Annual Stats Roundup 2008/2009

Printing:

For the 08/09 academic year, students used the library printers/copiers to make 174,667 Pharos imprints. This means that the UWT Library handled 82.5% of the 211,589 total Pharos prints on campus.

Not surprisingly the library’s busiest quarter for printing was Fall quarter, when we made 65,863 prints and had the higest number of prints in a month (24,773) in October. What is surprising is that the 2nd and 3rd highest print months were April and May of 2009 with 23,571 and 22,599 respectively. People don’t like to print in the winter?

Fall through Spring quarter, the library is open 220 days, with 212 school days. This means that the library does an average of 793 pages of printing per day.

Web

The web site being on 24 hours a day 7 days a week coupled with the fact that the UWT Library homepage is the default page on the library gives our web usage statistics a bit of a skew. However, there are some interesting stats that pop out. First, there were 186,828 total visits to the UWT Library web site last year which is 713 visits per day. Second, the slowest day of the year was… December 24th, when 32 people hit the web site. The busiest day was October 15th, with 1,451 hits. And the busies time of the year is Fall, where users hit the site more often and stayed on site longer than any other time of the year.

The busiest times of the day were 10am to 3pm, which coincides with our busy time here in the library. And our busiest days are Monday through Thursday with a precipitous drop on Friday and Saturday and a small rebound on Sunday.

Logons

The logons at UWT are tracked by total logons (TL) , total hours of computing (TH), average minutes per user (MA),  and average hours per day of computer usage (HPD = TH/# of days we are open per quarter).

The UWT library had 35,000 Total Logons in the 2008/2009 academic year. Our best quarters for logons were Winter and Spring with 13,559 and 13,547 logons respectively, both of which represent an increase of 30% over Fall quarter.

Inversely, students stayed twice as long per logon in the fall that they did in Winter and Spring, going from 88 minutes per logon on average to 38 and 41 respectively.

Total hours of computing is calculated by the total number of minutes that all users are logged on to all of the library computers and then simply divided by 60 minutes. This number is very useful as it gives us a sense of the total load that the library is dealing with as far as desktop computers over a quarter. A typical quarter is 70 some days and the library is currently open 80 hours a week during those days. Thus, the library averages 11.42 hours per day (80/7) during the academic quarter and roughly 825 hours of operations during any given quarter (11.42 * 73).  So, when I tell you that in Spring quarter the library did 9264 hours of computing  or an average of 11.23 hours of computing per hour that we are open for a total of 129 hours of computing per day. You can see that students love using the library computers.

Summer Quarter

I started keeping these stats just last year and thus I have stats for last summer. That means that at the end of this summer quarter I will finally be able to make a side by side comparison of two complete quarters.

Exciting!

Governor Gregiore starts tweeting

Governor Chris Gregoire is now a twitter-er.

Look, I’m a strong advocate of using web 2.0 for administration and for increasing communication within and without an organization, but I’m not sure that twitter does that. My sense, and yes, I’m new, and yes, I’m aware of the fact that some really innovative people have come up with some really interesting uses of this new media, but my sense is that this is one of the dumbest web applications ever and I don’t really want the Governor wasting time on this when the state of Washington is facing real challenges.

Moreover, what’s the purpose of this? Is this a re-election Twitter? Is this a “here’s how my work day works” twitter? What and why are they doing this?

I know why the rest of you tweet…

Cell Phone Discounts

Talk about perfect timing.

Given the current economy, every little bit of savings helps. So, imagine my surprise when  I found out that UW Technologies has negotiated a preferred contract with AT&T and T-Mobile which should provide a sizable discount on new and existing cell-phone service for Faculty, Students, and Staff. Other discounts from other providers may be available, you’ll have to call them.

Click on the link above in order to get a list of phone numbers and web sites that will let you take advantage of your UW affiliation. I used the web registration to lodge my affiliation and it was quick and easy.

18% off my AT&T bill? Nice.

Viruses and Plagues

Two things this morning:

1. Just a reminder to all of you who work with the public computers to wash your hands frequently, cover your cough, don’t come in to work if you have a fever, and don’t touch your face.
2. The Conficker virus has basically gone live and is enslaving millions of computers as we speak. This means a huge uptick in Spam in your inbox. It’s probably too late to scan your computer for viruses because if you’re infected you’re hosed at this point, but I always remind people to scan for problems.

Blackboard, on the iPhone

Following directly on the heels of yesterday’s announcement that PubMed has made a ihone application, today Blackboard released their highly rumored and much anticipated application for the iPhone.

While it won’t let students do any of the important course content, it will let them check assignments and send each other messages.

I’m sure course content will follow.

The service currently works on UW Tacoma’s server but IT Services are looking in to whether the security risk posed by storing credentials is worth the mobility provided.

I’ll make a blog about it when we have a definitive answer. For now, if you want to download it and mess around, go to the iTunes App store and search for Blackboard learn.

PubMed, on the iPhone

Libraries looking for ways that the iPhone (or iPod Touch) might change user’s interactions with academic databases need look no further than the PubMed On Tap application ($2.99 from References on Tap, though there is a “lite” version available for free which limits you to 5 hits per search).

This application searches PubMed, retrieves abstracts and lets you email them to yourself as formatted text or as an RIS tagged record (so you can put it in EndNote), remembers your searches, and even supports EZ Proxy.

It will retrieve full text (if you have proper access to do that, via EZ Proxy or IP authentication) but I’d be surprised if a lot of people are going to hang out with their iPod touch and read medical journals. More likely they will email the links to themselves for retrieval later.

Regardless, it’s a pretty cool application and a massive improvement over the Mobile Libraries platforms listed in this wiki. This new database  means that now you can be on the bus to Seattle, search PubMed, and when you get to work you can retrieve the full text articles and read your research on the big screen or print it out, like a sane person.

Sudoku has a mathematical solution

When I first discovered Sudoku puzzles I looked at the boxes and the numbers and said “well, this MUST have a mathematical solution.” I mean, come on, it’s 9 rows, 9 boxes, 9 sets, each with a solution set of numbers 1-9. It seemed perfectly ordered to me and seemed like a mathematical solution was obvious.

So, I started doing some research and it turns out that all the brilliant-est math minds steadfastly held that there was NO mathematical solution for Sudoku. Until today.

I’m not going to pretend that I understand the math in the actual paper but I do understand this:

What Crook has done … is more or less systematized what the average mind does and made it into some sort of computer algorithm – which is a step-by-step procedure.

This means that you can now solve Sudoku puzzles using a computer program. I’ve always maintained that we just need more programs that help us solve all of life’s puzzles.

Some updates to the TeamSpot installation

I have made some changes to the signage and equipment in the TeamSpot area in order to help answer some questions that students have raised about this service.

Can I play a DVD?

Yes, simply check out a pair of headphones (or the multi-line headphone jack and several sets of headphones for groups) and the keyboard and mouse from circulation, pop in your DVD, and enjoy.

Why is there no keyboard and mouse?

You shouldn’t need a keyboard or mouse to control the server because once you download, install and start the client on your laptop, you can use your laptop to control the server (see the instructions in the TeamSpot booklet). That said, the library recognizes that there may be times that students, staff, and faculty might want to use the station in a more “traditional” manner and a keyboard and mouse are available at the circulation desk for you to check out. Just plug them into the USB port and you’re on your way.

Who should I contact if I have a problem, complain, or need a training session?

Please contact me, Tim Bostelle, by phone (253.692.4650) or email (tbostell@u.washington.edu) for any questions regarding this equipment.

I have also updated the remote desktop configuration which means that I can manage this computer from home if there’s a problem, put a sign on the “reboot” button and encourage users to reboot the system if there are problems and am forwarding my work phone to my cell phone.

Hopefully that should catch all the problems as they fall through.  If not, let me know.

First Tweet

I have added a twitter account for UWT LIT.

Follow me here

http://twitter.com/UWTLITweet

…if you’re into that sort of thing.

This isn’t my first foray into Twitter, I also have an account for my Arsenal blog and one private twitter. Though no one is following me on any of them!

A Sweet Goodbye

We had a potluck today to say farewell to a great cow orker, a great personality and all around smart chick; Ahlana.  Her last request was that I post the recipe for my Roasted Cauliflower and Sweet Potato dish. Who am I to deny a tech her last wish?

I created this dish when I was a vegan and had a chance to sample a similar dish during a vegan lunch buffet at a Persian vegan restaurant called Flowers in Seattle. It’s not the same as their dish, but it’s as close as I could get it.

This recipe exemplifies, as with all the dishes in their buffet, everything I love about cooking — it is simple yet full of flavor.

Basically, this recipe is two ingredients: roasted veggies and tahini sauce. The secret is in the balance of soft sweet potato, crispy and earthy cauliflower, and tangy tahini. In a pinch I will substitute Amy’s Goddess dressing for the tahini sauce, because it’s vegan, and less mess.

Enough intro…

Ingredients:

• 1 large head cauliflower
• 1-2 red garnet sweet potatoes
• Olive oil
• 1/2 c. sesame butter
• 1/2 c. water
• juice from 1/2 a large lemon (at least 1/4 cup)
• 1 clove of garlic
• cilantro
• flat leaf parsley

Oven 500F

Break the cauliflower into different sized florets and set in a bowl. Slice the potatoes into 1/4″ bias cut pieces and set in the same bowl. Add enough Olive oil to just coat the veggies and mix together. Add some salt and pepper and mix more.

Dump onto a foil lined baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes or so, checking to make sure you’re getting nice color on the veggies. Turn and roast some more, until the cauliflower is nicely browned but still crispy.

While you’re roasting the veg, assemble the tahini. Seriously, this couldn’t be easier: mix the sesame butter and water with the clove of garlic. I blend with a hand mixer to really get the garlic all chopped up. Now add the lemon juice. I always reserve some lemon juice for the end so that I can adjust the flavor. Add salt and pepper, taste. Add more lemon, taste. Too much lemon? If that happens a little bit of sugar (just like a 1/4 teaspoon) will balance it right back out. Now add some cilantro (optional, not everyone likes cilantro) and flat leaf parsley and blitz up to desired consistency. Set aside.

Pull the veggies out of the oven, let them cool, and pour the sauce on top. Serve chilled or at room temp.

Remember, it’s just roasted veggies and tahini, what could go wrong?

Anyway, thanks to you Ahlana for all you did, I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we enjoyed having you at work.

Good luck!