Volume 2, Issue 8

AurThings Learning 2.0 Program Now Open

What is the program about?
The program is based on 23 Things Learning 2.0 program created by Helene Blowers, Technology Director, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. It is set up to encourage exploration of the Internet and web technologies in the hope that not only will employees have fun, but also find new tools to enable them to better support their goals and inspire creativity.

How does it work?
The program is a self-led learning program that has been formatted into a ten week course which will begin July 20, 2009. During this time participants will explore at their own pace and can choose how in depth they go into each activity. Each week participants will be introduced to new Web tools and asked to track participation in a personal blog which they will set up and begin maintaining in week 1. Each person who wishes to receive credit for participating must have and register his/her own blog. There will be no classes or workshops offered to support this program. Instead, participants are encouraged to work together and share their insights, discoveries and solutions through their blogs or in person.

Why should you participate?
This is a great chance to spend time on your personal and professional development. All library staff need to be up-to-date with the latest trends and technology tools that Web 2.0 is bringing us everyday. We need to take time to learn how the tools can be utilized in or with our libraries. And we will know what our library users, especially younger users, are talking about!

Additionally, there is a completion incentive being offered to all permanent employees of the Auraria Library (Faculty, Classified Staff and Exempt Professionals) if you complete the program by October 23, 2009.


For more detailed information and to get started, link to the program at http://aurthings.blogspot.com/

2009 Downtown Denver Annual Employee Awards

Congratulations to Diane Turner for winning the 2009 DOWNTOWN DENVER ANNUAL EMPLOYEE AWARDS for Outstanding Customer Service Award. She will be given the award on Monday at Noon on July 27th in Skyline Park, where Mayor Hickenlooper, Downtown Denver Partnership President & CEO Tami Door, and Kaiser Permanente Colorado President Donna Lynne will honor Diane and two other Downtown employees with awards and Downtown prize packages. I hope some of you can attend.

Volume 2, Issue 7

Holiday Pay- July 3rd
Holiday pay is being given for Friday, July 3rd this year as July 4th falls on a Saturday. For those of you who normally work on Saturday, the Library will be closed, but no holiday pay will be granted for Saturday, only Friday. Please, work with your supervisor to adjust your schedule accordingly.


Budget Update
The MOU has been signed by all three chancellors! Shared Leadership Team members are now considering the criteria for determining allocations for student worker, staff development, and other general operating line items in the budget.

Reclassification Announcements
At the beginning of the Library reorganization a commitment was made to promote from within whenever possible. Many positions have increased in scope and responsibility as a natural outcome of the reorganization which also included several retirements. Due to these changes, and with the new knowledge of our FY10 budget, a package requesting needed reclassifications and two retiree rehires was recently submitted to the Provost. It is a pleasure to announce that these requests have all been given Provost approval and the details of the reclassifications and retiree rehires are described below.

Technical Services:

Valerie Bordas Library Technician I position is recommended for reallocation to a Library Technician II. This recommendation comes as a result of Valerie taking on duties that were held by three higher classed positions including responsibility for all approval and firm monographic orders from YBP and standing orders. For details regarding this new position including more detailed responsibilities, minimum qualifications and application procedures, please see the official job posting which is located in the employee lounge and outside of the restrooms on both floors. This position will be posted for five business days, from June 29, 2009 through July 6, 2009.

Shelley Wendt With a tight learning materials budget, it is more important for us to assess the usage statistics of our resources. Shelley is responsible for generating this information for bibliographers and reporting our statistic to various agencies. Her position was upgraded without salary increase to a Library Technician III in January. We are compensating her at the appropriate level beginning July 1, 2009.

EllenNedzel started in Technical Services as a trainee and has been learning the acquisitions process of e-resources. In Nov./Dec. Ellen will have gained the one year of experience that is needed in order to be reallocated to an LTII, the correct classification of the position she is working in. The position announcement will be posted and shared with the Library in late November or early December.

Vicki Britto Although a majority of the learning materials budget is allocated to electronic resources, we still have print materials that require attention. Vicki will be returning part-time, 30 days after her retirement in order to address this need.

Education, Research and Information Services:

Tobey Stein will return to Auraria part-time following her retirement June 30. She will return sometime in August, when her slightly less than half time employment will be concentrated during those times of the semester when we need her most for classroom library
Instruction and research consultation, so probably during the first half of fall and spring semesters.

Cindy Martinez and Meghan Walker: With the merger of Reserves/Media and ILL and looking forward to the Combined Service Desks, the roles of Cindy M and Meghan Walker have evolved and will continue to do so; therefore, we will be submitting job descriptions detailing their new responsibilities to human resources and envision an upgrade to their current classifications. Provost approval was sought in advance, however approval will still be needed from the UCD HR panel which determines classifications. A job posting announcement and further details will be given after that process is completed.

Administration:

Marical Farner is assuming new responsibilities as Associate Director of Administrative Services, which includes fiscal/budget, facilities, and human resources management, to advance strategic alignment of the library's human and financial resources. In addition to coordinating these functions, she will further workplace learning initiatives.

Mike Furuli In order to allow Marical's role to expand, it was necessary that Mike assume many of the duties that were part of her position including travel, workman's comp tracking and performance management duties. This position has therefore been recommended for reclassification to a Technician IV. For details regarding this new position including more detailed responsibilities, minimum qualifications and application procedures, please see the official job posting which is located in the employee lounge and outside of the restrooms on both floors. This position will be posted for five business days, from June 29, 2009 through July 6, 2009.

Special Projects Team:

Farhad Vakilitabar's position is being recommended for reclassification to a General Professional II. The new responsibilities of this position support the mission of the University of Colorado Denver's Center for Colorado and the West at the Auraria Library, which aims to enhance availability, access, and usage of unique regional research materials. In addition, this position will assume responsibility for the Auraria Library gallery. For details regarding this new position including more detailed responsibilities, minimum qualifications and application procedures, please see the official job posting which is located in the employee lounge and outside of the restrooms on both floors. This position will be posted for five business days, from June 29, 2009 through July 6, 2009.

Thanks to all who have agreed to take on new and different responsibilities as the vision of the Library develops to meet the expanding needs of our users.

Aur Things - Learning 2.0 Program available July 20th
The Auraria Library's version of the 23 Things, Learning 2.0 program originally created by Helene Blowers will be available starting July 20th. This will be a 10 week, self-led, online program which will include introduction to many Internet and web technologies including blogs, facebook, wikis, podcasts,Skillsoft and more. The link for this program will be sent out to the Library list on July 20th. Instructions for how to complete the program will be on the first page of that link. This program is not mandatory, but we hope we have made it exciting and interesting and encourage everyone to participate.

R&R Committee

Please, support the R&R Committee’s Event Fund for birthdays, potlucks and special events. You can give your contribution to Geraldine Archuleta, Nicole Toovey, Marical Farner or Mary Dodge.

July Birthdays will be celebrated on Wednesday, July 1st, 2 pm in the Staff Lounge.

Sabbatical Announcement
I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be on a half-year sabbatical starting on July 1st. I’ll be working on my book on LGBTIQ (that’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer/questioning) librarianship.

I want to thank the folks who’ll be filling in for me while I’m gone. Rosemary Evetts will be working on our part of the IMLS “Creating Communities” grant to digitize Denver neighborhoods. And Meg Brown-Sica and Jeffrey Beall will be handling ADR (Alliance Digital Repository) related issues/business while I’m gone. I know how busy everyone is and truly appreciate their generosity in keeping things running while I’m away.

- Ellen Greenblatt

Volume 2, Issue 6

From Payroll and Benefits:

Reminder: June Monthly Payroll paid on July 1, 2009
Per State of Colorado directive to all state agencies, the June end-of-month pay date will be moved forward to Wednesday, July 1, 2009. Employees should plan ahead for this shift in pay date, especially if any automatic banking bill payments will be affected. The university is not responsible for any financial hardship, includingany potential overdraft charges, created by this pay shift.

University Benefit Deduction Dates Shifting
The university is shifting the deduction date for benefits insurance premiums to post pay. Effective July 1, 2009, all benefits deductions will be taken at the end of the month. As a result, no monthly premiums for University of Colorado medical, dental, life, optional life insurance, AD&D coverage, short-term and long-term disability will be deducted from June paychecks. This change will not impact to coverage for these plans. Please, review their July 31,
2009 pay information carefully to verify that it reflects the correct benefits deductions. This will not affect state medical and dental plans as these are already deducted post pay.


Tobey Stein Retiring
After working in just about every department of the library during most of the years that the Auraria Library has been in existence, Tobey Stein has decided to retire effective June 30, 2009. Most of Tobey’s work has been in the former Architecture and Planning Library and in Reference, Instruction, and Government Publications, where she has provided reference service in person and online and taught many classes in library research, for which she has received many faculty and student commendations. She developed an innovative wiki web site to facilitate student learning and communication. She also works with disabled students on their library research. It was Tobey’s idea to designate computer groups for students and nonstudents during the area remodeling in the summer of 2006, which paved the way for implementing logon software for student and community user areas. In addition to her primary job, Tobey has greatly improved the library’s appearance through her work developing the courtyard plants, and in library displays to promote books and databases. She has contributed to several volunteer projects, such as the holiday mitten tree and food drive for local elementary schools. She also was instrumental in starting the first campus sorority, Sigma Sigma Sigma, a local chapter of the national organization for which she received the campus service award in 2004. She also received the Outstanding Staff Award from the Library in 2007 and the first UCD Chancellor’s Employee of the Month award in 2008 for her teaching and other activities. Tobey, we will miss you!

Louise Treff-Gangler


Technical Services Announcement
On July 6th, Holly Brown will be joining Technical Services in a 6-month temporary position. Holly brings to Auraria Library a wealth of serials experience. For the last nine years, she has been working as our customer service representative at EBSCO, our journal subscription vendor. Please welcome Holly to Auraria Library.


Announcement
The Police Desk at the front entrance/exit of the library will be removed. It is rarely used by the Campus Police and it has caused confusion when patrons sit there.

Evelyn



Technology Department News
General
First of all I would like to congratulate Doug Flint for passing the first of two exams for his A+ certification. Yay, Doug. Also, Niraj will be representing the library on a UCD Computing Standards Committee.

We are getting ready for the III server to move upstairs where it will have improved wiring. That will take place on 6/8. Rick will be supervising the move, but AHEC, ITS, Niraj and Doug will help as needed. There will be III downtime that day. The sign on system for the public computers will be disabled (it usually authenticates through III) that day.

Other projects:
· Hiring another student for the summer
· Computer installation
· Resolving Bugzilla tickets
· Working with Rick to set up an offline Millennium module
· Finalizing the network server move with ITS

Learning Commons Update
Erika Rogers, a consultant will be here between the dates of 6/8-6/19 to help us work on the Learning Commons research plan. You can find information about her company here. Her schedule will be published soon. Tentative information about the work she will do here is found here. We are fleshing out some of our sandbox ideas—ideas that can be tried out easily to see if our users like them-such as a writing center outpost, technology help desk and collaborative work areas. You can find information about these (a work on progress) on our wiki.


Technology Strategy Update
We are working on our first project, which is a Technology Plan for the library. Actually, there will probably be several plans. One might be an “Enterprise Plan” which would cover what software and hardware we have and who is responsible for specific applications, etc. There may also be a strategic plan. The plan we are starting with is general in nature and may cover such topics as are mentioned in this document. The Technology Strategy Committee has a wiki page and we have some sample plans there as well as a list of our members. We are lucky to have Jeff Beel from ITS serving on this committee to give us some outside input. Please feel free to give feedback, leave comments, etc.

-Meg


Congratulations to the Auraria Library faculty whose scholarly articles were published recently:

Beck, T. (2009, January). Encyclopedia of Islam. Charleston Advisor, 10(3), 39-41.

Brown-Sica, Margaret. 2008. "Playing Tag in the Dark: Diagnosing Slowness in Library Response Time." Information Technology & Libraries 27, no. 4: 29-32.

Brown-Sica, Margaret, Karen Sobel, and Denise Pan. 2009. "Learning for All: Teaching Students, Faculty, and Staff with Screencasting." Public Services Quarterly 5, no. 2: 81-97.

Evans, Lorrie, Nina McHale, and Karen Sobel. 2009. "LibGuides." Charleston Advisor 10, no. 3: 47-49.

Ferrer-Vinent, Ignacio J., and Christy A. Carello. 2008. "Embedded Library Instruction in a First-Year Biology Laboratory Course." Science & Technology Libraries 28, no. 4: 325-351.

Somerville, Mary M., and Lydia Collins. 2008. "Collaborative design: a learner-centered library planning approach." Electronic Library 26, no. 6: 803-820.

Somerville, Mary M., and Zaana Howard. 2008. "Systems thinking: an approach for advancing workplace information literacy." Australian Library Journal 57, no. 3: 257-273.

Volume 2, Issue 5

Faculty/Staff Library Fines
The Circulation policy and loan parameters for Auraria faculty/staff have been changed. We no longer charge a $25.00 fine, per item, if library books are returned after the 30 day grace period. We also are not charging faculty/staff $25.00 replacement book processing fees or sending faculty/staff to State Collections for non-returned billed items. This affects Circulation and ILL. Faculty/staff will still have a 6 month loan period on books.
Faculty/staff are still blocked from checking out additional library materials and also blocked from off campus access to databases for non-returned or overdue items on their account. Items are still billed at $125.00 after 30 days overdue and faculty/staff are still responsible for returning items.
If a faculty/staff member has fines (not billed items) on their account from materials checked out from July 1, 2008, through the present, they can have a Circulation supervisor or staff member waive the fees. Circulation will also be waiving faculty/staff fines that we discover using create list reports. An updated Circulation policy will be sent to Shared Leadership and posted on our web page after some additional revisions are made to the Media loan rules.
- Evelyn Jamerino



Open Enrollment Update
Open Enrollment is available through May 22nd at 5:00p.m. You must make elections by the end of OE, or you will be defaulted into your current medical, dental, life, and disability insurance plans and coverage levels. To enroll online or find the paper enrollment form, please go to: https://www.cu.edu/pbs/openenrollment/index.html Rates aren't available as of this posting, but are expected to be posted on the above site within the next few days and no later than May 14th. For more FAQ's about the rate delay see: https://www.cu.edu/pbs/openenrollment/rates-faq.html No paper packets are being sent to home addresses this year. To find your PIN number and enroll online, or to find a paper form, please see the first link above. A confirmation of your elections will be sent to your home address as listed in PeopleSoft sometime in June, 2009.


Technology Update:
We are progressing with the move of our server functions (except III) to virtual machines at ITS. We recently provided ITS with the information they need regarding our software. These servers will be newer, and have a better back up model. Instead of having several physical servers we will have many applications running on partitioned areas on one large server at ITS. We will continue to have full access to our applications.
We will take over the maintenance of the Learning Commons hardware and software the week of May 18th. The Commons may be shut for a day or two during the switch. Also Doug returned after a week of training, and a week of vacation and we are glad to have him back.

Learning Spaces Committee:
A wiki site has been set up for the Learning Spaces Committee/Learning Commons project. Please take a look and feel free to post comments in the “discussion area. ” For an update on where the project is, please see the minutes from the last meeting. In that meeting we identified ideas which could be implemented soon and are gathering the information we need (cost, staffing, etc.) to do some of these things. The projects we are considering are:
· Writing Center Desk
· Technology Help Desk
· Collaborative Technology Area
· Area with in depth information about the project
We are also trying to reach out to different colleges in order to involve them in this project.

Technology Strategy Committee:
We are working on a technology strategy plan. We have a wiki site and have posted several examples of library and university technology plans. Our assignment for the next meeting is to come up with a table of contents for the plan. At the next meeting we will finalize the areas we want the plan to cover.

Volume 2, Issue 4

The FY10 Open Enrollment has been rescheduled for May 14 - May 28, 2009
The State of Colorado has delayed their open enrollment because of delays in setting premium rates for their plans. Due to this fact, University Open Enrollment will be from May 14 - May 28, 2009 rather than April 27 - May 22, 2009. Premiums are still unknown at this time, but will be shared prior to Open Enrollment.

The current Open Enrollment calendar is posted in the employee lounge and is also available electronically at: https://www.cu.edu/pbs/openenrollment/downloads/OE-Calendar.pdf Note that only the enrollment dates have changed, all other information on informational sessions and carrier fairs is accurate.

Dependent Social Security Numbers (SSN) Now Required
A federal mandate administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services now requires SSNs for employees and their covered dependents for coordination of benefits. To comply with this mandate, you must provide an SSN for each of your covered dependents in this year's open enrollment. The university and PBS will continue to be diligent in the protection of your personal data.

Auraria Library Annual Award Winners
Congratulations to this year's deserving 2008 faculty award winners!

Excellence in Librarianship - Cynthia Hashert

Researcher/Creative Artist of the Year - Meg Brown-Sica

Service Person of the Year - Gayle Bradbeer


Ergonomic Evaluation Update
First, a sincere thank you to Ellen Nedzel for agreeing to complete the remaining ergonomic evaluations. Evaluations have been completed for everyone who has expressed the desire to have one or is scheduled in the immediate future. If you were waiting to get an evaluation due to moving or changing equipment I ask that you schedule an appointment with Ellen no later than May 1st as any equipment you might need will should be ordered within the next two weeks to meet fiscal year deadlines.

Speaking of the end of the fiscal year, everyone who is in need of a new chair needs to submit that request to Becky Robinson no later Friday, May 1st. If you would like to view available chair models, please follow this link: http://www.coloradoci.com/ then click "seating", "view catalog" and "task". All chairs will be ordered in Companion Navy fabric. If none of the available chairs will work for you due to a special requirement, please contact Becky as soon as possible to discuss alternate options.

Please, contact Marical Farner if you have had an evaluation, but still do not feel that all of your ergonomic needs have been met or if initial work space solutions are not standing the test of time and need to be reconsidered.

Update from the Technology Department:
Last week Niraj was in Microsoft Server training and Doug took some vacation so we had some Bugzilla tickets pile up. Hopefully we will get things under control early this week. Projects we are working on: continuing to set up computers and improve our procedures for doing so, ordering Camtasia for those who need it, installing software for ILL (a big job), working out switch/jack issues in the Special Projects area, and working on a research plan for the Learning Commons, among other things. Niraj will talk to ITS about changing some network set ups, based on knowledge he gained from his class. We are gathering information about all of the applications on our servers so that we can begin the move to virtual servers at ITS. This set up will provide better backup, more up to date hardware and be more economic for the library.

Help! We are having trouble determining what has been purchased and when it was received. We document purchases in the department but we need some cooperation. When anything technology related arrives please sent it to 256 first so that we can document receiving it and make sure we get the licensing information, informational materials, etc. We also need to see if anything is missing. I have put a procedure in writing on the on the wiki here. Please feel free to comment, give us suggestions, etc.

Volume 2, issue 3

Voluntary Separation Incentives
I have received more official information regarding Voluntary Furloughs and Voluntary Separation Incentives and have distributed to all Classified Staff and their supervisors a letter which provides some detail. You can view the letter at: http://intranet.auraria.edu/wiki/images/a/a9/VSIP-retirement_letter_3-18-09.doc

For further information you can contact Marical Farner or Cindy Melvin in UCD Human Resources at 303-315-2706.



Technical Services Announcement
Starting Monday April 6th the interior backdoor of Room 118 will be closed and unlocked during business hours (8-5). All library staff and faculty will still be able to enter without a key during business hours. However, signs are posted on the exterior and interior back doors, instructing visitors to knock for admittance.
Let me know if you have questions or see Shared Leadership Team meeting minutes for further information http://intranet.auraria.edu/wiki/index.php/SLT_Meeting_Minutes_4-2-09.

Room 245 Fundraising Progress
With gifts from Bill Jackson ($55,000), Friends Group ($25,000), Luff Family Foundation ($25,000), and misc. ($6,000), a total of $111,000 has been raised toward a $150,000 goal to remodel Room 245. These generous gifts will enable us to duplicate the success in the Jackson Enhanced Learning Center in the second floor instruction room 245.

Call for Entertainment Committee Members
The Library is in need of an entertainment committee whose basic charge will be planning and facilitating retirement parties, potlucks and annual recognition events. The committee may choose to expand its charge to include birthdays or other employee related entertainment events and recognition. If interested, please contact Marical Farner by Tuesday, April 14th. If you are interested in acting as a volunteer when you are available, but do not want to serve as a committee member, please contact Marical as well.



Update from the Technology Department:
Now that our staffing has stabilized, we are slowly getting things in order. This week we worked on the following projects:

· Doug is working on organizing old equipment for recycling-though we have gotten the word
that we can’t get anything picked up for a while.
· All of us have been working on getting our purchasing in order. Niraj has started a new system for keeping track of purchases. We are determining what we have and who it is for. We didn’t have staff to open and set up computers in the last few months, so we are working through waiting equipment right now. Niraj and I are working to figure out how much money is left in our budget so we can finish our spending.
· Niraj has been doing a lot of work/research in order to upgrade our ILL technology and get
it set up in a new area. This will be a time consuming project.
· Doug has been working his way through Bugzilla tickets, catching up on the backlog.
· We will deploy 11 new laptops in ELC. We are working on the image.
· Doug and I researched some options for projection in the Friends Conference Room.
· Nina, Niraj and I worked on Disaster Recovery information for the Continuation of Operations Committee.
· I arranged for John Culshaw from the Norlin library at the University of Boulder to speak to the Learning Commons Planning Committee this past Tuesday about the project at Norlin.
· I contacted ITS to see when we could start the joint project which will evaluate all of our server applications and move those that are viable over to virtual servers at ITS. At the same time we hope to clean up any troublesome network setups. I also asked them to help us with some input on the local computer permissions. We want to keep the extra work that will be required for maintenance to a minimum, while also giving people more freedom. In addition I am asking them to train some of us on technology roll-outs and project lifecycles.
· We have been working on departmental goals and individual plans. Here is a list of some of our departmental goals for the next year:

v ITS Networking Project
v Permissions Investigations Project
v Learning Commons Planning Committee (Meg)
v Improved communication between the department and the library
v Tech Strategy Committee start up---this committee will be writing a technology plan, make a
list of assignments for the Emerging Technology Subcommittee, etc.
v Emerging Technology Committee start up
v Toy library-project of the Emerging Technology Committee
v Single Sign on/Library Applications—trying to make using things like Bugzilla and Basecamp easier
v Doug-apple training
v Bugzilla-Working to make this easier to use
v Off hours support plan
v Departmental training
v Taking over the maintenance in the Library Commons from MSCD
v Working to transfer the Pay for Print operation to Clicks
v Analyze Bugzilla Data and use it to improve workflow/education/etc.


A few more notes: Rick will be devoting himself entirely to III issues and no longer helping out in our department. We thank Rick for all of his tireless help in the past. Thanks to the people who applied to be on the Emerging Technology Committee. This committee has been delayed until the Technology Strategy Committee gets started. Niraj and Doug will be in touch.

-Meg

Volume 2, issue 2

Visiting Scholar, March 16th - March 19th
Dr. Anita Mirijamdotter is Professor and Head of Research for Social Informatics in the School of Mathematics and Systems Engineering at Växjö University, Sweden. She also serves as chair of the Växjö University Computer Science research board. In June 2009, she will keynote the Evidence-Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP5) conference in Stockholm, Sweden. For more information about the conference, see: http://blogs.kib.ki.se/eblip5/

On Tuesday, March 17th, from 2 – 3 in the ELC B, she will discuss Scandinavian-style workplace communication, decision-making, and planning practices. In addition, she will describe a student-generated study of the Lulea University of Technology learning commons.


Faculty Reading Room
The Auraria Library will be closing the Faculty Reading Room at the end of March 2009. This space will be incorporated into office and processing space for the Special Projects team. As we re-envision our learning and collection spaces on the first floor and as we pursue our strategic plan goals, we will be exploring services and resources that will have a positive, meaningful impact on the faculty.


Auraria Library Essay Contest Awards Reception
All are invited to the Awards Reception to congratulate our six winners for this year’s essay contest:
Wednesday, March 18th
2:00 PM
Jackson ELC
(no need to RSVP)


Emerging Technology Subcommittee
As you may have noticed there are some changes to the committee structure. There will be a Technology Strategy Committee and it will have a subcommittee called the Emerging Technology Subcommittee. The descriptions can be found in this report. We need to find members for the Emerging Technology subcommittee. The plan is to have the subcommittee decide on new members but since it is just starting I am going to have Doug and Niraj work together to choose committee members, as they are standing members. The most important traits would be: 1) a real commitment from you and your supervisor for you to put some real energy into the process of checking out new technology, 2) an interest and enthusiasm for technology and 3) an ability to work well with others and consider the whole library when evaluating products.
If you are interested in applying (this is open to student employees as well), please fill out this short form. I encourage anyone who might be interested to apply. We need enthusiasm..that is the only real requirement.



Systems/Technology Department Update
First of all I wanted to publically thank everyone who worked so hard during the last six months to make sure that things kept running: Gayle Bradbeer, Nina McHale, Rick Boeder, Doug Flint, Niraj Chaudhary, Rick Simons, Shelley Wendt, Farhad Vakilitabar, Eric Baker and many, many others. We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help. And a special thanks to Doug and Rick Boeder, whose often unnoticed yet superhuman efforts kept the library up and running in February.
This is a really exciting time for our department. There are a lot of changes going on and I wanted the library to be updated. Niraj Chaudhary is back with us as of February 25. During the time since he started as a permanent employee, Niraj, Doug, Rick Boeder and our new students have worked very hard to bring the Bugzilla count down from 129 to 68. This is our first priority. Our next priorities are: to recycle a lot of out of date equipment which we have stashed in various places, to finish purchasing which has been put off (please send me any thoughts about technology purchasing ASAP), set up and install many computers which we have in the building, train students and start establish work flows and procedures. It will not happen overnight, but we hope to slowly see improvements.
We have hired three students to help with the work in our department. Their names are Philip Leo, Sohrab Islamzai, and Trijoon Pradhan. You will probably come in contact with them. We are also rethinking the space we have and have started to use part of 256 for setting up computers and for student work. We will be moving the III server out of 109B during spring break and will soon stop using that room. We are having x6003 moved to ring up there.
I want to emphasize that I appreciate everyone using Bugzilla. I know that thus far it may have felt that you were not getting much of a response, but that will improve as our staffing becomes more established. I also want people to feel free to call x6003, which we still monitor, for emergencies, etc.
I want to thank everyone for their patience during a tough six months, but I think that we are on an upswing now and you will see service significantly improve in the next six months.


Maymester
UCD is initiating a Maymester from May 19-June 5 this year. Therefore, instead of the Library closing earlier during this first intercession, we will be open the following hours. Our revised bookmarks with Maymester and Summer hours will be coming out soon.

Maymester May 19 – June 5

Library hours

Sat May 16 9 am to 5 pm End of Spring semester for MSCD/UCD
Sun May 17 Closed
Mon May 18 8 am to 5 pm

Tue May 19 7:30 am to 9 pm Beginning of Maymester
Wed May 20 – Thu May 21 7:30 am – 9 pm
Fri May 22 7:30 am – 5 pm
Sat May 23 9 am to 5 pm
Sun May 24 Closed
Mon May 25 Closed Memorial Day
Tue May 26 – Thu May 28 7:30 am – 9 pm MSCD/CCD Summer term starts
Fri May 29 7:30 am -5 pm
Sat May 30 9 am to 5 pm
Sun May 31 Closed
Mon June 1 – Thu June 4 7:30 am – 9 pm
Fri June 5 7:30 am – 5 pm Maymester ends
Sat June 6 9 am to 5 pm


April 8th Deadline for Resissued Tax Documents
Employees can request PBS to reissue 2008 tax documents (W-2 and 1042-S) through Wednesday, April 8, 2009 and still meet the 2008 tax filing deadline. Employees can pick up
documents in person or request they be mailed. If an employee wants to pick up a reissued W-2 or 1042-S (Foreign Person's U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding), PBS will
guarantee its availability for pick up at the PBS office (3100 Marine Street, 6th Floor, Boulder) by April 14, provided that a properly completed Form W-2/Form 1042-S Reissue Request
form has been received by April 8, 2009. Requests made after this date cannot be guaranteed to be completed in time, since PBS requires up to four business days for processing and they cannot fax or email reissued tax documents. If an employee wants a tax form to be mailed, it
is strongly suggested PBS receive the request in time to allowsufficient time for U.S. Post Office delivery. PBS does not guarantee receipt of mailed tax forms. Employees can now also
access and print out their own W-2 replacement copy by logging into their campus portal.