Campus News

Innovation at Young Library Spurs Students to Perfect Projects, Presentations

Video By UK Public Relations and Marketing.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 19, 2013) — University of Kentucky students are busy creating and collaborating thanks to new technology, unique spaces and thoughtfully designed furniture at the W.T. Young Library.

By now, most UK students have noticed and even utilized some technology upgrades in one of the busiest buildings on campus.

Over the summer, crews completed work on a nearly $350,000 project to transform areas of the second floor of the William T. Young Library into more active learning centers designed to facilitate collaborative learning and group study. The newly renovated reference area on the north wing and the learning space on the south wing now feature group study rooms that are not only more conducive to study, but also feature technology that allows students to share images and content with one another from their laptops.

"We have several media scape units which allow students to connect a laptop, or several laptops, to a monitor and work in groups, practice presentations and those sorts of things," UK Libraries Associate Dean Stacey Greenwell said. "These types of technologies allow students to work on their assignments that they have for class, which in many cases mirror real-world work assignments that we’re given."

Students, faculty and staff were involved in planning the second floor renovation, and funding was made possible by annual gifts from friends of UK Libraries and UK alumni.

In addition to the recent upgrades on the second floor, The Hub has seen major advancements in technology over the last year as well. UK Academic Planning, Analytics and Technologies (APAT) has created a student digital media space to provide online support, recording equipment, editing stations with software, as well as technical support for students’ development of their academic media projects. Called the Media Depot, the facility features recording rooms, a green screen room, editing machines for group work, and an orientation station staffed with “media experts” to assist students with projects.

Along with new tools, APAT staff members are providing students with new skills through the Media Depot.

"It’s something different that wasn’t here before," said Kirk Laird, manager of Young Media Depot. "A student doesn’t have to know anything to come in here and work. We sit with them, we’ll help them learn how to do the camera, how to develop an idea and we’ll help them edit too. It’s been a huge success so far."

Broadcast journalism junior Arion Wright, who not only uses the Media Depot for her own studies but also works there, thinks the new technology at Young Library is a great new resource for her fellow students.

"Some students don’t really like to write essays, so this is a way to express themselves through another source of art — multimedia. They can create videos, they can create different projects, so it’s just another outlet to show their ideas and express themselves.”

Young Library houses UK's general undergraduate collection, as well as social science, humanities, business, biology and agricultural materials. As the central library in the university library system, it also is home to the Dean's Office and a number of centralized services. 

Watch the video above to discover what staff members from UK Libraries and Information Technology (IT) hope to accomplish by teaming up to help students. 

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