Quick Start

Available to: Students, Faculty, Researchers, Staff, Departments, Prospective Students, New/Incoming Students, Guests

Cost: No charge

Online directories store, organize, and provide convenient access to information about people, groups, and computing technology resources. The University maintains several directories as part of this service, including the BU Directory (also known as the Online Directory, which is available at www.bu.edu/directory) and a Microsoft Active Directory.

Benefits

Directory services facilitate communication by providing quick and easy access to contact information, such as telephone numbers and email and physical addresses, for people and groups affiliated with the University. In addition, they provide a common system for the organization and administration of computing technology resources, such as computers, printers, and scanners. Computing technology administrators and application developers utilize them as a convenient way to manage access to systems and applications.

Key Features

  • Appropriate access to directory information (see privacy policy for information about what is visible in the BU Directory)
  • Information in the BU Directory is regularly updated from authoritative database sources in Human Resources, the Registrar’s Office, etc. A subset of that information is replicated in the University’s Active Directory, which also contains information specific to Microsoft Exchange and computers that are joined to the Active Directory.
  • Information can be used to control access to resources; e.g., students taking a particular course can be allowed to log in to computers in certain labs and view information specific to that course.

What to Expect

This service normally will be available 24 by 7 except for standard change windows, as described in IS&T’s standard policies, procedures, and schedules for making changes.

Getting Started