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SUNY Librarians and Library Staff Working Together

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The SUNYCONNECTion: All the SUNYConnect NewsThat's Fit to Print

Librarians' Interface

In Her Own Words
Chris Haile
Associate Provost for Technology Services

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[Editor's note: Chris Haile is the 1999 Friend of SUNYLA Award winner.]

Advanced Learning and Information Services (ALIS) is an office of  the SUNY System Administration with responsibility for leadership and support of the effective use of technology. Among ALIS' several units are the OLIS and Nylink, both well-known to the SUNY library community. Let me take this opportunity to introduce you to the other parts of ALIS, and encourage you to think about how their expertise can also contribute to supporting SUNY libraries.

I like to think of ALIS as having four operating groups. One of those concerns library services and includes OLIS and Nylink. A second group we call Learning Environments, which is concerned with promoting, developing and managing programs using technology to support teaching and learning. The SUNY Learning Network and the Course-management Systems program are within this group.

 

Another ALIS operating group concerns technology infrastructure and its two units are the New York Network (NYN) and SUNYNet. NYN is SUNY's television production and transmission facility; it operates SUNYSAT and serves many state agencies and other clients for video programs and teleconferences. LAIP participants have used SUNYSAT and NYN for two live teleconferences. Recently, SUNYSAT was "digitized." This opens up the possibility for transmitting video and large "files" to campuses. We are interested in identifying ways this capability can enhance library, teaching and other services.

 

SUNYNet is the network connecting all SUNY campuses (and libraries!) for intranet and Internet services. Whether it's LAIP, purchase orders, e-mail, grants management or, soon, SUNYConnect -- SUNY's business travels on SUNYNet. On June 7, 1999, ALIS announced SUNYNeXt - a campus/system initiative to develop a design for the "next" SUNYNet.

 

The fourth ALIS group includes Contract Development, the Training Center and ITEC. Contract Development supports university-wide and ALIS procurements. At the moment, staff members are working on the LMS acquisition for SUNYConnect. The library community has utilized the Training Center often, for LAIP and Nylink events. The Training Center recently began a program offering CBT online training modules to campuses. ITEC, the Information Technology Exchange Center, supports campuses in the use of software such as Oracle, VMS, Microsoft and DRA/Web2.

 

I am very proud of the work of all these ALIS units. I hope that you will think of ALIS as an instance where the whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. We know collaboration - across ALIS units, with campuses, with other System offices - is an essential part of our success. The library community is one of SUNY's collaboration leaders.