What’s New

Tech Tip Tuesday: Manage App Shortcuts on Chromebook Desktop

By October 13th 2020

Add, Move, and Remove App Shortcuts on Chromebook Desktop

You can add an app that you use often to your desktop on a Chromebook.

Add an app

  1. In the corner of your screen, click the Launcher  and then Up arrow .
  2. Find the app you want to add.
  3. Right-click the app icon.
  4. Click Pin to Shelf.

When you pin an app to your shelf, the app will stay there until you move or remove it.

Change the order of the apps

To change the position of an app:

  1. Click and hold the app you want to move.
  2. Drag it to a new position.
  3. Release to put the app in a new spot.

Remove an app

  1. Right-click the app you want to remove.
  2. Click Unpin.

Learn more

Google provides an interactive tutorial for working with apps on your Chromebook.

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VLC Player for DVDs in Classroom Presentation Spaces

By October 7th 2020

VLC media player software is now available on all presentation space computers on campus. This software is intended for use by faculty to present DVDs as part of a classroom session.

When you insert a DVD into the tower, you will see a prompt asking you what you’d like to do with the disc. Choose “VLC”. To allow students who are attending remotely to view the video, remember to share the presentation computer’s screen in Zoom or Meet.

Note: Discs played in the separate Blu-Ray player will not be viewable by remote students.

Please reach out to the InfoDesk at infodesk@allegheny.edu or call 814-332-3768 with any questions.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Pin important emails to the top of your Gmail inbox

By September 29th 2020

You can pin certain emails to the top of your Gmail inbox. Here’s how.

First, click on the little gear-shaped Settings icon in the upper right corner of your Gmail window. This will open a Quick Settings menu.

Quick Settings menu in Gmail

Scroll down to the section labeled Inbox Type.

Inbox Type menu in Gmail

Choose Starred first.

Close the Settings menu.

Then, in your inbox, simply click the star next to any emails you want to appear at the top of the list, in a separate section. It will add another section below the Starred section, labeled Everything Else. As you can see in the screenshot below, there are five starred email conversations in the inbox.

Gmail inbox sorted with starred items first

Any conversation that you have starred will stay at the top of the list until you remove the star (simply by clicking on the star again) or remove the conversation from your inbox by archiving or deleting it.

Similarly, you can pin unread emails to the top by choosing Unread first instead of Starred first.

Zoom Service Disruption

By August 24th 2020

As of this morning Zoom has reported partial issues with its platform. You may experience issues trying to connect or join a meeting via a link.

If you have the desktop or mobile Zoom app installed already, it is recommended at this time that you join Zoom using the 10-digit meeting ID and accompanying password.

LITS is actively monitoring the situation and will post updates as we learn more. For updates on this service interruption, please visit https://status.zoom.us/ for the latest information.

Reflections on Social (In) Justice: A Digital Collection

By June 24th 2020

If you are a member of the Allegheny community (students, faculty, staff, and alumni), the Allegheny College Archives invites you to share your reflections about social (in)justice in light of the inequities revealed by the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, recent acts of racial violence, and the related protests by submitting creative works for the College’s digital collections. Individuals telling their stories is part of our entire community being seen, heard, and valued and is part of our joint commitment  to creating an inclusive, respectful and safe residential learning community that actively confronts and challenges injustice. This project intends to help us share our stories as a way to build understanding, strengthen our community, foster human connection, and preserve personal accounts of these troubling events for future generations and scholarly research. Visit our website to learn more about submitting your work or submit directly here. We will accept your essays, poems, photographs, videos etc., that share your reactions and feelings about the life-changing events of recent weeks. Tell us how these historic events in this turbulent time have impacted your life. We will accept your creative reflections at least through 2020. If you have any questions, please contact Ruth Andel, Archivist (merrick@allegheny.edu) or Beau Smith, Digital Resources Librarian (bmith3@allegheny.edu).

Upcoming Retirement of EZ Proxy

By June 8th 2020

LITS has recently upgraded how members of the Allegheny College community access resources on the LITS website. The old system, EZ Proxy, will soon be completely retired and replaced by the new system, OpenAthens. On June 30th, EZ Proxy bookmarks and links will cease to work, and we will complete the transition to the new OpenAthens system.

If you currently have any bookmarked EZ Proxy links, please navigate to the resources through the LITS website and re-bookmark the links using OpenAthens.

We hope to make this transition as smooth as possible. If there is any assistance that we can provide, please don’t hesitate to let us know by calling the InfoDesk at x3768, or email us at infodesk@allegheny.edu.

RefWorks Outage

By May 8th 2020

RefWorks, the reference management service provided to the campus community by LITS, will be out of service temporarily this weekend while its data center is being moved to a new server by ProQuest.

Downtime will start on Saturday, May 9, at 10pm Eastern Time, and will last up to 12 hours. 

If you still experience issues with RefWorks after 10am on Sunday, May 10, please notify the InfoDesk at infodesk@allegheny.edu, or call us at 814-332-3768, or open a Web Help Desk ticket.

Web of Science Citation Counts Restored

By April 2nd 2020

Web of Science citation counts have been missing from off-campus AggreGator search results for the past two weeks. The problem can be fixed simply by logging in.  After conducting an initial search in AggreGator, look for a message in the upper right corner of the screen (small white font in a dark grey banner) beginning with the words “Off Campus?” Follow the instructions to log in with your Allegheny Username and Password.  After logging in, the Web of Science citation count will appear in the search results.

Screen shot of banner reading "Off Campus? Log in with your Allegheny Username & Password to access full text."

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.

Kanopy Streaming Service Updates

By March 16th 2020

Kanopy, an online streaming service available to the Allegheny community and a top resource for documentary film, has access to over 28,000 titles from providers such as PBS, Documentary Educational Resources, New Day Films, and California Newsreel.

Kanopy announced on Saturday, March 14th, that additional film collections are available to be watched for free for the next 30 days. See this link for a full list of titles available.

Additionally, starting today, Monday, March 16th; all selections in Kanopy’s catalog from The Great Courses will be available to use for free over the next 4 weeks.