It’s that time of year again: We have to put away our Christmas sweaters and prep for some caffeine filled all-nighters. With the world going towards a more digital route, school is no different. But technology is hard to get mostly due to money and other issues such as specifications for high-end hardware. Director of the Learning Commons, Gabriela Nocito, wants students to know about the multitude of resources available at the library.
“The library is all about equity,” Nocito said. “It’s all about equitable access. So we don’t want you to think, ‘I can’t afford it so I won’t go to school’ or ‘I can’t take that class because it’s requiring of this particular material’. We want the students to rely on us to provide those materials whether it’s textbooks or technology.”
The Skyline College library is more than just a resource for just books or a space to study; they provide a lot of electronics and technological resources as well.
One of the biggest and more well-known resources are the 48 readily available computers. These computers are nonrestrictive, so you can do any type of research for any paper, or just watch YouTube to your heart’s content. Of course, if what you’re doing on these computers is making another student uncomfortable, the library staff will ask you to stop.
On top of those 48 computers, there are also 36 additional computers in the workshop classroom if there are no more in the main room to use. Additionally, a lot of students don’t know this, but you can rent out a laptop to take home. You’ll have to fill out a form and you have to return the laptop. If you don’t you can risk payment for the computer, restrictions with registration for classes and other punishments.
Alongside laptops, iPads are also available to be rented under the same circumstances. They aren’t the latest model and won’t run intense apps such as video games or photo or video editing apps, so don’t rent one out if you’re planning to edit a video project or something intensive. However, they will do the trick with reading online content for classes since a majority of classes are transferring to digital.
You can also borrow chargers and adapters at the library for your phone or laptop. Everyone has a phone and there will be a day you’ll forget your charger and you’re going to be desperate for that charge and the library has your back on that.
And for adaptors, Skyline might be moving to digital, but a lot of their in-classroom tech is a bit out of date with only VGA connectors for their projectors. So an HDMI or USB-C to VGA adapter comes in handy for your presentations.
Alongside that, it’s still a library, so scanners, printers and other library tech are there ready to be used. Even though the library has a ton of books, if you have a library card, you can access an bigger collection of books on their website.
With that said, you don’t need a dedicated Skyline library card, you can use any library card under the Peninsula Library System. If you’re an online student who doesn’t have a library card or doesn’t go on campus but still needs access to all the library resources, the school library can send you a card or barcode to access the online library.
Overall, the library isn’t an old-fashioned thing that is left in the past, and the Skyline library is a proud example of that. They do provide the classic books and computers, but it’s quite shocking what else they have to offer such as rentable laptops and tablets.
“Just ask us, you’ll never know, we might have it … we can be reached by phone, chat, email, you don’t even need to come in here to ask,” Nocito said.
If you need anything, looking for resources at school will help you and may help the school attain any resources they don’t already provide. All you need to do is ask.
