Systems Department Request for Ongoing Funding and Access April 2004
The Library systems department has reached a plateau in terms of being able to pursue new initiatives and explore various services. We have accomplished a significant amount with our current resources and the initial support of University Computing. However, a lack of monetary resources and necessarily limited ongoing support from UC has forced us to find creative, but not ideal, solutions to our pressing issues. We are now anxious to move forward with other initiatives which absolutely require us to have funding and access to servers that we control completely. Please refer to the attached Technology Initiatives document for more information.
In order to achieve these initiatives, we are requesting a modest investment in our technological future in the form of an annual budget, access to the network and the ability to run our own servers, and student/university assistants. Fulfillment of this request would allow us to pursue our major technology goals stated in the emerging library strategic plan as well as internal goals listed in the document attached.
BUDGET: $5000 per year The Library strategic plan calls for several technology initiatives that will require hardware and software investments over the next 3-5 years. The budget currently allotted by UC is sufficient for continuing faculty/staff PC upgrades, but cannot support new initiatives � especially big ticket items like servers. An additional $5000 per year will allow us the flexibility to move forward with the initiatives and plan for the future.
ACCESS TO SERVERS & NETWORK Although UC has been cooperative in allowing us to use hardware resources in their area, it is imperative that we have some additional independence in running and maintaining our own services. We can relieve the UC staff of a fraction of their current workload by assuming maintenance responsibility for the 2 servers we have already purchased (ILLiad? and ERes?) and subsequently install, configure and maintain any additional library-related servers (current and future). Of course, we would comply with any and all University Computing regulations and work closely with UC staff to maintain the equipment in the most secure and efficient way possible.
STUDENT/UNIVERSITY ASSISTANTS We will be requesting personnel � either student assistants or university assistants � in order to reach some of these goals and support additional services.