Difference between revisions of "Supporting Documentation for Standard Five"

Revision as of 16:35, 21 February 2008

Required Exhibits:

1. Printed materials that describe for students the hours and services of learning resources facilities such as libraries, computer labs, and audio-visual facilities.
2. Policies, regulations, and procedures for the development and management of library and information resources, including collection development and weeding.
3. Statistics on use of library and other learning resources.
4. Statistics on library collection and inventory of other learning resources.
5. Assessment measures utilized to determine the adequacy of facilities for the goals of the library and information resources and services.
6. Assessment measures to determine the adequacy of holdings, information resources and services to support the educational programs both on and off campus.
7. Data regarding number and assignments of library staff.
8. Chart showing the organizational arrangements for managing libraries and other information resources (e.g. computing facilities, instructional media, and telecommunication centers).
9. Comprehensive budget(s) for library and information resources.
10. Vitae of professional library staff.
11. Formal, written agreements with other libraries.
12. Computer usage statistics related to the retrieval of library resources.
13. Printed information describing user services provided by the computing facility.
14. Studies or documents describing the evaluation of library and information resources.

Appendixes

Appendix I: Information Technology Literacy as reported in End of Program Reports

http://www2.evergreen.edu/wikis/selfstudy/images/1/16/ITL_and_EOP_Reviews.doc

Appendix II: Major Facilities

http://www2.evergreen.edu/wikis/selfstudy/images/b/b8/Major_Faciities_List.doc

Following is a description of the major information technology facilities supporting academic work.

[[1]]

[Provide map of labs at least in library building]

Academic Computing operates the Computer Center located adjacent to the campus library. Media Loan is adjacent in the Information Technology wing. The Computer Center includes a large unscheduled, general access space plus four teaching labs, including two Windows classrooms, a Macintosh classroom, an Advanced Computing Classroom (ACC), each seating 25 students. Five academic computing staff manage the center and provide instructional and faculty support broadly across the curriculum, as described under teaching and instruction above.

The Academic Division operates the Computer Applications Lab or CAL, also known as Scientific Computing, located in Lab II, site of most of the campus laboratory facilities and dedicated science classrooms. The Computer Applications Lab is operated by two full time staff plus 8-10 student workers and is equipped with 50 PC’s, 8 laptops, 2 macbooks, and 4 Power Mac G5 workstations. The CAL features two independent teaching spaces each with 25 PC’s and projection. In addition to general computing software (MS Office, OpenOffice, Adobe Suite, IE, Firefox), the CAL hosts and provides support for a range of scientific software including GIS (ArcInfo), math (MathCad, Mathematica), statistics (R, SPSS, PC Ord, Kaleidagraph) genetics and chemical modeling (CN3D, Mega, Chemdraw) and programming (Labview, Python, .Net,) software. The CAL supports faculty, staff, and students working in the physical and environmental sciences. Strategic planning and integration with the curriculum occurs primarily through discussions with individual science faculty, curriculum deans, the Environmental Sciences (ES) and Scientific Inquiry (SI) planning units.

On the first floor of the library, Media Services runs the following facilities:

-The Multimedia Lab, a specialty lab that supports the media arts, offering resources for non-linear video editing, audio multi-tracking, 2-D animation, web design, graphical programming environments and 3-D modeling. The applications t includes Final Cut Pro, DVD studio Pro, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, IDVD, IMovie, Bias Peak, Digital Performer, Maya, MAX/MSP/Jitter and other media specific utilities and authoring environments. The area is supported with a full time staff, student intern and 10 student lab aides all trained in the software.

-Similar applications reside in the 2 24-hour access Non-Linear Video Editing suites.

-The Audio Mixing Benches are computer suites optimized for audio mixing, production, MIDI sequencing and composition. They are equipped with audio peripherals, keyboards, and full bandwidth speakers.

-The 5.1 Mix suite is an audio production facility for mixing in surround (5.1) audio formats for multimedia and DVD audio authoring. It has the highest resolution audio interfaces, and specialized software for creating many formats.

There are additional facilities in the Communication Lab building across campus managed by Electronic Media, Including;

-The two Eight track and single Sixteen track recording studios, with an excellent cross section of analog audio signal control and routing systems and computer based multi-tracking and music sequencing/composition software.

- The four Music Technology Labs, again with excellent analog and digital synthesis peripherals, recording and monitoring systems, and complete computer based editing, sequencing, synthesis and analysis applications.

-2D and 3D animation facilities with lighting, cameras, staging resources and digital video production stations using Final Cut studio, Aftereffects, Photoshop as well as other image processing based applications.

-A large traditional 16mm animation stand with a motion control system is located with other film based animation equipment.

-Film editing and viewing suites are also located in the area.

-Open users from across the curriculum have access to the Digital Imaging Studio (DIS) for still imaging, graphics, and web design. The facilities include ten PC workstations, many flatbed and film scanners, and two exhibition quality large format inkjet printers.

-Instructional Photography offers facilities for traditional B&W and color photography as well as a state of the art Digital Imaging Studio. Brand new facilities include a B&W lab, a color lab with a 42” print processor, photo studio, print finishing area, and critique space.

-Classes, workshops, and independent experimentation occur in the Instructional Photography facility, known as the Photo Center. Students must take proficiency training in order to use the Photo Center's equipment.

Academic Computing support two computer labs at the Tacoma program. Right now they have two labs (PC and Mac) and up until recently it has been supported by one technology systems specialist who also teaches intensively in the Tacoma curriculum. [How is this changing? Also, many of the reservation-based program facilities are abysmal--is this on the radar of academic computing at all?]

In context of the recent remodel of the library facility, various adaptive and assistive technologies (AT) for people with disabilities have been upgraded, expanded, and collected into several central locations. Principal among these developments is the new AT Lab located on the ground floor of the academic library. In the lab, there are three PC stations with a range of AT software applications and peripherals. One station is specialized to support people with physical mobility, sensory, and dexterity problems. One is specialized support people with cognitive and learning difficulties. One is specialized for high-end graphics and digital photography work, with an electronic height adjustable table as the only disabilities-related accommodation. The lab also contains a CCTV reading station for people with visual problems. Circulation maintains a selection of headsets and other peripherals for check out for use in the Lab. The lab also provides necessary hubs and make software settings available to support such items owned by lab users.

The lab environment provides the privacy and quiet necessary to many AT applications, and it also provides a haven and separate place where students and others in the disabilities community can mix socially or sit quietly together among themselves. In partnership with Access Services and Student Affairs, the faculty librarians supervise the AT Lab, its users, and the student interns that have made it a living place of shared support and learning for the disabilities community here at the college. Matching the AT equipment and software in the lab are two stations across the foyer in the General Computing Center. Disability accommodations for mobility problems in particular are also maintained in the Digital Imaging Studio in Photo Services and in the Multimedia Lab. There is a need for more equipment in other areas of the college, as well as dedicated staff to administrate and maintain AT equipment campus-wide.

The library remodel included three teaching spaces. Although none is currently configured as a lab significant thinking has gone into equipping and using the library underground, including one of the classrooms and the many study rooms as a good facility for large classes engaging in a variety of activities (seminar, media presentation, computer lab work, small group discussion, etc.). The two additional classrooms have full computer, network and media viewing. For laboratory style teaching, co-location with the computer center makes scheduling and using computer labs very easy and convenient. Typical of the variation among the rest of the faculty, some of the reference librarians prefer teaching in the library classrooms, some the computer labs, and some in the many classrooms on campus which now have web access and classroom display options.

Students find the public library computers configured to mirror applications in the computer lab so that students can work in either area. Printing is free in both environments. A desktop link to the CAL system supports fluidity across campus from the library public access computers. The library circulation desk provides laptops for use within the library, although more and more students bring their own and take advantage of the wireless access. Two multi-media stations (one on the Mac platform) in reference support slightly more specialized applications such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop with scanners for reproduction of materials which do not circulate from the library's collections.

Appendix III: Service Points

http://www2.evergreen.edu/wikis/selfstudy/images/5/59/Library_Service_Points.doc

Appendix IV: Achievements/Changes

http://www2.evergreen.edu/wikis/selfstudy/images/2/22/Achievements.doc

Appendix V: The Center for New Media

The CNM re-imagines and rethinks the traditional television studio and associated Master Control facility. In the new environment of network-based content from web to HDTV resolution, the CNM replaces the outdated production core with a flexible, current, and comprehensive production system for open authorship, independent production, and instantaneous distribution of multimedia content for the college and beyond.

Some specific function for the CNM include:

Provide a technical foundation for skills building in media production from web to HDTV resolution.

Promote and facilitate media literacy and technological proficiency across the curriculum.

Prepare media students with knowledge and production skills necessary for independent, commercial and other computer-based forms of production and distribution.

Provide current technical skills and access to broadcast standard technologies.

Provide for faculty and staff professional development in the realm of technical skills, distribution standards, and modern production.

Create an easy to use, A/V presentation space for recording and distribution of lectures.

Bring faculty training institutes and production opportunities back to a broad cross-section of the college.

Create a centralized technical resource to support initiatives developing format standards for digital archives and content collections.

Expand the college’s ability to produce interactive and streaming media content for and about the Evergreen learning community.

Enable faculty, students, and staff to format, store, and publish media in the wide range of formats currently available (from web to HDTV to Blu-ray and HDDVD standards).

Scheduled to be completed and included in the curriculum for Fall 2009/10, the CNM will help connect the use of specialized technology in the general liberal arts and the media-focused curriculum. Promoting the use of the facility across the curriculum and across levels of user proficiency and skill will be one of the primary goals for the CNM. Cross-curricular use and instruction are central to both the mission and function of the CNM as is increasingly true for all other academic information technology resources on campus.

Currently, a key project is planned to address the complex problem of media silos in the curriculum through the CNM. In keeping with one of Evergreen’s traditional pedagogical approaches, an emphasis on grounded, project-based learning, Library faculty and Expressive Arts media faculty are working with Library Archives and Media Services staff toward a digital archives project meant to involved the whole Evergreen community. The Evergreen Visual History Archives (EVHA) project will focus on the current generation of faculty retirements and new hires, occasioned by the thirtieth anniversary of the college’s founding. It will bring together faculty from across the curriculum, and at every range of career tenure, into numerous media training institutes focused on digitally preserving and celebrating the college’s past. The EVHA project, with the CNM as its hub, will enrich, expand, and even reinvent the existing uses of digital technologies on campus as participating faculty incorporate their experience into their teaching. Several academic programs that combine digital arts with history, political science, law, and anthropology are in consideration for 09-10 curriculum, with EVHA and the CNM at their center. The expectation, in this and other projects to come, the broad integration of the CNM into the curriculum to begin with media specialists and then to disseminate outward through years of shared planning, team teaching, and independent student work.

The focus on archives and collection and dissemination of digitized liberal arts knowledge will bring library interests into the CNM project. Meanwhile, the instructional role of the library faculty will continue to involve more digitized formats and media. The influence of the web has already dramatically changed library teaching at the reference desk and the library faculty have reduced their commitment to the reference desk due to both reduced faculty lines and reduced traffic. On the other hands, substantial increases in the Evening and Weekend curriculum have created a set of additional demands, spread over a wide range of the schedule, to be satisfied with a smaller team. The need for consistent support for and engagement with off-campus programs remains a difficult challenge.

Supplemental Materials