Just had a student that was quite upset because the “delete history” section of the Internet browser on the horseshoe computers was grayed out and wouldn’t allow her access. She had just been doing her online banking and was concerned that someone could get into her information. Other than the fact that people have to be aware that these are publicly accessible computers, do you have a better answer for her and is there a way to delete the history on a horseshoe computer?
Response:
You should restart the computer in front of her, and when it logs back in show her that there is no history or cache. We make sure that the entire profile is deleted upon restart, so there should be no way for the information to persist. Still, it is the best practice to encourage students not to conduct financial business on the computers, since they are public.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Running CDs or DVDs on horsehoe computers
Problem:
A student has a text book companion disk (DVD) that she said runs from the disk without loading files to the computer. However, it doesn’t work that way on our computers. You get the software restrictions message. I viewed some of the files on the disk and noticed that many have .exe extensions. She was able to run it in the computer lab.
Berrie's response:
Unfortunately we don’t allow students to run software from our computers, even if it is from an external drive. The reason is that malware, viruses, as well as Instant Messenger clients, etc can be run from that location. We have had a rash of these types of threats lately, so the risk is very real. If the prof can get a site license for the software we might be able to add it to our next cloning operation, but it is better run from the Computing labs.
Give me a call if you want me to go over the differences between us and CCS labs, as to why they are able to run exe programs there.
A student has a text book companion disk (DVD) that she said runs from the disk without loading files to the computer. However, it doesn’t work that way on our computers. You get the software restrictions message. I viewed some of the files on the disk and noticed that many have .exe extensions. She was able to run it in the computer lab.
Berrie's response:
Unfortunately we don’t allow students to run software from our computers, even if it is from an external drive. The reason is that malware, viruses, as well as Instant Messenger clients, etc can be run from that location. We have had a rash of these types of threats lately, so the risk is very real. If the prof can get a site license for the software we might be able to add it to our next cloning operation, but it is better run from the Computing labs.
Give me a call if you want me to go over the differences between us and CCS labs, as to why they are able to run exe programs there.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Tampa Bay demographics
Dear Colleagues:
I rarely pass around copies of our special collections finding aids because they often target “my usual suspects” (history, Am studies, and Fla studies). However, I have a collection that may be of broader interest to students in business administration or business management. In the old library, we used to maintain a vertical file of market surveys and research conducted by the St. Petersburg Times. These reports were kept in large red binders and were very clunky but useful.
We have kept some of the most important marketing research materials from these surveys as a distinct (and compact) collection in my area. Here’s a brief description:
The various reports and profiles residing in this collection offer an excellent account of commercial, demographic, media-related, and transportation trends in the Tampa Bay region. Some data sets examined individual municipalities or counties, while other sets included information about Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) or Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) of Florida.
Materials in this collection include summaries of surveys, charts, and statistical information about residents and visitors to the Suncoast. Items reside in folders arranged into seven broad subject series: Business/Retail, Demographics, Economics/Finance, Media, Real Estate, Transportation, and Travel. The bulk of the collection covers the period from 1978 through 1997, though a few items include quantitative information from earlier years (from 1960 forward).
So, the next time a student needs to develop datasets for topics such as Pari-mutuel wagering trends, household growth in Florida, or television channels usually watched in western Pasco County in the late 1980s that may not be found in other sources (Florida Statistical Abstract, census), please send them my way!
JIM
I rarely pass around copies of our special collections finding aids because they often target “my usual suspects” (history, Am studies, and Fla studies). However, I have a collection that may be of broader interest to students in business administration or business management. In the old library, we used to maintain a vertical file of market surveys and research conducted by the St. Petersburg Times. These reports were kept in large red binders and were very clunky but useful.
We have kept some of the most important marketing research materials from these surveys as a distinct (and compact) collection in my area. Here’s a brief description:
The various reports and profiles residing in this collection offer an excellent account of commercial, demographic, media-related, and transportation trends in the Tampa Bay region. Some data sets examined individual municipalities or counties, while other sets included information about Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) or Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) of Florida.
Materials in this collection include summaries of surveys, charts, and statistical information about residents and visitors to the Suncoast. Items reside in folders arranged into seven broad subject series: Business/Retail, Demographics, Economics/Finance, Media, Real Estate, Transportation, and Travel. The bulk of the collection covers the period from 1978 through 1997, though a few items include quantitative information from earlier years (from 1960 forward).
So, the next time a student needs to develop datasets for topics such as Pari-mutuel wagering trends, household growth in Florida, or television channels usually watched in western Pasco County in the late 1980s that may not be found in other sources (Florida Statistical Abstract, census), please send them my way!
JIM
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Update on student faxing
As of June 20, 2007, The Campus Activities Center discontinued their faxing service for students.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Locating raw data sets
We have had a few questions about obtaining raw data sets for analysis. If you go to databases by title/subject and enter Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research or ICPSR, you can access a database that "supplies data files for use with statistical software, such as SAS or SPSS"
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Flash Drives
Flash drives are available for check out at Circ.
They are in the drawer with the key to the drop box, coded and ready for checkout. Ask a circ staff person if you do not know where that is.
They are set for 7 day loans. If lost, the patron will be billed $30. Since they are Reserve materials, the overdue fine will be .25 per hour.
USF patrons only.
Direct your questions to Virginia.
They are in the drawer with the key to the drop box, coded and ready for checkout. Ask a circ staff person if you do not know where that is.
They are set for 7 day loans. If lost, the patron will be billed $30. Since they are Reserve materials, the overdue fine will be .25 per hour.
USF patrons only.
Direct your questions to Virginia.
Marine Science High School Interns
From Virginia:
I had a grad asst stop by Circ yesterday checking on the procedure for a high school intern to get library privileges which they would need for their summer work. Apparently the “Director” of the intern program told her that it was standard and all set (my words, not hers)?
As far as I know, nothing was set up and I told the grad student that. I told her that I was willing to allow the interns check-out privileges IF
1) the college of Marine Science provided letters stating that they would assume responsibility for the materials that the interns borrowed AND
2) the interns paid the $10 fee next door and had ID cards made up in AV
These interns will have limited SNON borrowing privileges and may need the community computers for research.
Also, for anyone entering them into ALEPH, Charlotte and I thought to enter them as SNON, not SAPL so they do not have video privileges. If we receive complaints that they need to borrow some of Jerry’s very excellent educational tapes or DVDs, we can revisit the classification.
I had a grad asst stop by Circ yesterday checking on the procedure for a high school intern to get library privileges which they would need for their summer work. Apparently the “Director” of the intern program told her that it was standard and all set (my words, not hers)?
As far as I know, nothing was set up and I told the grad student that. I told her that I was willing to allow the interns check-out privileges IF
1) the college of Marine Science provided letters stating that they would assume responsibility for the materials that the interns borrowed AND
2) the interns paid the $10 fee next door and had ID cards made up in AV
These interns will have limited SNON borrowing privileges and may need the community computers for research.
Also, for anyone entering them into ALEPH, Charlotte and I thought to enter them as SNON, not SAPL so they do not have video privileges. If we receive complaints that they need to borrow some of Jerry’s very excellent educational tapes or DVDs, we can revisit the classification.
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