Awesome Library Resources

Did you know that our Trinity library has way more than just books? You'll be amazed at all the wonderful resources you'll find on all the floors of our library. Let me tell you a little bit about some of the most fascinating rooms and all the possibilities that dwell within each one. First walking into the AT&T Learning center, you'll see a big room with many stations. One station is the Studios@CLT station. There are computers there that have dreamweaver, adobe illustrator, photoshop and even Flash CS3! These are all up-to-date programs that give users the power to create functional and stylish websites, photo and video-editing, and create animations. Not to mention, these programs are all relatively expensive, so why not take advantage of this awesome resource. Also, if you want to edit video, the Macs have iMovie, which is a really great and easy to use program, and the Windows PCs have Soni Vegas.

The Digital Audio Lab has a turntable, keyboard, CD player, cassette player, and many more audio editing and recording software. The door to this lab remains locked at all times, so you need permission to get in there. For example, the beginning guitar class is recording themselves and exporting their music to a CD. That's pretty cool!

I know about a room that many Trinity students would be interested about. It's the Media Presentation Lab. Although it sounds like a classroom, it's really closer to being a movie theater. There are touch-screen panels, a giant projector and even speakers that encircle the entire audience! This room is used for movie showing. Anybody can use it, but if you want to, it is wisest to reserve it. The majority of the day, it is reserved, but it is usually free at night.

The Video Conference Center has a Polycom video conference facility. Mr. Rubin Rodriquez, who is the programmer for Tiger TV, sometimes gives lectures in this room. Besides that, it has mostly just been turned into a storage room now. It has many podiums, lights, backgrounds, and other machinery.

I also went into a room where Windows computers and scanners line the back and Macs are in the front. It is the Innovation Studio. Mostly only faculty attends sessions held in there, but students could come if they really wanted to. This is where the faculty attends lessons on how to use Tlearn (which will ultimately replace Blackboard). It is a very spacey and comfortable room.

Something else that I found out while on my tour, I think you'll find very interesting. There is a dubbing station! This means that you can convert VHS cassette into a DVD. This is a neat machine to have on a campus. The only problem is that it converts in real time, so it may take a while. Still, it's a useful tool!

Besides using these resources for this Computer class, by exploring the different software packages and programs, I can also use it for other classes. For example, in my art class (Design I), the teacher always asks for interesting ways to artistically show nature or projects. Given the freedom of our projects, she strongly suggests programs like photoshop to help enhance our finished assignments. Also, on a more personal note, these resources can be used outside the classroom. I, for example, love making movies, but I haven't been able to do it very much because my video-editing software is not very good and it's been giving me lots of problems. Now, I can just use the lab and burn my projects to a CD. I can't believe we have all this stuff in our own library. Usually people have to spend lots of money to gain access to these materials, so we're all very lucky! I don't think that many students know just how much we can do, though, so let's spread the word.