OIT Academic Services

The Academic Services department of OIT was created to bring together the groups within and outside of OIT whose principal responsibilities were to support the use of Information Technology in teaching and research at Princeton. As Academic Services' first Director, I am proud to head up a team that includes people with a wide range of skills, all dedicated to supporting use of technology in the academic enterprise.

I started my professional career as an academic. I received a B.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degree, all from Yale University, all in Anthropology. My field work and dissertation were on the ecology of Rhesus monkeys in Northwestern Pakistan. In the course of analyzing my data, I began to use computers, became enamored, and never looked back. I have at various times been a system's programmer (specializing in IBM mainframe operating systems, and later in Unix and NextStep), an instructor of computer internals, a web page designer, and an occasional college lecturer (in quantitative methods). I still think of myself primarily as an academic, and my role at Princeton as being primarily to ensure that OIT is providing services that address the needs of academics.

I hope you will contact me if you have any questions or comments about any of our services, or if there are things which you need but which we do not appear to provide. We have tried to be comprehensive in putting together this website, but some things may have fallen through the cracks.  You can reach me at:

• phone: (609) 258-6059 (my assistant, Alberta Noon, will pick up if I am out of the office).
• e-mail: serge@princeton.edu

As Assistant to the Director, I manage Academic Services budget, including operating, travel and capital expenditures, and I review and coordinate AS purchasing and billing. I am also responsible for managing the Director's office, including the Director's schedule and travel planning. I am a member of the OIT Facilities and Office Mangement cross-functional team, and provide administrative and note-taking services for a number of committees and groups, including the Committee on Academic Technology.

When you call the Director's office (258-6059), I am likely to be the person who will answer the phone. If you would like to contact the Director, or you have questions about the operation of Academic Services, please contact me at the main number, or send me e-mail at anoon@princeton.edu.

• phone: 258-6059 (if you want to speak with the Director),
            258-6020 if you want to speak with me.
• e-mail: anoon@princeton.edu

Previously I worked for JSTOR as an employee of Princeton University from 1996 until 2004. JSTOR is a not-for-profit digital library of academic journals. My responsibilities evolved from programming and systems administration to management of all systems administration staff. In 2004 I became the Director of Shared IT for Ithaka Harbors, an affiliate of JSTOR. In that role I was responsible for systems administration, telecommunications, and helpdesk services for multiple not-for-profit organizations including JSTOR, ARTstor, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Ithaka itself.

In February of 2008 I returned to Princeton University in the role of Digital Repository Architect. My current responsibilities include developing strategies for managing digital assets, developing services necessary for implementing these strategies, and helping members of the University community to use these and other services to manage their processes and their data. I can help you decide how best to store, manage, and preserve your data using content management systems such as SharePoint, WebSpace, Blackboard, OnBase, DataSpace, and others. You can reach me at:

• phone: (609) 258-0228
• e-mail: ratliff@princeton.edu