In this issue:
Library Offers new Distance Services
Audio-Visual Department
Director's Corner
Minneapolis Campus
Student Employees
From the Archives
Back Issues:
No.
5, Fall 1998
WIRED!
Library Offers New Distance
Services
Imagine that you have a research project due, but you can't make it to the
Library because you're at home caring for a sick child. Or perhaps it's 3:00am
and the Library is closed. Or you're a WEC student who commutes from Montana.
What services does the Library offer to students, faculty, and staff who need
or want to conduct library research from off campus? The Library isn't totally
virtual yet, but we do offer a variety of services to help meet the needs of
remote users. These services are explained on our web page at http://www.stkate.edu/library/guides/distance.html
.
Proxy server [Now obsolete -- See Connecting
to Library Databases from Off Campus for details.]
In
February, a proxy server was deployed to enable off-campus access to library databases
and online full-text journal articles. The library subscribes to a number of commercial
database services which are made available over the World Wide Web. The vendors
of these costly databases require us to restrict access to students and employees
of the College, and the vendors often enforce this by allowing connections only
from computers on the campus network. This works fine unless you happen
to be connecting from your home or office computer. What then? That's where
the proxy server comes in. The proxy server is a machine, located on campus, which
serves as an intermediary between you and the database service. When you login
to the proxy via your Internet service provider, the proxy checks to see that
you are a bona fide member of the CSC community, then it enables you to connect
to restricted database services. It's a little bit like having to place a telephone
call by talking to an operator first.
To be able to use the proxy, you need an account on the campus network (Lotus
Notes/NT) and a computer equipped with Internet access and a web browser (Netscape
or Internet Explorer). You also will need to configure your browser in a particular
way. Please see our web site for detailed instructions. It may take some time
to get used to working with the proxy server, but it is worth the effort because
you will be able to connect to graphical, web-based versions of InfoTrac, CINAHL,
JSTOR, Academic Press IDEAL, Current Contents, and the International Index to
Music Periodicals.
We would like to thank Ken Baltes and the staff of Computing
Services, especially Isaak Bukingolts and Roger Wahl, for implementing
the proxy server. If you have questions about using the proxy server, please
contact Amy Shaw, Reference Librarian, at 651-690-6423 or amshaw@stkate.edu.
Interlibrary loan request form
Now
that you can search so many databases at home, what if you find an item
which is not available at the CSC Library? It is now possible to request
it through interlibrary loan from your home or office. Instead of filling
out the paper request forms at the Library, go to the interlibrary loan
request forms on our web page at http://www.stkate.edu/library/access/reqforms.html.
There are separate forms for the St. Paul campus and Minneapolis campus.
Each campus has a form to request photocopies of journal articles and another
to request books.
Click on the link to the appropriate form, type in the information requested,
and submit the form. It's quick and it's easy.
Some points to keep in mind when making a request:
-
Remember to check CLICnet, the
Library's online catalog, to make sure CSC does not own an item before
you make a request
-
Fill in all information as accurately as you can. Don't use abbreviations.
Incomplete forms can delay filling your request.
-
It usually takes about two weeks to receive your items.
-
Only current CSC students, faculty, and staff are eligible for interlibrary
loan services.
If you have any questions or comments about this new form, please contact
the Interlibrary Loan office--St. Paul campus at 651-690-6655 or iloan@stkate.edu;
Minneapolis campus at 651-690-7782 or iloanmpl@stkate.edu.
Plans for the future
Library staff are preparing to launch a pilot electronic reserves project.
This service will enable CSC students to access journal articles, placed
on reserve by an instructor for a particular course, over the Web from
their home or office computers, at any time of the day or night.
We hope these new services will help that parent stranded at home, the
night owl researcher, and the student living off campus--whether she's
in Minneapolis or Montana. If you have questions about our distance services,
please call the Reference Desk at 651-690-6652.
Written by Amy Shaw and Deborah Kloiber
[Back to Top]
AV: It's Not Just for Filmstrips Anymore
 John
Lange, Media Coordinator of Audio-Visual (AV) Services, believes that
one of AV's largest and most important roles is helping faculty to teach
or perform at their best by providing them with the appropriate media
and equipment. For 25 years now, Lange, and co-worker Ann Piotrowski,
have built an AV department that provides tools to students and instructors
not only here on the St. Paul campus, but across greater distances as
well.
AV is becoming more and more involved in distance learning. Telecommunication
has become increasingly widespread in the academic world, and the College
of St. Catherine is no exception, having developed its own interactive
classroom site. Dominican University, located in River Forest, Illinois,
approached CSC about becoming a part of Dominican's accredited master's
degree program in Library Science. By telecommuting, students can be in
a classroom on the St. Paul campus and participate in a class in progress
at River Forest, with both audio and visual communication.
How does this work? Audio and video is delivered over special telephone
wire. While a regular telephone call utilizes one pair of wires, telecommuting
to Dominican uses six pair of wires (or one-quarter of a T line). Originally,
the classroom was set up in St. Joseph Hall, but has since been moved to
the Library. The brain of the system is called a CODEC. This past Fall
St. Kate's upgraded the system. The CODEC, which used to be the size of
a small refrigerator, has been reduced to a card that fits into a PC. The
new equipment has made for vast improvements in audio and video quality,
and the new video cameras are much more easily controlled. The Minneapolis
Campus is in the process of setting up an interactive classroom site as
well. This will not only help to link the two campuses for meetings, but
will make it possible for CSC-Minneapolis to offer courses to distance
learning sites, too.
For years, the college has planned to lay cable throughout campus and
this past summer Computing Services headed up a campus-wide wiring project.
AV staff participated in an advisory role. In addition to laying cable,
network connections were installed in classrooms and in on-campus housing.
There is now a "port-per-pillow," which means that the number of network
connections in a dorm room equals the number of beds in that room. If a
room has two beds in it, two network connections have been added to the
room. The major benefit of this project is that students can access
the college computer network from their own room at an equal or greater
speed than they could from any computer lab on campus.Another benefit of
the campus wiring project is the ability to provide cable TV to the campus--not
just to entertain, but to educate as well. AV helps to manage and program
the cable TV system. In addition to the Cartoon Network and MTV, students
can watch the History Channel, Univision (a Spanish channel) and various
other educational stations. The system uses an antenna to pick up local
channels and a satellite dish to pick up other stations, bringing the total
to 34 channels.
Besides working on these projects, AV offers many other services to
the St. Catherine community. Some of these services include: video cassette
tape check-out (including popular titles), setting up Power Point productions,
lamination (done on Wednesdays at the price of fifty cents per foot of
material), audio and video tape duplication (you must provide your own
tape and there is a $5.00 charge for the video duplication), and equipment
for borrowing (projectors, audiocassette recorders and camcorders). Another
facet of AV that Lange is very excited about is videotape production and
editing. Three of the Student Assistants in AV are studying video production
and have taken on an important role in performing these duties while on
the job. The department is also hoping to encourage members of the St.
Kate's community who are interested in doing video production projects
to do so. The department recently bought a new piece of video-editing equipment,
called the "Casablanca," that can be easily learned and students, faculty
and staff are welcome to use it.
As you can see, AV Services has come a long way over the last 25 years,
with a lot of hard work from John Lange, Ann Piotrowski, and all of the
students that work in the department. Instructors are able to utilize more
technological tools in their classrooms, students are able to do research
on the Internet without leaving the comfort of their room, and we all get
a glimpse of what life would be like in the Cartoon Network. |
Written by Katy Baechler
[Back to Top]
Director's Corner
Carol Johnson
Fourteen inches of snow fell
during the March 8th snow storm, and the campus landscape was beautiful-a lovely
finish to winter.
All that loveliness, and a campus that is humming
with creativity. Thanks to the Computer Center's work on the campus network
and infrastructure, librarians and staff have been able to implement new
services that link students from their home or office computer directly
to the electronic research tools needed for their research thesis or paper.
(The lead article describes these new services.) At President Andrea Lee's
initiative, a second interactive classroom on the Minneapolis Campus will
be operational by the end of April. As a result, the Audio-Visual staff
on both campuses will be very busy this coming year with intracampus meetings
and distance education classes.
The Friends of the Library have been especially
active. Last fall they hosted a fundraising gala, "An Evening with
the Stars," with wonderful speakers, all alumnae of the college. Amy Lindgren
of the St. Paul Pioneer Press was a terrific keynote speaker. Caron Chapman,
Joanne Velz Hart, Rosalie Maggio and Mary Ann Nieberle Weidt provided fascinating
pictures of their memories of the college and the library, as well as glimpses
of their current endeavors. We thank them all for their enthusiasm and
generosity. The gala raised $3,822, of which $1,822 will be used to buy
books for the 1999-2000 academic year and $2,000 will be used to start
an endowment in honor of Sr. Marie Inez Johnson, csj. Sr. Marie Inez was
the director of the Library until 1976 and taught for many years in the
Library School. She is a highly respected librarian, and the endowment
will recognize her contributions to the college, the library, and the profession.
The Friends have already gathered $11,000 in member
gifts and pledges towards the $25,000 endowment goal. They expect to raise
the remainder in two years. This endowment is needed to fund research materials
for the library and information science collections. We thank all our Friends
and invite you to join us for a thank you reception on May 13, 1999 from
5-7pm in the Library. More details will follow.
As always, call me at 651-690-6650 or email cpjohnson@stkate.edu
with your comments and suggestions.
[Back to Top]
Minneapolis Happenings
Nothing quite so exciting or demanding as recarpeting has happened
here on the Minneapolis campus lately, but we continue to bustle with activity
keeping up with questions and requests from students, faculty and staff.
With the addition of a visually impaired student to our staff, the library acquired a large screen monitor for the circulation desk. (Many other members of the Minneapolis library staff are seen using the very convenient and easy-on-the-eyes monitor from time to time!) We have also added large-print and Braille labels to shelves and various pieces of equipment to assist this student in her duties.
The audiovisual department installed a teaching station in one of the third floor classrooms. This will match the one installed in the auditorium last year. Now the equipment is more accessible for set up, and faculty can use laptops for classroom presentations instead of
having to transport full-size desktop computers for this purpose.
At the time of this writing we are in the midst of the annual library book sale. Even though we have fewer books and magazines than in some other years, the sale has attracted the attention of many students, faculty and staff members hoping for a special find.
Written by Beth Beuch
|
[Back to Top]
Popcorn, Lies, and Videotape
| The SELS (Seeking
Excellence in Library Service) committee was looking to try new ways of
building upon the customer service skills of the student staff. They hit
upon the idea of creating a video in which they could combine fun with
a serious message about customer service.
Born out of this idea was a short, seven-minute videotape
humorously titled Popcorn, Lies and Videotape. The video consists
of six short skits dealing with such topics as patron contact, library
policies, diversity and service etiquette. It took 14 hours of editing
and production, thanks to the cross-departmental help of both student and
full-time staffers. Says Executive Producer Katy Baechler; "It really brought
all the departments together, creating bridges and a camaraderie between
us."
The video had its official debut at the library's
SELS workshop, also entitled Popcorn Lies and Videotape, March 16th
and 18th.
The video wasn't just
for viewing; through a series of thought-provoking questions, the workshop
promoted spirited interaction and discussion among its audience members.
A continuing theme woven throughout the discussion was that library users
come first and each user is different. The workshop emphasized that students
need to be prepared to respond to this diversity of user needs.
Popcorn, Lies and Videotape received 'two
thumbs up'. Both students and staff felt it was an effective and fun way
to enhance customer service skills. A study guide is now being prepared
to accompany the videotape in order to enhance and streamline future workshops
and viewings.
Written by Belinda E. Lawrence |
Popcorn, Lies, and
Videotape
A St. Catherine LAVA and Icarus
Production, 1999.
Executive Producer: Katy Baechler
Assistant Producers: SELS
staff
Video: Laura Murphy
Editing: Beth Peterson
The Players: Kylene Fritz,
Rachel Hanley, Sabina Dhungana, Tina Kendig,
Chiharu Morita, Amy Geckler,
Kaydee Cin
|
Outtakes
from Popcorn, Lies and Videotape:
Sabina Dhungana (Circulation)
claims in defense of her recasting: "I tried to be mean but I was too nice."
She originally was to portray an angry customer, but it soon became apparent
that she was better suited to represent an inattentive library assistant.
"I'm sorry, I hope I didn't
break it," Amy Geckler (Interlibrary Loan) apologetically cried during
taping. Amy was one of the many actresses that tripped over and eventually
dropped her microphone during filming.
Kylene Fritz (Technical Services)
says "When we were filming, my co-star was supposed to be rude to me, and
I to her, but she kept smiling!" |
[Back to Top]
50 Years Ago
Class to Improve Standing...Something new
has been added to the phys ed. department: a class for Katies who are interested
in streamlining the figure or improving posture. The class will be taught
by Miss Marvel Mee, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11:30 in the gym, starting
Tuesday, November 23.
Miss Mee plans to give individual help to each student who
wishes to join the class-and it's open to everyone, upperclassmen included-and
will try to find an answer to problems which are bothering the students
about their figures or postures. To solve these problems, all kinds of
reducing exercises will be demonstrated and advice will be given as to
which ones to use. An effort will be made to reduce inches rather than
to give specific exercises which will remove weight, but which might not
make a person look any thinner in the process.
Aside from the problem of the figure, Miss Mee will also give
advice on how to improve posture. In conjunction with this, people will
be taught how to walk correctly and how to sit properly.
(St. Catherine Wheel, November 18, 1948) |
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