Tech for You to Pet (and Checkout) @ Your Library

Friday, February 21, 2020

by Mary Rieder

During the recent Celebration of Teaching and Learning, library and instructional support services staff showed off the wide array of equipment available for faculty and students to check out from the library in our tech petting zoo. The library has laptops, video cameras, audio recorders, headphones, projectors, iPads, and other equipment available for 24-hour checkout to students and employees. 

Here’s a brief list of what we have:

  • Twenty Dell laptops with Windows 10, Microsoft Office and LockDown installed on them that may be checked out for 24 hours. These laptops (as well as your own) can also be used in the library’s Laptop Lab, Room 119, which is set up with tables and power outlets specifically for using laptops. (Although they can’t be checked out, there are also two Macs in the Learning Commons, Room 248, for those of you who prefer Apple.)
  • Thirty-nine Air 2 iPads with Word, Calc Pro HD, Brushes Redux, iMovie, Bluefire Reader (for reading the library’s e-books), OneDrive, Swivl, the Viterbo app, and LockDown installed.
  • A 50-inch Samsung flat screen TV mounted on a mobile rack which can be used for presentations on campus.
  • Five Epson projectors which come with all of the cables needed to display your project on a larger scale, all of which are HDMI compatible.
  • A Dell mobile projector that fits in the palm of your hand, but doesn’t sacrifice any picture quality.
  • Several different kinds of video cameras including:
    • Nine Kodak Playfull pocket video cameras that provide full HD 1080p video, digital image stabilization, and 5MP widescreen HD stills.
    • Two Panasonic video cameras that come with a battery pack, USB cable and AC adapter (battery charger).
    • Two Samsung pocket camcorders that are waterproof up to 16 feet, shockproof from up to 6 feet and dustproof. They shoot 1080p HD video and have a built-in USB for transferring video or still images to your computer.
  • We also have SD cards and tripods to use with the video cameras, and SD card readers to download your content from the SD card if your computer doesn’t have an SD card slot.
  • Four Sony digital voice recorders that feature a built-in microphone and can record up to 535 hours of audio in LP mode using the internal 2GB flash memory. After you finish recording your interview or presentation, you can use the included USB cable, to download the audio files to your computer.
  • Three Swivl robots that will literally follow you around and track your movements as you record your presentation so that you don’t just have to stand still in one place while you talk. These little robots work with iPhones, iPads, Kodak Playfulls, Android phones, and other video recording devices.
  • We also have PowerPoint remotes, external USB DVD drives, a conference phone, a conferencing camera, microphones, headphones, speakers, laptop mice, and much more.
Tech Petting Zoo 5.jpg

To learn more specifics about the library’s available equipment and checkout policies, see the equipment guide at https://libguides.viterbo.edu/equipment. A complete list of the available equipment can be found in the library’s catalog.