Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Laptop Tagging Exhibit

-romel espinel, web services librarian

“Laptop Tagging: Evolving Art in the Library” is a digital exhibit of photos taken in the library showing how students personalize their laptops to create representations of themselves.

When you enter the library you notice the multitudes of people working, studying, or collaborating. Stevens, of course, is a place where Engineering, Science, Business, etc school students are banging out equations, wrangling algorithms, mixing chemicals and devising project plans. But how do our  students express their individuality?

As you walk around the library you will find students using the covers of their laptops as a canvas to celebrate their interests and express their personalities in colorful, systematic, or chaotic displays. Some collect stickers of their favorite movies or restaurants which may represent where they come from like the ubiquitous Surf Taco of South Jersey. Others sticker their laptops with organizations or teams of their school. Some even use duct tape or personalized skins.

I went around taking pictures of these collages of paper and glue and collected them for this display. It reminded me of days of drawing on notebooks and book covers of your favorite bands’ insignias or experimentations in typography.

On a more political bend to the idea of making space your own, the famous street graffiti artist Banksy credited his art as “a form of guerilla warfare. It is a way of snatching power, territory and glory from a bigger and better equipped enemy. [He] once characterised it as 'revenge.'“ From the introduction from "Banksy: You Are An Acceptable Level Of Threat". 

For better or worse computers have become a part of us whether we like it or not as we carry them around in our hands or whether we sit in front of them. Maybe in a small way we are taking control of how we want to be represented.






To see more visit, @scwlibrary on Instagram

Monday, November 11, 2013

Laptop and iPad Lending Comes to the Library

by Romel Espinel, Web Services Librarian

This semester the Samuel C. Williams Library is piloting laptop and iPad lending programs that we hope will help our community by providing access to the internet and tools for their academic success. While many of our students, especially the undergraduate population, may have laptops, a survey we conducted last year showed that many graduate students needed more access to computers than the desktop computers we have in the library.

Many commuter students will welcome these programs too because many times carrying around a laptop in you backpack can be laborious even if these computers were made to be light.

Lending out laptops and iPads are not new to libraries, especially academic ones. Libraries like North Carolina State University Library System has been lending out these computers for years now and are keeping up with technology trends by lending out the newest in technology.



We hope you will try out these laptops and make recommendations for what suits your needs and the rest of the Stevens Community.