Category: Articles

Rutgers Connect Coming to Rutgers University Libraries
As many in the Libraries have already heard, the university has started the migration of faculty and staff email and calendaring to a unified system, called Rutgers Connect, in the Microsoft Cloud using Office 365. The Libraries are scheduled to migrate in Phase 2, sometime between June and August of 2016, but we are still working with colleagues in the Health Sciences Libraries to determine whether they will be part of the Libraries’ migration, or remain part of RBHS, which is scheduled to migrate in the ongoing Phase 1.

There is plenty of good news to look forward to, even if some effort will be required from everyone in the course of the migration:
- Uniform availability anytime, anywhere, of mail, calendar, and the basic Office 365 applications on any platform: Windows, Mac as well as tablets and smart phones of all three flavors (Android, iOS, and Windows)
- The Office 365 cloud-based suite offers all major productivity apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote, which will also be available in desktop versions
- The email/calendaring client, called Outlook, including Tasks and Contacts (now called People), and its Web-based version, called OWA (for Outlook Web Access), offer each user 50 Gigabytes of mail storage – an order of magnitude higher than what is currently available
- In addition to the large mail quota, each user will get 1 Terabyte of shareable file storage for collaboration (similar to Google Docs) on Microsoft OneDrive that will show up in your Windows Explorer (now called File Explorer in Windows 10; had been called File Manager before 2000) as just another “drive”
- In addition, Rutgers Connect includes access to Skype for Business for everyone
- More collaboration tools (like SharePoint) will be probably added in 2017
The Rutgers Office of Information Technology (OIT) has contracted a third-party integrator, Comparex, to help with the migration. They will provide webinar-based instruction and tutorials for the use of the entire Office 365 suite. The Libraries’ own Integrated Information Systems (IIS), together with the Libraries’ Unit Computing Specialists, will provide local, customized help in transitioning from Zimbra to Outlook.

As part of the transition to Office 365, our email addresses will change from “@rulmail.rutgers.edu” to the more intuitive “@libraries.rutgers.edu.” To prepare for this change, everyone is encouraged to set up a Rutgers-wide alias in the form of [firstname].[lastname]@rutgers.edu, and have it point to the current @rulmail.rutgers.edu address. (This can be done now by each user on their own, or IIS can help with the rather simple process that takes but a few minutes.)

Much more information will follow in the coming weeks and months as IIS prepares the support infrastructure for everyone to use. We will have a Communications Plan and a Support Website (just like for the Zimbra transition in 2011) with all relevant information, so you won’t have to search several Rutgers sites for every detail. The final migration plan itself will be worked out together with representatives of OIT and Comparex about one month before the actual date.

Here are a few pointers to alleviate early concerns:
- The current @rulmail.rutgers.edu addresses will forward incoming mail to our new accounts for one full year after migration (without the possibility of logging into the old account) – so that people will have plenty of time to adjust their external list subscriptions.
- All internal lists will be migrated and/or updated manually by IIS, or support will be provided for lists that we don’t have access to.
- Since all Rutgers Faculty and Staff domains will “trust” each other, it will be easy to find anyone in the global directory, and to sign up for lists from other departments.
Please look for a lot more information coming to your mailboxes as we move closer to the migration period. It is a good idea to take the online webinars close to the migration date (so as not to forget everything by the time you need to use the new apps). In the meantime, please let IIS know of any concern or question you might have at support@rulhelp.rutgers.edu and, in a few weeks, at the support website.
March 31, 2016
Changes to the Events and News sections of the website

Rutgers University Libraries website will be getting a slight facelift in order to feature more of our news stories and to accommodate our new events calendar. News and Events will now appear in separate sections and will contain more visual content.

The News Section

The News section will now feature a rotating gallery that displays four thumbnail images, each with a headline. Users can scroll to read additional stories or click on the thumbnails/headlines to read more. There will also be a jump button to the archives for news stories.

To submit news, please contact Jessica Pellien.

The Events Section

A rotating carousel of featured events will run in the Events section with a link to enter the calendar page. The content for this section will be selected from the events submitted by event organizers. There will also be a link to the complete events calendar which can be sorted or filtered by location, date, type of event, etc. For more information on how the Calendar will work, please scroll down.

The Featured Collection Section

The appearance of this section will essentially remain the same. Please continue sending submissions for this to Mary Ann Koruth.

Events Calendar:

The newly developed Libraries events calendar will include events hosted and sponsored by the Libraries, as well as events sponsored by other organizations that are using our facilities and may be of interest to our users. You can preview the calendar here (please note that not all the features may be functional yet and that this link can only be viewed from within the Libraries).

Event organizers can submit their events via a simple web form that includes a short description, an image for the event, location, date, time, and contact. The events will not be “live” on our public events calendar until they have been moderated by the Communications Department. It is recommended that you upload your event as soon as you have the information for the listing—event title, description, date, time, location, image. The Communications Department can make changes to the events posting after it is published on the Libraries website. Additional documentation on adding an event will be available at the event submission website.

March 31, 2016
New Brunswick Libraries Reorganization
After more than a year of collaborative planning, visioning and modeling, the New Brunswick Libraries have launched our new organizational structure. Three departments—Experience, Learning & Engagement, and Research & Content—were created to focus our efforts, amplify our voices, and align our work more closely with organizational priorities.

Within the departments, ten teams (listed below) have been tasked with identifying opportunities for shared work and setting goals. All teams include faculty and staff in an effort to create a sense of shared purpose and to improve communication. The teams will focus on local needs but will also coordinate work with other Libraries units, committees and groups to ensure we are working effectively within and across the system.

Departments and Teams

Experience Department (Melissa Just, department head)
- Service Points Team
Learning & Engagement Department (Melissa Gasparotto, department head)
- Instruction & Information Literacy Team
- Undergraduate Experience Team
- Global Experience Team
Research & Content Department (Ryan Womack, department head)
- Content Team
- Graduate and Faculty Services Team
- Research Collaborations Team
- Research Data Outreach Team
- Scholarly Communication & Open Access Team
- Research Spaces Team
The New Brunswick Libraries Steering Team sets the overall priorities for the unit and facilitates communication across departments and teams. Membership includes the NBL director, the department heads, the chair of the NBL faculty (Karen Hartman) and a staff representative (Meghan Lord). Two immediate projects of the steering team include setting up NBL ALL meetings to launch the work of the teams, and identifying a mechanism for sharing documents, progress reports and other information.

Stay tuned for future Agenda articles from NBL departments and teams as our work gets underway!
March 31, 2016
University Librarian Report: Update on Master Space Plan
Krisellen Maloney, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian

Hello all –

I hope everyone who was able to attend the presentation by CannonDesign on March 4, 2016 enjoyed their early analysis of our library spaces. This is an exciting process and the architects are going to great effort to understand what is unique about Rutgers University Libraries and how we fit into the overall strategic plan of the University.

Hover over the image at the top of this post and use the arrows to review CannonDesign’s presentation.

As many of you know, the architects spent time in nearly all of the libraries—counting seats, bookshelves, meeting rooms, faculty and staff space, etc—during the months of January and February. They are now transitioning to meeting with focus groups and conducting interviews with students and faculty about the libraries. We are also sharing the results from the LibQUAL+ survey with CannonDesign. The next phase will be to come up with some initial recommendations, followed by the creation of a “roadmap,” or the list of priorities and a plan for how best to make these improvements.

Currently, there is no funding attached to any of the projects that will be proposed in the master space plan, so there is no firm timeline of when these improvements may be made. However, the plan and priorities that are developed will inform our decisions and planning. For example, requests for modifications in buildings or collections might be weighed against the overall plan created by CannonDesign to make sure we aren’t making a short-sighted decision that impacts our long-term plan.

CannonDesign will return to make a second presentation of their research and findings at the Town Hall meeting on May 24. In the meantime, thank you to the faculty and staff who have made time to meet with and tour CannonDesign around the buildings. I am also grateful for the thoughtful questions and comments people made at the initial presentation.

We want this process to be as transparent and inclusive as possible. If you have concerns, questions, or suggestions, please speak with your supervisor or Director.

Thank you,

Kris
March 31, 2016