Research and Instrument Analysis Branch
STScI Help Desk

This site is to support the instrument teams as well as SMO, APT, and SSB in the help@stsci.edu workspace on footprints.

The goals of the STScI Help Desk are strongly tied with those of the institute as a whole:

"We are dedicated to excellence in all our endeavors especially in our service to the community."
- Principles for the Space Telescope Science Institute

"Our mission is to enable excellence in astronomical research by optimizing the science from state-of-the-art observational instruments in space."
- A Strategic Plan for STScI

We ask you to take this responsibility to users seriously and to respond to users professionally.

GOAL: First response to user within 1 business day.

On duty?

Footprints Login

To Do Checklist

1. Your team is on duty from 9am - 5pm M-F.
2. Look at PI info (Name, Institution, Proposal IDs, under 'User Information'). This often gives the agent rough idea of the level of the user and the appropriate response.
3. Assign to yourself and set to 'Needs Attention.'
4. Email the user within 1-2 days. If you need to first confer with an expert, tell the user that you are soliciting input from an expert and will get back to them as soon as possible.
5. Categorize the call.
6. Remember to check the Send Email To User box or click Send to User button when you send a reply.

Three Footprints Workspaces

• Help: science data and software support.
• Support: computer support.
• Archive: data access and HLA.

Procedure for getting new team members into Footprints and to the Team Help Desk

1. Get new members to log into Footprints with their user name an AD password (They need to do this once before being put into Team Help Desks).
2. Ask Valerie Ausherman to create for them Agent accounts in the Help workspace.
3. Ask Brian York or Michael A. Wolfe to add them to the appropriate team.

Have a question?

Ask the STScI Help Desk Lead: Brian York or ask the Triage Help Desk Lead: Michael A. Wolfe.

Have an idea?

If you think something would be useful for the group and want to see it here, email it to the Triage Help Desk Lead, Michael A. Wolfe.

Team Help Desk News

July 16, 2012
The Team Help Desk and the Triage Help Desk now have seperate websites.