-Secure your handheld device – your cell phone, iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, or any other Smartphone data can be protected by simply setting a password on the device.

-Install virus detection software and keep it up to date. Anti-virus programs perform two general functions: scanning for & removing viruses in files on disks and monitoring the operation of your computer for virus-like activity.   Auburn University’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) recommends that you run the latest version of Sophos AntiVirus software (available to AU students and employees via AU Install).

-Watch for phishing scams.  Phishing scams are fraudulent e-mail messages appearing to come from legitimate sources like your bank, your Internet Service Provider, eBay, or PayPal. These messages may direct you to a fake web site and ask you for private information (e.g., password, credit card, or other account updates). Legitimate companies will never ask you to provide your user name, password, or bank account information in an e-mail message.

-Be careful what you share. Online communities such as Facebook and Twitter ask you for a user name, e-mail address, and password when you sign up. You may also be asked for more personal information, such as your birth date, occupation, home and work addresses, phone numbers, gender, marital status, and so on.  Web sites want personal information because it helps them build community and enables them to provide advertisers with demographic information about their members, but whether to share those details is your decision.

Bottom Line: the more personal information you reveal online, the more vulnerable you are to scams, spam, and identity theft.

Visit OIT’s Cybersecurity website at http://keepitsafe.auburn.edu/ for more information.  Clean and Green Day on November 20 would be a good time to follow OIT’s cybersecurity clean-up advice by changing your password settings.  Learn how and why to do that at their website.

At ALA this year, Bonnie MacEwan, Dean of Libraries, learned that there is no “magical summer” that turns an undergraduate into a graduate student.  The transition is a process and the library can assist by providing targeted instruction, designing appropriate space for them to work and collaborate or just store their materials, and assisting them in conducting literature searches.  Because many of them serve as teaching assistants, space away from undergraduates and targeted instruction is especially appreciated.

What did you learn at the last meeting you attended?  Maybe it’s a lesson your colleagues and the Libraries can benefit from.

Acquisitions and Document Delivery found new homes on the first floor and Pambanisha King tells me that Document Delivery has received notice of some useful upgrades to the OCLC ILLIAD system.  Reuben Pasquini has written a program to create minimal catalog records for electronic dissertations and Tom Sanders will be working on upgrading the records.  The DRL expansion is progressing with an anticipated “soft” opening in about a month and the formal opening early in the fall semester.  We have a new Lobby Lab that will be ready for a soft opening for evening student use prior to exams.  We replaced the computers in the Internet Café during Spring Break and just after Spring Break, over 500 users voted in the “sit test” including the students in a design class.  The information gathered will be used to determine the best furniture for future purchase.

The Veterinary Medical Library is having a busy month with the Annual Conference and Open House planned over the next two weeks.   The Library of Architecture, Design and Construction has also very busy with the Associated Schools of Construction that met on campus and 2,500 volumes that have been shifted from LADC to closed stacks.

Randall Ledkins reported on the end of the Campaign.  The Libraries raised over $4,252,000 to reach 85% of our goal.  The most recent gift is from a couple in Atlanta who gave $25,000 to establish collection endowments in Human Sciences and Liberal Arts with a bequest to be added in the future.

The Libraries were asked to discuss the first draft of the “Strategic Directions for the Auburn University System.” This document contained 62 possible new initiatives for the university and the Libraries responded with great ideas.

I know everyone has been working hard so it seems to me to be the perfect time to celebrate the commitment and achievement of our faculty and staff during National Library Worker’s Day!  I hope everyone will attend the Employee Appreciation Lunch Tuesday, April 15 in the Newspaper Room beginning at 11:30.  Events planned include a presentation by Glenn Anderson and the announcement of this year’s Library Award winner.  We have much to celebrate so I hope to see you there!