CONTENTS:
What's new with wireless?
Sages of the Pages
The new Lehigh VPN
Spamassassin: How whitelisting works, and why it sometimes doesn't
Fast and easy scanning with your cell phone
Footprints Self-service at Lehigh
Lehigh University Digital Dropbox
Friends Program: Travel: Travails, treasures, and tokens (March 15)
Spring break library hours
WHAT’S NEW WITH WIRELESS?
Well, for one thing, LTS has redesigned and expanded its wireless web pages http://www.lehigh.edu/wireless/.
On these pages you'll find:
- Wireless coverage maps
- Setup instructions for laptops and mobile devices of all kinds
- Information about guest access
- An overview of Lehigh's wireless infrastructure and standards
- FAQs
- Laptop and wireless device loaner programs
And more! For more information about wireless services at Lehigh, contact the help desk at 8-4357.
SAGES OF THE PAGES
The Library recently launched a new blog called Sages of the Pages. The blog was named by Tina Hertel, the winner of our Name the Blog Contest. It was designed by Mark Canney and Rob Weidman, and highlights portions of the illuminated manuscripts in our Special Collection. Sages of the Pages will be updated weekly and will feature posts written by library staff on a wide variety of topics that relate to the Lehigh community. We'd love to hear your opinion of our blog and we would especially like suggestions for future topics.
THE NEW LEHIGH VPN
During the past two months, users have been migrating from the old Lehigh VPN (vpn.lehigh.edu) to a more secure VPN (sslvpn.lehigh.edu). As of March 1, 2011, the old Lehigh VPN will be officially taken out of service at which time all users must be migrated. Documentation for installing and using the new VPN can be viewed at: http://www.lehigh.edu/computing/docs/vpn. Installation and usage questions should be directed to the help desk at 8-4357.
SPAMASSASSIN: HOW WHITELISTING WORKS, AND WHY IT DOESN’T SOMETIMES
Whitelisting is a setting in SpamAssassin (Lehigh's SPAM filtering software) to override the SPAM filter mechanism. When a legitimate e-mail message is incorrectly tagged as SPAM, you can whitelist that e-mail address so that it will not be tagged again see http://www.lehigh.edu/helpdesk/faq/qa/spamassassin.html for details.
How does whitelisting work?
SpamAssassin evaluates each e-mail message for certain conditions/attributes that are common in SPAM messages, and it assigns a numerical score for each attribute. By default, a score higher than +5 causes a message to be tagged as SPAM. When you whitelist an e-mail address, SpamAssassin sets the "score" for messages from that e-mail address to -100. This makes it highly unlikely a message from a whitelisted e-mail address will be tagged as SPAM.
There is one big exception though. If the e-mail message has multiple recipients -- the mail is sent to you and several others -- SpamAssassin will revert to its default SPAM filter settings. If the e-mail's SPAM score is 5 or over, it will be tagged as SPAM.
If you have questions about SpamAssassin or how it works, contact the help desk at 8-4357.
FAST AND EASY SCANNING WITH YOUR CELL PHONE
Many people that come to the Help Desk need to scan documents on our flatbed scanners. You may not need a flatbed scanner or photocopy scanner for small scanning jobs like driver's licenses, insurance forms, one page forms, etc. Use your smartphone or mobile device instead.
First, check to see if your cell phone or mobile device has a digital camera. These are often capable of capturing document images suitable for general use. If you do, then it's an easy process:
1. Use your smartphone to take the picture of your document.
2. Share the picture using whatever method your phone supports. For example:
- Open your e-mail app and send the photo as an e-mail attachment.
- Upload it to a photo web site such as Flickr or Picasa (make sure to mark sensitive docs as private).
3. Connect your phone to your computer and upload it to your local hard drive.
Here are some tips for using your camera to capture document images:
- Check your phone’s camera settings for a "macro" or "document" mode, and use it if available. Also make sure that the camera's autofocus setting is on. Macro/document mode is particularly important for scanning smaller documents like letter-size pieces of paper or business cards.
- If you don't have macro/document mode, make sure the camera is set to its highest resolution. This will generate the largest image.
- Turn off your flash. Flashes tend to reflect harshly off of white surfaces like paper. The result is a washed-out image.
- Find the best lighting. Since you can't use a flash, the document needs to have ample natural light. Position the document near a window or directly under a lamp.
- Try to fill the camera frame with as much of the document as possible. If you're photographing a business card, you'll need to get in nice and close so that the card fills almost the entire screen.
- For letter-size pieces of paper and business cards, you may want to rotate your camera 90 degrees so that the document fills even more of the screen.
For assistance in scanning docs with your cell phone, contact the help desk at 8-4357.
FOOTPRINTS SELF-SERVICE SYSTEM (FPSS) AT LEHIGH
The Footprints Self-Service System is a work order submission system for faculty and staff to request help through the Library and Technology Services (LTS) Footprints tracking system. It allows end-users to request help directly from the LTS component that supports the technology or service they need.
Advantages to using this system are:
- The request is directed at once to the relevant component of LTS.
- The request is entered into the tracking system. There is a record of the request that will not get deleted accidentally as an individual e-mail or voicemail message might.
- The system generates multiple e-mail and system message reminders to the person to whom the request is directed. LTS staff will redirect the request if they are not the appropriate person to handle the problem.
- Problem patterns may quickly identify a systemic issue for resolution for multiple users.
- Solutions are documented in a knowledge base which enables staff to quickly resolve the same problem in the future.
To access the system, please navigate to the following web page and follow the instructions for requesting help: www.lehigh.edu/help.
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY DIGITAL DROPBOX SERVICE
The Lehigh University Digital Dropbox Service is a technology that enables sharing of large files between Lehigh University colleagues and outside users. It is a web-based service and therefore can be accessed from any computer with internet access.
Reasons to use the Lehigh Dropbox service:
- Solution to e-mail quota issues and long file downloads. Share larger files with colleagues and retrieve them faster
- Share files with Lehigh colleagues on and off campus
- Share files with outside colleagues and collaborators and they can reciprocate
The drop box has three days for file pick-up before it is purged from the system. Files are not scanned for viruses so verify with the sender, if you did not previously agree to this, before opening and downloading the drop off files. Access to the Lehigh Dropbox Service is at: https://dropbox.lehigh.edu/dropbox/. Click on the “About the Dropbox” link on the web page above for detailed information on the dropbox service.
FRIENDS PROGRAM – TRAVEL: TRAVAILS, TREASURES, AND TOKENS – MARCH 15TH
What was travel really like? And what did it involve?
David Szewczyk, Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company, LLC
Noon, Tuesday, March 15th
Scheler Humanities Forum, (Linderman Library 200)
In the 19th-century, travel accounts served as a form of acceptable “escape literature.” Mr. Szewczyk will explore how readers were transported to remote parts of the world where they learned about new cultures and made new discoveries. When read today, these narratives provide readers with a look at the recent past. Often readers of these classic accounts relish looking back towards a time that is often perceived as a “golden age.” Travel was fun, and hitherto unexplored areas were unsullied, new cuisines awaited, exotic languages filled the ears, and new things were to be found. Unimagined flora and fauna beckoned. Sponsored by Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries. Call 610-758-3039 for more information.
This lecture is planned in conjunction with the current Special Collections exhibit “The American Environment through Travelers’ Eyes.” The exhibit, which follows on the heels of “Environmental STEPS: Environmental Education and Action at Lehigh”, is part of a celebration of library resources in environmental history planned to commemorate the opening of the new STEPS building. The exhibit will be on display in Linderman Library through July 1, 2011.
SPRING BREAK LIBRARY HOURS
http://library.lehigh.edu/content/library_hours
Friday, March 4 – 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday, March 5 – Noon – 5:00 pm
Sunday, March 6 – Noon – 5:00 pm
Monday, March 7 through Thursday, March 10 – 8:00 am – 8:00 pm
Friday, March 11 – 8:00 – 5:00 pm
Saturday, March 12 – Noon – 5:00 pm
Sunday, March 13 – Noon – 2:00 am
