GEN: Creating a Research Media Center

[Bill McCook <bmccook@LINCOLN.MIDCOAST.COM>]

I am chairing a committee which has been charged with preparing our school
library to handle the demands of the coming technological age. We are a
9-12 grade independent boarding school with approximately 310 students, 3/4
of whom board at the school. Last year we were successful in connecting the
campus with fiber optic wiring and providing our dormitories and classrooms
with direct internet connections and e-mail. Now we need to extend this
technology to the library.

I would greatly appreciate any advice any members might have. I am
especially interested in how space should be allocated, any hardware and/or
software which people feel especially useful or essential, rules and
procedures which need to be instituted, and problems which need to be
anticipated.

 Also, if anyone has suggestions as how best to involve faculty in a
collaborative effort to integrate the new technology into the curriculum,
this too would be appreciated. Our faculty is interested, but the demands
on them are such that they have little time to step back and reconsider
tried and true practices and assignments.

Many thanks in advance for any assistance you might be able to provide.