The Leading Edge of Innovation: In the Palm of Your Hand

(Photo: Klaus Fiedler)

Today’s students have the world at their fingertips. The weather, financial markets, videos, bus schedules, and social networking sites jostle for space on their laptops and phones. Fortunately, the McGill Library is keeping pace with high-tech, high-touch innovation.

Located on the street level of the Redpath Library Building, the Library’s vibrant new Cyberthèque boasts laptop workstations and 125 desktop computers in a comfortable, light-filled environment. In the centre are four glassed-in study pods, each housing a 52-inch screen for laptop presentations. “I like the space a lot,” says U3 management student Nadia Sayed. “It’s well-lit and there are lots of plugs.”

The McGill Library is working hard to ensure that the new “on the go” and “on the run” generation has the best possible access to digital content. The Library now offers a new service (at http://mcgill.lib.overdrive.com) which allows clients to borrow and download audiobooks, e-books, music and videos, anytime, anywhere, to their mobile devices.

Equally impressive is the growth of the virtual library: McGill’s e-resources now total 70,000 e-journal titles and 2 million e-books. This May, McGill was the first Canadian university to partner with Kirtas Technologies on the new Digitize on Demand program, a book scanning service. And the McGill Library was one of Canada’s first libraries to make the jump to Second Life, a 3D online virtual world.