SKIDMORE COLLEGE

Information Resources Council
Annual Report 2003-04

2003-2004 Committee Members:
Sarah Goodwin, Chair; Bret Ingerman, Karl Broekhuizen, Ann Henderson, Ruth Copans, Michael Marx, Lisa Aronson (replacement for Marx), Flip Phillips, Bob Jones, Judy Halstead, Philip Anstey '06, Bill Roshia '04

The IRC met approximately biweekly during the two semesters, for a total of 12 meetings. Discussion topics included:
1. Information literacy and the CEPP vision statement.
2. Web CT and electronic reserves; copyright issues.
3. New technologies in the classroom: Web CT and GIS; MrSid (zooming-in technology)
4. The college's IT capital budget
5. Luna Insight and the future of our image collections
6. CITS' backup policies, archiving, quotas
7. Alan Lightman's "Prisoners of the Wired World"
8. Update on the Oracle implementation
9. Possible minor in Critical Media Studies
10. Systems security issues
11. Review of topics and planning for 04-05.

In addition to these meetings, the IRC sponsored, with CITS, a lecture by Tracy Mitrano from Cornell, a specialist on IT policy and legal issues; and a presentation by a team from Luna on their Insight software.

The discussions of these different topics were open to the public-with the exception of the first and last meetings-and attracted varying constituencies.

Since the IRC is a forum for discussion and not a deliberative body, the result of most of the discussions was to recommend further discussion by appropriate people on the faculty, in CITS, and elsewhere on campus. During the year we did agree to set up a separate email list for IRC members only for certain business pertaining to calendar and agendas; and we agreed to ask the Committee on Faculty Governance to bring to the faculty a motion to include representation from Special Programs on the IRC in the Faculty Handbook language determining membership on the IRC. CFG did indeed bring the motion to the faculty.

As a result of the IRC discussions, the Dean of the Faculty has asked the faculty working on the Critical Media Studies proposal to meet this fall and submit a revised proposal; Michael Arnush agreed to apprise CEPP of the need to keep information literacy in mind as we develop new curricular approaches for first-year students; Library, Art History and other faculty will be working with Beth DuPont on new image database possibilities; Ann Henderson will continue to update the IRC on the process of going live with OSS; and the IRC will continue to revisit important topics such as general security, intellectual property policies, a review of the long-term plan from 2001 with an eye to updating long-term planning, and any possible changes in the Council's membership, in addition to any new topics brought by our members and constituencies.

Perhaps most significantly, subsequent to IRC discussions the college has moved forward with the establishment of a new GIS center. Endorsed by the Dean and supported by funds from the College and by an award from the Alden Trust in summer '04, the GIS center is located in Dana 169. Lisa Schermerhorn will provide initial technical support, and Bob Jones of Economics will guide the mission of the center. Faculty and students will use the GIS Center as a resource, according to the proposal, to build upon their introductory work with GIS, apply this system to important environmental, geological, social, economic, epidemiological, artistic, anthropological, and biological problems, explore public policy information, and intensify their search for patterns and conclusions that yield new knowledge. Faculty are encouraged to take advantage of this facility to support their teaching and research.

2004 - 2005 Committee Members:
Sarah Goodwin, Chair; Beth DuPont (Interim Co-Director CITS), Barbara Beck (Interim V.P. for Business Affairs), Ann Henderson, Ruth Copans,
Mary Beth O'Brien, Bob Jones, Judy Halstead (on leave F'04), Tom O'Connell (rep'l for Halstead), Joanne Devine, Ben Tronnier '05