LCOGT Network Observatory Operations

We describe the operational capabilities of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network. We summarize our hardware and software for maintaining and monitoring network health. We focus on methodologies to utilize the automated system to monitor availability of sites, instruments and telescopes, to monitor performance, permit automatic recovery, and provide automatic error reporting. The same jTCS control system is used on telescopes of apertures 0.4m, 0.8m, 1m and 2m, and for multiple instruments on each. We describe our network operational model, including workloads, and illustrate our current tools, and operational performance indicators, including telemetry and metrics reporting from on-site reductions. The system was conceived and designed to establish effective, reliable autonomous operations, with automatic monitoring and recovery - minimizing human intervention while maintaining quality. We illustrate how far we have been able to achieve that.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Digital libraries for creative communities

Digital library technologies have a great deal to offer to creative, design communities. They can enable large collections of text, images, music, video and other information objects to be organised and accessed in interesting and diverse ways. Ordinary people—people not traditionally viewed as 'creators' or 'designers'—can now conceive, assemble, build, and disseminate new information collections. This paper explores the development rationale behind the Greenstone digital library technology. We also examine three examples of creative new techniques for accessing and presenting information in digital libraries and stress the importance of tailoring information access to support the requirements of the users and application area

An architecture of a user-centred digital library for the academic community

An architecture of a user-centred digital library, designed to lead users of an academic community to the required information resources based on their tasks, is proposed. Information resources include full-text articles, databases, theses and dissertations, e-journals, e-books, multimedia databases, and so on. Other information resources such as university course calendars, university statutes, course registration, thesis and dissertation guidelines, style guides, and so on, are also needed by users. A prototype has been designed and developed using the School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as an example of such an environment to provide access to these information resources which are spread across different servers and in different home pages This prototype provides links to various information resources according to users' needs, as well as a personal work space to record/store his/her publications, frequently used or favorite hyperlinks and references or notes. Various stages of the prototype design and development are described and future works on this line are highlighted

Information Outlook, May 1997

Volume 1, Issue 5https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_1997/1004/thumbnail.jp

Assembling and enriching digital library collections

People who create digital libraries need to gather together the raw material, add metadata as necessary, and design and build new collections. This paper sets out the requirements for these tasks and describes a new tool that supports them interactively, making it easy for users to create their own collections from electronic files of all types. The process involves selecting documents for inclusion, coming up with a suitable metadata set, assigning metadata to each document or group of documents, designing the form of the collection in terms of document formats, searchable indexes, and browsing facilities, building the necessary indexes and data structures, and putting the collection in place for others to use. Moreover, different situations require different workflows, and the system must be flexible enough to cope with these demands. Although the tool is specific to the Greenstone digital library software, the underlying ideas should prove useful in more general contexts

A Worker Dialogue: Improving Health Safety and Security at DOE

During the summer of 2010, the Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security (HSS) partnered with the National Academy of Public Administration to host an online dialogue to solicit ideas from front line union workers at DOE sites on how to improve worker safety across the DOE complex. Based on the results of the Dialogue, an expert Panel of the National Academy identified several themes that emerged from workers' suggestions and offered recommendations for HSS in following up on the issues raised as well as continuing to build its capacity for employee engagement.Key FindingsBased specifically on the Dialogue results, the Panel recommended HSS further investigate several issues and claims discussed by workers as well as assess the current state of reporting processes in DOE to determine if changes are necessary. In addition, the Dialogue revealed many knowledge gaps among workers regarding the substance of worker health and safety regulations in DOE, which should prompt HSS to consider expanding efforts to educate workers about these regulations.The Panel also issued several recommendations for HSS to build its capacity to engage union workers. These recommendations included considering alternate channels of reaching front-line workers and continuing engagement with workers by articulating and undertaking concrete next steps with the input received