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Show THE THUNDERBIRD SUSC THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1989 PAGE Officials mull funding for Library equipment BY NATALIE COOMBS Heavy utilization of media equipment and a shortage of funds have forced SUSC officials to Library spending and to search for new innovations that will make the Library more efficient and convenient for both Library staff and students. Library Director Diana Graff hopes to automate the Librarys circulation system by fall quarter 1989 to improve service to students. The system would utilize a new, picture identification card that would combine a bar code that could include an optional food service code as well as coding for Library privileges. Currently, SUSCs student ID cards are inefficient because they are not embossed deeply enough to be read by Library equipment, said Graff. We are now forced to look at automation or going back to having students sign each book with their name and social security number. The new cards would allow students to keep tabs on the due dates of books and the number of books they have checked out. Under the current system, students cant obtain this information until nearly too late, and their books appear on an overdue list, said Graff. The new circulation system would make the Library more accessible, but students would still need to manually look up books in the card catalog since a computer integrated catalog will not be implemented until the new library is built, said Graff. The proposed innovations will stretch the Librarys budget even more in the future, she said. However, new purchases of materials as well as physical improvements have already taken a bite from the amount of funding appropriated for equipment checkout from the Instructional Media Center. Currently, movie projectors, video cassette recorders, and slide projectors are available to students and faculty members in the IMC on the second floor of the Library. Funding for equipment checkout has been decreasing continually in comparison to other areas funded by the Library, said Graff. We spent $400 to upgrade equipment last year, and it looks like we wont spend more next year. Currently, were not funding new equipment, and equipment becomes obsolete very quickly, said Graff. Discussion focusing on the equipment funding issue came to a head in Deans' Council on March 27 when the deans determined that new avenues of funding must be found or SUSC would need to disband the IMC check-ou- t service. The council suggested that the equipment center could become a budgeted expenditure by the college as a whole or a larger usage fee may he considered to keep the equipment rental program operational. Graff said that the Library doesnt receive money from student fees but charges a $ fee to cover the costs of setting up the equipment for faculty, staff and students who use the equipment. Wed hate to charge a larger setup fee because it would discourage usage, she said. A recent audit shows that the equipment centers video cassette recorders are checked out an average of twice a day, said Sue Dunton, coordinator of media services. Students use the equipment an average of 20 percent of the time, and faculty and staff use it the remaining 80 percent of the time, she said. To cope with the growing demands on the Librarys existing equipment, several departments have chosen to purchase equipment for their individual use. Provost Terry Alger favors this trend. We need to maintain a small amount of equipment in the Library, but also to furnish each building with some of the same equipment. We are too big to have a centralized equipment center and not big enough for departmental equipment centers, he said. Earlier Commencement has many scrambling BY HEATHER COX Although moving up the date of Commencement exercises means cutting spring quarter to nine weeks instead of 10, SUSC officials have confidence in their decision. Commencement ceremonies originally set for June 9 and 10 have been advanced to June 2 and 3, said Vice President for Student Services Sterling R. Church. Officials chose to move the date up for three reasons which included conflicts with summer scheduling, questions about the lateness of the last week of school, and the conflict created by the Easter holiday during the same week as spring break. Officials felt that the original graduation date would cause problems with students who would need to start summer jobs. They were concerned that many students would opt to leave before the last week of school in order to begin their summer jobs. The original date also caused some conflict with a few of SUSCs summer programs. For example, it would have interfered with the beginning of summer session. Spring break also interfered with the scheduling of graduation. Usually, said Provost Terry Alger, SUSC tries to schedule spring quarter so that school ends at the beginning of June, ahead of other institutions in the state, which for employment. gives SUSC students a head start on looking To compensate for the clipped spring quarter, officials considered shortening the spring break. But, since both Good Friday and Easter came in the same week as spring break, college officials felt it would be better to have a week-lon- g spring break than to have students come back for two days only to be let out again for the Good Friday holiday, which is school policy. Every time Good Friday and Easter come early, said Alger, there are scheduling problems. This quarter has been shortened to nine weeks, which means professors will have to make adjustments in order to fit all the necessary classwork into the quarter. Its really tightened things up, said Frain Pearson, communication department head. Its not something Id want to live with consistently, but it is something we can deal with this term, he said. Officials want to insure students awareness of the June 2 and 3 commencement date. We hope that it doesnt inconvenience anyone, Church said. Press releases have been sent out, and flyers detailing graduation information will be mailed to those involved. The Baccalaureate and Vocational Graduation Services will be held in the upper quad the evening of June 2 with Commencement in the Centrum the following morning. Other campus entities have also prepared for the early commencement date, including the SUSC Bookstore, which now has graduation announcements in stock. 1 Observatory program slated April programs at Ashcroft Observatory will start at 8:30 p.m., an hour later than in March due to the change to daylight-savin- g time April 3. The Monday evening programs are free. SUSC faculty member Brent Sorensen indicates that the moon is the planned center of attention April 10 and 17 and that observatory telescopes will be trained on Jupiter, the constellation Virgo and galaxies M81 April 3 and 24. The observatory is located three miles southwest of Cedar City, it is reached by traveling west on Utah Highway 56 then turning south on Western View. 3 |