| Current Status | Critical Needs | Long Range Goals | ||
| 1 | HelpLine: support center to help faculty, staff, and students solve technological problems related to the use and manipulation of information. | Five years' experience with HelpLine operations; 93% of faculty give HelpLine top ratings for competency and courtesy | Increase use of trained students in HelpLine; extend into evening hours; use LAN-based problem reporting/resolution tool Utopia, web for distributing on-line documents, client access to service queue | Refocus HelpLine function with student staffing throughout the week; web-based (Intranet) self-help tools |
| 2 | Local support: support structure which concentrates on local support providers who in turn support the end users is in place. Specialized support for projects is available. | Computer Records Supervisors (CRS) for administrative offices; faculty secretaries for academic departments; student computing and AV consultants for public labs | Increase training for faculty secretaries, CRS; further distribute on-line support activity as much as possible to client community | Public access to repair queues and problem tracking data |
| 3 | Specialized support is in place in the form of walk-in facilities that enable students and faculty to use sophisticated information technology for research and creative work. | Information Technology Resource Center (ITRC) was eliminated in 1995 for lack of space | Distribute specialized computing resources where they are most needed, used; provide documentation, student support through HelpLine | Centralize only the most specialized or expensive resources |
| 4 | Availability: support services of information professionals are readily available, both in the computing and library areas, and training programs for the use of new technologies have been developed and offered. | "Readily available" usually means within a week during the academic year; this is rarely useful for clients | Outsouce some hardware repairs then realign technical services, HelpLine staff, AV staff all to provide more FTE on the "front lines" of support | Implement liaison model for supporting departments |
| 5 | Adaptive technology: strategies are in place that assist individuals to overcome physical and learning challenges. | Adaptive technologies workspace in Chalmers for the visually challenged | Amplify access to and use of adaptive technologies for learning disabilities | Evaluate recruitment strategies for those with learning disabilities |
Contact: Scott Siddall, Information and Computing Services,
scott@siddall.info
Edited: 01-27-97