Unique Spaces & New Technology Help Uk Students Innovate

From the outside The William T Young Library looks pretty much like it did when it opened 15 years ago...but on the inside there's an influx of innovative technology. We just opened a new study space on the second floor of the Young Library. It features a number of seating areas for students to work individually or in groups. We have several media scape units, which allow students to connect laptops to a monitor and work in groups, practice presentations and those sorts of things. We also have those media scape units in the basement as well, in the Hub. Also in the Hub...is the brand new Media Depot. We wanted to create a space for students to create multimodal projects and get help with that. There are already several other groups that help with writing, rhetoric, storyboarding, and stuff like that, but to actually record and do editing, there wasn't a lot of stuff for the students to use. So we have the software and the hardware and we also have staff, which are here to help students. A lot of the students that come in here have a lot of great ideas and they really don't know who to ask, so we're here to help them. The hope is foster an environment that reflects life after graduation. These types of technologies allows students to work on their assignments that they have for class, which in many cases mirror real-world work assignments that we're given. Giving presentations, working in groups, developing multi-media projects and all of those kinds of things. Collaborating with students is a thing I think the university has really tried to introduce more students to, instead of just sitting in your dorm room and studying by yourself. I think the library is a great place for collaborative work. There's lots of spaces in the library for that and the media depot has a lot of interesting technologies to help that happen. Now more than ever the Young Library is that destination for students to come to work in groups, to work individually, to get help on a wide variety of projects. So, we're all about student success at the Young Library...but they say the appeal isn't just about technology...but the faculty, staff and even fellow students who stand ready to help. A student doesn't have to know anything to come in here and work. We sit with them, we'll help them learn how to do the camera, how to develop and idea and we'll help them edit too. I try not to tell them what to do, I try to give them suggestions and if they don't like it then I'll show them a different way to put things together so we bounce ideas off of each other. I think it's important to remember that new technologies are a big part of what we do, but we still have those information skills that we need to help students develop and hone through their time at the university and so reference librarians partnering with IT professionals really create a powerful combination to help students complete papers, projects, speeches and getting all types of help and that's what we offer here in the library. A resource they hope will aid students while they're on campus and beyond. For UKNow, I'm AJT.