The Learning Commons: Hardware and Software
Review photographs of the new spaces.
The Learning Commons (LC) sets the new standard on campus as a media-rich workspace where researchers can take projects from idea to finished product, with support at each step along the way. The LC added more than 100 workstations to the D. H. Hill landscape. These new computers--a mix of PCs and iMacs--are sleek and fast and come loaded with all the familiar campus "Unity" software that students expect, including those essential Microsoft Office applications.
Some of the computers in the LC feature specialized software and functionalities. Two workstations offer an extended menu of software to support geospatial and numeric data needs. These data machines are outfitted with extra large monitors and have the added ability to display desktop images on two forty-two-inch wall-mounted LCD screens. This feature lends itself to impromptu teaching and demonstration sessions in the Commons, and it also allows patrons to review maps and images in much greater scale and detail.
Six other computers in the LC are clustered together with enhanced tools for multimedia projects, such as flatbed document scanners and image-editing applications. The library's Digital Media Lab continues to operate on the East Wing's second floor, providing support for in-depth multimedia projects such as video editing, image creation, or poster printing. No matter where students are working, knowledgeable staff and student workers are always nearby and eager to assist with all of these standard and specialized computing options.
Source: Vol. 27, no.3 of the NCSU Libraries Focus (Spring 2007).
|
