Text copyright Amy Ranger, 2003-2007 Contact me Main index
Mentorship Famous People in the field of Librarianship

Note: This presentation on Novell's GroupWise v.6 software was researched and written by Amy Proni (now Amy Ranger), for the course ILS 503 Foundations of Librarianship, taught by Prof. Jodi Williams, Southern Connecticut State University, Spring, 2003. The presentation as depicted here varies somewhat from the original PowerPoint presentation. To download the original slides, follow this link.

Novell GroupWise v.6 : groupware in an academic environment


The current system for scheduling Bibliographic Instruction (B.I.) sessions requires the B.I. scheduler to walk halfway across the library and check the classroom and staff schedules which are noted on a paper calendar marked in pencil. This is inefficient, at best.

Utilizing the GroupWise Calendar module would offer Central Reference in Waldo Library a less time-consuming and more accurate method to schedule and coordinate meetings and B.I. sessions.

Use of the GroupWise Calendar would enable staff away from campus to utilize this resource via the web, through the URL http://groupwise.wmich.edu


Features and benefits of the GroupWise client

GroupWise Calendar allows you to create and post Appointments, Reminder notes, or Tasks. Note that there is a distinction between Personal calendar items and Group calendar items (to share, or not to share?) There are multiple ways to perform nearly every option in GroupWise6. The following suggestions offer just one way.

Toolbar icons are the same in all calendar views: print, find, create appointments, mail, notes, tasks, etc.

Scheduled activities on a weekly basis may be seen at a glance in the Week view.

Selecting the Day view enables a display of the appointments, notes and tasks for a selected date.


Managing time: creating appointments

Personal appointments
Post personal appointments so others know when you are available.
Select the Schedule New Appointment button and choose Posted Appointment.

Recurring appointments
Use for appointments that occur every Monday, for example, or the 3rd Tuesday of each month, or on the 1st or 15th of the month.

Meetings
To schedule meetings or Bibliographic Instruction sessions:
Select the Schedule New Appointment button (the default option is Meeting).
Enter email addresses or usernames in the To field, and hit return after each entry.
Enter location (room or building) in the Place field.
Enter a start date, start time, and duration for the meeting.
Enter a subject in the Subject field, and a message in the Message box.
Click Send when done.

Recipients may Accept or Decline your request for a meeting.

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Managing resources: Classroom A and the Groupwise Calendar

Classroom A
Classroom A is a Resource. This resource is owned, that is, controlled, by the Bibliographic Instruction scheduler, who has a username of LIB-CLSRM.
Avalailability of the resource may be ascertained by conducting a Busy Search.


B. I. requests: basic procedures.

  1. Requests are received by email, phone, or through a form on the Library website.
  2. The B.I. scheduler will perform a Busy Search to determine the availability of a date, time, place (resource location), and a librarian.
  3. A B.I. librarian will be notified and asked to confirm availability.
  4. The B.I. scheduler will then confirm everything with the requestor.
  5. Data will be entered in the calendar, which will be printed each evening at 5:00pm so as to ensure availability of data next day, should the computer system go down. Several print options are available.


Busy search
Useful in scheduling meetings.

To perform a Busy Search: Select Busy search under the Tools menu.
Enter either the Users or Resources for which you wish to search.
Add more names to Busy Search by selecting the option Invite to Meeting.
To delete names from a Busy Search, select the username, then choose Delete.

To perform a Busy Search and Invite to Meeting in one step:
Open New Appointment. Use the Address book to enter the addresses of the people and resources involved.
Enter addresses in the field To. Select Busy? in the lower right corner of the message box. Use the Dialog box to Choose Appointment Time, which presents a grid schedule of each specified user and resource. Set the appointment time by clicking the highlighted box in the grid and dragging it to a time when all attendees are available. To increase or decrease the duration of the meeting, click and drag the sides of the box. Finally, click OK.

The Date and Time of the meeting will appear in appropriate fields of the Appointment message. By the way, Busy Search works only if everyone cooperates: this is a one or zero, on or off, situation.

You may allow users to view certain details about your appointments by creating a Proxy and enabling Read access for your Appointments (not your email, notes, or tasks, necessarily, but for your appointments!). Proxy is explained in the next section.


Proxy: Allow colleagues to view your calendar

Use Proxy to manage another user's Mailbox and/or Calendar. Proxy lets you read, accept, or decline items on behalf of another user, within the restrictions set by that user.

Applying Proxy
The person for whom you plan to act as Proxy must grant you rights (look under the Access List menu and select Options. You must add that user's name to your Proxy List so you can access her Mailbox and/or Calendar. To add and remove Proxy names and rights in your Access List, select Tools, then Options. Double-click on the Security button, then select the Proxy Access tab.

To add a user to your access list, type the username in the Name field. When the user's full name appears, select the option Add User. Double click username in the Access List. Select the rights you want to give to the user. Repeat as necessary to assign rights to each user in the Access List.

To delete a user from the Access List, double click username, then select the option to Remove User, and click OK.


The GroupWise calendar
For more information on the GroupWise Calendar, read Ch. 5: Using Your Calendar in the manual. Online access is available at http://www.wmich.edu/oit/groupwise/gw6_userguide.pdf

Staff may access the Calendar via the web: http://groupwise.wmich.edu/
GroupWise web access help: http://www.wmich.edu/oit/groupwise/gw6_WebAccess_userguide.pdf


GroupWise on the Web

Web vs. client: You may use your regular browser (Safari or Internet Explorer) for web access; it must be Java-enabled. The GroupWise web version does not allow a multi-user view of the calendar. While the web version is similar to the client, it offers fewer "bells and whistles".

Log in: Enter your username and password just as you would for your Windows (client version) GroupWise user account. Your username is typically your Firstname [space] Lastname, i.e., Jane Doe. After you have entered your username and password, click Login.

Main window: The main window is the starting point for email, calendar, notes and tasks in GroupWise WebAccess. Elements in the main window include the Toolbar, Folder list and Item list.

Toolbar options (at the top left of your screen):
View your Mailbox
Compose an item
Search the Address Book
View your Calendar
Manage other mailboxes
Open
Help
Change your options
Exit

Folder list (at the left of your screen):
Mailbox: items received
Unopened items: received not opened
Sent items: items sent
Calendar: appointments, notes & tasks
Cabinet: folders you created
Trash: items deleted but not yet purged

Item List displays the contents of the folder that is currently open. The icon next to each item depicts the item's  type, status and priority.

Timing out
Leaving GroupWise WebAccess alone for a period of time, or performing actions that do not require activity from the Web server may cause WebAccess to log you out. You will be prompted to log in again if that happens.


Scheduling appointments
Using the Java-enhanced Calendar double-click on the Appointment List icon and enter one or more addresses in the appropriate fields (either To, CC, or BC). The address may be either a GroupWise user ID, a full name, or an external e-mail address. Separate each address with a comma

Enter the place of the meeting. To schedule a resource, add the resource name in the To field. Note: you may not use CC or BC for this option. Once you add the resource name, the location will be filled in automatically.
 
Specify the following information: the month, day, year; the start time for the appointment or perform a
Busy Search to find and insert an appointment time when all recipients are available.

To set the duration of the appointment, select an option for the quantity and enter a numerical value. You may select Hours, Minutes, or Days, accompanied by an appropriate value; for example 1.5 hours, or 45 minutes, or 2 days.

Enter the Subject in the Subject line, and a Message in the Message box. URLs are optional in both the Subject line and Message box. Spell Check is optional in the Message box.
 
When all of the data has been entered, Send the appointment.


The web version of the Proxy differs slightly from the client version.

Begin at GroupWise WebAccess main screen; select the Proxy icon. If you know the GroupWise address of a person whose Mailbox you want to proxy, enter it in the Name field like this: «userID.post_office.domain»

To add a username to your Proxy list, type the name in the Name field. When the full name appears, select Add User. Next, double-click the username in the Access List. Select the rights you want to give to the user. Repeat as necessary to assign rights to each user in the Access List.

Last updated 2007-06-10. ALR.