Cables Have Invaded the Media Lab!

The cables are taking over the Media Lab!

Well, maybe that's a bit overly dramatic.  More accurately, though, the Ethernet cables are being pulled in the Media Lab today.  The furniture, computers, and smart board have been ordered and should be invading, I mean, arriving soon!

Interested in video, audio, or image editing?

Great news!  The final details on the new Multimedia Center are getting ironed out!

Library Dean, Scot Harrison, wrote that the "goal  of the Multimedia Center redesign is to provide students with up-to-date technology needed for digital video and audio projects."

Draft diagram of the new multimedia lab (the final design does not include the teacher lectern)

The new Center will have 16 student workstations, an instructor station with a SMART Board or a projector (final decision still hasn't been reached), and several large whiteboards.  The workstations will have 27-inch monitors and four stations will have dual monitors.  The hardware in the three study rooms in the center will also be upgraded and include dual monitors.  All computers will have Adobe Creative Suite 6 Master Collection and high-end processors and graphics cards.

The Center will support semester-long courses, such as COM 300which will focus on podcasting this semester and will include filmmaking later on as well as workshops and will be available to students with multimedia assignments.  It is anticipated that the Center will be especially useful for education students, whose portfolios require video components.

Changes coming to Summit borrowing

In December 2014, the O'Grady Library went live with our new discovery system, Saints Search, as part of the Orbis Cascade Alliance project to merge 37 institutional libraries into a single cloud-based system.  

As of January 8th, content from all thirty-seven Alliance libraries is now integrated and findable in the Saints Search platform.  As a result, the Summit requesting process is undergoing enhancements that will take effect on January 20th, 2015.   Some of the benefits of these changes include fewer authentication requests, the ability to track Summit requests directly in the "MyAccount" feature and a more integrated borrowing experience.

Over the next couple of weeks, there will be a number of configuration changes and testing on the new Summit borrowing process.  If you run into any problems requesting material or have questions about the the system, please contact:

Stefanie Gorzelsky      
Circulation Supervisor
360-688-2254
SGorzelsky@stmartin.edu

OR

Serin Anderson
Electronic Services Librarian
360-486-8813
sanderson@stmartin.edu

Transforming the library's Multimedia Center

The transformation continues.

The shelves have come down in the Multimedia Center which will allow for a long work table and more computers loaded with Adobe Creative Suite.

Looking for Videos and CDs?

If you walk into the Multimedia Center, it might strike you as a bit...well, as a bit sparse.  What happened to the movies and CDs?

O'Grady Library Multimedia Center

No, they haven't deserted you.  They've just moved over to the print reference area on the main floor, where they now occupy the first two shelves.

New Location of the movies and CDs

The movies and CDs are still available to you for check out for a week at a time, so please feel free to come get them for academic or personal use!

Meanwhile, plans are still underway to convert the Multimedia Center into a multimedia production lab where students can create videos, podcasts, and other multimedia presentations.  Plans are pending final approval, but we'll keep you posted!