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Though the summer has been hot, the managers of
the UNT General Access Computer Lab System have been hard at work
preparing their facilities for the fall. Also implemented this
summer was a slight name change (we are now General Access
Computer Labs) and the creation of a logo for the lab system
(more on that later).
Equipment Upgrades
Several labs upgraded their equipment.
The College of Education (COE) lab, located on the third floor of Matthews
Hall now provides 50 new 3.06 GHz Pentium IV machines. Each
machine features read-writable CD-ROM drives, zip and floppy drives
and a front panel that includes two USB-2 ports, a firewire port,
and volume-control headphone port. Six of the stations also
have document scanners. Students are invited to bring their
personal headset and listen to their favorite CDs while they work on
assignments.
The lab located in ISB 205c (the graduate
computer lab - SLIS) updated its Macintosh G4 computers to OS X and have
added Quark and Stuffit Deluxe to the already extensive list of
software available on them. All lab PCs now have CD-ROM
burners. The lab has added books on SPSS and SAS to its large
manual collection and also has new computer tables. On the
personnel front, the lab has added a consultant position.
In addition to the lab monitors answering questions, patrons can now
ask application-specific questions of the consultant. The
consultant's hours will be posted on the lab door this fall.
The ACS Adaptive lab, located in ISB 110
upgraded its computers early in the summer to 3.06 GHz Pentium IV
machines. Each machine has a CD-ROM burner and front panel USB
ports. Students are encouraged to bring USB "flash" or "thumb"
drives to the lab; they require no drivers for use and plug in
easily to the front panel ports. The lab will also have
several demos of new adaptive equipment in late August and an update
on additional adaptive equipment purchases will come in the future.
In other areas, several equipment upgrades were provided to
classroom machines and the College of Arts and Sciences has added 4
web access kiosks to the third floor commons area of the GAB.
Adobe Acrobat "Read Aloud" Feature Added
Other items of note include the new Adobe Acrobat 6.0 reader
which includes a "read aloud" feature for the reading of Adobe PDF-
formatted documents. This is of special importance to our
blind patrons and is available currently in the
College of Education,
College of Music,
the Graduate, the ACS
Adaptive Lab, and all the
CAS labs.
Additionally most labs now feature double-sided printing as the
default printer setup for paper conservation. Single-sided
printing is available by request as is color printing in many of the
labs.
Changes at COBA
We bade a fond farewell to Jan Brothers, the
COBA General Access Computer Lab manager, this year as she "retired"
to move on to a new career. However, we also give a warm
welcome to new COBA lab manager Charlie Brien!
New Name, New Logo
Finally, in addition to a slightly new name given to the General
Access lab system, the managers commissioned and adopted a logo
which is displayed prominently in all General Access Computing
facilities. In addition to the logo for the system, each
individual college and area has its own lab logo created from new
titles and different color schemes added to the general design.
Patrons can easily distinguish the labs now with the new prominently
displayed signs and posters featuring the logo in each of the
general access computing areas.
Looking Toward the Future*
As always a new and returning hard-working
student lab staff is found in each of the labs and they look forward
to serving you during this next busy year!
* For a glimpse of the past, click
here to see a comprehensive list of articles that have appeared in
Benchmarks Online on the General Access Labs since 2000. |
