LTDS is now LTAS

Library Technology and Digital Services (LTDS) name has changed to Library Technology and Assessment Services (LTAS) to emphasize the addition of library assessment. The team continues to support all library systems and digital initiatives. Over the next few weeks, we will update various websites to reflect the change. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you.

LTAS Team Members:
Dale Poulter – Director
Jamen McGranahan – Associate Director
Matt Dillingham – Web developer
Jodie Gambill – Web Development Lead and Librarian for Digital Projects
Lee Ann Lannom – Assessment Librarian
Seeraj Somla – Associate Cloud Engineer
Scott Walker – Library Web Applications Administrator
Tao You – Librarian for Assessment and Digital Projects

The full organizational chart for the Library is available here.

LTDS Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2023

Library Technology and Digital Services (LTDS) Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 (October 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022) 

This second quarter of fiscal year 2023 was busy for the team but they also had the opportunity to take a break for the holidays. The team was able to complete several projects (tasks requiring more than 40 hours of work) and still resolve an impressive number of INFORM tickets.
  

A few of the projects that LTDS completed during the past quarter are:  

  • Completed implementing new campus branding on LTDS managed sites. 
    • Brings the library into compliance with campus guidelines. 
  • Performed an additional upgrade of ArchivesSpace and continued work to integrate with other systems. 
    • Assures that security patches are applied and allows us to continue to work towards a more inclusive discovery environment. 
  • Completed cleanup of diacritics for the Green Glass process 
    • This was required for the project to move forward. 
  • Completed testing of the AWS storage gateway 
    • The AWS Storage Gateway (ASG) will provide growth opportunities for the library digital collections. 
  • Completed migration of common area phones 
  • Created new quarterly report site for ACE 
    • This new site will enable ACE to publish information about the library.  
  • Upgraded all Omeka instances 
  • Created display for Occuspace data 
    • Provides a tool to determine where study space is available. 
  • Officially completed Alma-D implementation 
    • Alma-D allows users to access some items, such as digital scores, directly through Primo. 
  • Completed automation of BPA record additions to Fedora. 
  • Completed updates to the staff directory 
    • This updated to staff information with contact changes that have occurred over the last few years. The form remains available for future changes. 
  • Implemented new solution for email processing in INFORM 

 

 Partnerships:  

LTDS continues to work with other groups in the libraries, on campus, and in the broader library community. Selected partnerships during the first quarter are listed below.  

  • ACE on the web migration project. This project is co-chaired by Jodie Gambill and Kristina Bisbee and will migrate the primary library website from Omni to WordPress.  
  • SCUA and Digital Preservation to develop improved workflows for assuring that digital collections are preserved and discoverable.   
  • VUIT Genesis project to complete migration of library application authentication to the new campus system. These changes allow us to continue to use VUNetIDs for authentication.  
  • PSI and Center for Teaching to maintain LTI integration between Leganto and Brightspace. 
  • Digital Strategies to utilize the new campus web templates and deploy the new server.   
  • VUIT Cloud Services team and VUIT Storage team to explore storage options for the growing needs for library digital collections.  
  • VUIT Desktop Engineering continued collaboration to support library staff and circulating laptops.  

   

LTDS by the numbers:   

  • Number of Proxy Sessions:  162,713 
  • Number of Informs Resolved: 452  
  • Number of servers managed: 35+   
  • Number of items added to Fedora:  73,482 
  • Number of sites and applications managed: 150+ 

  

During the coming months LTDS will continue to work on several projects including:  

  • Creating a set of tools for staff to assist in sharing metadata from digital objects between systems  
  • Continued work to migrate resources from older systems to current technologies. 
  • Increased transparency concerning storage use 
  • Migrate additional digital content to the storage gateway 

 

LTDS First Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 

LTDS First Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 (July 1, 2022 – September 30, 2022)

 

This first quarter of fiscal year 2023 was another productive period for LTDS (Library Technology and Digital Services). The team was able to complete several projects (tasks requiring more than 40 hours of work) and still resolve an impressive number of INFORM tickets.
 

A few of the projects that LTDS completed during the past quarter are: 

  • Migrated systems using LDAP authentication to the new LDAP authentication servers 
    • This will allow us to continue to access resources using the campus LDAP instance.   
    • The change does not allow VUMC users to access some resources due to information not being available in the system.  
  • Migrated the Digital Commons website to the library website 
    • Allows the Digital Commons resources to be available and the web presence maintained through the library website. 
  • Redeveloped Primo views to utilize the upgraded software provided by Ex Libris 
    • Ex Libris changed the version of the programming language (AngularJS) that is used to present the Primo interface.   
    • Several parts of the Vanderbilt code needed to be adjusted to maintain compatibility with the recent changes. 
  • Upgraded ArchivesSpace 
    • The updated version of ArchivesSpace provides a foundation for new services in the coming years. 
  • Began use of CloudFront distribution 
    • The CloudFront distribution (CDN) provides a central repository for library web assets. This AWS (Amazon Web Services) based system allows for core web elements (branding, menus, styles, etc.) to be changed in one place and reflected across all library sites utilizing the CDN.  
    • The next project is to incorporate the CDN into additional systems. 

Partnerships: 

LTDS continues to work with other groups in the libraries, on campus, and in the broader library community. Selected partnerships during the first quarter are listed below. 

  • ACE on the web migration project. This project is co-chaired by Jodie Gambill and Kristina Bisbee and will migrate the primary library website from Omni to WordPress. 
  • SCUA and Digital Preservation to develop improved workflows for assuring that digital collections are preserved and discoverable.  
  • VUIT Genesis project to complete migration of library application authentication to the new campus system. These changes allow us to continue to use VUNetIDs for authentication. 
  • PSI and Center for Teaching to implement the improved LTI integration between Leganto and Brightspace. 
  • Digital Strategies to utilize the new campus web templates and deploy the new server.  
  • VUIT Cloud Services team and VUIT Storage team to explore storage options for the growing needs for library digital collections. 
  • VUIT Desktop Engineering continued collaboration to support library staff and circulating laptops. 

  

LTDS by the numbers:  

  • Number of Proxy Sessions: 145,166 
  • Number of Informs Resolved: 697 
  • Number of servers managed: 35+  
  • Number of items added to Fedora: 484 
  • Number of websites rebranded: 110+ 
  • Number of sites and applications managed: 150+

 

During the coming months LTDS will continue to work on several projects including: 

  • Creating a set of tools for staff to assist in sharing metadata from digital objects between systems 
  • Adding information about space usage in the libraries to the website. 
  • Adding additional storage capacity to digital collections. 
  • Continued work to migrate resources from older systems to current technologies. 

DMARC

Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) is an email process that assists in preventing phishing attempts.    DMARC looks at an email and determines if the information about who is sending the email matches with the sending server information.

in order to fully implement DMARC LTDS has been working with VUIT to change how email from some of our systems are sent.  LTDS has made and implemented changes for Alma, myEMMA, and other systems over the past 6 months.  We believe all issues have been resolved based on current information.

 

For additional information see:

What is DMARC – How Does DMARC Work?
https://mxtoolbox.com/dmarc/details/what-is-dmarc

Overview

Overview

New feature in the Institutional Repository

In the previous Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) system users were able to limit their search by department.  This search feature was lost when the ETD system moved to the VUIR.  LTDS has deployed a new department facet to VUIR to reenable this functionality.  Since limiting by ETD department is only relevant to ETDs,  this facet is only available in the ETD community (https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/handle/1803/9598) .

Streaming videos

Do you have a training video that you want to make available via the web?  We can help!

LTDS has created a tool that allows you to easily link to videos you create and stream them through the campus streaming server. These links can be either limited to users with a VUNetID or open to the public.  Once your directory has been setup,  you can link additional videos when they are ready.

Contact LTDS if you would like to utilize this resource.

New Zoom version available

Zoom has release a new version of the client that will be required before the end of May.  Please upgrade to the newest client, version 5,  as soon as possible.  There are two ways to upgrade the client.

 

Zoom update method

  1. Start the Zoom client

  1. Click on your profile

  1. Click  check for updates

  1. Select upgrade now.

 

Direct download and install method

  1. Click on the link below

https://zoom.us/client/latest/ZoomInstaller.exe

  1. Once downloaded, double click to install

LTDS February 22th – February 28th 2020

LTDS spend much of the week upgrading systems around the institutional repository as well as working to resolve issues around a data feed on Thursday.

  • Alma/Primo
    • Alma, informs, Letter customization
    • login issue on Thursday
    • Work on the statistics dashboard
  • Desktop/Application support
    • Located last remaining few machines without the SCCM configured
    • Worked with Dell to determine issues with a couple of bad devices
  • Digital Collections/Digital Preservation
    • Adding public web header/footer to ArchivesSpace
    • Added additional exhibit website
    • Upgraded DSpace
    • ArchivesSpace UI work
  • Web/Web applications
    • Updating ILLiad links to utilize SSO on the public web.
    • Made large-scale corrections to address security vulnerabilities within the Lectionary site discovered through monitoring
    • Migrated and upgrade gallery.l.v.e  to new server
  • Other
    • Attending serverless conference
    • Preparation work for upcoming conferences
    • Committee (local and national) work

 

LTDS February 9th – February 22nd 2020

During these two weeks,  LTDS made progress towards several long term projects including going live with the new ILLiad pages, upgrading the development environment for OJS and adding changes to the ArchivesSpace interface.  Additional changes include:

 

  • Alma/Primo
    • Work on Grima to resolve enumeration issue
    • Alma letter changes and adding version control
    • ILLiad url changes
  • Desktop/Application support
    • identifying last remaining windows 7 machine in the library
    • Deploying new workstations
    • Tracking down laptops/ revising workflows
    • Reviewing process for VDI issues
  • Digital Collections/Digital Preservation
    • libguide styles
    • New exhibit wordpress site
    • Final changes to the new IR site and preparing to move to production
  • Web/Web applications
    • Library News Online enhancements
      • Increased security on the technology in the libraries site.
      • Various changes to public web change log
      • Work to migrate lectionary authentication away from old framework — part of larger framework migration.
  • Other
    • reviewing public key identification
    • increasing documentation
    • Committee work

 

 

LTDS February 2nd – February 8th 2020

LTDS made significant progress towards several planned system upgrades including VUIR, OJS, and ILLiad among other projects this week.

 

  • Alma/Primo
    • NERS requests submissions for Alma
    • Work on enumeration issues
    • Annex item transfer batch procedure
  • Desktop/Application support
    • Started replacing final windows 7 machines
    • Several issues with telephones
  • Digital Collections/Digital Preservation
    • VURJ template discussion and training
    • OJS upgrade development site
    • ArchivesSpace UI work
    • VUIR development work
  • Web/Web applications
    • ILLiad front-end changes –preparing for upgrade
    • Drafted a report on the current state of accessibility on the library public website
    • continue to resolve issues related to typography refresh
  • Other
    • Conference work with eBUG/ELUNA/TLA/LITA/LLAMA
    • Sharepoint