Information Strategy 2013-2018

A new Information Strategy for the University was recently agreed by the Information Strategy Group for the next five academic years (2013-2018).

The strategy will be published online before the new academic year. The strategy is the outcome of a consultation process which began in Summer 2012 and involved all stakeholders in information systems, services and content at the University.

Vice Chancellor's Awards for Flexible Loans and Google Apps projects

The Information Directorate recently won two Vice Chancellor's Awards for Excellence for its Flexible Loans and Google Apps for Education projects.

The Flexible loans project was recognised due to the transformation in the way library loans were handled, with fixed loan periods being replaced with ones which vary depending on the demand for items. This means that users can keep less popular items for longer periods, and items in strong demand are made available more quickly to other users.

The Google Apps for Education project was recognised for its superb rollout, which provided a single, cutting-edge email, calendar and collaborative tools platform for all staff and students at the University. The suite also provides over fifty times more storage quota for email and 5Gb of online file storage for each user.

Read more about the awards here.

Library Refurbishment Complete

The University Library Refurbishment project completed at the end of February 2012. The project began in 2009 and its completion provides world class facilities for students, staff and researchers at the University. This includes new furniture and decoration, much improved lighting (including much greater levels of natural light), better heating and improved ventilation. New study areas have also been provided, including:

• Zoned silent and quiet study areas
• IT Studies (including a silent cluster)
• Group studies

The Library now also has its own café, with a wide selection of drinks, foods and snacks that have proven very popular with visitors since it opened.

The refurbishment also saw the opening of the Harry Fairhurst building in April 2011, which complements the Library with a further 500 study spaces for students, including further group studies, collaborative study areas, a large IT classroom, individual study areas and wireless internet access throughout.

The Library and Harry Fairhurst building are open to the public during normal opening hours; please feel free to drop in and see our new facilities.

University wins award for security training

The 2011 UCISA-Eduserv Award for Excellence was recently awarded to a group of five universities, including the University of York, for developing a new information security e-learning course. 

Arthur Clune, Information Security Officer for the University, worked with staff from the University of Leicester, Cranfield University, Imperial College London and the University of Leeds as part of a collaborative approach to develop the training. This successful partnership was recognised by the judging panel, who felt that it produced high quality training in a cost-effective manner. The training will be made available to all staff at the University of York from next academic year.

Full details of the award can be found on the UCISA website.

New Strategy Update Available Now

A new Information Strategy Update has been published this month. Physical copies are being distributed to departments and student areas across the University campus and will be available by the end end of this week.

An electronic copy (PDF) of the flyer is also available.

The flyer provides details of all the great work that has been done on Information projects across the University over the past year. These include new e-mail and calendaring systems, collaborative tools, infrastructure, business systems and digital library projects. Read the full flyer for details!

If you work at the University and would like to be sent a paper copy, please drop me an e-mail (ian.hall@york.ac.uk)

Major Projects and Jan 2012 Strategy Update

Apologies for the lack of updates on the blog of late. However, I'm pleased to say that there has been plenty of activity with information projects at York this year to report on. Indeed, 2011 has seen us make progress in several strategically important areas:

* A new e-mail an calendaring system, using Google Apps, is being rolled out to staff and students

* York Print Plus, a project providing multifunction devices for printing, scanning and faxing across campus, is currently in its second phase of roll-out. It provides enhanced functionality for users and massive cost and environmental benefits to the University.

* A student portal was launched, in addition to portals for alumni and offer holders

* Major improvements in learning spaces have been made, with the opening of the Harry Fairhurst Building and progression of the Library Refurbishment

However, these are just a sample of the information projects that have moved forward in the past year; a full update on information strategy progress is currently being printed and will be distributed to staff and students in January 2012. An electronic version of the update will also be made available on this site in the new year.

Portal Project Update

The Portal Project now has its own website which will be used to provide information about the project to users.

The site currently has an update from the recent requirements gathering activities, including reports from the focus groups that have been held with students and student facing staff. The portal vision document, which describes a broad vision for the project and what it will provide for users, is also available on the site.