Nick Growall
Staff writer
The Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library on Southeastern’s campus will be going through several changes over the next few months, with the intent of enhancing the library’s learning experience and bringing the facilities’ technology up to speed.
According to Library Director Sharon Morrison, these changes are due to the school’s response to student surveys received over the past few years.
These surveys have been looked over and analyzed by Morrison and her staff, along with Dan Moore, the executive director of the IT department on campus.
One of the main requests from students was to have computers on different floors throughout library.
“There were several comments on the noise coming from other students,” said Morrison, regarding complaints about the computer lab located on the first floor of the library.
According to Morrison, results from the surveys showed that around 60 percent of Southeastern students rely on the library computers as a main source of access to the Internet or as a way to do homework or online classes.
Moore added that “these surveys provided good information for us to know that the labs are still important. For many students, the library really is the classroom for online students.”
Morrison went on to say that “students are the first priority. We are looking to optimize the learning environment, and we are an extension of the classroom.”
Morrison and Moore plan for the computers to be dispersed throughout the library in pods, hexagon-shaped tables with computers surrounding the outside.
There will be two pods on the third and second floors, one pod on floor 2A and three pods on the first floor of the library.
“This will provide more room for books and schoolwork, plus the ability for students to find a quieter part of the library if need be,” Morrison said. “It’s quite understandable that you don’t want to be taking a test next to someone playing ‘Angry Birds.’”
Morrison said the pods will be in place by March of next year, so that the re-wiring for the pods can take place over Spring Break.
Another change will come in the transition from 10 megabyte traffic to 10 gigabyte traffic.
“We are aiming to have the response time for our network to be no longer than five seconds,” said Morrison. “In my experience, this is the optimal time for a library network.”
The bandwidth of the campus Internet will also receive an increase from 300 mb to 10 gb.
This comes from the federal Broadband Technology Opportunity Program giving $73 million statewide to anchor-institutions such as Southeastern.
“Schools in other states aren’t as lucky to get such sufficient bandwidth,” said Moore.
According to the Penn Institute for Urban Research’s website, anchor institutions are “economic engines for cities and regions, acting as real estate developers, employers and purchasers of goods, magnets for complementary businesses, community-builders and developers of human capital.
“The placed-based nature of anchor institutions, such as universities, hospitals and cultural centers makes them important players in city building.”
Installing these updates will require the addition of 250-300 data points (which is where the computer networks plug in from specific locations in the library, usually coming out of the wall or ground where the wiring has been placed).
Moore said, “Networking is challenging in a building like this.
“We have to drill through a large amount of concrete to get the wiring necessary for the update.”
Updates will also include adding a data closet storage room, currently planned to be placed within Henry’s, a space within the library reserved for students to bring food and drinks.
However, students shouldn’t be concerned with these updates having any effect on the existence of Henry’s.
“There will always be a Henry’s,” said Morrison. “Removing Henry’s was never part of the plan. It will not be going anywhere.”
Looking into the future, Morrison said she hopes to add several glass study rooms to the library along with these updates. hoping for all of these changes to be completed by 2014.
After these project are complete, Morrison said she intends to retire.
“I just really want to see these changes through their completion,” said Morrison. “It’s been a labor of love.”
November 15, 2012