Administrators at Harvard University have begun to think of the university's computer network as a vital part of the campus infrastructure, says Jay Tumas, the head of Harvard's network. Campus officials consider the impact on the network when planning renovations, expansions and new construction on campus. (Network World)

Even in an era of search engines and digitization projects, scholarly ephemera can be tough to locate. Armed only with Google, how quickly could a researcher track down magazines from the Dada movement? How many authentic treatises on alchemy could be found?

A new online database called ArchiveGrid aims to make digging for that kind of material quicker and more fruitful. The service collects detailed data on the holdings of thousands of libraries, museums, and other archives and makes the information searchable online.

The database's creators say it could help researchers identify museums that have prized collections in certain fields and locate jewels lurking in unlikely collections.

“ArchiveGrid allows researchers to discover important content that might normally be hidden when searching on the open Web,” said Ricky Erway, manager of digital resources at RLG, the consortium that...

Leeds University, in Britain, is using the Web to collect data on the alcohol-use patterns of 300 students. The Web site will tell the students how their behavior stacks up against that of their peers, and it will dispense personalized advice on ways to reduce drinking. The university hopes to reduce student drinking by 10 percent over two years. (The Yorkshire Post)

A group at Ohio State University's medical school is using the Web to both help students find romance and raise money to send medical students overseas for service projects.

At BuckeyeMatch.org, users describe themselves and the traits they are looking for in someone else. The Web site generates a list of candidates for the user to contact; making contact costs $1 apiece. (The Lantern)

Researchers from the University of Oxford, working with the BBC, are trying to persuade thousands of people across the world to use their computers to help process data from climate-change simulations. Like earlier projects that similarly used PC's for tasks such as looking for signs of extraterrestrial life, the program will run on a given computer only when it is otherwise idle.

Companies have begun to hire marketing and public-relations specialists to monitor blogs for comments about them. Can universities and colleges -- which already monitor their coverage by newspapers, television, and Web sites -- be far behind?

(Information Week) 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday released a draft version of recommendations for topics to be covered in college computer courses. The 264-page document, "Secure Software Assurance," is intended to teach students to write more-secure programs. The department will accept comments on the document through February 21.