A new IT service office recently opened in McKeldin Library. The new site also hosts a Terrapin Technology Store.
Though it may not have glass panels and a glowing, fruit-shaped logo, McKeldin Library now has its own version of a Genius Bar.
The first-floor information technology services desk, which opened Aug. 30, offers a centralized location for selling and troubleshooting students’ hardware and software.
Located in the back of McKeldin’s first floor, the desk includes a Terrapin Technology Store outpost, Academic Computers for Terps maintenance drop-off and loaner distribution station and the Help Desk. Instead of students traveling to separate locations around the campus for different services, they can visit the new location and get the services in a larger, centralized space.
“We have so many students coming through the library doors,” said Gary White, university libraries public services associate dean. “It just provides another centralized location for them.”
The Terrapin Technology Store on the ground floor of Stamp Student Union and the Help Desk in the computer space sciences building will also remain open.
The new services are part of this year’s IT Strategic Plan for the university that supports facilitating “student ownership of IT devices” and helping ensure “the acquisition of technologies.”
With the larger location, the service desk can display more merchandise and provide a better environment to talk about products and customer needs, White said.
“This is a bit different,” said Michelle Thomas, a junior accounting and finance major who works at the desk. “This is much more face to face and interactive.”
Thomas said the Help Desk in the computer space sciences building was always busy, but the library location is more convenient for students.
The services desk is also characteristic of the learning commons movement, with features springing up around universities nationwide that aim to turn physical library spaces into interactive, expansive learning centers. The university launched its Terrapin Learning Commons on the second floor of McKeldin in 2010.
“It’s a way of just really transforming the library from a physical collection center into a more of an active learning kind of space,” White said.
The university plans to open several other commons in the next few years, such as a science, research and media commons, White said, to promote more resource use within disciplines. The goal is to offer services to students and faculty that may not usually be accessible in a central location.
In line with the strategic plan’s push toward cost-effective digital storage options, university students will also have access to UMD Box, a new cloud-based storage system. Launched by the university, the online storage system offers users
25 GB to upload, share and collaborate files.
Students can activate their UMD Box accounts on the IT services website and log in through umd.box.com.
Although the students still need to become acquainted with all the new services, White said they already seem to be popular.
“This is a way that we can really provide centralized help and tools that really aren’t available anywhere else,” White said. “The libraries can offer it in a really broad way to everybody.”
