The New Media Center


http://ait.brooklyn.cuny.edu//newmed_hours.htm

"The vacancy created by the resignation of New Media Center manager Nick Johnson has given us the opportunity to rethink the organization and reporting structure of the student labs (Library Cafe, New Media Center). It seems to make good sense to combine the management of these labs under a single person, reporting to Nick Irons who is in charge of the educational aspects of Academic IT.

"Suzie Samuel, who has done such an excellent job of managing the Library Cafe, has been offered this new responsibility and has accepted it, effectively immediately. Reporting directly to her will be the manager of the Library Cafe (to be hired) and Harold Wilson, NMC evening and weekend supervisor.

Until we fill the position Library Cafe manager, Suzie will spend some amount of time in the Cafe and Larry Albrecht (evening and weekend Library Cafe supervisor) will continue to report directly to her. However, her official and primary location is now the New Media Center, where you can reach her on x5327. With the semester winding down, the Cafe and the NMC will both be very busy, and I know Suzie will appreciate your help and support as she begins her new position. It will be wonderful to have Suzie here in the Library. I know that the student labs will go on to success after success, under her care and supervision." Barbra Buckner Higginbotham, Chief Librarian & Executive Director for Academic IT

In the spring 2004 Academic IT's student labs were reorganized so that they report to Suzie Samuel, formerly manager of the Library Cafe. With two large facilities--the Library Cafe (50 machines, growing to 80 with the extension) and the New Media Center (122 machines), plus a Tech Fee proposal to add 35 machines to the lower level and turn it into an 89 machine lab--an organizational structure that had labs reporting in different directions was not serving us well. The new design makes much sense.

"Suzie Samuel is a little gem who excels at hiring, training, and delivering good service. A Brooklyn College graduate, years ago she started for us as a CA, later became the Cafe evening/weekend supervisor, then was promoted to Cafe manager. She is more than ready for a bigger platform from which to display her considerable talents." Barbra Higginbotham, Chief Librarian & Executive Director for Academic Information Technologies, to Provost Roberta Matthews, April 3, 2004

  • Student Lab Services

    "At peak times it may be difficult to find an available computer terminal. The commitment of Student Technology Fees to the purchase of additional computer terminals in the Library would help alleviate this problem." Faculty Council's Committee on the Library, Annual Report 2003-2004

    The New Media Center (the twenty-first century re-invention of the Audiovisual Center) was brand-new in 2002-2003, the first year of the new Library's life. The public face of New Media is a large 110-machine student lab, plus six viewing rooms and two rooms suitable for portable viewing. In the lab students have access to the Internet and a wide range of software. NMC is heavily used by both faculty and students, so much so that in the coming 2004-2005 academic year we plan to expand it to the Library's lower level.

    Following the recommendation of Faculty Council's Committee on the Library, in the fall 2004 the Library will open a second student lab on the building's lower level. The New Media Center will staff this facility.

  • Equipment Delivery
    The New Media Center also lends AV and computer equipment--the old AV delivery system seems to have plenty of life left in it, even though the campus has provided every academic department with its own equipment. In the fall 2003 we were being eaten alive by demands for equipment delivery, a service that was consuming about 40% of the time of NMC's full-time staff and 75% of the unit's CA time. This was time that should have been spent on the digitization project, developing and testing lab images, preparing and presenting workshops, etc. To ease the burden on NMC and free staff time for the unit's many projects:

  • We have simply given certain smaller pieces of equipment to departments that frequently borrowed these items.
  • We have also given departments the keys to the AV closets in various campus buildings, rather than lending the keys over the NMC counter.
  • Older equipment that once belonged to the old AV Center but was subsequently dispersed to departments will be replaced with new (read: more dependable) equipment using 2004-2005 Tech Fee funds.
  • Research Services (AKA interlibrary loan) has taken over the lending of videotapes.

  • The Woody Tanger Auditorium
    NMC staff also provide the technical support the WTA and its many events; to get an idea of this workload, see Section III: Becoming a Model Citizen in the Borough of Brooklyn.

  • The New Media Center Reorganizes
    With the resignation of NMC manager Nicholas Johnson in the spring 2004, we decided to take a closer look at how Academic Information Technologies was organized. It seemed that a model in which both of our student labs, the New Media Center and the Library Cafe, reported to a single person had much to recommend it. Thus Suzie Samuel was plucked from the Cafe and made the manager of both facilities, reporting to AIT's Associate Director for Faculty Training and Development Nicholas Irons. We will hire a new Library Cafe director. In the two months since she assumed her new assignment, Ms Samuel has earned nothing but accolades.

  • NMC: The Back Office View
    New Media Center staff also support the digitization project; for more on that, see Becoming a Model Citizen in the Borough of Brooklyn, The Digitization Project, farther on in this document.