IT Support Update

IT Support Update

1.       Ground floor Refurbishment

The data points for green ground for the self service machines have now been installed and everything is working well.  Work has been carried out to prepare for the reopening of Blue 1 on 17^th August.  We are awaiting the arrival of some matting to ensure wires are covered and are not an h&S issue.  The reception PCs, Epayment PC and Telepen PCs are in place and working.  There was a problem with 1 self issue machine but SB electronics have been to sort out.  The final moves for self issue machines will take place on 14^th August PM.  The telephone line will be transferred on Monday 17^th as it is required to be used on Sat 15^th August.  The walk in users PCs will also be moved they have been tested that they work in the new location.

 2.       Office Moves

These continue and we have been busy checking out data points and organisng telecoms moves.  The latest moves are Rachel Beckett to Deansgate, Sandra Bracegirdle to her new office at Joule and Des Coyle to her old office and Paul Holder from the main library to Joule.

3.       Desktop 08

Alison is working her way through building the objects for deployment on the image.  There is a desktop deployment project where I represent the library.  Each faculty is at a different stage deploying the desktop.  This project provides support and defines a coordinated approach to ensure that there is consistency which will make it easier for support issues at the IT Servicedesk. Our project plan fort e rollout of staff desktop is in the process of being accepted.

 The clusters including our training rooms and study rooms will all run the student desktop.  To enable these to run at an acceptable speed additional memory was purchased and will be installed before the start of academic year.  A staff email was sent to everyone encouraging staff who will be using the teaching rooms to test out the look and feel image.  Andy received some feedback which was passed on to Chris Mallon.

4.       Network Upgrade News

As part of the campus upgrade the cabinets in the main library apart from the basement cabinet have been upgraded. The cabinet in the basement will be upgraded when the new ground floor data cabinet is in place.  The precinct library data cabinet is due to be upgraded at the end of August and the quality of networking improved.  The wireless network in the main library will be upgraded and additional coverage provided.  We are waiting for timescales on his work.

 5.       VSD

The survey was available from x to 20^th July.  There were 45 replies and the survey is now being analysed.  A report is going to LT on 26^th August which will outline some quick wins and target some longer term improvements.

 The use of a remote tool logmein is proving very useful for the team and feedback from staff suggest that this working well.

 A reporting pack is currently being produced by the shared service coordinator that gives statistics on a monthly basis that we can use in our local areas. Part of this reporting package will identify trends and identify areas for the PKM team to investigate and report back on in the next report.

 The resource required from JRUL in freshers week has been ramped up by 1 x 0.5 day so that week we will be contributing to 3 sessions.  Examination of the data from last year has been used to manage the resource better for start of year.

 The VSD now has a room set up to be used in the event of an emergency/disaster affecting the sackville building.

 6.       Other items

Some new equipment has been purchased at the end of the financial year.  We now have a small stock of laser pointers which can be loaned by staff doing presentations.  Additional ebook readers have been purchased.  The store is now full!

 Encryption of laptops is being pursued and everyone who has a laptop is being encouraged to have their laptop encrypted.  The LT have been targeted first – Lorraine has had her laptop encrypted for a while and is a good advocate for us.  The next article in PageTurner will focus on the range of encryption tools available.

 The knowledgebase purchased by IT Services will be launched soon.  We need to have a push on information from us to go in.  I have been talking to key people about this and we should have more content available for launch.

The team took part in the acceptance testing for Student Outlook live.  A  big thanks to everyone else who also found time to take part. Alison represents us on the PAT.

IT Support Update

IT Support Update

 

1.       Ground floor Refurbishment

The project is very active at the moment.  As you will know there have now been some office moves.  An estates project manager has been appointed to coordinate all the work involved in the moves.  The Tyson room will be complete on 28^th May.  Red 3.1 will become a meeting room to replace the provision in User Education – work is expected to be complete by 5^th June. Serials will be moving to Joule library floor D and the work starts this weekend to do the electrical work, estates will let me know when the data points have been completed but again the deadline for completed job is 5^th June. A lot of time has been spent identifying locations for service kit – OPACs, Walk In Users ….

 

2.       Desktop 08

The student image has been successfully load tested and will be deployed across all clusters within the University ready for the start of academic year.  The problem with Endnote is being investigated by Humanities who package the application.  Alison has checked the final list for student applications and fed back to the project team about this after checking with the relevant staff.

 

3.       Network Upgrade News

As part of the campus upgrade we have been asked to specify where we would like enhancements to the wireless network.  The EPB will determine which requirements are selected as the project has a small budget and lots of competing priorities.

 

The Deansgate upgrade is moving slowly with requirements having been specified and checking whether specialist planning permission was required – fortunately it doesn’t so that saves time and money.  The work is scheduled to be complete before the end of July – we are still waiting quotes to approve this project.

 

4.       Rollout programme for PCs

This has now been identified and it will be run as a project with Val taking the lead on building the images.

 

5.       Other work

As part of identifying the processes involved in requests for new kit I applied some techniques learnt on my PRINCE course and developed a PBS (Product Breakdown Structure) and Product Flow Diagram.  The Product Flow diagram will be published on the intranet by the end of the month with a document identifying how requests can be made.

 

Redesign of office

There will be a new area in the office with a space for deploying images on PCs, testing and other technical work.  Cupboards with stock will be relocated to the store room.

 

Value for Money

We will be using a new supplier to purchase remanufactured toner cartridges as this fits in with being more environmentally friendly and also helps providing value for money. A stock check will be undertaken every month and stock will be ordered on a monthly basis which will help monitor the budget and also with developing a forecast model of requirements.

IT Support Update

 1.       Virtual Service Desk

A new remote access tool is now in use and has already been useful for resolving incidents both here in main library and site libraries.

 

2.       AV support

The new procedure is now in place.  Several requests have been received for using portable and projector for meetings/interviews.  Some of the equipment has arrived from the L&T bid.  Andy has started to write documentation and will be arranging demonstrations of the new equipment.

 

3.       Ground floor Refurbishment

Initial prep work for office moves is underway.  This is still at the early stages.  DSU new home will be the Tyson room and a request for networking and electrical work has been made.

 

4.       Management Team Update

We had a presentation from collection care and their benchmarking standards and the JRUL disaster recovery plan.   Phil Butler also came and gave an update on progress on the repository project and a demo of the web site.

 

5.       Desktop 08

Alison is continuing to work on the JRUL specific applications.

 

6.       Store

Our store room has now been tidied and is a more efficient room. Racks are labeled and there is a place for most things.  A polite notice has been placed on the corridor asking people not to leave items there. There is a goods receiving area which is now full of the 53 PCs which arrived this week.

 

7.       Knowledgebase

An initial list has been forwarded to the project team and work continues on populating this and identifying authors to update or write the content.  A demo of the management system is being held  3^rd April and Allison and Andy are accessing it  from their desktop.

 

 

Computer Support Update

1.       Staffing

It is with much thanks to Sinead Renold in IT Services that I can tell you that Val will continue to work as part of our  team until end June.

 

2.       Virtual Service Desk

Nothing new to report.  The reporting tool is now in use to produce regular progress reports/updates.

 

3.       AV support

The majority of support calls coming in for the green study rooms relate to students connecting their laptops to the large monitor, where the monitor or keyboard has been unplugged so the following group are asking for help for the set up to be put right for them.  The support for AV can be reached via phoning the work mobile 07827281051 during normal working hours. 

 

4.       Conflicker virus

A large number of our OPACS have been infected with this virus.  As part of the PC replacement programme these infected pc’s have been replaced with newer PCs with an image which includes anti virus software.

 

5.       Network Update

The upgrade of the campus network has started.  Phase1 of the project is dealing with the main building on Sackville Street.  All those involved are being kept up to date with the schedule.  The precinct library is included in the project and is scheduled to take place in May – this date may well change as it is a suggested date at this moment.  Lorraine and I had a meeting with Darren Hankinson to discuss network projects.

 

6.       Ground floor Refurbishment

The plan has been signed off.  There will be a website available soon with all of the information about the project and timescales.  Discussions about budgets have been underway and also the plan of where services will be moving to whilst the project is underway, more news will be available in the next few weeks on locations – as soon as I know where I will be assessing the requirements  for data points…..

 

7.       Management Team Update

KB presented an overview of the website, potential future developments and asked us as a group to consult with our teams and provide feedback to him about what we think would be useful for the website.  There will be a focus group for users to obtain their feedback.  When we receive the questions I will circulate around the group.  There was some discussion about the ground floor refurbishment, graduate trainees.  Steve has been invited to come and talk about Talis at the May meeting.

 

8.       Desktop 08

Alison is working with Dave Cornthwaite in CSIST to build the JRUL specific applications.  D08 has become more stable and an agreement has been reached that all Faculties and Services within the University will be implementing the image.  There will be a call for a list of applications for Sept 09 by the end of March (from IT Services) – an email will be sent to all JRUL staff shortly, however if you know your requirements please let us know.  The new image in September will move to using Office 07.

 

9.       Team Meetings

We are having regular weekly meetings so there may be some times when none of us are in the office but you can reach us by phoning 07827281051.  We have also started with our monthly 1:1 meetings.

 

10.   Upcoming Work

Implementing IT Security Policy.

We have a list of projects linking to the strategy which we will be working through – this will be made available online soon.

 

11.   Training and Development Activities

Steve has provided Val and Andy with some training on the self issue machines.

Andy, Val and Alison have attended a workshop on encryption

Karen attended a PRINCE 2 project Management course (and passed the foundation exam)

 

Computer Support Update

1.       Welcome

I would like to welcome Val who started with us in January.  Val is on a secondment to us from IT Services and will also be working on the VSD and the PSD.

 

2.       Virtual Service Desk

The report on the VSD was presented to the Library MT who accepted the recommendations.  Work on identifying skills required by all analysts working on the VSD continues and is now at the stage of identifying the core set of skills and determining what training/development is required. A new reporting tool to query the remedy database is now available and developments for central reports are being identified so common report queries can be shared across service teams.  A knowledge cleansing project has been started to ensure that all information is valid and up to date so analysts can be confident that they have a useful database to access. 

 

3.       Additions to the Computer Support Team Functions

The Computer Support Team is now responsible for AV support, Teaching rooms, Walk in PCs and study rooms.  Andy has written an AV user guide for users of the rooms.  This will be uploaded onto the intranet. In future the guidelines for room booking will ask the requester to state if they wish to use the AV equipment, so we can provide support where appropriate. The support process is being finalised and information will be placed on the intranet.

 

4.       PC Upgrade programme

The schedule was drawn up and work has begun on the cycle to upgrade the old PCs.  In future the schedule will be put onto the intranet for all to see.  There have been additional PCs replaced prior to this as machines have failed which were not down to be replaced but were out of warranty. PCs are now available for replacing the OPACS.  This a 3 phase upgrade and is expected to be complete by 6^th February.

 

5.       NHS PC Support

This issue has been raised again and Helen McEvoy would like to move forward on this issue.

 

6.       Data Points and other network work

There has been some difficulty obtaining some work, apparently all job requests need to be submitted by a system in IT Services, which we were unaware of which Network Liaison Officers (NLO) in Faculties/Administration use.  Darren Hankinson suggested it would be useful if I took on this role as we had no direct representation.

 

7.       Copibook machine

We are working with Jenny on the requirements for the move of the copibook machine to the new location. There are additional requirements which can’t be met at the moment but temporary solutions have been found to assist the move.  

 

8.       Ground floor Refurbishment

As you all know the library was successful with this bid.  The actual work on site starts in June and there is a lot to be done in the mean time.  KV is representing Information Systems on the group.  The group is reviewing the initial requirements and fine tuning the plan.

 

9.       Upcoming Work

• Build of objects for D08
• Disability PCs – setting up new PCs and installation of software
• Information/documentation  –
• Designing the Computer Support pages and info for end users,
• Knowledge cleansing on the systems intranet (ties in with VSD project)
• Determining content for VSD knowledge base

 

10.   Training and Development Activities

Congratulations to Andy on passing the ITIL foundation exam

Karen attended a mobile learning workshop in Liverpool and  a course on using Discoverer for Remedy reporting

Alison and Val attended a seminar about an encryption product organised by Tony Arnold

 

Computer Support Update

Welcome

I would like to welcome Andy Zarkesh who started with us on Tuesday 2^nd December.  Andy has started his induction programme and has met some of you already as part of the process.

 

Virtual Service Desk

The emergency procedure was invoked relating to an RFID issue. The Outlook Issue continued to keep everyone busy.  An operational review of the VSD has been undertaken and the report has gone to MT and will be followed up by going to LT next week.  IT Services are also undertaking a review.  Some issues raised are in the process of being addressed by IT Services.  The resourcing model is nearing completion and will be discussed and approved by SSAG in January.  2 analysts have been hired on a 6 month contract to assist with the service – MHS, JRUL and CSIST will be allocated them for part of the week to assist with their development and also the local service teams.

 

Brown Bag Lunch

The paper about the programme was presented to LT and accepted wit a few minor changes. The organization of these in future will move to another group.  Professor Geoff Beattie came and gave an excellent talk for the first event.

 

Eddie Davis and Precinct library

Regular service meetings will be held to ensure computer support works well.  There has been an acknowledgment that our service has improved.  At the first meeting An understanding of how the support differs between the 2 libraries was gained.  As a result of the meeting EDL have 2 OPACS and also an order was signed to enable the Business school to purchase 2 PCs to replace 2 old PCs.

 

Outlook

The Outlook issues can be resolved by applying a permanent fix.  This has been placed on the intranet. 

 

Desktop 08

More testing has taken place and te product seems more stable.  A PAT meeting will take place in December.

 

Rooms 1.1, 1.16 and 1.17

Final patching of data points needs to be undertaken.

 

Office Moves

Phil Butler’s team are now in their new office.  The copibook machine will be moved to the old bindery as soon as the work in 1.17 has been completed.

 

Rezoning project

The team prepared their report which will go to LT shortly.

 

Training and Development Activities

Karen visited the Information Commons in Sheffield and also attended a management development course.

Jan attended the coping with change course

Computer support update – 23/10/08

Well here is a highlight of the activities –

 

Virtual Service Desk

The emergency procedure was invoked relating to aTalis issue.

It has been very busy for all on the VSD with the high volume of calls relating to the Outlook issue.  There now seems to be another issue with Excel requesting an installation CD this appears to be linked to some of those who had issues with Outlook.  It has been quite busy with calls relating to Talis either running slowly or OPACs not working.  This resulted in the server being rebooted to resume normal service – I am sure Steve will include more on this in his blog…..

 

Outlook

The Outlook issues can be resolved by applying a fix.  Alison put some information onto the intranet and sent out a staff email alert staff.  For those staff who don’t feel confident to aply the fix the team will come and sort these out.  It is recommended that all staff update their Oracle connector.

 

IT Service Desk

There were a few calls relating to a staffing issue as no one was there to sort out the print robot error or to refill paper for printers. Lorraine has discussed a procedure with IT Services.

 

Telecoms

The mobile policy is available on the Intranet. In this it states that the University librarian needs to approve each request.  This was not known so Sandra Bracegirdle is making the case for the mobile requested for her department.  The fax machine for Deansgate is now working as the part arrived so Jan could install it.

 

Desktop 08

As reported last month there are still issues and the decision was made by the EPB to roll PCs back to clip5.  Some PCs on Blue 1 cluster are still running D08 as a test environment for further improvements.

 

Printing Interfaces Project

We are waiting the new print robots to arrive ready for It Services to install them.

 

Rooms 1.1, 1.16 and 1.17

Work has finally started on these rooms.  A plan was drawn up of the work in each room and attached to the door as the electricians did not seem to know what work was expected of them and the project manager despite being shown areas of work did not have a written plan.  A completion date of 31^st October has been given.

 

Office Moves

Karen and Ged have used a new procedure for these.  For all moves we will both visit the rooms and obtain the requirements from the staff before planning the actual move.  A big thanks to Phil Butler for emailing us with the requirements.

 

Sam Bradburn has moved to Red 1.6 and her phone has been sorted out quickly by telecoms. The next moves in the chain are Paul Holder and his team from red 1.1 to red basement.  Week beginning 27^th October Scott and Nilani will be moved to their new office Red 1.1 ready for their return form leave the following week.

 

New Starters

2 new starters in November will require PCs which will be set up in advance.

 

Training and Development Activities

Karen and Alison have both attended the coping with change course. Karen attended a mobile learning workshop which set out the basics and actually used the word book as a mobile device!  (a report will appear on intranet soon…)

Computer Support Update

Start of Year Sessions

The following were attended by the team – Hornet, Introduction to the Problem and Knowledge Management Team and Service Request System, Blackboard, Portal

Many thanks to jenny for giving Jan and Alison an overview of Shibboleth

Virtual Service Desk

The emergency procedure was invoked once relating to a virus issue.

The service request form has been launched as a trial service used by MHS and JRUL.

Karen is starting the review of the VSD next date so if you have any comments please feel free to email me or talk to me….

I would like to thank Alison for being the emergency contact for the VSD whilst I was on leave.

Induction for Graduate Trainees

This was organised on behalf of Rachel Beckett for 5^th September. I would like to thank colleagues for their assistance. A special thanks to Alison who talked to Emma Ferguson and Mark Los (2 sessions) and assisted them with using IT signup. Alison used my induction template and I have a new starter’s checklist which I will send around the group for comment.

Telecoms

There have been some requests for new extensions (Emma Ferguson and Kathy Kirby) and sockets. A mobile was ordered for June but this has not been delivered yet so another Telecoms job to chase. The fax machine has arrived for Deansgate but it does not have all the part so is not working – Jan is chasing this up. I would like to thank Jan for coordinating all the Telecoms requests whilst I was on leave.

Desktop 08

There have been some problems with the New Optiplex 755 SFF machines. There is some progress and it is hoped by Wednesday 16^th these will have been solved. There will be a load test on Friday to test out application access times and also login times. A contingency arrangement of dual boot option is also being tested on all types of cluster PCs so that if Desktop 08 fails the PCs can be booted in clip 5 mode. This is being tested by FLS and IT Services and will be recommended to the EPB by the PAT if both sets of testers confirm this works on both 755 SFF and 755 DT formats.

In terms of JRUL student applications EndNote does not appear to be working yet although it was stated at the PAT yesterday that a fix would be in place by the end of the day. Without going into details this software is a more complicated build than other standard applications and additional work needs to be undertaken to allow it to function

Please can you test out applications on a desktop 08 PC and report any issues to Chris Mallon in IT Services by Friday or sooner. Also please can as many people as possible assist with testing the image for login times and application access times on friday morning. I don’t know time yet but will email when I do.

Printing Interfaces Project

Karen tested out the new epayments interface and provided feedback to the project via Sarah garland.

Blue Ground

The OPACs have been reduced in number due to the 6 walk in PCs having to be moved down from old location on Blue 1. Currently there are 2 but it is aimed to have 4 available.

Hardware

Laptops for Deansgate have been installed.

Digital camera for Ed Potten has arrived.

Printers for Facilities management and Art and Archaeology have been installed

PC for Chris Perkins will be installed for Monday but will need the 19” monitor installed at a later date.

We need to set up how we are going to use DELL premier service. At the moment we don’t have shopper access so we will need to raise an order and then fax it to DELL (once we obtain the fax number!)

Printer Consumables

All the cupboards and their contents have now been relocated to Computer Support.

Rooms 1.1, 1.16 and 1.17

We are still waiting for the quote to be sent to Colin O’Neil for the trunking and electrical work. The estates project manager and the contractor have been in to look at the job and are in the process of providing the quote. This project is being run by Cliff from Estates as project Manager with Tony Jones from IT Services.

Hospital PC Support

We need to be clear who provided the support for the PCs which we gave the hospitals. There was a problem with Stepping Hill Hospital which was reported to the VSD which was assigned to MHS who reassigned it to JRUL. IT Services support the network and the only PCs attached to it are those which used to be the property of JRUL. I believe Helen McEvoy is trying to pursue some elearning support form MHS for these PCs.

Food and Drink Task Force

Jan, Alison and Karen are all part of this.

Congratulations to …
Alison and Jan on passing the ITIL foundation exam

And to me on my engagement to Kenny at end of July (just in case I haven’t flashed my ring enough!!).

Recycling Toner Cartridges

The University wide initiative to have special boxes for recycling printer consumables located across campus has been delayed.  In the meantime you can return used printing toners and cartridges to us and we will organise their disposal via a charity.

Computer Support Update

Telecoms

There has been a lot of activity in this area. Moves have mostly been successful in Admin A. There was an issue with Stephen’s extension not working but Telecoms have fixed the line apparently there was a fault. This took several days to sort out. We are waiting for work to be done in Blue 1.16 before 2 numbers can be moved from Admin A to their new phone so until this time an extension is required for 1 phone number. We are awaiting a budget code to be set up for telecoms so that orders can be processed correctly so that transactions will be taken from the correct budget. I have drafted some information about Telecoms which will be placed on the intranet so it is available for all staff.

VSD

The emergency procedure has been invoked twice. One for a Talis issue and one for a power failure issue. The Talis issue was sorted by Steve and Talis promptly. The power issue was forwarded to facilities management who ensured this was dealt with promptly. In both cases the VSD were alerted with information about what was happening e.g. Talis was being phoned and also when the issue had been resolved. We may need to ensure in future that JRUL staff are made aware when there is an issue with Talis. In terms of reporting critical issues a reminder needs to be given that staff should phone the VSD during normal working hours this ensures that if they are the 1st perosn to report it the emergency prcedure can be invoked. If they are the 3rd or 4th person to report it they can be told there is a problem and what is being done about it. However, the need for this may be removed if we provide an effective alerting service.

Printing Consumables

The stock is in the process of beng transferred. The content of one cabinet has been moved down to us. We are waiting for old cartridges to be collected for recylcing before moving the othrcabinets as we have suitable space at the moment. Jan has checked against the master list of printers that there is stock. Staff are either calling in to see us or emailing their requests through. A service level defintion document has been drafted and will be placed on the intranet for all staff to access.

Office Moves

We have moved most staff into Admin A. One more person will be moved in when he’s back from annual leave. There will be 3 staff moving into Blue 1.17 from cataloguing not 2 of these will be hotdesking and 1 person will be based in the office on a part time basis. Ged, Sandra and myself have surveyed the requirements for Blue 1.17. There are some missing items to be located e.g. chairs. The request for trunking & data sockets has been passed to estates by Ged. Sandra has asked if the PCs (3 of them) are on the list to be updated. I willcheck with Alison on Wednesday.

Short Loan have also relocated their office from Blue Ground to Red basement for training purposes so that Kathy Kirby can move into this office while she takes on the role of managing projects.

Jocelyn Wright will be moving into David Ormans Office so this is a move which will take place shortly. We need to check date and survey the space to ensure enough points are available.

Colin and I are writing a joint paper on Office moves as the current system is ad hoc and needs to be planned in advance so that people can move into a fully furnished office with enough points for phones, PCs and printers.

Desktop 08

I sent an email to JRUl staff encouraging everyone to go and test it out on the cluster PC’s on blue 2. The build of the JRULimage has started with assitance from CSIST. All the common University applications are ready it is just the JRUL specific ones that are now being packaged.

PC upgrade

The image is ready for the Pcs and theyw ill be rolled out across the JRULover the next month. The schedule will be made available next week.

OPACs

The OPACs next to the library lounge wil be removed as this area is going to be used for self returns. The disabled access one will be moved to join the machines by the escalator. The refurbishment of the OPACswill be phasedin as part of the replacement PC cycle. IT Services are replacing the old Dell PCs with Research machines so we may wish to ask for more spare stock before they dispose of them.

Karen Veitch