Scheduled maintenance: RefWorks

For a period of eight hours tomorrow morning (Saturday 15 February 2014), there will only be sporadic availability of RefWorks, with functionality problems anticipated to last anywhere from 3 to 15 minutes at any given point. This may include short periods of complete downtime.

RefWorks staff are scheduled to carry out planned maintenance from 3.00am until 11.00am. If you do experience issues with RefWorks during this maintenance, it is recommended that you close your browser session and return to RefWorks at a later time. It is anticipated that RefWorks will resume usual service after this time.

Upgrade to wireless network at Lord Mayor's Walk Accommodation

Work will be taking place within all accommodation at Lord Mayor's Walk between the 9th and 13th of December 2013.  All work will be carried out between 07:00 and 18:00 each day and will enhance the performance of the wireless network within the Accommodation.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused during this wireless upgrade.

Meet Dan, our Digital Training Officer Tweeting from Nov 4th to Nov 8th

Hi, I am Dan, the Digital Training Officer.

I have been working at York St John for just over a year and my principle responsibility is to promote, coach and train University staff raising their technology Skills.

If you want help with Office, Windows or most other things computer related, let me know and I will either help you or let you know where the information you need is.

You can get in touch with me via my pages on the York St John website, email me at digitaltraining@yorksj.ac.uk or tweet the ILS twitter account with your questions.

Meet Rob, one of our EIS Specialists tweeting from 28/10 to 1/11

I've been working at York St John since June 2011, initially as the "Digital Archive, Web and System Support Librarian", with responsibility for supporting the Library's digital content. However, last July I was seconded onto the IT side to support Moodle, and will shortly be moving over officially into a role as "EIS Specialist - Open Source".

For those who are not aware, "EIS" stands for "Electronic Information Systems". Our small team develops custom applications, supports systems like eVision and Moodle, and does database and server administration.

I have been working in IT and on the IT side of libraries for the last five years. I started out in Leeds City Council's Libraries and Information Service, working there for two years before moving on to spend some time working for Talis Information in Birmingham (a company which provided library management systems). Before this, I spend about sixteen years working in health and social care, but that's another story.

I am an enthusiast of free and open source software (it's not just a job), and have recently become interested in the opportunities offered by online education platforms like coursera.org and p2pu.org. Ask me anything, and I'll do my best to answer.

Scheduled downtime: Web of Knowledge

Thomson Reuters, who provide the Web of Knowledge database search service, have scheduled maintenance and upgrade for this service this Sunday 27 October, starting at 14:00 and due for completion by 02:00 the next day.

During this time, access to Web of Knowledge may only be intermittent. This will not affect any of our other library databases.

Meet Phill, one of our System Specialists, tweeting from 21 October - 25 October

Hello!

My job role is “systems specialist” within ILS

I primarily work in the network team administering the network infrastructure. This includes implementing new solutions, resolve any issues that may arise, identify and recommend any possible improvements.

I am Currently working on a new campus wide wireless network, this will be followed by the launch of Eduroam. I’m also working on the IPv6 deployment which is in its very early stages.

I also second desktop team with the virtual server and desktop infrastructure to provide additional support when required.

Meet Annette, Our Academic Technologies Trainer, Tweeting the 14 October to 18 October

Annette Webb is the Academic Technologies Trainer at York St John University, supporting Microsoft Office and University online systems e.g. Mahara and Moodle.

Annette provides support in Microsoft Office including Essays in Word, PowerPoint Presentations, Excel Spread sheets and YSJ online systems to all undergraduate and post-graduate students.

Annette provides 1 to 1 support via tutorial booker to tackle individual training needs from students who are complete beginners to users with more advanced skills.  She also runs regular workshops that students can book on to enhance their IT skills.  Annette also liaises with Academic Tutor’s to provide bespoke training sessions on Mahara ePortfolio system and effective bibliographies using Word tools.

Over a typical academic year over 600 students are seen on a 1:1 basis and in groups - approx 5000 individual contact hours (SCONUL measure).

In collaboration with Careers there are a series of 4 'soft skill' sessions delivered, named ‘WorkStart’ for mainly 3rd years to prepare them for the workplace.  Handouts and exercise files are provided within Moodle and they receive a certificate on completion.  This has proved very successful with an average of approx. 20 delegates per session.