At the end of this term, the College's Information Technology Task Force will present a report recommending ways to improve electronic information storage, retrieval and distribution at Dartmouth.
The Task Force was charged in April with assessing current practices and technologies at the College, comparing them with those of other universities and developing a working plan for the immediate future.
Computing Services Director Larry Levine, a member of the Task Force, said the group this summer completed an inventory of technology at the College and started seeking feedback from the community on what is needed to improve existing systems.
Levine said this term the Task Force will finish gathering feedback and will issue its report to Provost Lee Bollinger.
He said the Task Force is looking at tying classrooms into the College's network, providing greater electronic access to scholarly papers and journals and increasing the efficiency of information delivery.
Levine said projects such as the rewiring of dorms with Ethernet cable and this year's computerized class registration are examples of the type of projects the Task Force might recommend.
Classics Professor William Scott, the chair of the Task Force on the Library of the 21st Century said the Information Task Force was formed to help the Library group address technology issues related to the planned expansion of Baker Library.
"We have the wrong personnel to deal authoritatively with information technology," Scott said of the Library Task Force.
Scott said the Information Task Force so far has concentrated heavily on the integration of Computing Services and the library, and applications like Dartmouth College Information System (DCIS) Navigator, which provides access to the College's library catalog and a number of other information resources.
"The library of the future must have computer connections throughout," Scott said.
The Information Task Force has 11 members and is chaired by Chemistry Professor John Winn.
