LITS Items

Online Access to the Chronicle of Higher Education

By March 26th 2020

The Chronicle of Higher Education just changed how they provide access to premium content from off campus. Anyone at Allegheny can access all of the Chronicle’s regular content by logging in with an allegheny.edu account. To gain access from off campus:
  • If you have an account at the Chronicle tied to your allegheny.edu email address, go to chronicle.com for immediate access.
  • If you don’t already have an account with your allegheny.edu email address, create one:
  1. Go to Chronicle.com and click on the “Log In” link at top, right-hand side of the page or go to:  https://www.chronicle.com/account/create.
  2. Choose the “Create an Account” option.
  3. Create a free account using your institutional email address.  You also have the option to sign up for The Chronicle’s free email newsletters during the registration process.
  4. Activate your account by confirming your email address in the “The Chronicle:  Confirm your email address” email.

Classroom Webcams

By March 19th 2020

LITS worked with department chairpersons and building coordinators to identify up to four classrooms per building to equip with webcams to allow for live streaming or recording lectures. In assessing the need the following rooms will be equipped to support live streaming and recording lectures:
  • Alden Hall – 109
  • Arnold Hall – M106
  • Arter Hall – 007, 101, 113, 205
  • Carnegie Hall – 105, 110, 112
  • Carr Hall – 120
  • Doane Hall of Art – ALIC, A103
  • Doane Hall of Chem – 103
  • Montgomery Gym – Performance Space
  • Oddfellows – 105B
  • Quigley Hall – 123
  • Ruter Hall – 201, 203, 109, 106
  • Steffee Hall – B103
  • Vukovich Center – 202

The work of equipping the rooms started on Thursday 3/19 and should be complete by late afternoon on 3/20 to give faculty time to practice the techniques outlined on the Preparing for Remote Course Delivery page of the LITS website. Faculty should work with their building coordinator for scheduling the room.

In the event that additional rooms need equipping, LITS will prioritize that work accordingly. Please direct requests for additional rooms to the InfoDesk.

RefWorks Upgrade

By March 19th 2020

The RefWorks service is scheduled for an upgrade for greater security and scalability. During the upgrade process, the following services will be unavailable:

  • (new) RefWorks
  • RefWorks Citation Manager
  • Write-n-Cite
  • RefWorks for Google Docs

These services will be unavailable starting Saturday March 21, 2020 at 4:00 AM Eastern Time, and for up to 4 hours.

If you experience issues with RefWorks after this time, please open a Web Help Desk ticket or contact the InfoDesk.

Preparation for Remote Learning

By March 10th 2020

LITS is developing a website with resources to help faculty prepare to teach through any disruption arising from COVID-19. More materials will be added to the site as they are available.

Faculty with questions are invited to drop in the Pelletier classroom (Pelletier room 224) 12:00 to 1:30 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and 3:30 to 5:00 Thursday and Friday this week. LITS staff will be on hand to assist as needed. LITS staff will be available next week 1:00 to 3:00 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in the classroom to answer questions, and faculty are again invited to drop in. Faculty participating in the drop in sessions are welcome to bring personal phones or laptop if they would like to try things out on their own devices.

Faculty may also contact the InfoDesk at infodesk@allegheny.edu, (814) 332-3768, or submit a Webhelp ticket with questions. 

Ellucian Colleague Upgrade

By February 27th 2020

Over the weekend of February 29-March 1, 2020, LITS will be applying some scheduled upgrades to the Ellucian Colleague software used by many offices across campus. Users may notice some changes to screens within Colleague, and some features will be enhanced.

If you encounter any issues with Colleague after Monday, March 2, please contact the InfoDesk or open a Web Help Desk ticket.

LITS Introduces a New Way to Access Digital Magazines

By February 17th 2020

The Allegheny College community can now browse digital versions of their favorite magazines using the Flipster® service from EBSCO Information Services.

Pelletier Library now provides both Flipster and hardcopy versions of Atlantic and Bloomberg Business Week. With the Flipster app, magazines can be downloaded to Android™ and Apple® phones and tablets, and Kindle Fire tablets for offline reading anytime, anywhere. Flipster can also be used in a web browser with your Allegheny account.

Contact the LITS InfoDesk at x3768, or visit https://library.allegheny.edu to learn more about accessing the library’s digital magazines through Flipster.

Can You Spot a Phishing Attempt?

By February 3rd 2020

Phishing attempts are on the rise!

Can you spot when you’re being phished? Check out this quiz from Google to find out.

Be sure to check out the LITS Phishing page to learn more about phishing and how to stay alert.

LITS always encourages safe account practices and would encourage you to visit the LITS website to change your password if you ever feel that your account credentials have been compromised.  In addition, two-factor authentication is an added layer of protection against this possibility.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the InfoDesk at infodesk@allegheny.edu or by phone at x3768 to report phishing attempts or to obtain more information.

Scheduled Campus Phone System Maintenance

By January 31st 2020

In order to address miscellaneous recent issues with Allegheny’s VOIP phone system, our phone service provider has advised a reboot of the system, scheduled for Monday morning, February 3, at 7:00 am.

This reboot would affect all desk phones on campus. The outage is expected to last about ten minutes.

Fax service, alarm dialers, and emergency phones should not be affected during the outage.

If you are still experiencing any disruption of campus phone service after 7:20 am, please contact the InfoDesk immediately by email at infodesk@allegheny.edu.

HathiTrust login update

By January 13th 2020

LITS has updated the authentication method for HathiTrust accounts. This may cause some temporary difficulties with logging into your HathiTrust account over the next few days. We expect these difficulties to be resolved by January 20 at the latest.
Most functions of HathiTrust are unaffected.
If you experience difficulties logging into HathiTrust after January 20, please contact the InfoDesk at 814-332-3768, or open a Web Help Desk ticket.

Scheduled Network Maintenance

By December 27th 2019

LITS will be conducting scheduled network maintenance on Saturday, December 28. Wireless connectivity may be briefly affected at various times and locations throughout the day.

People on campus who encounter issues with wifi that persist after the 28th, or who encounter wider issues affecting more than just wifi, should contact Public Safety at 814-332-3357, who can alert LITS. We also encourage people to submit a Web Help Desk ticket.