September 4, 2008

LTS DIGEST –September 4, 2008 Lehigh University Library and Technology Services

CONTENTS:

CLASSROOM ALERT SYSTEM
NEW SCANNING STATION IN EWFM
EASY PDFS! MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007 CONVERTS DOCS TO PDF
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE FOR STUDENTS DOWNLOAD
HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING “TRIPLE”
PSYCINFO: POPULAR DATABASE NOW ON APA’S PSYCNET
ICPSR DATABASE
ENGINEERING EXHIBIT IN LINDERMAN LIBRARY
LIBRARY HOURS


CLASSROOM ALERT SYSTEM
To facilitate emergency announcements to instructors in classrooms, Library and Technology Services has implemented a new service over the summer that will use digital speakerphones to broadcast announcements.

Wall-mounted digital speakerphones have been installed near the instructor’s station in all Registrar classrooms on campus. The speaker volume control has been preset to its highest level and cannot be changed. This modification affects only the speaker, not the handset. If an announcement takes place, occupants will hear an alert tone repeated several times, followed by the alert/announcement which will be repeated three times. 911 calls in progress will not be interrupted; other calls will be placed on hold temporarily.

An event that triggers a classroom broadcast announcement will also trigger other emergency notification channels: the University Emergency Info web page, LU-ALERT text messaging, email and campus voice mail alerts. Consult http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/classroomphones.html for a link to more information.



NEW SCANNING STATION IN EWFM
This fall LTS introduced a scanning station in the Information Commons. The networked PC and scanner can be used by anyone affiliated with Lehigh (log in with a Lehigh username and password), and help desk staff are available to assist in use of the scanner. This station will be helpful for those who want to scan library materials. Scanners are also available in the Media Center.



EASY PDFS! MICROSOFT OFFICE 2007 CONVERTS DOCS TO PDF
Creating PDF documents used to require the Adobe Acrobat Professional software or other similar commercial software. Microsoft Office 2007 users have the option of saving a document to a PDF file. When you select Save As in MS Word 2007, you'll see the option to save as a PDF file. Just select that option when you want to create a file in PDF format.

You have to download and install a separate program to enable that feature in Office 2007. Users can go to http://office.microsoft.com/downloads and look for "Microsoft Save As PDF or XPS” under "Popular Downloads".



MICROSOFT SOFTWARE FOR STUDENTS DOWNLOAD
Beginning August 2008, currently enrolled Lehigh students may download Microsoft Office for Windows and Macintosh as well as Microsoft SharePoint Designer software. Previously, this software was only available on CD from the EWFM Library. Please read the information below before downloading, also available at: http://www.lehigh.edu/computing/software/studentuse.html. Faculty and staff may purchase Microsoft Work at Home media including MS Office at the Lehigh University Bookstore. The downloading option is limited to students.

Software available for download:
Office 2007 Enterprise for Windows (includes: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Publisher, OneNote);
Office 2008 for Macintosh – (includes: Word, Excel, PowerPoint);
SharePoint Designer - (Web Authoring Suite).

Limits: Two (2) installs each of Office and SharePoint Designer for use only on student's personally owned computers. Choose EITHER Office for Windows OR Office for Macintosh.

The Vista Ultimate system upgrade is available as a software DVD at the Fairchild-Martindale Library—Lehigh ID required. Limit ONE (1) per student. No download is available.



HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING “TRIPLE”
1) The Library and Technology Services (LTS) has purchased a 32-core shared memory processor computer bringing an amazing amount of new computational power to campus. The new compute server, called Altair consists of eight (8) quad-core Intel Xeon 64-bit processors with 128 Gigabytes (GB) of RAM. Altair replaces the previous centralized shared memory compute resource, Vega. Researchers on campus who need large amounts of computational power combined with greater than four (4) GB’s of RAM for their compute problems, can take advantage of this 64-bit processing architecture to run programs like Matlab, Ansys, Fluent, and Abaqus.

2) In addition to this new compute server, LTS has put into operation an 18-node Linux login farm called LEAF. Anyone can access these 32-bit machines that have four (4) Xeon single-core processors with 12 GB of RAM on each one of these Egenera Blade Server nodes. The head node of this farm uses load balancing to provide the best resources for your needs by directing your login session to the machine with the least amount of processing load. No special account permission is required. The same applications that users can run on Altair are also available on any of the LEAF servers.
For more details on Altair and Leaf hardware architectures, please visit:
http://www.lehigh.edu/computing/hpc/services/hardware.html

3) And finally this summer, LTS refreshed 20 new Linux workstations that are distributed in public spaces in the Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Earth and Environmental Sciences department buildings. Each one of these Dell Precision T7400 workstations has a minimum of a single quad-core Intel Xeon 64-bit processor with 4 GB of RAM, 80GB hard disk, and a 256MB graphics card with a 22-inch monitor. Some of the important software that these computers will support includes Spartan, a quantum chemistry application suite, and ARC GIS, which is for creating and analyzing geographic information systems databases. For more information on how to take advantage of Lehigh’s HPC resources, please visit http://www.lehigh.edu/computing/hpc/



PSYCINFO: POPULAR DATABASE NOW ON APA’S PSYCNET
PsycINFO is now accessible on the PsycNet, APA’s search interface. One of the most heavily used library research tools at Lehigh, American Psychological Association’s literature database, PsycINFO, indexes and abstracts over 100 years of scholarly output in psychology and related fields. To login to PsycINFO, bookmark this page for both on and off campus connections: http://databases.lib.lehigh.edu/finder/dbfull.asp?DBID=1. Special note for persons with an interest in neuroscience: 171 journals in this area are now covered in PsycINFO.

PsycINFO on PsycNET offers added functionality for searching within results, for cited reference retrieval, for consulting the rich vocabulary in the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, for saving search strategies, and for exporting to bibliographic citation software such as RefWorks. The Term Finder (Thesaurus) has an easy to use “add to search” option; that option could be particularly valuable for undergraduates unfamiliar with psychological terminology.

The familiar “Lehigh Link (SFX)” icon, depicting the Linderman Library skylight, is found in PsycINFO. The Lehigh Link connects the user to the library’s electronic copy or ILLIAD service. The Lehigh Link is durable and can be used for course readings. It also displays in RefWorks@Lehigh.



ICPSR DATABASE
LTS has subscribed to ICPSR, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, the world's largest archive http://databases.lib.lehigh.edu/finder/dbfull.asp?DBID=235 of digital social science data. Professor Ziad Munson, Sociology and Anthropology, will serve as Lehigh’s ICPSR representative, supported by Librarian Roseanne Bowerman and Computing Consultant Bill Betterman.



ENGINEERING EXHIBIT IN LINDERMAN LIBRARY “HOW TO BECOME AN ENGINEER: TOYS, TOOLS, AND TECHNOLOGY”
This exhibition explores the rise of formal academic programs in civil engineering established around the time of Lehigh's founding in 1865. The title of the exhibition, mounted by Lehigh University Libraries Special Collections, was inspired by the name of an 1891 manual detailing the "theoretical and practical training necessary in fitting for the duties of the civil engineer." In addition, featured content includes "the best educational toy", a model bridge building kit dating from 1895, 19th century student notebooks, and classic works in the history of civil engineering. Exhibited items date from 1793, when the term "civil engineer" first appeared in print, and special emphasis will be given to Lehigh's contributions to the field. The exhibition runs August 15, 2008 - January 15, 2009. There is a related program on September 25th at 4pm in Linderman Library, room 200.



LIBRARY HOURS
Beginning (Monday, August 25 – Sunday, September 7)
Monday – Thursday open 8:00 am – Midnight
Friday open 8:00 am-10:00 pm
Saturday open 10:00 am – 10:00 pm
Sunday open 10:00am – Midnight
Beginning (September 8)
Monday – Thursday open until 2:00am