Tool to Enhance Access Services
Jennifer Diffin
Assistant Director for Systems and Access Services
Fanuel Chirombo and Dennis Nangle
Library Technicians
April 29, 2010
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleOutline
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About Us
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Intranet overview
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Cloud computing overview
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Move to SharePoint
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SharePoint Wiki for Remote Circ Locations
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SharePoint as Comprehensive Cloud Intranet
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Conclusion
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleHistory of UMUC
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Founded in 1947
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Primarily distance education serving working professionals
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Approximately 86,000 worldwide headcount (~27,000 FTE)
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Member of the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI)
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Military contracts
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleInformation & Library Services (ILS)
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Staff located in Largo, MD
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Previously had physical libraries in Germany and Japan
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Remote/satellite locations change
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27 library staff members, 2 graduate assistants
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleDocument Management (DM) Team
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1 Librarian
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1 Library Associate
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3 Library Technicians
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4-5 student workers (shared with other library departments)
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Remote circulation points throughout Maryland
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleILS Circulation Locations
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleOverview of Intranets
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What is an intranet?
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Functions of Intranets
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What are the benefits
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Limitations of UMUC Intranet
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleWhat is an Intranet?
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A private network belonging to an organization’s members, employees, or others with authorization.
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“…part of the organizational internal information system, dedicated to the support of group work and mastering of organizational knowledge.”
Botazzo, 2005
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleFunctions of Intranets
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Administrative –finance, human resources, records management, course scheduling.
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Academic-research, course work, publishing and course administration.
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General-communication and public relations.
Weiner, 1999
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleWhat are the Benefits?
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Sharing information and documents
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Easy updating of documents
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Saves time through online discussions
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Quick and easy access to vital information
Natarajan, 2008
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleLimitations of UMUC Intranet
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Restricted contributors-difficult to update, edit and/or access.
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Interdepartmental promotional tool.
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleCloud Computing-An Overview
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Became an official ‘buzz word’ in 2006
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Has several definitions and contexts
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An ‘official’ definition:
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“In cloud computing…the software resides on an [I]nternet server run by or on behalf of the software supplier, and users get to access the features of those applications via the [I]nternet”
Venkatraman, 2009
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleA Helpful Metaphor for Cloud Computing
“My attitude towards online information…was pretty close to taking my paycheck in cash, and stuffing it under the mattress because I didn’t trust a bank to hold it for me… Now we can treat the [W]eb much more like a bank with a network of ATMs: it’s a secure repository with a network of points where you can withdraw your information on demand.”
Gunderloy, 2008
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleThe Appeal of the Cloud
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Cost-effective
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Efficient
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Fosters Innovation
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleCloud Concerns
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Security
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Privacy
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Data Ownership
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleThe Road to SharePoint
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A Complex History
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Initial Obstacles
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleA Careful Approach
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleSharePoint in Context
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Departmental Move
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Creating a service point without ILS staff
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Developing a wiki for the new service point staff
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleEffective Knowledge Transfer
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleDocumentation Pre-SharePoint:
Dorsey StationWaldorf CenterCollege ParkAdelphi
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleDocumentation Post-SharePoint:
Dorsey StationWaldorf CenterCollege ParkAdelphiLargo
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleDocument Management’s “Cloud Intranet”
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleSharePoint-a Comprehensive Cloud Intranet
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Information storage
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Coordination
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Communication
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Collaboration
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleInformation Storage
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Wiki for remote location of information
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Document library
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One-stop location of documents
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Secure and easily accessible
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleCoordination
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Calendar
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Work scheduling
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Leave scheduling
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Responsibilities
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleCommunication
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Discussion Board
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Announcement
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Sticky Notes
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleCollaboration
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Version History
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E-mail alerts
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleConclusion
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Cloud Intranet
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Convenient to access
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Secure server
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Flexibility
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Strategy is essential
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleQuestions?
Jennifer Diffin –[email protected]
Fanuel Chirombo –[email protected]
Dennis Nangle –[email protected]
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis NangleReferences
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Bottazzo, V. (2005). Intranet: A medium of internal communication and training.Information Services & use, 25(2), 77-85. Retrieved from http://www.iospress.nl/html/01675265.php
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Gunderloy, M. (2008). Is your information under the mattress or in the ATM?.Retrieved 12/11, 2009, from http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/07/30/information-under-mattress-or-in-atm/
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Natarajan, M. (2008). Knowledge sharing through intranet.Journal of Library and Information Technology, 28(5), 5-12. Retrieved from http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/article/view/414/286
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Venkatraman, A. (2009). Capture the cloud.Information World Review, (255), 16-17.
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Weiner, S. (1999). The university intranet.EContent, 22(5), 66-69. Retrieved from http://www.econtentmag.com
© Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, and Dennis Nangl
Cloud collaboration: Using Microsoft SharePoint as tool to enhance access services
No full textProper knowledge-base access and document storage has long been an issue for the Document Management Team (Access Services) at the Information and Library Services of University of Maryland University College. Team members researched Share-Point and decided it could be exploited as a combination of intranet and cloud computing technologies. SharePoint?s features allow it to be a 1-stop location tomanage information in a secure, efficient, remotely accessible, and consolidated manner. The team could then reduce redundancy and knowledge gaps by using the collaboration and communication features. This article will discuss the steps the team took to transition several previous avenues of document storage and knowledge base access into SharePoint, specifically in the case of creating a troubleshooting wiki for remote circulation locations.Cloud Collaboration: Using (Microsoft) SharePoint as a Tool to Enhance Access Services
Jennifer Diffin, Fanuel Chirombo, Dennis Nangle
University of Maryland University College
Abstract
Proper knowledge base access and document storage has long been an issue for the Document Management Team (Access Services) at Information and Library Services of University of Maryland University College. Team members researched SharePoint and decided it could be exploited as a combination of intranet and cloud computing technologies. SharePoint’s features allow it to be a one-stop location to manage information in a secure, efficient, remotely accessible, and consolidated manner. The Team could then reduce redundancy and knowledge gaps by using the collaboration and communication features. This paper will discuss the steps the Team took to transition several previous avenues of document storage and knowledge base access into SharePoint, specifically in the case of creating a troubleshooting wiki for remote circulation locations.
Introduction
Remote access to information, knowledge sharing, and communication play pivotal roles in distance education. The growing popularity of cloud computing combined with intranet technology has made achieving this much easier. The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has chosen Microsoft’s SharePoint product as an internal information sharing solution that combines the best features of both intranets and cloud computing, such as security, ease of use, and remote accessibility. This article will focus specifically on facilitating internal staff communication and collaboration across remote locations by using SharePoint as an intranet and cloud computing solution.
Background
The University of Maryland University College has a strong history of distance education. UMUC was founded in 1947 “to provide off-campus, evening, and weekend courses for adult, part-time students throughout the state” (Hudgins, 2000, p. 1). Within a decade it was offering classes at military installations around the world. UMUC currently has a worldwide headcount of over 86,000 students in over 20 countries (University of Maryland University College, Office of Institutional Planning, Accountability and Research, 2009). Information and Library Services (ILS), formed in the early 1990s, works diligently to support faculty, students, and staff in their research needs.
Although UMUC has worldwide office locations, the library is currently located in Maryland. In the past, there were satellite libraries in Germany and Japan. The library support for these locations is now remotely handled by ILS. Within the State of Maryland, ILS has three remote circulation pick-up and return locations. Although they are all physically located in the same state and time zone, communication and training was historically uneven and unreliable.
ILS’ Document Management Team (Access Services - Circulation and Interlibrary Loan) struggled with the best way to handle training and documentation for these remote circulation points over the years, as well as their own internal documentation and communication. Since library circulation is not the main responsibility of the non-library staff at these remote circulation points, it is extremely important to keep all documentation current and accurate, and to maintain open communication to answer questions and provide additional training as needed. There is also a need to keep this knowledge current at the main library location and to streamline the workflow through efficient communication and collaboration. An early attempt at documentation was three-ring binders. These were difficult to keep current as each binder had to be manually updated across all locations when procedures changed. Then, a staff member attempted to create an online circulation manual that pointed to material on a shared network drive. While this was a step forward in centralizing and digitizing the documentation, it never got off the ground due to security issues. Next a standalone wiki was created. This seemed promising as it was easy to access from the remote locations and it was easy to update. Documentation only needed to be updated in one location, and was then accessible by all who needed to use it. Yet, the wiki was located on a local computer that was not backed up on a regular basis. The staff constantly worried about the computer crashing and losing everything in the wiki. Also, while the wiki was a great place for documentation and procedures, it did not really allow for staff collaboration and communication.
Intranets – a brief definition
Of the Document Management Team’s previous information sharing solutions, the online circulation manual could be most likened to an intranet-based solution. An intranet is a private network belonging to an organization accessible only by the organization’s members, employees, or others with authorization. Similar to the Internet, an intranet’s Web site looks and act just like any other Web site, but the username-and-password authentication surrounding an intranet fends off unauthorized access. Bottazzo (2005) defines the intranet as “…part of the organizational internal information system, dedicated to the support of group work and mastering of the organizational knowledge” (p. 79). Gunjal (2004) identifies central information storage and effective communication flows in organizations as some of the important attributes of intranets. Within libraries, Gunjal singles out the facilitation of information sharing as the primary benefit of an intranet as “it helps in dissemination of stored information as well as allows to access to remote information” (p. 9). For example, any paper documents can be converted into HTML and made Web-accessible on an intranet. Such documents can range from staff training manuals, policies, schedules, procedures, to calendars of events (Gunjal, 2009).
Weiner (1999) divides intranet functions at a university into three categories. These are administrative, academic and general. The administrative functions are concerned with finance, human resources, records management and course scheduling. The academic functions refer to research, course work, publishing and course administration. General refers to communication and public relations. This can range from calendars of events that display the programs and activities of the organization to a vast range of internal organizational information that may include employee lists, telephone and office number lists and geographic locations of departments.
Building on Weiner, Natarajan (2008) provides a list of some of the key benefits of an intranet: (1) Employees can share information and documents; (2) Any authorized staff member can easily update documents; (3) Teams can save time through online discussions instead of holding physical meetings; (4) Organization can access their vital information easily and quickly. The shared access provides a platform where documents are saved in a standard form at a specific location where every employee can easily access a specific document. The intranet’s bulletin or discussion board is an important outlet that allows employees to express their opinions and ideas. Employees can make use of a calendar of events on the intranet to arrange meetings and book other appointments. Gunjal (2004) conclusively asserts that “intranets are relatively cheap and easy to develop because they use the existing technology of the internet” (p. 14).
As much as intranets have emerged as an effective paradigm for information sharing, the UMUC intranet is set up as more of a one-way communication tool. In order to update or add information to the intranet, one must submit a request to the UMUC department that is responsible for its maintenance. Due to this delayed and inefficient method, the UMUC intranet could not serve as a proper consolidated space for multi-user collaboration. The University’s departments primarily use the intranet as a way to promote their department to the rest of the university; the intranet is not used in the ways Natarajan and Gunjal suggest above. As a result, the Document Management Team attempted to create an intranet of their own: an online circulation manual that was web-based, and linked to pages on the shared network drive. This approach was effective for those whose offices were at UMUC’s stateside headquarters, since they had access to this shared network drive. However, remote circulation staff was unable to view the manual, which essentially forced the Team to start at square one with their knowledge base. Also, due to the fact that the online circulation manual links to an internal drive, the IT department deemed it unsafe for remote access. The fact that the UMUC intranet was not set up as a document repository necessitated the Document Management Team to consider cloud computing as an optional knowledge base and information sharing system.
Cloud Computing- a brief background
The term cloud computing, while certainly prevalent in today’s technological discussions, came into prominence in 2006 when Google CEO Eric Schmidt started referencing the term in popular discussions (Nelson, 2009). Certainly, the term (and concept) has skyrocketed in popularity since then. However, a definition of cloud computing reflects the metaphor applied to the concept itself: anomalous and difficult to pin down. Archana Venkatraman (2009) offers an appropriate definition of cloud computing: “In cloud computing…the software resides on an [I]nternet server run by or on behalf of the software supplier, and users get to access the features of those applications via the [I]internet” (p. 16). Mike Gunderloy (2008) defines cloud computing more simply, comparing the difference between traditional and cloud computing to the difference between retrieving money stored under the mattress or at an ATM:
My attitude towards online information…was pretty close to taking my paycheck in cash, and stuffing it under the mattress because I didn’t trust a bank to hold it for me… Now we can treat the [W]eb much more like a bank with a network of ATMs: it’s a secure repository with a network of points where you can withdraw your information on demand. (p. 1)
A brief scan of recent library literature shows that cloud computing is lucrative for libraries of all kinds. Most libraries’ motivations for moving into the cloud are cost effectiveness and efficiency. Lynn Collier (as cited in Venkatraman, 2009), the Director of Archive and Compliance Solutions at Hitachi Data Systems, further explains the cost-effectiveness of the cloud: “A key prerequisite to cloud computing is to pinpoint where maximum savings can be made based on a realistic and accurate understanding of the content” (p. 17). Andrew Pace (2009), Executive Director for Networked Library Services at OCLC, emphasizes that the key benefit to cloud computing for libraries is to free up the librarians’ time to allow for innovation:
Despite a surge of online content being available to patrons, libraries will continue back-office operations for all types of materials. The more these workflows are industrialized and served by network-level applications, the more time and effort libraries can assign to other intellectual endeavors. (p. 649)
While there is plenty of documentation to prove the effectiveness of cloud computing, there are several concerns surrounding the adoption of this new technology. Paramount to all other concerns is the issue of security. John Sheridan (as cited in Venkatraman, 2009), head of e-services at the National Archives, explains: “While there is an exciting possibility and inevitability of the cloud model for the information community, concerns of portability, security, and privacy remain unsolved” (p. 17). It would appear that cloud computing’s greatest strength - ease of use and access - is also its greatest potential downfall. Another issue that commonly plagues cloud computing software is ownership (or lack thereof). Robin Hastings (2009) warns, “Data ownership is an issue any library must consider before making the decision to upload to a public server. Sensitive information like budget data, internal memos, or documents concerning major organizational decisions should never be uploaded to a public server” (p. 12). These two concerns cause many libraries to look at cloud computing as more of a recreational platform to reach out to patrons, and not a reliable location for sensitive internal data.
The Document Management Team saw the problems inherent in both intranets and cloud computing, but realized that the valuable functions of the technology were difficult to ignore. Intranets, while touting security, are frequently inaccessible to those outside of an organization’s range of IP addresses and its firewall. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is efficient and easy to access from any location, but is laden with security issues. With these concerns in mind, the Document Management Team was initially hesitant to migrate their information into SharePoint. However, after much research and trial testing, the Team realized that an effective approach to the SharePoint application could result in the creation of a “cloud intranet” -- an online environment that takes advantage of intranets and cloud computing’s strengths, while circumventing their inherent weaknesses. SharePoint became a consolidated storehouse of the Team’s information and knowledge base, all while maintaining a high level of security. The UMUC library’s recent move to a new physical location illustrates how effective the Document Management Team’s SharePoint site was as a functioning cloud intranet.
Move to SharePoint
ILS began investigating Microsoft SharePoint in 2008 while it was being piloted by the IT Department at UMUC. It quickly became clear to the Document Management Team that this could be what they were looking for in terms of bringing documentation, communication, and collaboration together in one place. Although having a “free,” institutionally supported program to use was a factor in the decision to use SharePoint, the product’s features and limitations were carefully considered before the Team decided to move forward. In the context that the Team is using SharePoint, it can be defined as both an intranet and cloud computing, or even cloud collaboration: “… unlike a simple intranet or collaboration solution, SharePoint also includes portal, Web content management and business intelligence capabilities” (Koplowitz & Owens, 2009, p.8). Although the Team had made progress over the past several years by moving from print binders to an online circulation manual to a wiki, nothing up to this point worked as a truly collaborative space. After some initial interest in SharePoint, several factors slowed down the migration process.
One reason for the slow start to the migration project was the turnover of several staff in the Document Management Team. This change in staffing was just one more indication that using SharePoint was a good idea: “The SharePoint approach helps limit the liability of concentrating knowledge in one person and minimizes the effects of attrition” (Fox & Deutsch, 2000). Having a primarily new Team was a great opportunity to switch the knowledge base to SharePoint and spread the knowledge around the Team as much as possible.
When the project did start taking shape, there was a conscious decision to not simply repeat what had been done before. The Team implemented best practices for the wiki so it would have a homogenous look and feel even though several different people were working on it. Initially, the Team simply moved documents from the messy, outdated shared network drive to the SharePoint document library. They then realized an opportunity to step back and rethink the hierarchy and structure of the information. As Koplowitz & Owens (2009) noted, “Just because the tools exist doesn’t mean the structure will build itself. Careful planning is required, and plans will need to adapt as new lessons are learned. Don’t take lightly the opportunity a blank slate offers” (p.22). Many documents became wiki pages instead of storing them in the SharePoint document library based on this thoughtful restructuring of the information.
In addition to asserting that libraries can use an intranet to access remote information, Gunjal (2004) states:
With increasing emphasis on resource sharing not only between libraries but between different branches and departments of a library, the intranet offers the potential to be a very important tool in libraries’ effort to make the most efficient use of their resources. (p.10)
The Document Management Team saw this potential in SharePoint and decided it would work very well for documentation and training at the remote circulation locations. Consequently, the next step in the migration to SharePoint involved setting up a site for the remote circulation points to use when needing to refer to policies, procedures, and documentation. This would replace the haphazard method of documentation these remote sites were currently using. The project was further spurred on by the need to train and provide documentation for the people staffing a new remote circulation location.
SharePoint Wiki for Remote Circulation Locations
In preparation for ILS’ move to the new UMUC Academic Center at Largo, Maryland, the Document Management Team worked with UMUC’s Office of Enrollment Management (OEM), which staffs the Information Desk at the library’s previous location, to provide a circulation point and train them on relevant policies and procedures. On September 3, 2009, the Associate Provost for ILS, Assistant Director for Systems and Access Services, and the Document Management Librarian met with OEM management to discuss the feasibility of the Information Desk becoming a remote circulation location. It was decided that OEM staff should be trained and given an opportunity to pilot being a circulation point while ILS was still in the same building. On September 14, 2009, the Document Management Librarian met with the Assistant Director of the Information Desk to demonstrate SharePoint as an informational and collaborative tool that could be used as a knowledge base for staff to refer to when they had circulation questions. The Assistant Director was very interested in using SharePoint and expressed an interest in also using it for his own team. The Document Management Librarian and Library Associate trained all of the OEM staff who work at the Information Desk on November 3-5, 2009. By November 17, 2009, the SharePoint wiki for the Information Desk was in its final form and location. Although this was specifically created as a result of this Information Desk becoming a circulation point, it was also intended for it to be used by the other remote circulation points. All of the remote circulation locations are now using the SharePoint wiki. The Information Desk officially became a remote circulation location on November 18, 2009.
The main SharePoint feature used for the new remote circulation documentation was a wiki. Although the Team had already been using a standalone wiki for documenting procedures, it was one of several places to look for this information and one was never sure what was current or accurate. The standalone wiki was also never backed up and the computer it resided on could crash or disappear at any time. Moving the wiki and all other documentation into SharePoint allowed for consolidation of information, all users know where to look for information, and can trust that it is the most recent version. Also, SharePoint is on a secure server that is backed up daily, so there is no fear of data loss.
The SharePoint wiki is easy to create and maintain using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. The Document Management Library Associate created the content for the wiki for the Information Desk and other remote circulation locations in November 2009. A student worker put the content into the wiki using the best practices guide, which was created as a SharePoint wiki page. The remote circulation wiki includes step-by-step directions for circulation functions and a troubleshooting section. It also includes a staff list of the Document Management Team including pictures. This was especially helpful during the training and transition phase.. It helped the Information Desk staff become familiar with the Team and to know who everyone was when a member of the Team dropped off and picked up books at the Desk during the transition. The three training sessions during the first week of November 2009 for the Information Desk Staff were face-to-face. After a couple of attempts to find the appropriate “home” for this wiki within the Document Management SharePoint site, the wiki was given its own site called “OEM & MD Ops.” Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) and Maryland Operations (MD Ops) are the depart
Point to share: Streamlining access services workflow through online collaboration, communication and storage with microsoft sharepoint
No full textThis article explains how the Document Management Team (circulation and interlibrary loan) at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) implemented Microsoft?s SharePoint product to create a central hub for online collaboration, communication, and storage. Enhancing the Team?s efficiency, organization and cooperation was the primary goal. Although the group is already highly effective, it is always interested in making further improvements. Document Management consists of three technicians and two professionals, and this small staff is currently responsible for providing services to 86,000 students plus faculty and staff at a largely distance education institution. The Team?s previously adopted tools to improve internal operations had been adequate, but not optimal. Also, a long-standing and over-arching concern about the potential loss of some or all of the Document Management knowledgebase existed. These reasons prompted the Team to carefully examine SharePoint as a prospective tool. It was hoped that this early scrutiny would prove beneficial in the long run by avoiding a repeat of earlier technology implementations? shortcomings. The group quickly realized the software would not be a cure-all but felt the prospects were good that it would be useful and dependable. SharePoint was fully implemented with great success due to the Team?s careful consideration of collaboration, communication, and storage needs.A Point to Share: Streamlining Access Services Workflow through Online Collaboration, Communication and Storage with Microsoft SharePoint
Abstract:
This article explains how the Document Management Team (circulation and interlibrary loan) at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) implemented Microsoft’s SharePoint product to create a central hub for online collaboration, communication, and storage. Enhancing the Team’s efficiency, organization and cooperation was the primary goal. Although the group is already highly effective, it is always interested in making further improvements. Document Management consists of three technicians and two professionals, and this small staff is currently responsible for providing services to 86,000 students plus faculty and staff at a largely distance education institution. The Team’s previously adopted tools to improve internal operations had been adequate, but not optimal. Also, a long-standing and over-arching concern about the potential loss of some or all of the Document Management knowledgebase existed. These reasons prompted the Team to carefully examine SharePoint as a prospective tool. It was hoped that this early scrutiny would prove beneficial in the long run by avoiding a repeat of earlier technology implementations’ shortcomings. The group quickly realized the software would not be a cure-all but felt the prospects were good that it would be useful and dependable. SharePoint was fully implemented with great success due to the Team’s careful consideration of collaboration, communication, and storage needs.
Keywords:
access services, collaboration, communication, academic library, SharePoint, software, storage.
Introduction
Internal communication, workflows, and teamwork can often be greatly improved through the intelligent application of appropriate technologies. However, libraries sometimes ignore or misapply information technology, which often negatively affects staff and patrons. As a predominantly distance education campus serving a global population, University of Maryland University College (UMUC) relies heavily on information technology to meet student, faculty and staff needs. From its modest beginnings in 1947, UMUC has grown to over 86,000 students in more than twenty countries (Office of Institutional Planning, Research and Accountability 2009). Information and Library Services (ILS) at UMUC has depended on savvy staff and technological solutions out of necessity in order to provide library services to UMUC’s students, faculty, and staff worldwide.
History/Background
ILS’ Document Management (DM) Team, which provides circulation and interlibrary loan services, recognized workflow issues beginning in 2005. Over the previous few years, ILS had grown from a handful of staff to more than two dozen librarians and technicians. This rapid growth created lapses in knowledge, documentation, and information sharing behavior as individual responsibilities changed and new services were developed. Originally, the DM Team used five print binders to house training manuals and troubleshooting guides. These were fed by centrally-stored digital documents held on a shared network drive. During the growth period, updates to these binders became ad hoc. No one binder contained the most current or most accurate information. In fact, there was a good chance that one could uncover multiple solutions to one problem. Further complicating this, the shared drive, which was created to hold the most authoritative versions of all documentation, suffered from the staff increases as well. Nearly all information was scattered in personal folders, current documents could not be differentiated from the outdated, and nearly all documentation was poorly labeled. This made it virtually impossible to locate the precise document needed. Furthermore, the network drive supported all of ILS, not just the DM Team, making it more difficult to quickly locate needed documentation and compromising team productivity. Document Management did make a concerted effort to customize a portion of the network drive. New folders specifically for Circulation and ILL were created, and a great deal of relevant documentation was moved into them. Although it became a convenient location to place documents to which the Team needed access, there were no set standards to follow. Staff members were unaware of changes to documents, thereby rendering the information inconsistent and unreliable. At this point, the team decided that an entirely new solution was required.
The DM Team’s first attempt to grow beyond the network-drive-and-binders arrangement involved a Web-based manual. It was believed all staff would be able to access information using a single, easy-to-update online source. However, the site remained unconnected to the Internet due to unresolved security issues, such as password protection and privacy concerns. After one year, the Web concept was determined not to be a complete solution. The Team then developed a wiki as a kind of “band-aid” with the understanding that this was not a robust solution; the wiki was on a test server that was neither supported nor maintained by the University’s IT department. Also, as is true of wikis, it could not support critical spreadsheet and word processing documents.
After taking stock of the previous knowledge management systems, the DM Team realized that three overarching issues permeated their past: disparate communication, collaboration, and storage. This is not to say that the Team was entirely lacking in collaboration or effective communication. Neither does it imply that knowledge storage was completely haphazard. The Team then realized that the key to moving forward successfully was to discover and implement a system that would provide one centralized location, which would eliminate redundancy, knowledge gaps, and encourage information sharing amongst DM staff.
Looking for a Streamlined Solution
As a first step, the Team decided to strategically review DM’s knowledge management needs in light of their roles and duties. Within ILS, the DM Team is one of the front-line service points for patrons. Thus, staff must be accurately informed on any policy and procedure changes in DM and ILS. They also need to be able to quickly access information in order to provide timely and accurate responses to patron inquiries. Service delays and misinformation in this area could potentially cause unacceptable patron inconveniences due to UMUC’s virtual environment.
A primary streamlining tool that emerged as a result of this review was the implementation of a universal organization standard based on Anne Thompson’s Standard Naming Conventions for Electronic Records (2005). This was then used to store documents, which would in turn make locating and saving documents a more efficient and reliable process. After fully assessing the problem, the Team recognized that beyond possessing a common standard, they needed a regularly maintained and centralized knowledgebase.
In 2008, the Team evaluated several products with the intent to provide a more robust solution. One tool DM evaluated was Microsoft SharePoint 2007 (http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/product/Pages/default.aspx), because it was already installed at the University and centrally managed by the University’s IT department. SharePoint is a centralized platform for storage and communication, which combines several Web 2.0 technologies with traditional digital document storage to facilitate a consolidated workflow. The Team was initially impressed with the potential of SharePoint because it integrates many technologies that the Team already used in one central location. The Team had a wiki, a calendaring system, and a document storage system, but these were stand-alone systems. SharePoint puts all of these and more in one integrated application. After evaluating all the pros and cons of SharePoint, the DM Team determined that by implementing SharePoint, they could significantly improve their workflows.
Implementing a New Solution
In the initial implementation phase, the Team began moving documentation from several decentralized channels into SharePoint. During this pilot phase, it became apparent that SharePoint could easily duplicate the problems encountered in previous systems if standards were not developed. Thus, the Team created a best practices document to provide guidelines on naming conventions, document retention, and appropriate applications of the SharePoint tools. This approach ensured that the migrated information was organized logically to enhance the usability of SharePoint’s features, such as the wiki and document library.
Due to some staff turnover, the move to SharePoint began slowly. Once the migration was underway, it became evident that SharePoint offered many streamlining features that were previously not available to the DM Team. Remote accessibility through a VPN (virtual private network) allows staff to log in from home if needed. It has a built-in wiki and document library that can be used as a knowledgebase. Beyond the knowledgebase capabilities, SharePoint also allows for collaboration and communication to all come together in one place. SharePoint’s customizable homepage allows for several notifications and features to be displayed at once as soon as the user logs in (see Figure 1). Automatic email alerts notify staff when changes are made to any SharePoint site section, including documents, the wiki, etc. Staff can choose to receive alerts immediately so they are instantly aware of issues and can deal with them right away. The email alerts make a huge impact on keeping staff current and help build a more collaborative team.
Figure 1: The Document Mangement SharePoint homepage displays a Twitter feed, schedules, etc.
When a document was edited on the shared drive, it was often saved as a different version under a new name. It quickly became difficult to tell which document was the official and current version. The SharePoint version history control in the wiki and document library allows staff to update documents and wiki pages without fear of losing previous versions. Only one version of each document (the most current) is visible, while all previous versions are hidden, but still available. This function simplifies organization, saves staff time, and eliminates confusion by making it easy to identify the correct version. Team members have also been able to save time editing documents by mapping SharePoint as a network drive on their computers. Documents and wiki pages can be saved and edited directly through their PC’s “My Network Places” rather than staff always accessing the SharePoint site (see Figure 2). Figure 2: Once the SharePoint site is mapped, users can access and save items throught their PCs.
Collaboration
Many of SharePoint’s features had the potential to facilitate collaboration from within a centralized hub. The Team held several meetings to discuss how to thoughtfully approach the wiki in SharePoint, which resulted in a project timeline, wiki table of contents, style guide, and reference manual for developing wiki pages. The Team began framing the wiki’s structure by using the relevant content from the previous wiki. Initially, two separate wikis existed in SharePoint: one for circulation processes and another for interlibrary loan (ILL) duties. While the Team worked on developing the structure, it became apparent that two wikis were inefficient and unnecessary, and the Team restructured the content under the categorical umbrella of “Document Management.” Under this approach, categories like “Contacts,” “Passwords,” and “Shipping” contained all information for both circulation and ILL. Once the structure was complete, the three library technicians could begin to share the wiki migration project with the library’s six part-time student workers.
To prepare and train these new contributors, the Team created a Word document that outlined how the wiki pages were to be structured, whether a student or full-time employee could complete the task, and which sections were completed. Once the expectations were clear, the Team introduced the student workers to a special wiki page that explained how to properly create and design individual wiki pages. Additionally, there was a style guide to refer to which allowed the wiki to look cohesive and uniform amidst the several contributing hands that were involved in its creation.
As the Team was navigating the previous Web-based wiki, they realized that pages were text-heavy and impeded staff from easily referencing a particular process or policy. One of the ways the Team solved this problem was to rely on visual examples via screenshots. However, in order to successfully integrate this visual element into the wiki, more careful planning was required. The Team, therefore, created a “Wiki Screenshots” photo library in SharePoint, which functions much like the document library feature but caters more toward supporting certain photo-hosting functions. With 156 screenshots in use in 159 wiki pages, it was essential that the Team established standards. For screenshot files, the Team continued to use Thompson’s conventions. DM decided to structure the photo library directory to mirror the wiki layout (see Figure 5). Figure 5: The “Wiki Screenshots” photo library mirrors the categories of the wiki
Since the screenshot process is a relatively tedious one, the Team instructed all wiki page developers to write the text first, with placeholders indicating where a screenshot needed to be placed in the future. After the text was complete, the page creator was responsible for taking and inserting the corresponding screenshots. To facilitate uniformity, a separate instructional page was created that could be referenced to learn how to create screenshots using three different tools. Due to the diverse resources within the library, several screenshot methods had to be explored and documented. By using standards to supplement SharePoint’s features, staff could easily contribute to the wiki implementation project.
Extending beyond creating standards and documentation, the Team also took advantage of several SharePoint features to integrate fearless collaboration with seamless communication. The Team was able to put their trust in several contributors, since SharePoint allowed them to revert to previous versions of wiki pages in the event a page creator made an error. Any changes a page creator makes are clearly color-coded, so if a Team member needs to make corrections, there is no need to meticulously read through the previous version (see Figure 6). Also, whenever a staff member makes a change to a wiki page, individuals receive an email alert. This feature solves a major issue the Team had with the previous wiki; those referring to the wiki were mistrustful of the content, since they could not necessarily rely on the information’s validity.
Figure 6: An example of the version history feature in a wiki context
Lastly, the Team felt more secure having the wiki on the SharePoint server, which is housed in and supported by the University’s IT department and is backed up daily. The previous wiki was housed on a spare computer in an office instead of on an official server with nightly backups. Also, this computer was not housed within the library nor in IT; therefore DM had little control over it, and it was neither supported nor maintained by IT. The computer was dated and had been known to occasionally crash, making the DM Team nervous about losing data that would be difficult to replicate without any backups.
Communication
One of the quick resolutions to the communication issue was the implementation of various calendars. The SharePoint calendar system is immediately usable due to its intuitiveness, yet serves a powerful function. The Document Management Team set up their calendars to schedule and streamline workflow for the technicians and student workers. The Team created three primary calendars: “Tech Duty Schedule,” “Student Worker Schedule,” and “Staff Leave Schedule.” The three technicians ensure rotation of their responsibilities by creating a monthly schedule of their daily tasks and adding it on the Tech Duty schedule in SharePoint (see Figure 7).
Figure 7: Document Management’s “Tech Duty Schedule.”
The Document Management Team’s Library Associate is responsible for creating the Student Worker Schedule that displays the student workers’ hourly activities. The Library Associate uses this schedule as a quick reference tool when preparing information for student payroll. The entire library staff uses the schedule to identify individual students who can help with certain tasks on a particular day. The student workers refer to their calendar to coordinate their work activities.
Individual Team members are responsible for recording their absence from work on the Staff Leave Schedule. The information recorded on this schedule ranges from a few hours of absence to leave days. The Team members record the reasons for absence, for example, arriving late or leaving early. The leave calendar also keeps record of staff working outside their normally-scheduled hours.
Both library management and Team members find the leave calendar to be a handy reference point when completing timesheets. The fact that every Team member is aware of what the others are doing makes it simple and effective to coordinate work activities. Management also refers to the schedules when following up on tasks and/or when identifying team members who could help with other tasks. Other library departments, like the Reference Team, also rely on the Tech Duty Schedule when routing telephone and email inquiries that need Document Management technicians’ attention. Apart from coordination, the calendar is an important communication tool for team members. Email alerts received when changes are made help staff prepare their work accordingly.
The Document Management Team set up a Discussion Board on their SharePoint site to facilitate and effectively manage communication. Here, team members discuss work-related topics by posting queries, comments and questions and also responding to postings. The Team uses the Discussion Board to build consensus on issues that require group decision-making. Team members can respond to discussions while working on other tasks at their desks, eliminating the need for time-consuming meetings. The Team is now able to permanently store discussions that are quickly referenced and easy to access. The Team also created an Announcements section on SharePoint to post information that is essential for professional development. Team members share information on conference proceedings, any interesting articles that are relevant to library work, as well as information about external library partners.
Storage
In preparation for the transition into SharePoint, the Document Management Team carefully approached the issue of document storage. As was mentioned above, the Team had already reorganized the existing files by using Thompson’s naming conventions. However, DM also carefully assessed the utility of their existing documents: which files were still relevant, and which documents could serve a more effective purpose by being reformatted as a wiki page. A total of 1,167 reports, forms, records, and other documents remained after this weeding process was complete. Fortunately, the actual act of uploading the documents to SharePoint was the simplest part of the process. It only took two part-time student workers two days to complete the project.
The Document Management Team now creates, stores, and shares files using the SharePoint document library. The Team uses this site to store various file types, such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel (http://office.microsoft.com/) and Adobe Acrobat (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/). Every team member can open and edit these files. SharePoint’s version history allows team members to track the original document before changes were made (see Figure 8). This is a major advantage over the shared network drive because that did not provide a platform to track changes made to a saved document. The Team finds files quickly and easily when using SharePoint’s search feature. Figure 8: The version history view for SharePoint’s document librari
A Point to Share: Streamlining Access Services Workflow Through Online Collaboration, Communication, and Storage with Microsoft SharePoint
No full textAutobiography as a mirror to Afro-American culture and experience, 1985
No full textThe study sees autobiography as a "gateway" to understanding a people's culture and is premised on the assumption that Afro-American life and experience is different from that of Whites or any other group living in the United States of America. It utilizes the autobiographies of six Black Americans, who in their own right can be considered men of letters, in an attempt to understand what life has been like for Blacks in America. It discusses Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, W. E. B. Du Bois's Dusk of Dawn, An Essay Toward An Autobiography of Race Concept, James Weldon Johnson's Along This Way, The Autobiograpy of James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes's The Big Sea, Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road and Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. As a group, these authors share certain special concerns that are a result of their collective racial history. First, they all exemplify the ability of Blacks to overcome hardship: they prove the fact that Blacks, like other races, are multi-talented and can successfully do more than one thing, even in a time of under-education. All of these autobiographers share a belief that acquiring an education and that the teaching profession in particular are an important means of uplifting the race. They believe in being actively involved in the affairs of their communities and make a serious attempt to define Black American. life and experiences in the context of all Blacks, in the West Indies as well as Africa. Finally, they all express a Black consciousness which has been an example from which Blacks have continued to draw. At the center of their struggles is the need for freedom. For Frederick Douglass, freedom is conceived as the result of one's determined fight to help end slavery, believing that once this is achieved Black men and women will enter into a full and equal partnership with White America. When complete victory is not forthcoming, Douglass sees freedom as lying in one's' migration to the North. Du Bois and Johnson conceive freedom as a result of Blacks attempting to understand one another within the Black communities and of organizing to force the White world to see that Blacks are not base animals but a people with a rich cultural heritage and, indeed, capable of producing a variety of creative art forms. For Hughes, Hurston and Angelou freedom is seen as the desire to be simply themselves. To this effect the latter three autobiographers are not so concerned with race uplift as they are concerned with the need to reveal the race to itself~ they reveal some devices by which Blacks are able to pick up their lives in spite of the overwhelming odds they must confront daily. The institutions of school, church, and family are emphasized as central to the life of Blacks. Education is often seen as the key by which both the race and the individual can advance the church. The church on the other hand, holds a special place in the Black communities because it feeds on the Black people's optimism that nothing is really forever and ifretrievably lost, and the promise of a life after death is in accordance with the general tendency among Blacks to reject hopelessness. The sense of family, especially the network of relationships known as the extended family, is upheld and emphasized despite having suffered severely during the slave period. The study concludes that freedom, identity or personhood for Blacks is a product of a great deal of struggle, and is attained only when Blacks are able to confront life on their own terms and avoid escaping into a world of fantasy, and for the women especially, this demands that they reject or ignore the White standards of beauty
ERM Ideas & Innovations: Electronic Resources Management in the Time of COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities Experienced by Six Academic Libraries
No full textLibrarians from six diverse public and private higher education institutions describe the challenges their libraries have experienced, as well as the operational opportunities that have arisen, in managing electronic resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the environment that precipitated these challenges is temporary, some of the solutions implemented to address them will represent permanent changes to library operations.https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2021.194916
O corpo-corpus que cala e fala: interseccionalidade em Maya Angelou
Get PDFThis article analyzes Maya Angelou’s autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings from an intersectional perspective, highlighting how the author develops a poetics of the Black female body-corpus. The analysis focuses on the interplay of race, gender, class, and disability, demonstrating how Angelou transforms subaltern experiences into literary and political material. Through scenes of humiliation, silence, and spirituality, the text reveals how Angelou inscribes Black subjectivities into an ethical and aesthetic narrative, in which the body both silences and speaks, challenging erasure and reconfiguring modes of existence.O artigo analisa, sob uma perspectiva interseccional, a autobiografia I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, de Maya Angelou, destacando como a autora elabora uma poética do corpo-corpus negro feminino. A análise concentra-se na articulação entre experiências de raça, gênero, classe e deficiência, evidenciando como a obra transforma vivências subalternizadas em matéria literária e política. Através de cenas de humilhação, silêncio e espiritualidade, o texto revela como Angelou inscreve subjetividades negras em uma narrativa ética e estética, em que o corpo cala e fala, desafiando formas de apagamento e reconfigurando modos de existência
Cluster-based identification algorithm for in-line recycled concrete aggregates characterization using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)
No full textTo upcycle End-of-Life (EoL) concrete from demolished buildings, it is essential to efficiently identify the different materials that may contaminate it. The precise identification and classification of materials and contaminants are vital processes for in-line quality inspection of recycled concrete aggregates transported on a conveyor belt. In this study, a total of eight potential contaminants are considered as target contaminant materials in the streams made of coarse and fine aggregates resulting from the upcycling of EoL concrete. These contaminants degrade the quality of the aggregates even at low concentrations, so it is essential to identify the presence of such contaminants along with the main products of recycling which are recycled coarse aggregates (RCA) and recycled fine aggregates (RFA). An efficient method is proposed to identify and classify EoL concrete waste along with RCA and RFA in motion on conveyor belts via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) coupled with a cluster-based identification algorithm. The model is verified with an accuracy of 0.97, a precision (weighted average) of 0.98, a recall (weighted average) of 0.97, and an F1-score (weighted average) of 0.98 for the validation set, under the optimal conditions. This study suggests that LIBS may be well suited for fast and in-line analysis of recycled concrete aggregates in industrial applications. This approach presents an innovative approach for the quality characterization of secondary materials produced from EoL concrete being transported on conveyor belts, and therefore can be of great value for the processing and high-end utilization of EoL concrete.Resources & Recyclin
Robust Classification of Graph-Based data
No full text© 2018, The Author(s). A graph-based classification method is proposed for both semi-supervised learning in the case of Euclidean data and classification in the case of graph data. Our manifold learning technique is based on a convex optimization problem involving a convex quadratic regularization term and a concave quadratic loss function with a trade-off parameter carefully chosen so that the objective function remains convex. As shown empirically, the advantage of considering a concave loss function is that the learning problem becomes more robust in the presence of noisy labels. Furthermore, the loss function considered here is then more similar to a classification loss while several other methods treat graph-based classification problems as regression problems.sponsorship: The authors would like to thank the following organizations. EU: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC AdG A-DATADRIVE-B (290923). This paper reflects only the authors' views, the Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the contained information. Research Council KUL: GOA/10/09 MaNet, CoE PFV/10/002 (OPTEC), BIL12/11T; Ph.D./Postdoc Grants. Flemish Government: FWO: G.0377.12 (Structured systems), G.088114N (Tensor based data similarity); Ph.D./Postdoc Grants. IWT: SBO POM (100031); Ph.D./Postdoc Grants. iMinds Medical Information Technologies SBO 2014. Belgian Federal Science Policy Office: IUAPP7/19 (DYSCO, Dynamical systems, control and optimization, 2012-2017). Fundacion BBVA: project FACIL-Ayudas Fundacion-BBVA a Equipos de Investigacion Cientifica 2016. UAM-ADIC Chair for Data Science and Machine Learning. Concerted Research Action (ARC) programme supported by the Federation Wallonia-Brussels (contract ARC 14/19-060 on Mining and Optimization of Big Data Models). (European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC AdG A-DATADRIVE-B|290923, Research Council KUL|GOA/10/09 MaNet, Research Council KUL|CoE PFV/10/002, Research Council KUL|BIL12/11T, Flemish Government|FWO: G.0377.12, Flemish Government|G.088114N, IWT: SBO POM|100031, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office|IUAPP7/19, Federation Wallonia-Brussels|ARC 14/19-060)status: Publishe
