We’ve had a busy summer. Here are a few new things in the library:
• The HVAC construction is finished in the East building. Now we’ll have better control of AC & heat.
• There is a lot of new equipment for you to borrow at the circulation desk: laptops, calculators, voice recorders, a portable USB hard-drive, and a collection of portable DVD players in both the PAL and NTSC formats.
• The Library West Commons: refreshed all the computers, installed a new print system, added more dual display monitors, new iMacs and scanners, added iWork & iLife software, and added several walk-up / quick-use computer stations.
• 600+ new DVDs: War of the Worlds, Night Watch, Juno, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Last Emperor, and many more. Check them out in the East Commons near the Circulation Desk.
• New search tools. We are beta testing a new catalog interface and a new metasearch engine. (more info to follow)
• Several new faces: Catherine Murray-Rust (Library Dean), William Baer (Librarian for Mechanical Engineering & Distance Learning), and Sherri Brown (First Year English Instruction Librarian.)
• Launched a new virtual reference system. Ask! Us your questions via email, IM, or phone.
• Hosting an exhibit of student work from Professor Emma Crandall’s Spring 2008 English 1102 class. The exhibit is called “Dude Art” and can be found in the lounge corner of the East Commons.
• Processed a collection of historic Georgia Tech ledgers (1887-1999) including accounts payable and receivable records, student rolls, time sheets, dormitory records, budgets, and some correspondence. The ledgers primarily document student and financial records at Georgia Tech, but they also provide documentation of the day-to-day operation of the first fifty years of the school’s existence (1885-1935). The later volumes, particularly those dating from after ca. 1960, contain mainly budgetary and financial information.
