text:
Standard 5.E
Library and information resources planning activities support teaching and learning functions by facilitating the research and scholarship of students and faculty. Related evaluation processes regularly assess the quality, accessibility, and use of libraries and other information resource repositories and their services to determine the level of effectiveness in support of the educational program.
- 1 Evaluation of Information Services and Collections
- 2 Evaluation of Teaching & Instructional Programs: Information Technology Literacy
- 3 Participatory Planning
- 4 Planning Linkages
- 5 Evaluation and The Future
- 6 Future Aspirations and Challenges for Collections and Services
- 7 Conclusion: Holly's Generic Library Has Come to Fruition
Evaluation of Information Services and Collections
Assessments of Evergreen's library and information resources confirm support for the academic mission of the college as a public liberal arts college which expects a substantial number of students to engage in self-selected independent inquiry. Utilization patterns among Evergreen students correlate closely to the intensive use found among library arts colleges as opposed to lower use rates found among more comprehensive institutions.
Comparing Use Statistics With Other Libraries
In 2002, Washington's four-year public baccalaureate institutions implemented the Cascade resource sharing consortium. This start-up provided an amazing new service and also an opportunity to assess how rapidly a major new service might be implemented. Evergreen patrons borrowed 9,723 during the first year, more than any other library, even though Evergreen was by far the smallest institution in the consortium at that time. Although ten times bigger than Evergreen, the University of Washington borrowed just under 7,000 items during that first year. It took a year for the University of Washington to surpass Evergreen, while other institutions had not done so even in 2006. The quick acceptance of Cascade testified to the efficient connection between the library, library instruction and the teaching faculty and curriculum at large.
Cascade became Orbis/Cascade as the Washington and Oregon academic consortia merged. The new on-line resource sharing service, entitled Summit, provides ongoing circulation comparative statistics. To continue comparison within the original members of Cascade, in 2007, Evergreen borrowed 4.52 per FTE; almost 4 times the next heaviest user at 1.15 items borrowed per student. Although one might assume that small collection size drives this higher demand, the fact is that the Evergreen collection circulates at a high rate per student as well, according to federal IPEDS data.
IPEDS data for 2006 also provide the opportunity to compare use statistics of liberal arts colleges with Evergreen and with small masters level universities (Carnegie Class Masters I), where strong distinctions appear again. When both circulation and interlibrary loan are counted, Evergreen circulates 31 items per FTE, liberal arts colleges national average 24 items per FTE and the Masters I institutions circulate 8.34 per FTE. [take a look at numbers with Summit loans deleted]
The same dramatic distinction between liberal arts colleges and comprehensive institutions appears in the Summit consortium, which covers a full gamut of colleges and universities in Oregon and Washington. Following is a table which lists the heaviest users from the member libraries, based upon their rates of use per FTE in 2006. Evergreen places high on the list, among the most highly ranked liberal arts colleges, all well above usage rates at more comprehensive institutions.
|# Items borrowed
|G. Fox U.
|Seattle Pacific
|Western Ore.
|U Portland
|U Oregon
|E. Ore. U.
|Pacific U.
Thus it is clear that Evergreen library utilization mirrors the practices of liberal arts colleges. The few liberal arts colleges whose use rates significantly surpass Evergreen often appear to be those which require significant student project work such as a senior thesis. For instance, Reed College circulates or borrows 120 items per student and New College of Florida, 89. Both colleges require senior theses.
Commonly used peer groups for Evergreen include various sets of liberal arts colleges. Comparing Evergreen's circulation and interlibrary loan statistics per student to the averages in these peer groups shows that Evergreen's utilization rates are higher than the average in each case. Note that Evergreen circulates at twice the rate of the average COPLAC library, the only group made up entirely of public colleges. The majority of libraries in the other peer groups serve private liberal arts colleges.
Library and Computer Center Use & Satisfaction Rates
The comparative data above demonstrates that library and information resources are comparatively well-utilized. While high rates of use suggest something about effectiveness, surveys of popularity (frequency of use and satisfaction with use), provide some further affirmation. Institutional Research routinely surveys alumni and students about campus resources. A summary of camus resource utilization (See Alumni Surveys 2002-2006 - Campus Resource Utilization)shows that over the six year period, the Library and the computing facilities have been the top two most used campus facilities, trading off for first place. When added to the survey starting in 2004, Media Services has been fifth. Average satisfaction with all three services has been between 3.26 and 3.48 on a scale of 3 as "somewhat satisfied" and 4 as "very satisfied." Percentage of alumni who were somewhat or very satisfied with the services has been in each year and for each service between 87% and 92%.
Starting in 2006, the ESES included questions about using library resources online and found that 85.2% of respondents use online library resources. Internal records also suggest phenomenal growth in online use of library resources. In 2000, when the library subscribed to three aggregate journal databases (Proquest, Ebscohost and JSTOR), users conducted 80,000 searches. In 2007, among approximately 30 subscription databases, there were well over 250,000 searches. Careful review of variations of use from year to year reveals the direct impact a fluid curriculum has on database use. For example, Modern Language Association International Bibliography statistics are quite erratic; one major project in a large academic program explains a five-fold increase of use in one year. As JSTOR has developed into a more deeply and broadly multi-interdisciplinary tool, use statistics show a shift away from heavy dependence on the less scholarly aggregates. Extensive lobbying by faculty and librarians encourages this shift toward use of scholarly resources such as JSTOR. Use statistics for periodicals and databases drive selection and instruction planning. When use statistics are low for a database seen by the library faculty as critical to a discipline or of particularly high academic value, then library instruction is focused on that database whenever appropriate.
Media Services User Surveys
The ESES also asked students about their use of Media Services, which showed 48% use of Media Loan and 89.6% somewhat or very satisfied. A survey designed and implemented by staff member Lin Crowley supplemented this data. Crowley's respondents reported an average satisfaction level for each service ranging from 3.07 to 3.62 (out of 4), which indicated that those who used current services were generally fairly satisfied with each of the services that they use.
Although respondents to Crowley's survey were predominantly active Media Services users, many respondents were uninformed about some services. Respondents supported investment in new digital technologies, but most were unaware of new or planned digital facilities. One clear conclusion of the survey is that visibility and access could be better for some services. Suggested improvements often focussed on access, whether longer hours, more workshops or more facilities. The survey project director recommended that future follow-up surveys be conducted to compare whether the reasons people use each service change and to evaluate the satisfaction levels for each type of services by patron types. See TESC Media Services Assessment Project
Evaluation of Teaching & Instructional Programs: Information Technology Literacy
The strong focus on teaching throughout library and information resources suggests the following questions: 1) In a college without requirements, does information technology instruction reach enough students to assure that the vast majority of graduates develop their skills broadly in support of their inquiries? 2) Which students are taught? Do students receive their information technology instruction in an array of disciplinary and developmentally varied situations or is it happening only in pockets of the curriculum? 3) Is it working? Are students acquiring cross-curricular information technology, including media literacy?
How many students are taught?
Within recent years about 3,000 students, or 75% of the total FTE, attends program-based library instruction workshops annually. These statistics exclude most cases of repeated contacts with the same student. [Exhibit: workshop statistics].
In media services, from 2000 to 2007, a total of more than 1500 workshops were offered to approximately 156 programs. The number of media workshops given and students reached in 2005 and 2006 were each more than double the numbers provided in 2000. Workshops have increased along with new technologies, especially in Media Loan and in the new Multimedia and DIS labs.
The majority of instruction provided by the Academic Computing and CAL instructors serve specific academic programs. These sessions are represented in the following table:
|Computer Center
|Computer Applications Lab
Up until 2007, Academic Computing offered 30 to 40 general computer skills workshops per year in the Computer Center, attended by approximately 350 students. Professional staff focused these workshops on general technical skill building, independent of academic programs. Fewer students were attending these workshops over time, presumably because more students consider themselves technically literate. In response to waning attendance, Academic Computing redesigned the workshops as student-centered support sessions to which students bring their questions or projects. This student-centered structure should more effectively meet the specific demands of students. Computing will evaluate the success of this reinvented structure.
Which Students?
The number of teaching contacts shows that library and information resources staff teach a large number of programs, but not which programs in what parts of the curriculum. In end-of-program reviews from 2001-2006, The Office of Institutional Research asked faculty, "Did your students use technology to present work, conduct research (including library research), or solve problems? If yes, How?" Not surprisingly, faculty answered that library/internet research skills were the most commonly used at 50%, followed by some form of presentation technology. and 90% of programs reported some substantial use of information technology. Summary of Information Technology Literacy Emphasis in Programs
In 2006/07, the wording of the question was revised to more accurately identify programs where there was intentional focus on teaching ITL: "Did your program include activities to improve information technology literacy?" Seventy percent of programs reported including ITL. End-of-program Review Results for 2006-07 - Information Technology Literacy by Planning Unit To summarize, throughout the entire surveyed time frame from 2001 to 2007, information technology appears widely but not evenly across the curriculum, with library information technology still the most common in 2007 at 53% of all programs reporting.
A follow-up question asked which technology was taught. Significantly different technologies predominate in different parts of the curriculum. No standard set of applications comes into play, although as of 2007 presentation technologies (at 48% of all programs) have increased by 70% over their use in the 2001 to 2006 reports and now rival library and internet research in their prevalence. Online communication applications were reported by 32% of programs, an increase of 19% over the 2001 to 2006 data.
In the most current End of Program survey, library and internet research increased slightly from 50% to 53%, with the Reservation-Based program reporting inclusion of this type of information technology in 100% of programs. At the other end of the spectrum, Culture/Text/Language was lowest with 21% reporting library or internet searching. The remainder of planning units ranged between 43% and 50% library/internet use, with Core at a surprisingly low 43%.
The substantial move toward presentation media and online communication drive increases in multi-media applications. Presentation technology and online communication applications encourage the use of still and moving images, sound clips, graphs and charts. They mix these media with traditional print communication written by students or linked from web resources. These media and print applications also involve basic, commonly used applications of information technology, but easily migrate into more advanced media production. The increasing presence of multi-media information technology in Evergreen's learning communities drives further demand upon Media Services and upon Academic Computing, along with increased overlap of their teaching and service roles.
Since its inception in the context of Holly's generic library, Media Services has followed its mission to support media literacy and instruction across the curriculum. Over the last ten years, media services have changed dramatically as the personal computer has become the platform for entry-level media production and consumption. One measure of this change has materialized in how media staff have served programs through formal workshops since Fall of 2000. The scheduling data shows that almost 90% of formal program-based workshops serve Expressive Arts faculty. While this scheduling data does not cover equipment proficiency workshops or one-on-one instruction, it's nevertheless clear that formal instruction by media staff focuses heavily on Expressive Arts programs, with an emphasis on advanced production applications, the exclusive provenance of expressive arts faculty. Media Services provides this advanced instruction in specialized labs, which were enhanced and expanded during the remodel. One effect of this specialization is that entry-level students have migrated to Academic Computing where the staff works in collaboration with media staff to provide instruction on basic media production applications. In fact, during Fall and Winter of 2006/07, 68% of the faculty who requested workshops in Computer Center were from planning units other than Expressive arts, and many of these workshops included media instruction (Photoshop, Imovie, Flash, etc.).
Just as in the Computer Center, the Computer Applications Lab also shows a trend toward more broadly used applications. Although the CAL has traditionally focused on the science curriculum in ES and SI, these users have begun to share their space with those who have less specialized demands. Roughly 60%-70% of the classes in the CAL now work with statistical or numeric analysis, primarily Excel, but also including Graphical Analysis, R, and SPSS. Ninety percent of CAL users prepare presentations, most often with Powerpoint, Word, Illustrator, and Excel. Approximately 60% of the programs meeting in the CAL still use analytical tools, including (in order of usage) ArcGIS, Mathematica, and Stella, which were once the focal point of all CAL applications. Science faculty have shifted their emphasis to on-site analysis, using advanced applications in specialized scientific labs in ways that parallel the shift in Media Services toward advanced applications. Meanwhile, the CAL and the Computer Center serve increasing numbers of students who seek instruction or support for the more and more powerful personal computing applications in media production, statistical analysis and presentation media.
Does Library Instruction Result in ITL Gains?
The Library, consistent with college-wide practices, rejects requirements and embraces students who engage in open inquiry and independent judgment. In this context, the Library supports a fluid curriculum and responds to changes that drive the needs and expectations of an innovative teaching faculty. Because the Library shapes teaching according to individual students, a fluid curriculum, and highly diverse pedagogy, standard or standardized assessment methods do not apply. Instead, the Library commits to the intensive and never ending task of recreating learning goals, student-by-student, program-by-program. Context is everything, which obviates the role of abstract standards and measures.
On the other hand, the Library does engage in qualitative assessment, the descriptive characterization of ITL teaching and learning. As is the case throughout the faculty, library faculty write annual evaluations of themselves and their library and teaching colleagues. These evaluations consistently address instructional aspirations, successes and failures. [Exhibits: Library Faculty Evaluations]
Further, under the leadership of the Office of Institutional Research, the librarians designed a project that assessed students as they worked through real research inquiries. The study, The Activity of Information Literacy, documented the techniques and processes and even the thinking of several small samples of students as they collaborated intensively on research questions. The study showed that these particular students were stronger in their grasp of content than they were in their command of library research tools for their specific inquiries. In other words, a question about history might not lead them to Historical Abstracts. They were also strong in their ability to develop their research questions and to evaluate and synthesize the results. What these results suggest is that "Faculty may want to assess their students' abilities to obtain information and offer tutorials or refer students to the Library when deficiencies are detected."
Beyond the immediate results, this qualitative assessment also suggested that the students benefited greatly when they collaborated. Certainly, this observation is corroborated by the gains that students make when they work together in skill building instead of in canned computer workshops outside of programs. Additionally, peer groups are widely used across the curriculum as a way to encourage students to develop research topics and individual projects. Given the results of the qualitative assessment and given the widely practiced use of peer groups, library faculty should seek ways to implement collaborative research activities when they link their instruction to programs. This model of cooperation would build on the more isolated collaborations that take place, as a matter of course, between librarians and students at the reference desk. An enlarged vision of this basic transaction—discussion, exploration, and brainstorming—will enhance the relevance and effectiveness of library teaching and workshops.
Student Assessment of their ITL Learning
The Evergreen Student Experience Survey asks questions which elucidate what the students themselves think they learned at Evergreen. In the 2006, the ESES asked "To what extent have your Evergreen experiences contributed to your growth in ... the following computer-related fields...?" For the category 'Studying or Doing Research via the Internet or other online sources":
- 30.5% of Olympia campus students reported at least some contribution;
- 47.5% reported quite a bit or a lot, for a total of 77.5%.
- More than 84% of Tacoma students reported at least some, of which 50% reported quite a bit.
- More than 93% of reservation-based students reported at least some contribution; 86.2% reporting quite a bit or a lot.
These statistics correlate well with the end-of-program review and instructional data cited earlier. Considering just how many students seem to express self-confidence in their research skills, and as the internet provides so many increasingly powerful tools for personal research, it is heartening to see that a good majority of students think that they developed their research skills as part of their education at Evergreen.
The ESES 2006 also asked about "Using the computer for artistic expression (e.g. music, other audio, still images, animation, video, etc.":
- Just over 42% reported Evergreen contributed "Some", "Quite a Bit" or "A Lot"
- Fully 36.8% said "Not at All"
- and 20.9% said "Very Little."
Again, this correlates with end-of-program surveys.
The ESES 2006 surveyed use of non-artistic computer tools, asking about specific types of applications such as spreadsheets, GIS, web development, posters, or programming. In general, as was found in end of program reviews, no single type of computer application dominated. No application type was used by more than 50% of students; instead different types of applications were used by smaller subsets of the students surveyed. This correlates with the 40-50% rates found in End of Year program reports.
Participatory Planning
5.E.1 The institution has a planning process that involves users, library and information resource staff, faculty, and administrators.
Overall Planning for Collections & Services
The academic community views the Library as a center for teaching, which means that collections and resources reflect the curriculum. In fact, all of Library services are defined by the fluidity of interdisciplinary and individual study. The Dean of Library Services strengthens the ties between Academics and Library and Media Services through meeting weekly with the Provost, Associate Vice President for Academic Budget and Planning and the Academic Dean of Budget and the weekly Academic Deans meeting. Once a month, the Director of Computing & Communications and the Manager of Academic Computing also join the Academic Deans meeting.
Within the Edutech TESC Information Environment Review, Area 5 discussed planning and governance in the Evergreen information environment. The review was somewhat critical of the lack of coordination in support, planning and governance of IT across campus and advocated for a stronger role for ITCH, an organization which links library, media and computing managers and instructors. However, the report did not note how the teaching function and role in Academic Computing, CAL and Media Services drives strong collaboration in all service and instruction design. The interconnection of the instructional role with the planning and support functions drives the efficacy of all the services in these areas.
Placing library and information resources within the larger ethos of the college, any major policy discussions or long-term planning processes invoke the participatory college-wide DTF structure.
See Participatory Decision-Making Culture (Standard 1 Section 2.3) and Standard 6.
The College budget process and schedule drives most mid-term library planning. The College budget process is described in Standard 7 Section 7.A.3
Additional opportunities for community contributions to planning include faculty who rotate into the Library who focus on collection development and other planning projects. An annual Reference Services Group retreat establishes the year's work before classes start in the fall. Faculty development reviews, also known as five-year reviews and faculty institutes also provide opportunities for conversations across campus about a range of teaching, learning and service questions as they impact information services. Finally, the library internship program provided a reading seminar within which library faculty, staff and interns could discuss changing information technology and its cultural meaning. The librarians often engage in faculty reading seminars, frequently focused on library issues, where shared thinking about the future of libraries evolves.
Responsiveness to Rapid Change in the Information Environment
Among the organizations included in library and information resources, the Library is the largest and most embedded in professional traditions and may be the most invested in preexisting structures and assumptions. How well does the Library balance the competing demands of conservation, teaching, and technological adaptation and innovation? As librarians rotate into the full-time curriculum, they temporarily leave behind reference work, management, administration, and collection development. Any sustained work, such as web-page development, is interrupted by these regular absences. On the other hand, full-time teaching faculty rotate into library as neophytes who need training and who present with widely disparate skills, abilities, and ambitions. Beyond the system of rotation, with its concomitant duties, librarians are contractually obligated to participate in college governance, curriculum planning, not to mention their own scholarly projects and sabbaticals. Further, librarians have nine-month contracts and are often absent during the summer sessions when the Library is minimally staffed. These organizational facts mean that Evergreen has no managerial class of librarians. Instead, the team of faculty librarians share management with staff. Paraprofessionals head almost all departments, including Circulation, Government Publications, Periodicals, Technical Services, and Acquisitions. Their year-round presence and regular workdays provide consistency for development of services, maintenance of collections, public service, and supervision of both classified staff and students workers. In this collaborative environment, staff often lead the way in adopting new services. The tremendous commitment by the staff grounds the Library and makes it an ideal teaching environment. The success of the Library's flat organization can be measured by the impressive way in which the Library group has responded to institutional and profession-wide changes and challenges. Achievements/Changes lists major changes in services, faculties and collections implemented during the study period. Most respond to opportunities provided by technological developments. External engagement in consortia has begun to drive technological developments; this relieves any single library from having to research and develop new technologies on their own and has made many of Evergreen's achievements possible.
Planning Linkages
5.E.2 The institution, in its planning, recognizes the need for management and technical linkages among information resource bases (e.g., libraries, instructional computing, media production and distribution centers, and telecommunications networks).5.E.2
Planning Across LIR
The Information Technology Collaborative Hive (ITCH) provides the most formal mechanism for collaboration around technology across the various parts of the college. Evergreen supports three ITCH groups: Academic, Administrative, and Core. The Academic ITCH meets at least once a month and includes professional staff from each of the primary technology labs, faculty, and interested students. The Academic ITCH coordinates general academic IT initiatives, helps develop general academic computing policy, and guides strategic planning. Professional staff members in each of the primary technology areas have developed strong connections to discipline-specific slices of the curriculum, faculty and academic administration. As ITCH develops, the members will explore ways to communicate and plan in cross-disciplinary and cross-divisional programs. ITCH provides one of the necessary cross-curricular and cross-division contexts for developing information technology across administratively distinct areas.
ITCH created a strategic plan in conjunction with the campus-wide Strategic Planning process in 2007. Strategic Direction number 7 addresses technology. The statement is notable for the breadth of its concerns, with aspirations addressing media, library and computing technology:
7. Use technology to enhance teaching and learning and administrative support at Evergreen. Evergreen will intentionally foster secure, sustainable, flexible, easy-to-use, and accessible information technologies (IT) that support and enhance our teaching and learning philosophies and the administrative needs of the institution. Evergreen's continuing commitment to technology and media literacies as critical components of a liberal arts education has led us to re-envision our Television Studio into a Center for New Media [now entitled the Center for Creative and Applied Media (CCAM)] that will provide cross curricular and extra curricular support for computer mediated production, performance, interactivity, teleconferencing, live broadcasts, digital image storage, processing, re-broadcasting and format conversion for all areas of the college. Accuracy and quality of information will improve and strong support will make technology and a broad range of information services available to on-and off-campus users. Security requirements of networks, software, hardware and data will be met while ensuring appropriate user access, including control of access to confidential information and the need for academic exploration. Classroom spaces will be technologically current and functional for meeting curricular needs.
The complete Strategic Plan Wiki provides more detail.
Continue Blending More Functions within Library and Information Resources
Library and information resources support a surprisingly diverse infrastructure of technologies and media in the curriculum. For greatest efficiency, library and information resources should considered even more coordination across boundaries to provide technology support. Students should be able to move seamlessly between different areas, such as CAL, MML, and the Computer Center. Certainly, the pathways between areas could be more clearly articulated by identifying and developing more common services, including printing, building and maintaining image sets, server filespace, and common software. By taking better advantage of the network infrastructure, students will experience less confusion, and IT staff who directly support the curriculum could dedicate more energy toward coordinating, developing and designing IT strategies with academic programs instead of maintaining redundant infrastructures.
Library and information resources could develop a shared perspective about their public presence. One possibility for representing the blended facilities and services is a central help desk for the information technology wing. Once the central staircase is removed, the shared entrance to the wing will become a prominent architectural feature and an opportunity to reshape the community's understanding of what the areas collectively represent. A central help desk could provide basic information about facilities, services, and staff, and it would help facilitate how efficiently patrons move between the various floors of the wing. Continued attention to the best use of the Library Underground and how to assure its connection to other floors should be part of this process; a large, flexible teaching and gathering space is developing there and appropriate equipment will be needed to support that vision. Concurrently, assuring safe conditions for the adjacent Archives and Rare Books Collections are critical.
Construction of the CCAM will begin soon. This project has distinct relevance to the changing roles of Media Services, the Library and Academic Computing within the evolving digital liberal arts. The CCAM will comprise a collection of media production studios and equipment to complement and complete existing Media Services and Academic Computing media resources and provide the primary bridge between the campus media infrastructure and networked digital resources. For a discussion of the CCAM and related curricular projects see Center for Creative and Applied Media.
Evaluation and The Future
5.E.3 The institution regularly and systematically evaluates the quality, adequacy, and utilization of its library and information resources and services, including those provided through cooperative arrangements, and at all locations where courses, programs, or degrees are offered. The institution uses the results of the evaluations to improve the effectiveness of these resources.
Consistent with an institution constantly engaged in processes of narrative and other forms of assessment, library and information resources engage in and are the subject of extensive assessment both within library and information resources and externally through Institutional Research and Assessment surveys and studies. In addition to formal annual processes such as budget building and annual library faculty retreats, the results of these assessments feed into the development of ongoing teaching and services through constant face-to-face interactions among faculty, administrators, staff and students which inform all operations. Institutional Research and Assessment, as cited throughout this report, provides annual surveys about library and information resources, several of which are broken down by campus.
See Alumni Surveys 2002-2006 - Campus Utilization
Summary of Information Technology Literacy Emphasis in Programs
End-of program Review Results for 2006-07 - Info Technology Literacy Overview
End-of-program Review Workshop - Info Technology Across the Curriculum
Evergreen New Student Survey 2005 - Computer Skills - First-time, First-years
Evergreen New Student Survey 2005 - Computer Skills - Transfer Students
Evergreen Student Experience Survey 2004 - Info Technology Literacy and Technology-related Resources
Evergreen Student Experience Survey 2006 - Growth in Computer Skills - Oly Campus
Evergreen Student Experience Survey 2006 - Satisfaction of Olympia Campus Students
End-of-program Review Results for 2006-07 - Information Technology Literacy by Planning Unit
Future Aspirations and Challenges for Collections and Services
NB: As in the teaching section, retell strengths as bit before launching into challenges and aspirations
The Library will continue to actively develop a new library front page and database search pages. The library is currently engaged in discussions with the college web designers about maintaining the library front page while still allowing library control of most content. The Orbis-Cascade consortium is migrating to a new platform, which the library will consider for local use as well. The reference group is testing an improved federated searching system, having found that last product unsatisfactory.
The continue expansion of audio/visual media collections is a critical part of the vision of the generic library. To that end, one-time funds have frequently been infused into a small base budget for film and sound recordings, and the collection has grown significantly. SAIL staff and selectors have emphasized both new titles and replacement of older formats and worn copies. The library anticipates circulating the collection through SUMMIT, which will increase wear. See SAIL Acquisition Statistics
Selectors will continue a recent change of policy allowing the purchase of any medium from their funds allocated for print monographs, but a stable and larger allocation for the SAIL budget would lessen the need to do so and reduce variations in expenditures, workload and processing. The Resource Selection Committee is currently reviewing materials budgets with the intention of reallocating funds according to the curricular demands for video and digitized reference resources. If these discussions result in a larger budget for SAIL, there will be more work, but also more consistency. Additionally, the staff will be more deeply involved in researching web-based media collections. This additional workload represents a challenge for SAIL.
Digital collection development should go forward in concert with the push to digitize archival collections, including photographs, video, and copies of faculty artwork. The CCAM will take the lead in this ongoing project.
Because of the SUMMIT and ILLiad systems, the collections do not need to be designed to support individual students who engage in inquiries that lie outside the collection profile. However, SUMMIT use will also allow the library to identify whether there are any consistent weaknesses in the collection that show up as subject areas driving high borrowing rates from other institutions. The data from SUMMIT should be analyzed over a three year period, due to the fluidity of the curriculum, at which point the Library will decide if such data are useful in guiding collection development.
The library will continue to take advantage of the significantly increased purchasing power created by consortial agreements for periodical and other database purchases. The library needs to keep an eye on the time and expertise necessary to keep up with the ever-increasing work of evaluating these agreements, purchases and contracts and the technical work to support electronic resources and may want to consider creating a position for managing electronic resources. A centralized specialist working on electronic resources would potentially help the selectors, by consistently researching and disseminating information about new products.
Overall, long-standing assumptions about budgets for collections must be re-evaluated. While major cuts were made to the monographic budget early in the study period and were only partially restored over time, it is not clear that simply restoring those funds and adding funds for inflation are the desirable next moves. The Resource Selection Committee will need to continue to explore more flexible responses to a rapidly changing publishing environment in order to match collection budgets to evolving research needs.
Private fundraising and access to indirect cost funds associated with grants have helped close the collection development gap in some cases, such as the SAIL budget. LIR has also begune to receive private support for equipment and facilities projects as well. More work with the Development Office of the College should be emphasized as many alumni have demonstrated willingness to support the library and information resources. [links to FOEL activities, non-state funds spent on collections]
Support for Rapidly Evolving Information Technology
While the Edutech report gave Evergreen good marks for its budgetary support of information technology, the report also recommended that "to follow current best practices, the replacement cycle should be permanently funded and the operations budgets need to be raised regularly to reflect the increase in technology-equipped classrooms, the increased number of servers and desktop computers that must be supported, and other increases in the technology base." The college has begun to address this issue, proposing permanent line items in the next biennium for replacing the core server and desktops. This movement toward more permanent allocations for replacement and repair will help ensure that the infrastructure can support the curriculum. Although ITCH can play only an advisory role, it has participated actively in the process of establishing permanent allocations, setting priorities, and sharing resources.
The remodeled Information Technology Wing and the construction of Seminar II created dramatically more technology-equipped teaching spaces. There are now 49 media and computer-capable classrooms. Labs are equipped with computers for each student, and most classrooms now include a computer along with projection and display systems. The library plans to convert one classroom in the Library Underground to a lab, and teaching spaces on campus still without computers or display technology, such as the Arts Annex, should be equipped. At this point, library and information resources can adequately support the computer facilities distributed across campus, but that's about it. As more spaces are computerized and enrollment creeps up toward the target of 5,000, the college will have to add additional staff and funding for maintenance.
As media technology has changed, some faculty choose to continue teaching older analog equipment, often for good pedagogical and aesthetic reasons. In the context of doubling instruction loads, this breadth of technologies generates a daunting challenge for Media Loan as they stretch to maintain, house, and teach a very wide array of portable equipment. Media Loan should work with the Expressive Arts faculty and other major users to reduce the range of Media Loan equipment necessary to support the curriculum.
Library Instruction
The reduced number of library faculty has resulted in more difficulty covering the curriculum. Further, reference desk service has changed as the Internet creates patrons who access our resources from remote locations. Most immediately, virtual patrons do not benefit from the teaching that takes place at the reference desk. As the physical reference desk diminishes in importance, faculty who rotate into the library have more limited opportunities to learn about library resources through interactions with patrons. These trends, challenges, and problems should inform the reference group as they consider how to proceed in allocating team responsibilities with or without an increase in the number of library faculty.
The reference group should evaluate service to areas of the curriculum that report or demonstrate less involvement in the various forms of information technology instruction (as reflected in end of program reports)and consider whether more or different instructional support would be appropriate or desirable.
The science librarian who does intensive, embedded instruction, works with students as they write bibliographies, which become the basis for evaluating the effectiveness of student research. Some of the other librarians evaluate bibliographies as well. This approach could be more broadly applied to programs across the curriculum, where students are required to research competently and to represent their work clearly in bibliographies, abstracts, research papers, essays and stories. Faculty librarians may want to explore evaluating research results more commonly as they develop their ties with programs and faculty in all disciplines. As librarians become more involved in each stage of research, including writing or production, they should be able to provide more consistent support to students. Of course, this more intensive work with individual programs must be restricted according to the time and energy of the small library faculty team. Variations in the academic year cycle, which show significantly lighter workshop demands in winter, as compared to fall quarter, suggest one strategy for extending this service. This may also be an area to which rotating faculty can contribute.
Academic Computing and the Library Faculty should explore connections with the Quantitative and Writing Centers. The many overlapping values and concerns of these areas seem obvious. In fact, the barriers that persist seem to reflect different philosophies of service—specifically, of public service—rather than intractably divergent views of teaching and learning. For instance, students do a great deal of the teaching in the writing center, whereas faculty librarians consider teaching to be the center of their work. Yet everyone agrees that student-centered instruction is one of the best modes of learning.
Cross-Curricular Information Technology Literacy
As discussed above, library and information resources and the teaching faculty assure that information technology infuses the curriculum. On the other hand, the faculty has not embraced any particular set of information technology skills as fundamental to the liberal arts undergraduate at Evergreen. Instead, faculty choose and adapt information and media technologies according to the pedagogical and disciplinary requirements of their chosen inquiry. There is little work across the curriculum about critical approaches to media or basic definitions of college level technical literacy for the liberal arts. In the immediate future, library and information resources should invite the teaching faculty into a discussion about whether the campus has any broad consensus about ITL, including critical approaches. Long ago, the college committed to writing across the curriculum and allocated significant institutional resources to encourage that work—without proscriptive limits or standards. A wider discussion about ITL could produce a similar vision and institutional support. In the long run, such a vision will shape our understanding of digital scholarship in the liberal arts.
The shift of some entry-level media production instruction from Media Services to Academic Computing raises questions about the staffing assumptions in Academic Computing. If critical approaches to information technology are to be addressed and if cross-curricular information technology literacy is a priority for the contemporary liberal arts, then instructional staffing based on historical models of canned skills workshops may be insufficient. Academic Computing needs to be staffed sufficiently with instructors who have both time and expertise to work intensively in program planning, curriculum development, as well as technical skills development, as has historically been the case in the Library and Media Services.
Conclusion: Holly's Generic Library Has Come to Fruition
Library and information resources has been deeply influenced by the organizational habits of the college, habits of collaboration, egalitarian ideals, fluidity, face-to-face interactions, non-departmentalization, and interdisciplinary inquiry. The result is a responsive, flexible, evolving set of services and resources. Library and information resources faculty and staff work across the digital divide, regardless of where services reside administratively, in order to fuse traditional library services, information services, computing, and media. Library and information resources assess technology within the context of Evergreen's particular curriculum and implement new applications incrementally in collaborative processes involving all three areas of service and the teaching faculty. As part of that work, library and information resources have had the distinct historical advantage of presuming that information comes in all formats and that it is not only possible but advisable to break down as many barriers as possible to access information in all its forms. In this, library and information resources are shaped by their founding vision, the generic library, an idea whose time is come.


text:
Difference between revisions of "SHOUTcast DNAS Server 2"
m (Added info about the admincssfile config action)
m (Clarified the config options the reload command act on)
|Line 600:
|Line 600:
same manner as a stream configuration removal instead of trying to update compatible stream configuration
same manner as a stream configuration removal instead of trying to update compatible stream configuration
details without resetting the stream '''e.g.''' not increasing the 'streammaxuser' when it could be increased.
details without resetting the stream '''e.g.''' not increasing the 'streammaxuser' when it could be increased.
Revision as of 17:08, 25 January 2011
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Overview of Features
- 3 Getting Started
- 4 Configuration File
- 5 Administration
- 6 Stream Addresses
- 7 Locale Error (Linux / Mac OS X / BSD)
- 8 Virtual Memory Footprint (Linux / Mac OS X / BSD)
- 9 Example Configurations
The purpose of this document is to show you the different configuration options supported by sc_serv along with basic and more advanced example configurations to enable you to get started with using sc_serv and the features it can offer.
The aim of sc_serv is to provide enhanced serving features and also access to the new YP2 infrastructure whilst maintaining as much backward compatibility with previous versions of sc_serv as possible. The new features introduced include:
- Serving multiple streams from a single server instance
- Relaying multiple streams from a single server instance
- Multiplexing all server activity through a single IP port
- SHOUTcast 2 wire protocol support for sources, relays and clients
- Repackaging of SHOUTcast 1 and SHOUTcast 2 data as needed for connected clients
- YP2 infrastructure support
- Real-time metadata and statistic reporting
- Static station id support
- In-stream metadata in standardised xml files
- UTF-8 and international character encoding
- Improved server and stream security
Overview of Features
To take full advantage of the newer features provided as part of the SHOUTcast 2 and YP2 systems then you will need to ensure you are using a compatible version of sc_serv (any version 2 will work) and that you have the required authorisation key to register as a broadcaster on the YP2 directory (see section 3.0).
If you were intending on taking full advantage of the multiplexing and multiple stream support offered as part of sc_serv then you would need to make sure you enable the SHOUTcast 2 options (this is enabled by default with server builds from the end of 2010 if the 'yp2' option in the configuration file is not specified [see section 4.0.14 ). The reason for needing to enable this support is if you try to do it with the original SHOUTcast 1 protocol then it will not work as the original protocol has no means of expressing multiple streams from a single port due to the lack of an identifier provided for them.
If you are planning on connecting multiple sc_trans instances to sc_serv then you must use the SHOUTcast 2 protocol support so that each sc_trans instance can have a unique identifier which allows for multiple streams to then be provided from a single server. It is still possible for an older source to connect to the server with a number of config options available to support this though functionality will be limited compared to what can be done with a fully supporting SHOUTcast 2 source.
Finally clients connecting to your server do not need to directly support SHOUTcast 2 as sc_serv will repackage the stream data and any related metadata into the correct format the client requests (typically based on the user agent detected by the server).
Getting Started
One of the key aspects of the new YP2 directory infrastructure is an authorisation key which is used to validate your server when it tries to connect to the YP2 infrastructure for any of the station(s) you run. Once this key is obtained, it will be valid for all root servers of the station being broadcast.
This can be done by going to http://www.shoutcast.com/my-stations/ where you then obtain a unique authentication key to allow the stream(s) to be listed in the directory. This is a FREE process though may require you to create an account on the SHOUTcast site in order to obtain the needed key.
You can use Yahoo, Google or Facebook accounts for log-in inplace of a new Aol one.
Once you have obtained your authentication key then this needs to be set as the 'streamauthhash' value for your stream (see section 4.0.12 for more details). Additional information about the registration process can be found at this blog posting: http://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/08/05/broadcaster-registeration-faq/
When using an older SHOUTcast 1 server then you do not need to do this registration and the server will still be able to be listed on the directory but there is not the same level of protection over the stream as is the case with registering it.
Running the Server
The server is able to be run either as a console application or it can be run as service (Windows) or daemon (Linux / Mac OS X / BSD). Detailed below is how to get the server running on the different operating systems supported by it.
The Windows version of sc_serv is designed to run on fully updated and patched versions of Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7.
Please note that the Windows versions of sc_serv are built with a dependency against the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package. If sc_serv is unable to start due to a dependency issue then you will need to install the correct version of the package so it can run which depends on the version of sc_serv you are attempting to run:
32-bit version: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=a5c84275-3b97-4ab7-a40d-3802b2af5fc2
64-bit version: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=ba9257ca-337f-4b40-8c14-157cfdffee4e
Install as a Service
sc_serv.exe install <servicename> <username> <password> <conf>
<servicename> - Name of service
Typically enter this as 'sc_serv' though you can use a different name but you will need to remember it as it is required to be the same when using the 'uninstall' mode.
<username> - User under which to run the service as or '0' for the local system
<password> - Password for user or '0' for the local system or with no password
<conf> - File path to the configuration file
If no file / an invalid file is specified then sc_serv will abort loading.
When run as a service there is not a good sense of a current working directory so requires all paths in the configuration and playlist files to be fully qualified otherwise lookups will fail when sc_serv is run.
To run sc_serv with a configuration file in the same folder as the server as the current system user account you would enter into the console:
sc_serv.exe install sc_serv 0 0 sc_serv.conf
Uninstall the Service
sc_serv.exe uninstall <servicename>
<servicename> - Name of service as used when the service was registered
To uninstall sc_serv assuming it was installed as detailed in the install section above then you would enter into the console:
sc_serv.exe uninstall sc_serv
Run as a Non-Service in the Console
sc_serv.exe <conf>
<conf> - File path to the configuration file (can be relative or absolute)
If no file / an invalid file is specified then sc_serv will abort loading.
Linux / Mac OS X / BSD
Remember to enable the required access on the sc_trans file by doing 'chmod a+x sc_trans' after extracting it from the distribution file otherwise the OS is likely to not run it and show the error message './sc_serv: Permission denied'.
Run as a Daemon
./sc_serv daemon <conf>
<conf> - File path to the configuration file (required in all cases)
If no file / an invalid file is specified then sc_serv will abort loading.
./sc_serv daemon ./sc_serv.conf
When run this should output the following:
'sc_serv going daemon with PID [XXXX]' where XXXX is the <pid> of the process.
End a Daemon
kill -SIGTERM <pid> or kill -15 <pid> or kill -s TERM <pid>
<pid> - The PID of the daemon instance (reported when the daemon started or can be found with 'ps ax | grep sc_serv' as long as sc_serv was the file run otherwise you can just use 'ps ax' if the filename isn't known). Additionally the PID of sc_serv is listed in the log file.
Run as a Non-Daemon
./sc_serv <conf>
<conf> - File path to the configuration file (can be relative or absolute)
If no file / an invalid file is specified then sc_serv will abort loading.
Configuration File
Here you can find a complete list of all of the configuration options which are provided by sc_serv which ranges from logging to networking configuration and control over the media being used when streaming via the server.
Configuration entries labelled as <MULTI> can be used to set up simultaneous connections to the server or allow for multiple connections from various sources. These are specified by adding _# to the end of the option's name as shown below where # begins with zero not one. If you are only working with a single instance then you do not need to add the _# part as any instances will assume it is _1.
Note: The <MULTI> system is not hierarchical and all values beyond the default must be specified for all connections. So for example, if you wanted to connect to two servers on the same port you must do:
serverport_1=8080 serverport_2=8080 serverip_1=www.server1.com serverip_2=www.server2.com
Note that you CANNOT do it like this as it leads to not all values being set:
serverport=8080 serverip_1=www.server1.com serverip_2=www.server2.com
The configuration files also allow for notes or options to be disabled by the use of a comma (;) at the start of a line which can be seen in all of the configuration examples.
Known options in the configuration files are recognised irrespective of the case they are entered in the configuration file so maxuser and MaXuSer will be handled the same way.
Any items found in the configuration file which are not known (as detailed in following sections) or is not processed as a comment will be reported in the following manner:
<date + time> W msg:[CONFIG] Invalid item on line XX
Where <date + time> is the date and time the event happens at and XX is the line in the configuration file where the error has been found to occur at.
banfile : File to store the list of reserved IP addresses [Default = sc_serv.ban]
savebanlistonexit : Re-write the 'banfile' on server exit [Default = 1]
If you are using a folder for saving the file into then you need to ensure that the folder already exists as sc_serv will not attempt to the create the folder for you.
Client Behaviour
maxuser : Specify the maximum number of clients allowed to connect to the server [Default = 32]
This is used in conjunction with 'streammaxuser' (see section 4.0.12) to control the maximum limit on the number of client connections allowed to connect to the server instance.
listenertime : Specify the maximum time in minutes a client can listen to the stream [Default = 0]
A value of zero means there will be no time limit.
autodumpusers : Enable to allow the server to disconnect clients if the source disconnects [Default = 0]
srcip : Specify the server side binding address for sources to connect on [Default = <no value>]
dstip or destip : Specify the server side binding address for clients [Default = <no value>]
If 'any' or no value is specified then sc_serv listens to all addresses.
Additionally, you need to specify a value for dstip / destip so that the listen feature on the Administration Pages (see section 5.1) will be able to return a valid url in the produced playlist. If dstip / destip is not specified then the listen feature will return an url like http://0.0.0.0:<port>/listen.pls
The IP provided needs to be in a valid format like http://<my-ip> or an address which can be resolved to an IP otherwise the internal lookups done are likely to fail (depends upon the server configuration and OS being used). Also you cannot set srcip and dstip / destip to be the same IP value and if this happens then the server will close. Closing of the server will also happen if the IP cannot be resolved or correctly bound to i.e. server is not there or an invalid value was entered.
titleformat : Specify a string to be used in-place of the default icy-name string being used [Default = <no value>]
urlformat : Specify a string to be used in-place of the default icy-url string being used [Default = <no value>]
yp1debug : Enable debug logging of YP connections [Default = 0]
yp2debug : Enable debug logging of YP2 connections [Default = 0]
shoutcastsourcedebug : Enable debug logging of SHOUTcast source connections [Default = 0]
uvox2sourcedebug : Enable debug logging of SHOUTcast 2 source connections [Default = 0]
shoutcast1clientdebug : Enable debug logging of SHOUTcast streaming clients [Default = 0]
shoutcast2clientdebug : Enable debug logging of SHOUTcast 2 streaming clients [Default = 0]
relayshoutcastdebug : Enable debug logging for SHOUTcast relay [Default = 0]
relayuvoxdebug : Enable debug logging for SHOUTcast 2 relay [Default = 0]
relaydebug : Enable debug logging of common relay code [Default = 0]
streamdatadebug : Enable debug logging of common streaming code [Default = 0]
httpstyledebug : Enable debug logging of http style requests [Default = 0]
statsdebug : Enable debug logging of statistics [Default = 0]
microserverdebug : Enable debug logging of common server activity [Default = 0]
threadrunnerdebug : Enable debug logging of the thread manager [Default = 0]
rtmpclientdebug : Enable debug logging of rtmp clients [Default = 0]
Flash Security
flashpolicyfile : Name of file containing flash crossdomain policies on the server [Default = crossdomain.xml]
Introduction and Backup Files
introfile : File to play when a client first connects to the server [Default = /tmp/ (*nix only)]
backupfile : File to play if the source disconnects from the server [Default = /tmp/ (*nix only)]
specialfiletmpdir : place to store intro and backup files uploaded by sc_trans [Default = /tmp/ (*nix only)]
maxspecialfilesize : Change the maximum size in bytes of the backup and intro files [Default = 30000000]
log : Enable logging of the servers output [Default = 1]
screenlog : Enable logging of servers output to the console [Default = 1]
logfile : Specify a different logfile to save the logs into [Default = %temp%\sc_serv.log or /tmp/sc_serv.log]
If you are using a folder for saving the logs into then you need to ensure that the folder already exists as sc_serv will not attempt to the create the folder for you.
configrewrite : Re-write the 'config file' on server exit [Default = 0]
songhistory : Specify the maximum song history to preserve [Default = 10]
cpucount : Specify the number of cpu's present instead of the calculated number if non-zero [Default = 0]
unique : Specify a substitution string for the '$' character to be used when processing filenames which if specified will set any occurences of '$' to the value set. This will be used in the processing of the following filenames: logfile, introfile, backupfile, banfile, ripfile, include, contentdir, w3clog
So when 'unique' is changed from '$' to say 'test' then the following happens if 'logfile' is set to '/usr/local/shoutcast/$.log' then this would be converted to '/usr/local/shoutcast/test.log'
include : Specify an additional include file containing settings to be processed from the current point in the main configuration file [Default = <no value>]
You can do multiple calls of this allowing for a basic configuration file with then 'specific' stream configurations set in individual conf files though you need to ensure not to include a reference to the same file in itself.
You can also specify a path with a wildcard for sc_serv to use to find multiple configuration files to include e.g. 'include=stream/*.conf'. This can then be used along with the multiple stream configurations (see section 4.0.12) and the admin command 'admin.cgi?mode=reload&sid=#' (see section 5.1) to add / remove / update stream configurations without having to close the server to apply them.
admincssfile : Specify the css styling to be used on the index.html and admin pages [Default = v2]
This can accept the following parameters:
- admincssfile=v1 - Uses the v1 DNAS style
- admincssfile=v2 - Uses the newer SHOUTcast 2 style
- admincssfile=path_to_local_css_file e.g. my_index.css</nowiki>
If using a custom css file, if it does not exist on the first try to load it the server will revert to the default css style. As well the style is cached once loaded so changes require a restart of sc_serv.
namelookups : Enable to allow reverse DNS look-ups on incoming IP addresses [Default = 0]
portbase : Specify the port which clients and sources need to use to connect to the server [Default = 8000]
SHOUTcast 1 sources are only able to connect to 'portbase + 1'.
autodumpsourcetime : Specify how long before an idle source is dumped from the server (in seconds) [Default: 30]
A value of zero means there is no timeout of an idle source.
maxheaderlinesize : Specify the maximum size of an HTTP header line [Default = 2048]
maxheaderlinecount : Specify the maximum header lines in an HTTP style exchange [Default = 100]
adminpassword : Specify the administrator password for accessing the remote server features [Default = <no value>]
password : Specify the password for broadcasters when connecting to the server [Default = <no value>]
This matches the 'uvoxauth' value in the sc_trans configuration file (see sc_trans.txt - section 3.0.11).
Network Buffers
buffertype : Specify whether the buffer size is fixed [0] or adaptive [1] [Default = 0]
adaptivebuffersize : Specify the buffer size in seconds if buffer is set to adaptive [Default = 1]
fixedbuffersize : Specify the buffer size in bytes if the buffer is set to fixed [Default = 1048576]
bufferhardlimit : Specify the maximum buffer size in bytes which it can never go above [Default = 16777216]
allowrelay : Enable to allow a relay to connect to the server [Default = 1]
allowpublicrelay : Enable to allow relays to list themselves in the YP directory [Default = 1]
relayreconnecttime : Specify how many seconds to wait to reconnect on a relay failure [Default = 30]
maxhttpredirects : Specify the maximum number of times we can redirect when relaying [Default = 5]
<Legacy Options>
relayport : Port of the source to use for the relay [Default: 80]
relayserver : Url of the source to relay [Default = <no value>]
Using the stream configuration options (see section 4.0.12) is the prefered method of setting up a relay and these options should only be used if absolutely required.
Reserved IP (RIP)
ripfile : File to store the list of reserved IP addresses [Default = sc_serv.rip]
saveriplistonexist : Re-write the 'ripfile' on server exit [Default = 1]
riponly : Only allow connections to be made from reserved IP addresses [Default = 0]
If you are using a folder for saving the file into then you need to ensure that the folder already exists as sc_serv will not attempt to the create the folder for you.
Stream Configuration
requirestreamconfigs : Only allow sources to connect if a stream configuration has been set in our configuration file [Default = 0]
With this enabled, you will need to ensure that any sources have their configuration details setup to match those in sc_trans's configuration, in particular the 'uvoxstreamid' value with sc_trans (see sc_trans.txt - section 3.0.11).
<MULTI> (one set for each stream configuration):
streamid : Specify the identifier of the stream as used to control or reference the stream e.g. from the admin pages.
streamauthhash : The authorisation key needed for YP2 directory registration.
This is a requirement for using the YP2 system and without it you will not be able to successfully connect to the YP2 directory (see section 3.0). This can be used for multiple streams you are providing or can be different (as long as valid) so you can infact provide multiple stations from the same server if desired.
streampath : Specify the path clients need to use to access the stream
This generally needs a / on the start of the string to work. As well this defines the stream's url and without it clients will not be able to correctly connect / will show an error. Additionally this relates to the 'endpointname' config item when using sc_trans (see sc_trans.txt - section 3.0.11).
streamrelayurl : Specify the full url of source to relay (if this is a relay).
Make sure if you use this that the full url entered is visible publically when working with a public stream configuration else the YP connection is likely to fail with a 474 error code message.
streammaxuser : Specify the maximum number of clients allowed to connect to the stream [Default = 0] If set to zero, not specified or higher than 'maxuser' then the value set for 'maxuser' (see section 4.0.2) will be used for all knwon streams.
Changing this to a value between zero and 'maxuser' will enforce the user connection limit for the specified value in the stream configuration e.g.
streammaxuser_1 = 8 maxuser = 32
This allows a total of 32 connections to the server but specifies the maximum number of connections to the first stream configuration is 8.
With the following stream configuration
streammaxuser_1 = 64 maxuser = 32
This allows a total of 32 connections to the server but with a per stream limit above the maximum means the maximum number of connections to the first stream group will be 32. However this also depends upon any other stream configurations and their limits as to whether 32 clients will be able to connect to this stream configuration.
Finally unless a valid stream configuration is specified then this value will only be applied to the first stream configuration found i.e. there is a need to specify a streamid_XXX for streammaxuser_XXX (where XXX is the stream identifier of the stream configuration group.
If you do not specify an identifier (_#) on the end of the above options then it will be treated like _1 (effectively acting like SHOUTcast 1). Finally _0 is not a directly supported index and will be mapped to _1.
Web Connection (W3C) Logging
w3cenable : Enable logging of web connections to describe the duration a client has listened to a specific title [Default = 1]
w3clog : File to store the web connections logs into [Default = sc_w3c.log]
If you are using a folder for saving the log into then you need to ensure that the folder already exists as sc_serv will not attempt to the create the folder for you.
webclientdebug : Enable logging of web client connections [Default = 0]
YP Server Behaviour
uvoxcipherkey : Specify the key used to obfuscate the initial handshaking with the source [Default = foobar]
This is a SHOUTcast 2 only feature and it matches the 'djcipher' value in the sc_trans configuration file (see sc_trans.txt - section 3.0.3).
Only change this if you really need to do so as not all SHOUTcast 2 clients will allow you to edit this value from the default value. If using the Source DSP plug-in then see dsp_sc.txt - section 5.0 for details on how to change the plug-in to use a differnet value.
metainterval : Specify the metadata transmission interval in bytes [Default = 8192]
YP1 only
yp2 : Enable to use the SHOUTcast 2 protocol and related server features for access to the YP2 directory [Default = 1]
If this is enabled and not all of the required values are set then the server will throw an error and will abort from its start-up attempt. It should be indicated what needs to be set to allow the server to start with this set.
Additionally if there is an issue then the server will report an error in its log ouput of 'Connection attempt failed. YP2 error code is XXX (<message>)' where XXX is one of the following error codes and <message> is a message set in the error response to indicate a bit more what the error relates to.
470 Invalid authorization hash 471 Invalid stream type (could be a bad bitrate or mime type) 472 Missing or invalid stream url 473 Server unreachable by YP 474 Relay url does not exist 400 Generic error (covers all other cases usually from not being seen)
ypaddr : Allows you to specify a different YP server if required [Default = yp.shoutcast.com]
ypport : Allows you to specify the port of the YP server if required [Default = 80]
ypPath : Allows you to specify the path to YP2 services on the server [Default = /yp2]
ypTimeout : Specify the timeout interval in seconds for requests made to the YP server [Default = 60]
ypmaxretries : Specify the maximum number of times a YP request will be re-tried [Default = 10]
ypreportinterval : Specify the maximum time in which the YP must have contacted our server in seconds [Default = 300]
ypminreportinterval : Specify the minimum time in which the YP can contact our server in seconds [Default = 10]
publicserver : This allows you to override the public flag from the connected source when a connection is being made to the YP directory [Default = default] This can be one of the following values:
default - use the flag provided by the source always - force the source to be public never - never allow the use the flag provided by the source
When using sc_trans this would match with the 'public' value (see sc_trans.txt - section 3.0.8).
With sc_serv there are administration pages available for accessing and controlling the server remotely which allows you to monitor and control clients connected to the stream (or not if banning them). These pages can now be accessed through a summary page at /index.html which will show a link to any active stream(s) or you explicitly access them via the /index.html?sid=# path where # is the ID of the stream (see section 4.0.12 for more about using 'streamid') e.g.
If no sid or an invalid sid is passed then you will be taken to the summary /index.html and this will be applied even if you were on a page with a known ID and then enter an invalid sid or remove it purposefully.
Administration Pages
As part of the administrative features provided there are the following pages where # is the streamid you want to use). This is not a complete list but should cover all of the pages which allow for a direct http url to be entered to get an administation action to work. The ban and reserve ip actions require input fields and do not map to direct sends.
Public Pages
index.html - Shows a summary page with links to get to any active stream(s)
currentsong?sid=# - Returns the current song title or a null response
nextsong?sid=# - Returns the next song title (if known) or a null response
currentsong and nextsong both provide a UTF-8 encoded string of the song title otherwise it will return effectively no response (ignoring the http header).
nextsongs?sid=# - Returns in an xml format the next song title(s) (if known) to be played when using a compatible v2 stream source.
The titles are in the form of <title seq="xx">title</title> where 'xx' is the number of the song in the list beginning at "1".
index.html?sid=# - Shows current status of the specified stream
played.html?sid=# - Song history of specified playing history or played?sid=#
listen.pls?sid=# - Provides a pls for clients to use to connect to the stream.
listen.m3u?sid=# - Provides a m3u for clients to use to connect to the stream.
home.html?sid=# - Provides the stream url as available to clients or home?sid=#
Private Pages
By passing &pass=password where password is the 'adminpassword' (see section 4.0.8) then it is possible to directly access the administration page(s) required. As well the base64 encoded version of the password can be passed as long as it is prefixed with YWRtaW46 e.g. &pass=changeme is the same as &pass=YWRtaW46Y2hhbmdlbWU=
admin.cgi?sid=# - Shows the base admin page for the stream and information
If 'title_to_show' is not empty then what is passed will be set as the current title of the stream playing until the next use of this action or the next title update is received from the source.
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=viewlog - View logfile
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=viewlog&viewlog=tail - View logfile (tailing)
The tailing option keeps adding additional log entries to the end of the view whilst the view is active. As well any html or xml data in the log will not be shown correctly in the view as < > & are not escaped to their html entities. See section 4.0.6 for more information on the log file.
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=viewban - Ban view which matches the ban file and allows you to ban a single IP or an IP range from it (see section 4.0.1 for more info on the file)
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=viewrip - Reserved IP list that matches the rip file (see section 4.0.11 for more info on the file)
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=viewxml - Returns an xml output of the current stream information
- or
If page is not set or is outside of the range zero to 6 then this will output all of the information as the standard viewxml action does. Otherwise this only display information depending on the value assigned to page which can be from 1 to 6 which maps as follows: 1 - Server Summary 2 - Webdata Stats (currently disabled in the builds from early 2011) 3 - Listener Stats 4 - Song History 5 - Stream Metadata (if supported by the source otherwise can just be title) 6 - Stream Configurations (displays all of the known stream configurations)
admin.cgi?mode=resetxml&sid=# - Will flush the held stream information to refresh it
This is not currently enabled though may later
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=kicksrc - Will allow you to kick the currently connected source for the specified stream.
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=unripdst&ripdst=<IP> - Where <IP> is the IP to reserve (see section 4.0.11 for more information).
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=unbandst&bandst=<IP>.0&banmsk=0 - Where <IP> is the first 3 parts of a subnet IP to unban.
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=unbandst&bandst=<IP>&banmsk=255 - Where <IP> is that of a single IP to unban.
With the listen and home pages you need to have specified a 'dstip / destip' (see section 4.0.2) otherwise the generated playlist or stream url is likely to return an invalid address for the stream url e.g. http://0.0.0.0:<port>/listen.pls
- or
admin.cgi?sid=#&mode=reload&force=1 - This reloads the stream configuration details in the main configuration file the server used when it was started.
This command will add or remove or update any stream configuration as applicable which will cause any connected sources and clients to be kicked as applicable (usually if any stream configurations are removed). This will recognise any configurations included via 'include' entries so you can have 'include=stream/*.conf' in your main configuration file which the server can then use to detect different stream configurations. If '&force=1' is passed then the reload will treat the updating of active stream configurations in the same manner as a stream configuration removal instead of trying to update compatible stream configuration details without resetting the stream e.g. not increasing the 'streammaxuser' when it could be increased. The following configuration options are updated when using this command: password requirestreamconfigs streamid streamauthhash streampath streamrelayurl streammaxuser
Stream Addresses
Clients connecting to the streams provided by sc_serv are able to so in a number of ways depending upon how the streams have been configured and also depending upon the number of streams you have available.
The two main ways for a client to connect to a stream are as follows:
<serverurl> is typically formed as http://dstip:portbase (see sections 4.0.2 and 4.0.8) <streamid> is the 'streampath' set from the stream configuration (see section 4.0.12) <streampath> is the 'streampath' set from the stream configuration (see section 4.0.12)
If the client attempting to connect to the server instance does not specify <streampath> or <streamid> in the stream url it attempts to access or if only one stream is provided then the server will usually default to the first stream it knows about and will allow the client to make a valid connection.
This handling of the stream addresses provided is something to keep in mind especially if you are providing multiple streams as this will allow you to provide different addresses for certain clients to be able to use a specific stream e.g. if you wanted to have mobile clients connect to a lower bandwidth stream then you could direct them to '<serverurl>/mobile'
The server options available for controlling how the stream's path is specified can be seen in section 4.0.12 which also details the equivalent values needing to be set in the sc_trans configuration if you use sc_trans to provide a source to sc_serv.
Locale Error (Linux / Mac OS X / BSD)
If you receive the following error then you have a locale related issues:
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error' what(): locale::facet::_S_create_c_locale name not valid Abort trap
If this happens then you need to set the 'POSIX' locale in your terminal's environment values. If this does not happen then everything is fine or you are using a newer version of sc_serv from the end of 2010 which should no longer exhibit this issue.
export LC_ALL=POSIX
setenv LC_ALL POSIX
Mac OS X:
export LC_ALL=POSIX
You can test to see if this has worked by checking the shell command "locale":
Virtual Memory Footprint (Linux / Mac OS X / BSD)
Due to how sc_trans works it will create a large number of threads which may become an issue due to the default virtual memory stack allocation per thread potentially being large (typically 10MB per thread). For most people this should not be an issue as the memory is not really allocated unless it is used. If however if you have a resource constrained system or if you plan on running many copies of sc_trans then you could potentially run out of virtual memory.
The default thread allocation can be reduced by issuing a "ulimit" command before running sc_trans and in the example reduces it to 512KB per-thread e.g. ulimit -s 512
Example Configurations
Include as part of the sc_serv installation are a number of example configurations to get things started with using some of the features of the server. The provided examples are:
sc_serv_basic.conf sc_serv_public.conf sc_serv_relay.conf sc_serv_simple.conf
All of the configuration examples are documented and will relate back to details in this file appropriately. You will need to change some details in these example files or to obtain any applicable authorisation keys for the setup you are making (see section 3.0). In all cases the examples are designed to work from the same install folder as sc_serv.
Remember these examples are a way to get you up and running faster though you are still likely to have to adjust things depending upon the systems you are using and how you want to manage your sources and server connections which are covered in previous sections.
Additionally if you are not happy with editing the files or find it still too confusing then you can use the configuration builder which (if installed) can be found in the 'config_builder'. Open 'config_builder.html' in your browser and then use this graphical tool to setup a configuration file for the server (and additionally the transcoder).
This is the base configuration from which the other configuration examples are based and this will get a sc_serv instance running as a local setup with no connection made to the YP directory.
This configuration file changes the required options in the sc_serv_basic configuration to get a sc_serv instance running as a public setup with a connection made to the YP for listing the stream in the directory. This shows the use of the 'include' option (see section 4.0.7) and how specifying a configuration option twice uses the last value found.
This configuration file changes the required options in the sc_serv_public configuration to get a sc_serv instance running as a public setup with a source coming in from a relay server providing a SHOUTcast 2 stream.
This configuration file can be included in any other configuration files to allow you to get debug logging output when trying to investigate any issues you may be experiencing.
Use this if you just need to get a very basic server running or are impatient or are struggling to get it running despite the previous example configurations.
This configuration file is designed to be used just as is and is the simplest form of the configuration file you can have which will allow you to get a running server to appear on the YP. This works on using the default settings of the server though does change some of the file paths inorder to fit in with the existing setup as used in the other examples.
All you need to do when using this configuration file is to enter your authorisation key in the 'streamauthhash' line e.g. if your authorisation key is 123456789 then you change streamauthhash=<enter_your_auth_key_here> to streamauthhash=123456789 and save the file.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Remember the Keith Olbermann-as-Tupac video? It was a bit of a thing a couple of weeks ago. We posted it; so did the The Big Lead and Complex and Awful Announcing. Apparently the guy behind it—Will Schleichert—worked for ESPN. He was a PA. Emphasis on the was. He was fired last week.
Here's the story of what went down with Schleichert, as we've heard it. The video was uploaded to YouTube on Nov. 14 and soon spread to other sites. The PA was called into HR shortly thereafter and asked if he had leaked it to Deadspin. (He hadn't; we'd seen the video posted elsewhere and put it on the site a day later. We had no idea the guy who'd made it worked at ESPN.)
ESPN wasn't happy because he'd used video from the network without permission and uploaded it to his personal YouTube account. This is a transgression. A "fireable" offense, in the words of one employee, who added that it was nevertheless "unnerving to see him disposed of so quickly and unceremoniously." Another ESPN source said "they'd have to cut a majority of the PA's and AP's at the company if they were to enforce that rule" since plenty of them have "a personal clip reel on Vimeo and YouTube." ESPN has a long history of dispensing punishment unevenly.
Schleichert was initially suspended and then fired right before Thanksgiving. Earlier this week, he sent a mass email to his former colleagues to say goodbye. It's, as one ESPN employee put it, a "middle finger to ESPN suits." It's unclear whom exactly he emailed, but it apparently went out to a bunch of PAs and associate producers, according to a person who received the email. Here's his farewell note:
Subject line: goodbye
From: William Schleichert
To: William Schleichert
My fellow Americans,
I recently made a video mashup of Keith Olbermann rapping the Tupac classic "Hit 'Em Up."
Deadspin said it was "brilliant."
Complex Sports (lost credibility when they) called me a "genius."
BSO claimed it "won the internet."
and ESPN told me to GTFO. The Worldwide Leader is not #BoutDatLife
I need to thank some people for making my 3 years here possible, because it was 3 years more than I deserved. So in an attempt to adhere to the formulaic goodbye email structure of your long-winded former colleagues, here are some shout-outs:
Garrett aka "G-Money"
Will "The Thrill" Robertson
whoever cut that John Beck broil
Tommy the Green Ranger
CT from The Challenge
R.L. Stine's Goosebumps
The Taco Bell $5 Buck Box
Ball So Hard University's Foreign Studies Program
The Peter Griffin Sideboob Hour
and last but not least…you. Yes, YOU, the person reading this right now. I'll never forget the time when__________(<— insert time that we interacted). It was, like, totally OMG LOL AMIRITE!?!?
I suppose there are worse things to be remembered for than the "Olbermann Rap," and "Terio Ultimate Highlight." Pour one out for me…
Schleichert and an ESPN rep both declined to comment.


text:
CRS: Coup in Kyrgyzstan: Developments and Implications, April 14, 2005
From WikiLeaks
About this CRS report
This document was obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.
Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.
For other CRS information see: Congressional Research Service.
For press enquiries, consult our media kit.
If you have other confidential material let us know!.
For previous editions of this report, try OpenCRS.
Wikileaks release: February 2, 2009
Publisher: United States Congressional Research Service
Title: Coup in Kyrgyzstan: Developments and Implications
CRS report number: RL32864
Author(s): Jim Nichol, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Date: April 14, 2005
- Abstract
- The United States has been interested in helping Kyrgyzstan to enhance its sovereignty and territorial integrity, increase democratic participation and civil society, bolster economic reform and development, strengthen human rights, prevent weapons proliferation, and more effectively combat transnational terrorism and trafficking in persons and narcotics. The United States has pursued these interests throughout Central Asia, with special strategic attention to oil-rich Kazakhstan and regional-power Uzbekistan, and somewhat less to Kyrgyzstan. The significance of Kyrgyzstan to the United States increased after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. The U.S. military repaired and upgraded the air field at the Manas international airport for trans-shipping personnel, equipment, and supplies to support coalition operations in Afghanistan and the region. In early 2005, the base hosted about 800 U.S. and 100 Spanish troops.
- Download