From the fall 2008 issue of UConn Momentum
As university research libraries grow apace with the twenty-first century, adding such features as digital archives and subscriptions and employing new technologies, it is important to advise students how to navigate them. Having the knowledge and skills to take advantage of the myriad resources within a top research library are key components of a comprehensive education.
At UConn’s Stamford campus, students and faculty are trained in a sophisticated classroom. The Thomson Reuters e-Classroom at the Jeremy Richard Library is a high-tech learning environment with wireless connectivity, laptops, state-of-the-art software, a sound system, a DVD player, LCD projectors and moveable furniture to accommodate various class and lab settings.
“The classroom has given students hands-on experience and promoted effective faculty-librarian collaborations on assignments,” says Nancy Gillies, director of the regional campus libraries. “The room has helped to transition the library into a learning commons.”
The classroom, which also can be reserved by faculty members for other courses, provides a flexible space that works well for wide-ranging needs. Gillies notes that the room has greatly improved group work with spreadsheets and teaching with video and audio presentations.
“The classroom has been popular for years with economics classes,” she says. “The instructor follows up a lecture with a hands-on exercise using the laptops. Students work individually or in small groups on Excel-based applications that illustrate economic concepts.”
The wireless classroom—the first at UConn’s libraries—was created in 2001 with a $250,000 gift from Thomson Corporation (now Thomson Reuters), a global leader in integrated information solutions for businesses. Thomson Reuters has now given an additional $90,000 in new gifts since last year to fund maintenance and upgrades, including better lighting and a new touch panel control system to automate various electronics, among other improvements.
“With the current and planned changes to the e-Classroom, our library instruction will see an increase in the ability to adapt to meet the demand for effective information literacy training on campus. The ease of use the new control system will provide will only enhance an instructor’s teaching methods,” says Phara Bayonne, director of the Jeremy Richard Library.
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