A short, informal introduction to the department of Psychology,

U. of Nottingham

Frank E. Ritter

14 December 1998

This is a very short, very incomplete, spotty collection of notes of a newish staff member for other new staff members. Some items will transfer to other levels and people. Much may be out of date by the time you read this, but it will help. It is not official.

Thanks to the following for comments and information:

mja@cs.nott.AC.UK, HPW, SJ, CRD.

If you would like to help with this, annotate your copy. If you would really like to help, provide sections or changes by email or on a diskette copy in bold.

Table of contents
  1. A short, informal introduction to the department of Psychology,
  2. Table of contents
  3. 1. Introduction
    1. RULE 1
    2. RULE 1b
    3. PGS Corollary
    4. Maps and other directions
    5. Introductions
  4. 2. Office supplies and the office supply room
    1. Phones
    2. Photocopying
    3. Sending FAXes
    4. Mail
    5. Stationery
    6. Miscellaneous equipment
  5. 3. Computer Stuff
    1. Getting set up on the system
    2. Sending Emails and such
    3. Printing
    4. FTP'ing
    5. Backups
    6. News, the department's on-line bulletin board
    7. Hooking up your Macintosh to the Unix file store
    8. Cripps up the hill
    9. Other online resources
  6. 4. Parts of the University that you're most likely to see and care about
    1. Signing on the payroll
    2. Libraries and the library system
      1. Online library catalogue
      2. Box system
      3. Psyclit
    3. The University Club
    4. The Sports Centre
    5. Social Science Lecture theatre
    6. Other people and how they can help you
1. Introduction

RULE 1

Ask Tracy or her replacement in reception.

RULE 1b

If Tracy doesn't know or is not available, ask Charlotte in room 345.

PGS Corollary

For post-graduate school matters, see Adele Brown or Lisa Pattison for most things. Particularly see Adele Brown for MPhil, PhD, ed. psych, and intelligent systems course questions.

Maps and other directions

There are maps of the department up in reception and in the hallways that will help you find people. The main receptionist can provide you with a phone list as well.

There is a Junior Common Room (coffee bar) on the 1st floor (200 level) near the terminal rooms. Staff are permitted to purchase coffee and tea there as well. There is a Masters students' common room on the ground floor, near the lobby for post graduates. Technical staff have a common room and kettle on the basement level where their offices tend to be. Staff, post-docs, and research assistants may, with permission, use research group rooms to make tea, and the Senior Common Room.

Introductions

If you have medium to long term visitors to the department, you must do the following things: (a) Notify the Head of Department in a short memo or email, (b) fill out an insurance form for them that you can get from Howard Wilkinson, and (c) notify the main receptionists and any group secretaries so that they can help route calls to them, etc. These activities become more important the longer the visitors stay. If your visitor will be here for more than a month or you need space for them, you must also notify Susanna Hawkins, who is in charge of room allocations.

2. Office supplies and the office supply room

Phones

The university's external number is 951-5151. Your extension will be off the 951 exchange. Extensions starting with 15 (e.g. 15292), can be direct dialled (e.g. as 951-5292). Other extensions can be direct dialled within the university, but can only be reached through the switchboard when dialled from outside.

If you are not in, your line gets automatically forwarded after 5 rings to the reception area, and a message appears in your box in reception (if your phone is set up this way).

Your office should come with a phone. If not, see Howard Wilkinson. It should also come with a short manual on how to use the phone. If it does not, you can call Telephone Services at x13030, fax them at x13666, internal mail them at Telephone Services Help Line, Telephone Exchange, Ed. Bld; or email them at Telephone.Services@nottingham.ac.uk.

You need to see Howard Wilkinson about getting your phone set up to make long distance and international calls. Otherwise you can call anywhere you like. All the numbers that you call will appear on a bill that will come round. And you may be be found responsible.

Photocopying

See the Charlotte for a key (a number to type in) for making copies on the department account. Members of staff are given a department key. Some research groups and grants have their own passwords as well. It is a sufficiently complicated copier that you may find it worth while to ask for a short tutorial.

The photocopier will also make A3 copies.

Research groups in the department often have their own copiers. See your group secretary to find out how to use them.

For copying jobs of more than 30 total pages (such as handouts), you are requested to use the photocopy unit in T2. We save money when you make more than 11 copies. See the school office for details. This takes less of your time and is cheaper than using the department machine. Call them for a price list and order forms (University Print unit, x14975). If you are making more than [[sterling]]50 (about 3500 single page copies), you must get the form signed by Head of Department or Howard Wilkinson.

Sending FAXes

Here are the instructions for using the fax machine that is kept in reception. Dial 9 (outgoing line) and the number you are faxing to, and then hit the green send button. For example, 9 00 (international) 1 (US) 412 (area code) 268 (cmu) 5806 (extension).

Received faxes will appear in your pigeon hole.

Mail

Outgoing mail goes into bags in the Senior Common Room. Red for external, Green for internal. Mail is delivered to and collected from the department three times a day (approx. 9:30, 11:30, and 4:15). Incoming mail is sorted in the SCR office, and put in the appropriate pigeon holes. There is a final collection of mail at 4:15pm Monday-Thursday, and at 3:15pm on Friday.

The School Office can provide you with mailers for DHL (overnight). This service is not free, and you will have to have an account to charge. Federal Express will also pickup if you call them. If you are sending materials (like diskettes overseas), either have the mail room explain how to do this and provide the forms, or use Federal Express.

The main mailroom is in the Old Engineering Building. They can help with bulk mailing, and DHL picks up there last at 4:15 pm (call to be sure).

Stationery

There is a stationary cabinet in the Office Supplies Room and in the SCR. Charlotte can provide you with a key. Take what you will use and use what you take.

Tracy can also order special items like scissors and staplers for you. There is also a pile of reusable envelopes in the SCR, perfectly fine for campus mail. If you don't see what you need, apply Rule 1.

A table outside of room 413 has a proper pencil sharpener. Main receptions can also provide you with a small hand-held one.

<Something on paper recycling should go here.>

If you would like to recycle books, magazines, technical reports, photocopied papers or such items, the table in the far corner from the door in the SCR (the give-away tables) should be used. Feel free to take anything except potted, dried plants.

Miscellaneous equipment

Hardware from lamps to machines. See Howard Wilkinson to obtain lamps for your desk. If you have a grant, you can send an order to him (and he prefers it this way), if you type 'order' on a Unix machine. You can find out more about how to use this by typing 'man order'.

Subject panel. There is no subject panel.

Keys. Sarah Orchard will give you a key. This key will open your office door, the back doors to the department, and indeed many doors in the department. You should exercise discretion when entering other's offices, and should usually have tacit or explicit permission when borrowing books. If you borrow something, leave a note.

Transcription equipment. Groups within the department currently have seven audio tape transcription systems with footpads. The Blind Mobility Research Unit (Jeannie Tuck) has one, as does Claire O'Malley, Credit (Irene Jackson), Julian Pine (2), and the AI group. You can arrange to borrow the machines, if they are available, by contacting their owners directly.

There is a video editing lab on the top floor that can translate tapes between NTSC and PAL. Booking it can be arranged through Jake Kennedy.

There is a video transcription, coding and analysis lab in Credit in association with David Clarke. It provides a Macintosh, specialised software, and a VCR. Contact Frank Ritter or George Kuk, for more information.

Booking rooms. If you need to book a room see Charlotte Dewey for all rooms except for the CREDIT meeting room, for which you should see Irene Jackson.

3. Computer Stuff

Getting set up on the system

You must first see Computer Support to get a user id and password. When you arrive, if you anticipate using the computer system heavily, you may also want to get accounts at the Cripps Computer Centre (covered below). The CCC provides basic computing for most departments, we are somewhat special in having so much computing within the department.

Sending Emails and such

See Howard Martin for details on sending electronic mail. You can send direct within the department by typing the person's username (you have to guess their middle initial, or that Ritter uses a non-conformist name). For (somewhat) complete set of user names designed to be used with rmail and send, see /aigr/staff/ritter/public/rmail-nottingham/dept.mailrc (for an old list) or use 'finger lastname' on rpsyc, upsyc, or vpsyc.

There are also a few mail aliases defined. On Unix machines, the file /usr/mmdf/table/groups lists them. The command "/usr/mmdf/checkaddr -w group-you-want", will check for that group. These currently include academic-staff, credit, ai-group, and several groups for subsid tutors.

Printing

There are quite a few printers located in the department, probably one even located near you. Printers for Macintoshes are available via the chooser, printers for Unix machines are available via the command

"lpr -Pprinter-name file-name". Some groups and individuals keep private printers not listed on the computing map and you should enquire locally for further information. None of the printers have associated output bins or names attached to them nor are headers printed, so you are encouraged to pick up printouts promptly.

Ritter maintains a map of machines including printers, and you should contact him or Receptions to get the latest version (current version of 9/96). If you add any machinery, please let him know so that he can add it to the map. The map is updated every 6 months or when major change occurs (if you add machines, please give him details). This map has been useful when generating grant applications, recruiting computer-head students, and for finding printers in an emergency. Ritter also maintains a list of department software, which is incomplete and out of date, but better than nothing.

Macintosh software often includes a built in previewer in addition to its WYSIWYG (almost) interface. Greater support for previewers on X window based machines is available now, by using 'ghostview file.ps'.[1]

FTP'ing

The Internet makes a direct connection to several of our machines.

While strictly speaking you no longer need a Cripps account, a user who works internationally and who thinks ahead will get as many accounts as they can, least they need to FTP when the psychology (or Cripps) machine(s) that can do this are down. See Computer Support to start getting a Cripps account. It will involve you going to the Cripps Computer Centre in person.

You can also set up an anonymous FTP directory on upsyc and on Granby (granby.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk) so that others come to you rather than you going to them to get files, and so that you can distribute software. You should contact Computer Support or Ian.Vincent (@nottingham.ac.uk), respectively, to get a directory set up.

upsyc supports a pass through account, so that it you telnet to it from outside the department, you can enter rpsyc as a user name, and it will let you login to rpsyc directly.

Backups

The department's main machines are regularly backed up onto tape. This tape is stored off site. For your Macintosh there is also a streaming tape drive that you can hook up directly and backup onto a tape for storage off-site. You are responsible for backing up your Macintosh files either onto the Unix file store or onto tape.

Backups are done at night between approximately 0030 and 0430. This uses the network quite extensively and can slow down machine usage at the time.

News, the department's on-line bulletin board

On rpsyc or tpsyc type news, or 'notes news'. This brings up a simple bulletin board reader to read the department's online bulletin board. You should read this every day or two; some read it daily. You can post to by figuring out how to do it with its own software, or by sending mail to 'news@psyc'. This is not as convenient as you might like, and a few people in the department have moved to sending such mail to notug@psyc instead (i.e. NOT UnderGrads).

Hooking up your Macintosh to the Unix file store

You actually need three files to save what you think of as a Mac file on the Unix servers. (This is done with several hidden subdirectories.) By far the best and cleanest way is to put all you Mac files under one directory, which is done automatically for you. The directory set up under your default directory, called macunix, is set up to write these three-way files. If you want further directories (folders), the easiest way is to create them under macunix using your networked Macintosh. If you would like to access other files, you can either copy them into that directory from a Unix machine, or you can create a link to them on the Unix machine (ln -s directory-or-file nickname). For example, "ln -s /aigr/staff/user/myself mine" will create a folder that holds all of your Unix files (including the macunix folder which you could open up twice).

On the Unix file servers ~/.afpvols holds the mapping between the Unix volumes and what will show up on your Mac. Only experts or Howard Martin should modify this file.

Cripps Computer Centre up the hill

The university also maintains a general computing resource centre known as Cripps Computing Centre, or just Cripps. They have several large machines (mainframes), and some specialised ones as well (e.g. CAD machines and plotters). They mostly offer computing services to departments that don't maintain their own system. You probably won't need them much, unless you need software that we don't have in psychology, or you want access to resources when ours are down.

They are directly on the Internet, so an account on one of their machines provides faster FTP'ing outside the department. As an Internet site they also receive a (nearly) full set of newsnet feeds that can be read on upsyc using Pine (see Gordon Baxter for details). They also provide classes on their software, laser and other specialised printing for a price, PC and printer rental, and a small document store. For complete information you should wander up there and get a set introductory material. Alternatively, Computer Support has copies of most of their documents.

The other thing that Cripps has that we ain't got is a dial up line if you have a phone modem to dialup with. Their number is (0115) 951-3342, and their modem is V21, 23, 22, 22bis, 32 compatible. For further information about error correction/data compression and other information, you should check with them directly.

Other online resources

On rpsyc 'padtest info' will put you into the university's online information server. It includes stuff on the library (such as last term's hours), Cripp's hours, a phonebook, and research opportunities that the university knows about.

Something on BIDS goes here.

4. Parts of the University that you're most likely to see and care about

Signing on the payroll

You are supposed to do this the first day, but some have done it on their second day. During this approximately 1 hour long ordeal, you will be required to make decisions about USS (we think take it), BUPA (we make no comment), and about a local scheme for using Cripps Medical Centre as an in-patient clinic or such (we are looking for an opinion). You will also be requested to provide the particulars about your bank so that automatic deposit can be set up. Bring them or be further (but gently) bothered. You could also bring any travel or moving expenses with you at that time. The Personnel Officer takes care of these, and is exceedingly pleasant and efficient about it.

As of at least July. 1998, the mileage rate for official travel was 37.5 pence per mile for the first 150 miles reducing to half this value after the first 150 miles.

Libraries and the library system

The Science library (x14570), which is literally a 3 min walk North, has most of the books that you will want. The main library (Hallward), has books on Ed. psych, which is the main reason for going there if you are in psychology (although it also has a good/bad coffee bar, and it is only 3 min. further to the staff club). Gemma Stephenson is our liaison librarian, and will help you put books into short term loan, order books for your courses, and advise upon library matters. They would prefer to have such things earlier and in writing.

Online library catalogue

On rpsyc, type 'padtest info' (or 'rlogin library', or 'telnet library'), and follow the directions there to find the science library, or other information. This online system presently (12/98) covers books, and lists of journals and other holdings.

Box system

Members of the teaching staff can put items on short term loan, and can request that copies of items be put "in their box", a cardboard box for holding papers. Doing this makes things easier for the students, and makes available short papers that the library may not carry, such as relatively rare journal articles. I suggest that you keep a list of what's in your box, for it is often handy to know what's there. Items in your box also appear in the online catalogue.

Psyclit

Psyclit is an online bibliography searching system in the science library. It uses a PC to search databases kept on CD ROMs. It can be very powerful if you have the right keywords. The library often offers tutorials on it.

The University Club

Just past the Hallward Library is the University Club (x15950). Research assistants to full professors are eligible to join, with a sliding dues scale (more for professors). These dues are not great value for money if you don't use it much, but it always seems like a good thing to have joined. They have a snooker table, and sell their beer cheap, but seem to have trouble attracting a crowd. You will also see it used as a meeting centre for some department and university functions; and it can house out of town guests in fairly good comfort and at an extremely convenient location, but it is extremely popular for this, so be prepared to order months in advance.

The Sports Centre

There is a nice sports centre where staff and PG students often play 5-aside football. There are snooker tables and a bar for lifting 20 oz weights as well. In order to join, you will need to bring 20 pounds and two passport photos.

Social Science Lecture theatre

There is a nice lecture theatre in the Social Science building, B29. It comes complete with over head projector that can be projected onto TV screens, and a PAL/NTSC VCR player. Anytime you want to use anything besides an overhead projector there, and especially the first time you use such things, you must ring Ian Conway (x15499) ahead of time to arrange to have him there when you start. His office is underneath the stairs leading up to B29, and he is helpful and pleasant when you can find him. After that, you can pick up a key to the video cabinet from the faculty office near the coffee bar in the main entry level corridor.

Other people and how they can help you

Howard Martin. The computer manager for the department and popcorn pusher.

Julian Pine. Organiser football sides and the dept. pickup game that is open to all.

Andy Smith. power leads and misc. electrical supplies.

Adam Reed. computing hardware maintenance, particularly Macintoshes, and hardware network & problems.

Frank Ritter. In addition to any duties assigned by the HoD, he will write small checks in $US at a favourable exchange rate so that you can pay your shareware fees or order equipment from the US without paying [[sterling]][[sterling]][[sterling]]'s just to get a $US check.