Category: News

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

macOS Catalina Released

Apple has released the latest version of the Mac operating system: macOS Catalina (10.15). Currently, there are no plans to push this upgrade out via AirWatch, so staff may choose to manually install if desired. However, a couple of things to keep in mind before you upgrade:

Catalina drops support for 32-Bit apps

We don’t recommend upgrading to macOS Catalina without first confirming that the apps you need are 64-Bit. 32-Bit apps will not work on Catalina.

How can I tell which apps are 32-Bit?

Here’s a quick and easy way to check:

  1. Click the Apple icon on the left side of your menu bar
  2. Select About This Mac
  3. Select System Report…
  4. Under Software (third drop-down), choose Applications
  5. Look under the field 64-Bit (Intel) to see which of your apps are 64-Bit vs 32-Bit; you can click on the field to sort 32-Bit apps first

What do I do if an app I need is 32-Bit?

First, check to see if your app is up-to-date; if not, install the updates. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, then you’ll have to stick with your current version of macOS until you can find a suitable alternative, or the app’s developer updates to 64-Bit.

Upgrading Parallels

Upgrading macOS before installing the latest version of Parallels may prevent your VMs from booting up. If you use Parallels and would like to upgrade macOS, please let LTDS know via INFORM so we can purchase a new Parallels license for you first.

 

 

With that said, it’s generally a good idea to wait for a major update (10.15.1) or two (10.15.2) before upgrading to a new macOS. This gives Apple time to identify and resolve many of the initial issues related to a new macOS release. If you have any questions or concerns about updating your Mac to Catalina, please let us know!

AirWatch for Staff Macs

As many of our staff Mac users are aware, LTDS is in the process of deploying AirWatch, a mobile device management (MDM) solution that the University uses to administrate Macs around campus. Moving to AirWatch allows us to remotely manage our Mac computers through a central online console. Through this console, we’re able to:

  • See the current owner of a computer
  • Read information about the model to inform hardware replacements
  • View the OS version to ensure that everyone is using a currently supported macOS
  • Deploy applications
  • Assign profiles to computers that enforce specified policies, like FileVault encryption
  • Lock the device should it ever become lost or stolen
  • Provide an App Catalog in the Dock from which you can install on-demand applications as desired

If you have any questions about or issues with AirWatch, please let us know.

Using Microsoft Planner to organize your projects

A few years ago, many of us in the library discovered Trello and began using it to help our projects stay on track and organized. It’s been a wonderful tool, but unfortunately for us, they recently went to a new pricing setup that prevents the library from using it going forward.

Fortunately, this happened just as the library was starting to move toward using the Office 365 suite of applications provided by the university. One of the applications in the suite is Microsoft Planner, a project planning tool that is very similar to Trello. LTDS is encouraging library staff to make the transition to Planner as you have new projects to track. Several library groups have already started using Planner, including LTDS (unit), ACE (unit), and the Revised Common Lectionary group (project). You might want to use it as a department, a committee/task force, a project group, or any other configuration of people. It’s up to you!

Don’t worry — we’re here to help you get started! Simply submit an Inform to get the process rolling. LTDS must do the initial setup for you at this time, and then you’ll have free reign to set up your tasks (cards) within your plan (board). LTDS is also available to provide a basic overview of the Planner interface.

Public Mac Deep Freeze Upgrade

With macOS High Sierra, Apple introduced a new file system creatively named Apple File System (APFS), replacing the old HFS+ file system (also known as Mac OS Extended) from the 90s. Unfortunately, Deep Freeze at the time was incompatible with APFS-formatted volumes, preventing us from upgrading our public Macs beyond macOS Sierra. For those unfamiliar with Faronics Deep Freeze, it is reboot to restore software; in other words, any changes made to a computer do not persist across reboots, thus protecting the machine and reducing administrative time.

Faronics recently released Deep Freeze Mac version 7 with full APFS compatibility, allowing us to upgrade to the recently released macOS Mojave starting with the Science Library’s public iMacs. LTDS plans to upgrade the remaining public Macs this summer.

What has LTDS been doing the week of 8/31-9/6

Alma/Primo (Jamen, Nancy, Tao)
* Replaced Alumni IDs with Alt-IDs (from Sirsi)
* Continued to work on clean-up projects including the duplicate charges
* Configure Sandbox access
* Continue working on notification letters

Desktop/Application support (Judy, Matt, Nancy, Jamen)
* Deployed a few new laptops
* Processed new and released ETD’s/troubleshoot ETD’s
* Ordered equipment, computers and software
* Troubleshooting hardware issues
* Worked with VUIT on increasing resources to improve performance

Digital Collections (Nathan, Judy, Scott)
* DIL got up to full speed with a working plan for scanning
* Continued to upload items into the system
* Scanned items for upcoming Divinity exhibit
* Created book batches to prepare items for ingest
* Ingesting ESSSS scans & troubleshooting

Web/Web applications (Jodie, Jamen, Matt)
* Drafted document detailing the election process for Library Advisory Council
* Resolved several issues with the commodore-r-group repo/website in Github
* Renewed & installed SSL certificates
* Setting up “From the Director’s Chair” box on Biomedical home page
* Continued cleaning up formatting issues
* Implemented accessibility improvements on Heard and division home pages

Other (all):
* Triage inform tickets
* Alumni access issues
* Answering Libanswers related to Alma/Library Catalog
* Training of LTDS Student Assistants
* Calibrate and test 3D printer upgrade
* Begin adding LogMeIn and local accounts to podium computers

Inform tickets resolved through Thursday: