Bulletin goes on-line

The era of distributing a 300 page document listing every course offered at UCCS will soon end.

Beginning this spring, UCCS will join more than 400 other universities across the nation in producing an on-line, searchable academic catalog or, as it is known at UCCS, a Bulletin.

Using proprietary software called Acalog ACMS, UCCS plans to convert to an on-line catalog by early May. Students, faculty and staff will have the option of using the catalog on-line, burning a CD or locally printing sections of the catalog. No longer will copies be printed and distributed campus wide to faculty, staff and new students.

Improving student use of the Bulletin topped the reason for the change, closely followed by reduced costs and a desire to support campus sustainability goals. In recent years, printing costs for the Bulletin exceeded $15,000 annually. By moving the publication on-line, UCCS will recover the investment in new software in one year. The University of Colorado Denver is also making the change to an on-line academic catalog.

David Moon, senior associate vice chancellor, Academic Affairs, and Steve Ellis, registrar, Admissions and Records, assisted by Diana Cook, executive assistant, Vice Chancellor for Student Success, lead a campus-wide implementation team for the transition.

Cook also believes processes used for updating Bulletin information will be easier for staff assigned to the annual task. Individual colleges will be able to access current information and, using basic word processing skills, provide updates and changes. Those changes will later be reviewed. Once published to the Web, the site will be frozen and previous copies archived.

Training sessions for staff assigned to update college and department-specific Bulletin sections are scheduled for early March.

To see a demonstration of an electronic catalog, visit www.digarc.com