At Lehigh University, Library and Technology Services (LTS) delivers communications, computing, library, and media services; many services for the College of Business and Economics are provided through an interdisciplinary team of professionals composed of librarians, computing consultants, enterprise systems specialists, and instructional designers. For students, the initial point of contact is the Help Desk. Additional information about Library and Technology Services, including library and help desk hours, can be found at www.lehigh.edu/lts and in the university catalog.
Lehigh University has two major facilities, the Fairchild-Martindale Library and the Lin-derman Library. From May 2005 through December 2006, the university will renovate Linderman Library and create a laboratory and showcase for humanities programs and collections. During that time, library services and collections have been relocated and there are interim procedures in place for using humanities research materials. The web site www.lehigh.edu/lts/linderman has detailed information about how to use services during the renovation. A core collection (known as “mini-Linderman”), all current (un-bound) issues of Linderman periodicals, and a section of Special Collections have been relocated to Fairchild-Martindale Library. Books and journals in temporary storage can be retrieved for users with a 24-hour weekday turnaround time.
The library collection comprises more than one million volumes and subscriptions to more than 12,000 periodicals, many of them in electronic format. The Fairchild Library contains books, journals, newspapers, audio-visual resources, and microform collections in all branches of science, engineering, mathematics, and the social sciences, including business and education. It provides collaborative learning spaces, wireless connectivity and comfortable lounge areas. In January 2007 the historic Linderman Library will again house books and journals in the humanities and Lehigh’s impressive collection of rare books.
The “My Library” tab on the campus portal offers students a full range of electronic in-dexes, reference works, full text databases, and image databases customized for their dis-cipline. Personalized interlibrary loan software (“Iliad”) allows for easy borrowing from collections in other academic libraries throughout Pennsylvania through PALCI and around the world.. Students may borrow books directly from other academic libraries in the Lehigh Valley. The university ID card is also the library card and must be presented when borrowing library material. Books circulate for one semester to graduate students. Liberal renewals of humanities materials will be allowed upon request during the closure of Linderman Library. Current and bound periodicals and newspapers do not circulate.
Wired/Wireless Networking and Phones
Lehigh University’s campus is fully wired, increasingly wireless, and capable of provid-ing gigabit connectivity to the desktop in several research-oriented buildings and labora-tories. Most major campus buildings, three outside plazas, and commons areas in all residences are wireless. For up-to-date information on wireless locations, consult www.lehigh.edu/wireless.
Full-time graduate students who live off-campus in the local area are eligible for a free university-provided Internet Service Provider (ISP) subscription to facilitate their access to campus and Web resources. A function known as EZ-Proxy facilitates access to li-censed library databases from off-campus without elaborate configurations. Students liv-ing in university residence have network access in their rooms. Each student also has at least 256 megabytes of personal network space for saving work centrally. This space is backed up nightly. Lehigh University has an agreement with Cingular to provide wireless phone communications. This partnership, which offers reductions on most AT&T per-sonal wireless plans, benefits the entire University community, especially students. This program is called Lehigh University’s Student Advantage. For more information, see “How Can I Participate” on the webpage: www.lehigh.edu/phones/stuwireless.html.
More than 600 microcomputers (primarily IBM-compatible and some Apple personal computers) are distributed by LTS across campus for convenient use by Lehigh students at over 20 computing sites. For example, there are more than one hundred in the libraries and computing center combined, and another hundred in Rauch Business Center. A (near) twenty-four hour site at Grace Hall has 30+ machines. There are also portable laptops equipped with wireless network cards available for short-term loan to students at both libraries and at the Media Center.
Each full-time student receives access to an enhanced Microsoft Professional software package for his or her own computer. In addition, LTS provides other software at public sites such as desk top publishing and graphics software, programming languages, mathe-matical and statistical packages, and specialized applications for engineering, scientific publishing, and creative writing. The Campus Portal allows members of the Lehigh community to fully customize their access to web-based information and applications.
The Fairchild-Martindale Computing Center houses a centralized network service cluster and a separate powerful machine serving as a scientific "compute server" to support com-puter-intensive applications such as programming and statistical software. Unix-based workstations are provided by LTS in various campus locations as well as a Beowulf clus-ter grid for research applications. LTS provides technology and consulting support for classroom teaching, laboratories, and other aspects of the academic program.
Media Centers and Services
Three facilities provide students with access to and instruction in a wide range of media resources: the Media Center, the International Multimedia Resource Center or IMRC, and the Digital Media Studio (formerly the Media Production Center). The Media Center in Fairchild-Martindale Library offers media resources and a basic production facility (scanners, and color printers). Resources include audio, video, and electronic media and the equipment and viewing spaces needed for their use. More than 3,000 videos are avail-able for viewing or short-term loan. The Digital Media Studio on the south side of Fair-child-Martindale Library offers students complete graphic production facilities, a graph-ics training lab, and consulting assistance. Staff there can assist with a wide range of high-end digital media services. The International Multimedia Resource Center (IMRC), located in Maginnes Hall, assists students in using multimedia resources and producing Web-based and multimedia projects in cooperation with the College of Business and Economics.
Student Services
The libraries, computing center, and most distributed computing facilities are open seven days per week and for extensive evening hours during the fall and spring semesters. For most of these hours, a help desk located at the Fairchild Library provides general help for students and faculty on-site and for telephone inquiries relating to both library research and computing. Help desk staff refer more complex questions to experts as needed.
Students may also take advantage of virtual help desks where they enter the questions or problems relating to library research, computing hardware or software, or telecommuni-cations at any hour of the day or night for response at a later time, usually within one working day. "Live chat" library reference and computing help services are also available during many hours. Most library and computing services are available via electronic forms; for example, requests for books to be recalled, film rental requests, and seminar registrations.
Each semester LTS offers an extensive program of seminars and course-based instruc-tional sessions for students. Students learn how to use software applications and the ex-tensive print and electronic library resource. Online guides for computing and library resources are provided for students. An electronic newsletter, LTS Digest, with quick tips and updates is published throughout the year and is available to students who register (at www.lehigh.edu/lts/connect/indigestsub.html) to receive it by email.
LTS maintains a variety of facilities for printing, copying, scanning and duplicating within the constraints of copyright legislation. In the Fairchild-Martindale Library, public photocopier, scanners, and microform scanner/printers are maintained for convenience in copying print or microform resources. The Digital Media Studio can duplicate audio and video resources. For printing at campus computing distributed sites, a network of laser printers is provided while larger printing jobs can be routed electronically to the high volume printers in the Fairchild-Martindale Computing Center. Although printing is free, students are requested not to make multiple copies and to be environmentally conscious in their use of this resource.
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