Celebrate Fibonacci Day!

Today, November 23 (11/23) is Fibonacci Day! There will certainly be a huge celebration in the year 5813, but until then you can read some of our books discussing the beauty of Fibonacci sequences:

Fibonacci’s De Practica Geometrie (Springerlink online book)
The Mathematica Guidebook for Numerics (Springerlink online book)

You could also play around with writing a recursive function to generate some Fibonacci numbers of your own! Safari Tech books online offers these up for help:
C++ how to program: example using recursion
Java how to program: example using recursion

Enjoy!

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics updated

The latest web version of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics is now online, including a new Structure searching feature. You can now search the handbook by chemical structure with a download-able Java Applet for drawing your structure query. Search over 10,000 compounds!

What else is new?

Now reflecting the content of the 90th print edition, the new web version adds tables covering 11 new topics:

Structures and functions of common drugs
Chemical constituents of human blood
Proton nmr shifts for solvents
Apparent Equilibrium Constants for Enzyme-Catalyzed Reactions
Phase Transitions in the Solid Elements at Atmospheric Pressure
Thermoelectric Properties of Metals and Semiconductors
Thermophysical Properties of Stainless Steel 310
Description of the IUPAC chemical identifier (InChI)
International recommendations on the expression of uncertainty of measurements
Major world earthquakes, 850AD to 2008
Nobel prize winners in Physics and Chemistry

And some of the most heavily used tables have been extensively revised and updated:

Nuclear moments for nmr spectroscopy
Mass spectral peaks for organic solvents
Properties of refrigerants
Interstellar molecules
Aqueous Solubility and Henry's Law Constants of Organic Compounds
Properties of the Solar System
Satellites of the Planets
Threshold Limits for Airborne Contaminants
Speed of Sound in Dry Air

web product downtimes

Multisearch, the Full Text Journal Finder and the Ulrich database will be unavailable due to maintenance on Saturday, October 24, from 12:00 noon - 6:00 pm EDT.

All other library databases will be fully functional during this time.

Research Workshops: Fall 2009 schedule

The S.C. Williams Library will offer several workshops this semester to help you improve your research skills and knowledge. Please join us for these useful and informative workshops!

The following workshops are offered:

• Graduate & Ph.D. Research Workshop: Tuesday, October 6, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
  For students interested in improving their knowledge of the scholarly & professional research resources & databases available through the library. All students are welcome.
  

• SciFinder Database Workshop: Wednesday, October 21, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
  SciFinder covers chemistry, biomedical sciences, materials science, engineering, and more. This workshop will cover basic & advanced searching, in addition to structure searching.
  

• Ebsco Database Workshop: Tuesday, October 27, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
  Learn how to maximize your search results in the Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, and PsycInfo databases.
  

• Preparing Your Dissertation or Thesis Workshop: Thursday, November 5, 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
  Important workshop for anyone working on a dissertation, thesis, or senior report. Topics covered will be formatting, specifications, LaTeX questions, and requirements.
  

If you have any questions, please contact a Reference & Research Services Librarian

All workshops will meet in Library Research Training Room 204, located on the second floor of the Library.
Directions: Walk up one flight of stairs, pass the boat hulls on your left as you cross the bridge, turn left at the presidents' portraits, walk straight past the restrooms & exhibits towards room 204.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Scopus database downtime

The Scopus database will be unavailable for approximately 13 hours due to scheduled maintenance, starting on Saturday, 19 September at 8:00 AM EDT.

Take the Knovel Challenge

Answer three questions from the Knovel database and be eligible to win a Wii, iPod, Kindle, or iTunes gift cards! The Knovel University Challenge is a contest that runs every year at universities all over the world. Knovel is a library database with electronic reference books specializing in engineering and science.

If at least 100 students from Stevens answer the questions correctly, we are guaranteed to have a Stevens student win an iPod Nano!

ILL Department Looking For Graduate Student Worker

The SC Williams Library is looking for one graduate student worker for the Interlibrary Loan department. The student must be reliable and detail oriented.
Students that will graduate in December 2010 or later are preferred. Also, students must be available to work during the summer.

We are accepting applications until September 18thth and the position will start on or around September 28th.

Applications are available at the library circulation desk and you may attach a resume to the application. On your application, make a note that this is for the ILL position so that the application is given to ILL. Students MUST fill out an application to be considered for the position. Please do not email resumes to the ILL department.

PLEASE NOTE: Only those selected will be contacted for interviews. We will not be contacting everyone.

NPS Center for Homeland Defense and Security Announces Third Annual Essay Competition

The Center for Homeland Defense and Security (www.chds.us) is seeking entries for its Third Annual Essay Competition. The competition carries a $1,500 prize for the winning entry and the writer will be invited to the Center’s campus for its annual Forum. This competition strives to stimulate original thought and analysis on issues in Homeland Security and Homeland Defense. The competition is open to anyone with an interest in homeland security issues. The criteria for the essay and its submission are:

Statement of Purpose: According to the National Strategy for Homeland Security, the objectives of homeland security are to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America’s vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur. The purpose of this competition is to promote innovative thinking that addresses these objectives.

Essay question: How can, or should, the United States make homeland security a more layered, networked, and resilient endeavor involving all citizens?

Responses may be general or may focus on a specific aspect (organizational, policy, strategy, practice, technological innovation, social impact, etc.) or discipline/field, such as emergency management, public health, law enforcement, critical infrastructure or intelligence. The essay may also be written from any perspective — e.g. government, private sector, cultural, local community or citizen.

Who may enter: Anyone interested in homeland security issues. Individuals associated with CHDS past and present are not eligible.

Competition Guidelines: The essay should be no more than five pages, single spaced, 12-point type and in Word or PDF format. Do not include author’s name on the essay. Entries will be submitted via webpage instructions. Deadline for submission: January 31, 2010.

Notification: The winner and finalists will be announced no later than May 31, 2010.

Criteria: Essays are judged according to the relevance of the response to the question, innovation of ideas, strength of the argument and quality of the writing.

Award: The winner will receive a $1,500 cash award and will be invited to the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, located at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., where he or she will be recognized at the CHDS Forum.

Last year’s winning entry was titled “Emergency Response, Public Health and Poison Control: Logical Linkages for Successful Risk Communication and Improved Disaster and Mass Incident Response” and authored by Valerie Yeager, research assistant and writer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham South Central Center for Public Health Preparedness. The essay was the top essay out of 147 entries.

The winning essay for the first year of the contest was titled “Reducing the Risk” by Matthew Allen, a staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California. This essay was chosen out of 80 entries.

For contest information and to enter, visit www.chds.us/?essay/overview.

About CHDS: Established in 2002 on the campus of the 100-year-old Naval Postgraduate School, the Center seeks to educate homeland security leaders in strategic thinking and leadership from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The Center’s master’s degree program graduates 90 senior officials every year and is noted for offering the nation’s first master’s degree in homeland security. The Mobile Education Team (MET) travels around the country and has conducted more than 100 seminars for governors, mayors and their homeland security teams. More than 3,000 senior officials have participated in the MET program since its inception. The Center’s Executive Leaders Program draws leaders from government and private industry to provide an educational forum to enhance senior leaders’ capacity to identify and resolve homeland security problems. For information, visit www.chds.us.

About NPS: The mission of the Naval Postgraduate School is to provide unique advanced education and research programs in order to increase the combat effectiveness of the U.S. and Allied armed forces as well as enhance the security of the United States. For information, see www.nps.edu.

For more information, contact:

Heather Issvoran
Director, Strategic Communications
(831) 402-4672
Email: hissvora@nps.edu

Safari books upgrade + contest

The library now subscribes to the entire collection of Safari Books Online. The collection contains over 8,000 computer science and technical books, with new publications added continually.

The Safari online database has a limit of 5 concurrent users, so if you can't access a book, please try again after a few minutes.

Safari is currently running a Dynamite Coding Skills contest, where you can win a personal 3 month Safari subscription and an invitation to join Tim O'Reilly at an event next year. More information is available here: http://safaribooksonline.com/Corporate/DynamiteCodingSkills/.

H1N1 virus protocol update

Stevens is carefully monitoring and preparing for the cold & flu season, and a message has been posted on the Stevens website to help students, faculty, and staff understand the advised protocols for dealing with possible H1N1 virus occurrences at http://www.stevens.edu/sit/h1n1.cfm

Health authorities recommend that you

* Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or use an alcohol-based gel
* Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze
* Avoid close contact with those with flu symptoms
* Eat nutritionally, drink plenty of water, and get adequate rest

Read more on the Stevens website to get helpful contact info and advice about how you can prepare for the cold & flu season -- and how you can help reduce the transmission of the flu virus.

Faculty reception/author celebration

On Wednesday, October 7 from 4 to 6 p.m., the library will host its inaugural fall reception to welcome faculty to the library and celebrate Stevens authors. Books by Stevens authors as well as 900 journal papers from the last few years will be highlighted.

Wine and cheese will be served and it will be a great opportunity for faculty to socialize with colleagues and the library staff.

For planning purposes, faculty members & department heads are encouraged to let us know they're planning to attend by September 25. RSVP here if you would like to attend.

We look forward to seeing the faculty here at the library on Wednesday, October 7!

ILL Department's New Direct Publisher Option for Document Requests

The Interlibrary Loan Department has introduced a new feature for document requests - the Publisher Direct Option.

We now offer the option to request a copy of your journal article directly from a publisher. This option would be ideal for patrons needing the clearest available images in his/her articles. Examples of such pictures would be molecules, cells, etc. - anything that might need a very clear image for research.

For the time being the fee for this service is $5 - this is on top of the $1 (regular) or $10 (rush) processing fee.

This option is listed in online Deposit Accounts, online Student Account Forms as well as the pdf of the paper Document Request Form (which can be found on the ILL webpage or at the library circulation desk).

Please note that the fee could be higher if the article costs significantly more than the $25 the library subsidizes. Also, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to always be able to get a publisher’s copy. If either of these circumstances occurs, we would contact you to decide how to proceed.

For more information on the Publisher Direct Option, please contact Mary Ellen Valverde or the Interlibrary Loan Department.

Homeland Security Digital Library now available to Stevens researchers

Stevens now has access to the Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL), containing over 65,000 important U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents as well as specialized resources from universities, organizations and local and state agencies.

You can access this resource directly through their website (https://www.hsdl.org), or through the Library's Online Resources page. However, access is restricted to the Stevens community, and users must either be on the Stevens network (on campus), or signed into the Stevens virtual private network (VPN). For more information on establishing a VPN connection, see here: http://www.stevens.edu/library/about/connect.html

More information on the HSDL, from their website:

The Homeland Security Digital Library is the nation's premier collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management. The HSDL is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security.

The Homeland Security Digital Library is composed of homeland security related documents collected from a wide variety of sources. These include federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies, professional organizations, think tanks, academic institutions, and international governing bodies. Resources are carefully selected and evaluated by a team of librarians and subject-matter specialists.

DON'T PANIC

Because we know there's a lot of information (and mis-information) making the rounds out there, we thought we'd provide some links to quality, reliable resources on the H1N1 (swine flu) virus.

First off, two quick posts which provide some clarification about the virus and the current situation:

• What is Swine Flu? How Does an Animal Disease Spread to a Human Host? (via Geeks are Sexy)
• Swine Flu Q & A (via BoingBoing)

For official and scholarly information on the topic, check out:

• The Center for Disease Control's H1N1 Flu page: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/
• Medline Plus's Swine Flu page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/swineflu.html
• DynaMed's Swine Flu topic collection: http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/swineflu/

For even more information, try Dalhousie University's public health subject guide (or you can look at a list of subject guides on this topic here.)

Hope that helps! Be safe, and just remember, wash your hands and stay home when you're sick and we'll be OK.

April Research Workshops

Are you writing a paper or working on a final project? Do you need to find journal articles and books to support your research topic?

Come to a Research Workshop at the Library!

Choose from 3 convenient workshop dates:

1. Wednesday, April 8th @ 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
2. Monday, April 13th @ 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
3. Tuesday, April 21st @ 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

You will improve the quality of your paper/project by learning:
- How to quickly find the full text of top-quality research sources (journal articles, books, e-books, conference papers, newspaper & magazine articles)
- How to cite your sources correctly in your paper and your bibliography
- How to find & use the best research resources for your papers and projects
- How to go beyond the free Internet and start using the innovative, scholarly, & professional research databases available through the Library website

All members of the Stevens community are welcome. All Undergraduate students, Graduate students, Ph.D. candidates, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend.

Questions? Contact Linda Beninghove, Head of Reference and Research Services, at linda.beninghove@stevens.edu or 201-216-5412.

Location: Workshops will meet in Library Research Training Room 204 on the second floor of the Library.
We look forward to seeing you there.

Thesis & Dissertation Specifications Available

Writing or Advising a Thesis, Dissertation, Senior Report, or Senior Project?

As you finalize your theses, dissertations, reports, and projects, we encourage you to take a look at the Specifications and Instructions for Submission of Theses, Dissertations, Reports, and Projects. This information is available to you within the Library Services section of the Library website at http://www.stevens.edu/library/services/thesis.html

This page provides you and your Advisors with formatting requirements, report specifications, sample pages, and links to copyright information & forms. Students using LaTeX to prepare their papers will find a LaTeX template available for their use.

If you or your Advisors have any questions about submitting a thesis, dissertation, report, or project, please contact Doris Oliver, Special Collections Assistant Curator at the Samuel C. Williams Library, at doris.oliver@stevens.edu or 201-216-5415.

Best of luck with your papers and projects!

SciFinder moving to web version

SciFinder Scholar has now changed to a web version of the database. In order to use SciFinder, users will need to register using their valid Stevens email address. If you are currently using the client version of SciFinder, you will need to register with the new web version. The client version will no longer work after the end of March, 2009.

Registration instructions are available on the Stevens Library website at http://www.stevens.edu/library/research/scifinder.html

Some of the new features of the web version of SciFinder include:

* Direct links to data
* Keep Me Posted enhancements
* Improved search precision
* Session history retention
* Index term linking

For SciFinder Web training and tutorials, check out the CAS website, at http://www.cas.org/support/scifi/index.html

If you have any questions about SciFinder Scholar, please contact a Reference and Research Services Librarian.

Drs. Blumberg and Bruno to speak at Hoboken Historical Museum

As part of the Hoboken Historical Museum's "Up & Down the River: The History of the Hudson, 1609 - 2009" exhibit, two noted Stevens professors will give talks for the exhibit's lecture series.

On Sunday, April 5th, Dr. Alan F. Blumberg, the George Meade Bond Professor & Director of the Center for Maritime Systems, will give a talk about how his team assisted in the rescue of USAir Flight 1549 earlier this year.

On Sunday, May 17th, Dr. Michael Bruno, the Feiler Chair & Dean of the School of Engineering and Science, will give a talk entitled "A Sailing History of Hoboken", about Stevens Institute's cutting-edge research into boat design and the America's Cup.

The "Up & Down the River: The History of the Hudson, 1609 - 2009" exhibit will continue through December 23, 2009. Full details about the exhibit and lecture series are available on the Hoboken Historical Museum website.

Summer program for student entrepreneurs

From TechCrunch: VC firm Highland Capital Partners is issuing a call for applicants for their 3rd annual “Summer@Highland” entrepreneurship program.

Highland’s 10 week program is only open to enrolled graduate and undergraduate students or recent graduates (no later than December 2008). But only one member of a start-up team has to meet this criterion. Teams can have up to 4 people and will be given the option of working in the VC firm’s Menlo Park, CA or Lexington, MA offices. Stipend amounts range from $7,500 to $15,000, depending on how many people are part of the team. Read more...>>

Free e-book: Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets

In a new book from MIT Press, Peter Cowhey (UCSD and now the Senior Counselor at USTR) and Jonathan Aronson (USC) discuss why global information and communication markets matter, why change is needed, and what should be done. For more info, or to download the pdf version of the book (available for free under a creative commons license) see here: http://globalinfoandtelecom.org/book/

(Source: BoingBoing)

Source of the Week

'Source of the Week' is back! And what prompted us to revive the weekly feature where we highlight a report or article that focuses on science and/or technology? Why the Interagency Working Group on Digital Data of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Science, of course!

Anyway.... The above-mentioned, lengthy-named agency just released a report on curating digital science data, called "Harnessing the Power of Digital Data for Science and Society" (60 pages; pdf). From the abstract:

"The Interagency Working Group on Digital Data of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Science has released a report describing a strategy to promote preservation and access to digital scientific data.

The report lays out a strategic vision for “a digital scientific data universe in which data creation, collection, documentation, analysis, preservation, and dissemination can be appropriately, reliably, and readily managed, thereby enhancing the return on our nation’s research and development investment by ensuring that digital data realize their full potential as catalysts for progress in our global information society.”

The report includes three key recommendations to pursue this vision. The first is to create an Interagency Subcommittee under NSTC that will focus on goals that are best addressed through continuing broad cooperation and coordination across agencies. The second key element of the strategic framework is for departments and agencies to lay the foundations for agency digital scientific data policy and make the policy publicly available. In laying these foundations, agencies should consider all components of a comprehensive policy to address the full data management life cycle. The third key element is for all agencies to promote a data management planning process for projects that generate scientific data for preservation." Read more...>>

(Source: ReferenceShelf)

Textbook Drive

In order to improve the resources available to the student body, and to meet a rising demand among students, The Stevens Library Committee is trying to create a reserve of current textbooks used in Stevens’ classes.

Currently, a number of professors supply copies of their course textbooks to the library for students to reference. Our goal is to have at least one copy of each textbook from every course available to students in the library each semester. In order to accomplish this goal we are requesting that the Stevens community donate any extra copies of current textbooks or acceptable earlier editions of textbooks for current courses.

So far, the drive has received an outstanding response from the School of Systems and Enterprises, with Dr. Donald Merino being the first to respond to our call and dropping off two copies of his textbook at the library. Dr. Rashmi Jain has also done a great job helping out with this project, collecting 44 textbooks in total from her school. We'd like to thank both Dr. Merino and Dr. Jain sincerely for their support (and Dr. Jain's diligence!), and we'd like to call on the other members of the Stevens faculty to join in the drive. Please consider dropping off your extra texts at the library, or even better, ask around amongst your colleagues and see how many books you can collect! (The library would be happy to come pick up the books from your department, just drop us an e-mail at library@stevens.edu and let us know when and where we can come get them.)

Thanks so much from us, and from the students, for all your help!

Preparing for midterms?

Since the library has been pretty packed lately, we're assuming that a lot of students have midterms either going on or coming up. Lifehacker must have noticed it's that time of year too, because they've been doing a lot of posting on test prep lately. The site has a great section on study tips, including online flash card creators, memory hacks and time management tools and tips.

Also, check out the Academic Support Center for upcoming workshops on getting organized, avoiding procrastination and succeeding academically.

Good luck on exams, and remember, spring break is on its way!

ACS features nanotechnology videos

The American Chemical Society's Nanotation division (tagline: "assembling the community of nanoscience") has launched a new video channel on their website. The ACS Nanotation NanoTube gives users the opportunity to create and star in their own videos about nanoscience and nanotechnology.

The site is also currently holding a contest that could net you 500 bucks if you win. Send them your original video answering any of the questions: what is "nano"? How is "nano" best visualized? Where is "nano" headed? Video submissions will be accepted from January 5 - March 15, 2009, must be 3 minutes in length or less, and will be judged on creativity, scientific clarity of explanation, originality and quality of the video. See the contest homepage here.

Here are some videos that have been submitted:


Small can be big - a french cheesy perspective


The Nano Song from nanomonster on Vimeo.

Expanded Humanities coverage in Scopus

From their recent press release:

Elsevier announced today that its flagship product Scopus, the world’s largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, will be nearly doubling its Arts & Humanities (A&H) titles. Access to the new journals will be available to Scopus users in April 2009. Currently the Scopus database contains 1,600 titles in A&H and related fields.

Many countries will be better represented as a result of these added titles and researchers will have enhanced access to international A&H content. Journal subjects include literature and literary theory (30% of new titles), general arts and humanities (22%), history (17%), visual/performing arts (16%), among others. read more...>>

Springer journals now available!

Springer journals are now available through the Library!

The Samuel C. Williams Library Staff is pleased to announce that we have acquired a subscription to the Springer journals package!

These journals are now available through the SpringerLink database.

SpringerLink highlights:

• Full text online access to almost 1,700 Springer journals

• Lecture Notes in Computer Science back to 1996

• Full text online access to all Springer e-books published in the English language between 2005 and 2008

Subject areas covered by the Springer journals and e-books:
Architecture and Design
Behavioral Science
Biomedical and Life Science
Business and Economics
Chemistry and Materials Science
Computer Science
Earth and Environmental Science
Engineering
Humanities, Social Science, and Law
Mathematics and Statistics
Medicine
Physics and Astronomy
Professional Computing and Applied Computing


• To use the SpringerLink database, go to the Library website, click on Search Tools, and click on Online Resource A-Z List. Select SpringerLink Collection from the list, and you’re ready to search the database. Please note that the subscription does not include access to Springer Protocols.

• The 2008 Library Online Resources Survey results indicated several databases most desired by students, faculty, and researchers. The Springer journals package was among the most-requested databases.

• If you would like to use the databases from off-campus locations, please go to our Connecting from Off-Campus page for instructions for setting up a VPN.

• If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact a Reference and Research Services Librarian. The Library Staff welcomes your comments and questions about our resources and services.

New Saturday Library hours

The Samuel C. Williams Library has extended its Saturday evening hours so that the Library now closes at 9:00 p.m. Please see the Library hours schedule for full information.

Job opening for graduate student worker

- NOT ACCEPTING ANY MORE APPLICATIONS AT THIS TIME -

A graduate student position is available in the library’s collection development and special collections departments. The job is for 20 hours/week. Ten hours are in the collection development department, and 10 are in the special collections department. Some heavy lifting of material up to 50 pounds will be required on occasion, and some carrying of material up and down stairs will also be required.

Collection development responsibilities:

• re-shelving books and maintaining the appearance of the reference, new books, and 2^nd floor collection
• shelf reading
• relocating new books to the second floor collection
• helping with book sale
• other duties as assigned

Special collection responsibilities:

• photocopying of fragile material
• processing thesis & Ph.D.s for binding and microfilming
• assisting with complex research questions
• updating databases
• scanning
• filing and organizing
• miscellaneous errands

Preferred qualities

• strong attention to detail
• familiarity with Library of Congress classification system
• graduating no earlier than January 2010
• ability to work independently

Interested students should fill out a job application and submit it to the circulation services desk in the library. Please circle “special collections” and “shelving” on the application. Deadline for applications is Tuesday, February 10.

Work Study Position available at Library

- NOT ACCEPTING ANY MORE APPLICATIONS AT THIS TIME -

Work study position available for The Stute digitization project at the Samuel C. Williams Library at Stevens Institute of Technology. Candidates must be very detail-oriented, responsible, and Federal Work Study Eligible. Students will be required to work 10 to 15 hours per week. Responsibilities will include: checking the quality of digital scans, proofreading, uploading finished files into an archive management system, and keeping files & work organized. Please fill out a job application and submit it to the Circulation Services Desk at the Library. In the upper-right corner of your application, please write “Stute Digitization Project job applicant”. Deadline for applications is Tuesday, February 17th. Job applications are available at the Library Circulation Services Desk or on the Library website at: http://www.stevens.edu/library/fileadmin/library/forms/employment.pdf

*Important information for off-campus users connecting via VPN*

A heads-up from the IT department regarding off-campus users who connect to online library resources through VPN:

Information Technology is replacing the two VPN (Virtual Private Network) servers with a new server, which is installed and ready for use.  If don't use VPN services this announcement does not pertain to you.  If you use VPN services, or have them configured on a Stevens issued notebook and/or individually owned computer that is used off-campus, you are required to change your VPN configuration.

Links to instructions on how and why to use a VPN connection are below.  The old VPN servers will be removed from the network on January 24, 2009.  ALL users must remove their old profiles and create new ones to connect to the new VPN server.

The old VPN servers, vpn02.cc.stevens-tech.edu and vpn01.cc.stevens-tech.edu are being replaced by the new VPN server vpn.stevens.edu.  Since the configuration of the VPN client has changed attempts to update your old VPN profile with the new VPN server name will not work.  Creating a new profile, and removing the old one is easy, and only takes a few steps to complete.  The new VPN connection method is more secure than the previous.  The most notable change will be that the old vpn02 connection used the PIPELINE password while the new vpn.stevens.edu connection uses the CAMPUS Domain password.

Set up instructions for Windows XP, Vista, MAC OS X including  iPhone and iTouch and Linux are available at http://www.stevens.edu/itwiki/cgi-bin/wiki/index.php/VPN.

Some Campus Domain Users do not have the rights to make this change.  If you try to make this change and access is denied contact the Information Technology Help Desk at 201.216.5500.  Even if you do not use the VPN connection regularly, now is the time to add the new VPN configuration to your system and test the connection.  Remember to use your CAMPUS Domain password when using the connection.

If you have not changed your Domain password recently now is a good time to do it.  Your domain password should be unique to this account, not used anywhere else and a password only you know.  Information on changing your domain password can be found at:  http://www.stevens.edu/itwiki/cgi-bin/wiki/index.php/Campus_Domain_Account#Changing_your_Password.

If you need assistance or a password reset, contact the Information Technology Helpdesk at 201.216.5500 or www.stevens.edu/helpdesk.  Please remember to remove your old VPN profile after you have installed the new one.