New lab and computers added to library
By Chris Hopkins
To ease the pressure on Ryerson’s overcrowded computer labs, the library is transforming its third-floor study lounge into a new drop-in computer centre.
The tables where students used to gather around to study, read or talk are now gone. In their place are sectioned-off stalls, which now await 19 computers from the computer lab already on the third floor. There will be no interruption of computer services and renovations are expected to be finished in late November.
After these changes are complete, the old third-floor computer facilities will then undergo renovations, becoming a new computer classroom after a few walls are knocked down.
Professors will be able to sit everyone down in their class in front of their own computer for instructional sessions on the internet and computer research. These renovations will be completed in January.
Chief Librarian Richard Malinski and Bob Jackson, in charge of the library’s Systems and Technical Services, both felt the new room and computers would be an improvement over the old way of teaching classes — students watching a librarian fiddle with a computer while the screen output is projected on a wall.
Special rooms will also be set up by the Access Centre to assist the visually impaired.
The remaking of the library’s third floor will cost about $100,000, including the $50,000 for 25 new PS2 computers.
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