Departments urged to verify and update CalNet directory listings

By Jacqueline Craig, Information Systems & Technology

12 September 2001 | Complaints are sometimes heard from campus staff unable to locate phone numbers and e-mail addresses for Berkeley faculty and staff in either the online directory or the printed campus phonebook. Now, a solution is only a click away.

The CalNet Directory Service — directory.berkeley.edu — relies on a “self-service” feature that allows faculty and staff to enter or update their address information. The database that supports the CalNet Directory Service is used to create the printed campus telephone book and is also the source for e-mail addresses used by CalMail, the campus’s new system to deliver timely news and announcements to faculty and staff e-mail accounts.

The update feature — directory.berkeley.edu/update/ — is a click away from the directory home page. Employees are asked to supply specific information about themselves before they are able to update address information. (In the near future, a CalNet ID and pass phrase will be used for authentication before one is able to use the update feature.)

Once address information is updated, an e-mail is sent to the directory administrative contact in the person’s department to ensure that the information is correct. Those concerned about receiving unwanted e-mail may request, through the update feature, that their e-mail address not be released in the public directory.

It is important to enter and maintain address information for faculty and staff, since many new campus online applications rely on this central source for directory information. Departments are urged to review the directory information for their faculty and staff to ensure that this information is complete.

In the future, employees will be able to manage their own data, such as phone numbers and address information, through the HRMS system. Until that system is fully implemented, the CalNet self-service update feature provides the only current method to enter address information into the central directory services system.