Published: April 15, 2008 10:01 am      

Libraries attracting patrons with new needs

With the possibility of podcasting and downloadable books, area libraries are feeling the new tech sizzle.

Penn Highlands Community College’s new campus in Richland Township is totally wireless, and the library has become Tech Central.

“This is the information research center,” said Barb Zaborowski, associate dean for library and academic affairs.

“It’s the first place students come. It’s the only place that’s staffed all the time, which helps when students or faculty get stuck with the technology.”

Zabrowski hopes to add podcasting, which would enable students who miss a class to hear it later.

“A faculty member would come in, put on a mike and teach the class, and it would be captured on audio,” she said. “We would archive (classes) in the library, and students could come and look them up by date or instructor.”

Zaborowski and Danielle Gerko, IT director, hope to move toward Web 2.0, a collaborative way to use the Internet, on the school’s Web site.

“Web 2.0 has RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, so I could send a list of new books to the faculty or students,” Zaborowski said.

Wikis could become the way to go for group projects. Using Wikipedia, a free, user-created online encyclopedia, as a model, students could host their own pages.

Using Wikis, a teacher could give a group assignment and see collaborative results posted as the work is completed.

At the Cambria County Library, 248 Main St., Johnstown, some of the more recent advances include computer stations outfitted for those with special needs and a techno-teens area, library director Lyn Meek said.

Assistive technology computer stations include extra-large screens and keyboards, and computer mice modified for those with special needs.

Teens can have their day and their say under a brightly lit neon “Xscape” sign on the library’s third floor.

Students from five or six school districts come to the teens-only area, where they can play online games and create their own Web pages on souped-up computers.

Looking to the technological future, Meek is contemplating RFID, a radio frequency identification system, to manage the library’s 140,000 items, and downloadable audio books.

The RFID system would allow patrons to check out and return books and would enable staff to inventory a whole shelf of books in a flash. The system also would keep track of items returned at the library’s book drop and would replace the bar-code security system.

But because of the system’s cost and the mammoth manpower hours needed to convert the library’s large collection, Meek said a more likely option is downloadable audio books.

“We have 2,600 books on tape or CD, which is less than2 percent of our collection, but more than 5 percent of our circulation,” Meek said. “People like to listen to books.”

With a virtual collection, readers could download the text into a portable digital device such as an MP3 player.