The Library is testing out new stools at the round computer tables at the top of the stairs on the second floor.
Please share your feedback with us and let us know what you think of the new seating!
Send feedback to the Associate Dean of the Library, Bonnie Strohl, at (570) 941-4006 or bonnie.strohl@scranton.edu.
The Reilly Learning Commons is now open 24 hours!! HURRAH!! As you enter the space you’ll notice lounge seating and a large digital sign to share news and updates about the Learning Commons.
The first two rooms as you enter the space are for the Writing Center. They’ll be providing tutoring here with both appointments and drop-in hours. To see their full hours for the space visit the new webpage. When tutoring is not scheduled, the rooms will be available for students to reserve.
There are 5 additional group study rooms around the perimeter. They also have large monitors with HDMI wires for students to view their laptops as a group. The group study rooms are reservable by visiting the website. We are encouraging students to always reserve a room so another group does not show up and ask them to leave. In each of the rooms, the blue walls are writeable! Some have chalk and some have dry-erase markers.
There are four booth seating, or collaboration areas with large monitors and HDMI cords. You just have to plug the cord into the HDMI outlet on your laptop, this turns the TV on automatically. Once the TV is on, just push the play button on the wire and it will send the screen to the large monitor. You’ll be able to work on group projects more easily! Four students can have their devices plugged in at a time and switch between them by pushing the play button on each cord. These seating areas also have two stools and a high counter for additional students to work together.
In addition to the group study rooms and the collaborative booth areas, we’ve also added 6 new high end PCs and 6 new iMacs! They each have dual monitors and have brand new software including Adobe Creative Suite, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and more. We’ve ordered additional chairs so students will be able to work in pairs at these stations. We also have our 19 old lab PCs, and several open stations for students to bring their own device.
Along the back wall you’ll find the Tech Support office that will be staffed by student workers throughout the semester to help with technology in the space. The middle room along the back wall is for Lecture Capture. Students will be able to reserve this room and it will be used to practice presentations and record them online using Panopto, the same software used in classrooms for lecture capture.
The funding for the Reilly Learning Commons was done entirely through fundraising by the Library Dean, Charles Kratz and the University’s Development Office. The planning was done by a team of librarians, teaching faculty, members of IT Services, CTLE, campus facilities, and a design from architects Hemmler and Camayd.
We have received one more chair for consideration from Sauder. It is called the “Reflect” and will come with a tablet arm and cup holder. It has been put in the 1st floor Bound Periodicals area with the other samples. All of the samples will be here through next Thursday (Oct. 14).
Feel free to take a test drive!
The Library has gotten in 4 (four) sample chairs, called: Hush, Huddle, Reveal and Stonehedge as possible acquisitions for the new 24 Hour Room. Large sheets of paper have been posted at the end of the stacks in the Bound Periodicals area with a picture of each chair and the request for students to: “Vote for your favorite chair” . The chairs will be here through next Friday (Oct. 8th) at which time we will see which chair(s) is/are the “winner(s)”
Our students have been asking for more study space (such dedicated learners!), and here at the Weinberg, we’re doing our best to meet their needs.
During intersession, Library staff members moved some of our less-often used print periodicals down to the basement in order to free up some space on the 1st floor. The shelves that used to hold those periodicals have just been removed, so there’s a nice chunk of empty space waiting by the group study rooms.
Tables and chairs have been ordered and will arrive on Monday. Be the first to try them out, and let us know what you think!
Update: The freight company who is shipping our new furniture had to change our delivery date from today (Monday) to tomorrow (Tuesday). So we’ll have to wait one more day for our new study space. Sigh.
Update Part 2: New tables and chairs are here! Come try them out!
Check out our new book shelves, now located right next to the Reference Desk.
We just moved our “New Books” Bookshelves from the periodical area to the area right near the Reference Desk. This should make the new books in our collection a lot more accessible to you, and it also opens up the periodical area for more study space.
I took some time to browse these latest additions to our collection, and came across this cool book which I have plans to read as soon as I can:
The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All
Clearly there is something for everyone on these shelves. Check them out!
The larger 2nd Floor Group Study Room is now home to 2 new, comfy couches. Bonnie Strohl, our Associate Director, who is also often seen at the Reference Desk, purchased the couches because she knows how many long, grueling hours of research, studying and planning our students put in here at the library. In keeping with our Library’s mission, we want the library to continue to be a place our students — ahem, that means you — claim as their own. I can already envision the group study sessions that will go down on and around these newest additions to our library furniture collection. (And they’re a cool, calm blue as well — nice choice, Bonnie!)
So, come to the library, get comfy, and read! (Or research. Or study. Or write. Or plan. Or simply do.)
