The Division of the Chief Information Officer (formerly known as Computing and Information Services), a department dedicated to providing the Rensselaer campus with support of information services and technology, welcomes all new and returning students to Rensselaer for the fall 2001 semester.
During your time here at Rensselaer, you will make frequent use of two of DotCIO's departments: Academic and Research Computing and the Rensselaer Libraries.
Academic and Research Computing (ARC) provides many important computing-related services to the campus, supporting and maintaining many computer labs and their software, offering consulting services and short courses, and providing computing information, instruction, and laptop support, along with many other services. (Please refer to the article "ARC to Offer Laptop Start-Up Sessions" for more information on the laptop help sessions that ARC plans to offer during the start of the fall semester.)
And if you need additional computing help as the semester wears on, please contact ARC's student consultants in the VCC and CII Hall Help Desk locations; you can stop by in person, phone ext. 7777, or direct electronic mail to consult@rpi.edu.
Whether you are a newcomer to Rensselaer, or a seasoned returnee, the staff members of the Rensselaer Libraries welcome you and invite you to visit them soon. You can visit in person, or virtually, via our Web gateway known as RensSearch. Either way, you can count on learning a few new things about libraries, and about the many different ways in which we can help you in your career here at Rensselaer.
The Rensselaer Librareis may be very different from other libraries you have used elsewhere. As one of the country's most progressive "digital libraries," we've focused on building electronic collections of information that are delivered via networked or remote access, and have expanded awareness of what's available through the use of research databases. Modern libraries are increasingly being evaluated by their digital services rather than the traditional measures such as "volumes held" or "journal titles owned," and as a result, Rensselaer's Libraries continue to try to deliver information "on-demand," either through full-text on-line or by rapid document delivery from external sources. The Libraries have also added several important electronic information resources recently, so check out the RensSearch homepage, located at the URL http://www.rpi.edu/dept/library/html, for the latest news.
In addition to their on-line services, the Libraries also have a staff of dedicated, patient, and approachable people who understand the frustrations that you may encounter using computers and information technology, and who will be glad to help you. You can bring them a specific question, attend a class, or take a tour if you are just interested in learning about how to use the library in general. The library also scans instructional materials for faculty, providing on-line course reserves to be used by students from anywhere on the campus network. The Architecture Library, located in the Greene Building, contains over 85,000 slides on contemporary and historical buildings, and the Folsom Library's Institute Archives houses historical and special collections of interest to campus, alumni, and regional historians.
Folsom Library is a great place to meet friends, enjoy the Cafe, find a best-seller to read, or to just relax. You can reserve a group study room or view a video in an AV carrel. There are many public access computers here, too, and these are often available when other classrooms are full or closed. In short, you'll find that Folsom Library, which is open over 100 hours a week, offers a change of pace, and a quiet space for a rendezvous.
So, come to the Library, and check us out!
Go to the table of contents.
Go to the Kiosk homepage.