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Administrative
Computing Steering Committee Minutes
of Meetings:
April 13, 2000
11:15 am, Steinmetz 106
Present: Cossey,
Gleason, Klein, McCann, DR, Tobiessen, Wolf.
Review last meeting minutes:
1. New Computers. DR
reported on acquisition of
new computers for administrative offices. He has a total of about 35 machines
awaiting distribution, some through a gift from IBM arranged by Bob Balmer and John Kelly,
III of IBM; some through purchase; some the result the 3-for-1 matching gift from IBM.
These machines will be placed in Development, Admissions, CDC, the Office of the
President, and other places.
2. The integrated advising proposal is moving forward.
Faculty like the idea of web access to student records and other advising information,
although faculty are concerned of an advising system that will require substantially more
time. The College continues to pursue several funding sources for the initial and
the ongoing costs of the hardware, software, staff and training.
3. Optical Records Storage. Cherrice Traver from EE/CS
contacted Doug Klein asking where there were any real-world problems which might make the
subject matter from senior CS student research. Here is a portion of the e-mail back
to her:
Cherrice,
The administrative computing group has discussed the need
on campus for a system to index, scan, and store college records.
Offices desiring this capability include Registrar, Pre-Med advising,
CDC, Alumni, and Development. If the capability were available
other offices would probably be interested, including the Library.
Issues to be considered include:
technology (image vs. OCR); central system vs. distributed; vendor;
staffing - who does the work; how complex is it;
indexing - who does it, how extensively;
legal issues - under what conditions can originals be destroyed? can
digital documents be guarenteed as genuine?
archival issues - how long will stored images last; can they be renewed?
The best contact in the administration is Kathy McCann, who is
very interested in getting this going.
Doug
and here is a comment from Tom McFadden:
We are outsourcing (the current jargon) the filming
and digitizing of the Concordiensis. The equipment and expertise necessary for a
high-quality job is something we just do not have in Schaffer Library; we are using a
Philadelphia outfit with a strong record of service to the information and library
community.
Ellen Fladger has been involved in some preliminary discussions about records management
and preservation on the campus, with Kathy among others. It is extremely important
that we do this with an eye toward the long-term preservation and archival storage of many
of these records. In fact, we do not have any coherent campus-wide records management
program at all.
There are two general issues: preservation format, and long-term readability. The
Registrar, for example, is currently using a technology and format for microfiche storage
that is failing on all counts, as I understand it. This is why archival microfilm is the
method of choice for long-term preservation as well as readability (the technology is
basic and
simple). The microfilm than functions as the basis for digital imaging and OCR scanning.
What we need, I suppose, is yet another small group to articulate a records management and
preservation policy for the campus, and then to consider the formats and technology most
appropriate for each level of retention: active, inactive, and archival. In any event,
Ellen and the Special Collections Department must be a key player in any such discussions,
on account of our obligation to subsequent generations to get this right the first time.
Tom
T. G. McFadden, Director
Schaffer Library
Union College
Schenectady, NY 12308
4. Dave Cossey and DR
will pursue obtaining
documentation for the Bitech HR module so that OCS and Human Resources can beginn
planning.
5. Doug Klein encourages exploration of converting CDC and
the Dean of Students offices from Mac to Windows.
6. Doug Klein announced that he, Dave Cossey, Dwight Wolf,
Judy Manchester, and John Skumurski have developed a new simplified set of budget codes
which will allow the College to accurately track expenditures on technology.
Next meeting: Thursday April 27, 2000, 11:15 am. |
