(revised August 2008)

Language Media Center in 120 Phillips Hall

• 16 digital audio carrels
• 13 video viewing workstations, including several combo TV-VCR units, one TV-DVD-VCR unit, and 9 region-free DVD players; UI cable viewing available
• 6 small group rooms for video viewing and testing; all equipped with multistandard VCRs and region-free DVD players, laserdisc players and TV monitors, and stand-alone computers (5 Dell laptops with Windows XP and 1 Dell with Vista)
• 1 “Accessible Technology” Dell with accessibility software, scanner, CD writable drive, DVD drive
• 37 Dell workstations
• 12 Macintosh workstations
• 2 black/white laser printers, one color laser printer
• 5 Canon scanners (2 each for Mac and PC, and one for the "Forward Technology" Dell)

The microcomputer lab is part of the campus-wide Instructional Technology Centers program.

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17 Phillips Hall Language Laboratory Classroom

The 17 Phillips Hall Language Laboratory Classroom is installed with the Sanako Lab 100 digital audio system. The teacher desk is equipped with a computer, printer, audio tape deck, multi-standard VCR, and telephone. The
twenty-nine student booths contain digital audio panels and headsets. The teacher desk and one student booth are ADA-compliant.

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Instructional Technology Classrooms

All Phillips Hall classrooms are equipped with a full range of video, audio, and networked computer technology so that instructors can easily enhance classroom activities with media.

Each room has a teacher presentation station controlled by a touch-screen panel including a multi-standard VCR, a code-free DVD player, and two computer CPUs (one Windows machine and one Macintosh), which share a monitor. The touch-screen panel also controls a data/video projector on the ceiling, allowing teachers to switch easily between video, audio and computer resources for their classroom activities. There are connections at the teacher station for plugging a laptop into the room audio and projection facilities and to the Internet. The basement and second floor classrooms are equipped with large TV monitors on the front walls, audio cassette decks, videodisc/CD players, amplifiers, and overhead transparency projectors. The third- and fourth-floor classrooms have Wolfvision document cameras for projecting non-transparent visual aids, such as books and photographs. In addition to the equipment at the teacher station, the technology classrooms (except those on the third floor) have dimmable lighting, which can be controlled at or near the teacher station. For assistance with equipment in the classrooms, use the phone in the classroom to call the Media Hotline at 335-1976.  For other questions about classrooms, call 335-1243.  These numbers are posted near the telephone in each classroom.

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Media Library and Circulation of Materials

The LMC Library has approximately 7,100 titles in the instructional materials collection, including audio tapes, VHS tapes, laserdiscs, DVDs, CD-ROMs, video CDs, audio CDs, vinyl records, films, slide/tape and filmstrip/tape packages. In addition, the library has print ancillaries in the form of texts or transcripts for many titles.  The collection covers a wide range of subjects including language skills, music, literature, art, cultural history and civilization.  The languages represented are American Sign Language, Chinese, Czech, English and English as a Second Language, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Yoruba, and Zulu. The LMC's library holdings are catalogued on a computer database, which is updated often and may be searched from the LMC Web site. Patrons may also browse the printed version of the catalog, which is published once a year and is available at the LMC Front Desk.      

LMC circulation policies
Patrons will present their current University of Iowa ID card each time they request LMC materials. Patrons agree to pay for the replacement of any lost or damaged LMC materials they have checked out. Patrons agree to comply with LMC copyright policies. Students may use LMC materials only within the lab itself. Instructors may take materials with them for preparation or for showing in class. Only University of Iowa ID charges will be accepted for any services. We do not receive cash.

Whenever students use materials in the LMC, the database records that and collates the information. Weekly reports are distributed to instructors with an overview of what materials were used by which students. Any students using Dasher for class work will also be included in reports to instructors on a weekly basis.

Audio materials
Students may work in the Center’s audio carrels, individually or in groups, with or without program lesson files, and they may record their own voices as they work. The resulting mp3 files may be saved to the students’ own USB drives and submitted to the instructor as homework assignments. If duplication permission has been obtained from the publisher, individual lessons of a program may also be converted and saved as mp3 files. There is no charge for these services, but students must supply their own USB drives and monitor the recording while it is in progress; no orders will be taken to have duplication done in absentia.

Video materials
Students may check out video materials for use within the Center only and must leave their ID cards with the Front Desk Monitor. They may use their own headphones or borrow a set at the front desk. Remote controllers for some equipment may also be checked out at the front desk. Students who lose or damage LMC equipment or materials will be charged the cost of replacement. Illegal copying of copyright-protected videos is strictly forbidden, as is recreational movie watching on Center machines.

All individual student video viewing workstations are equipped with VHS VCRs, and some also have videodisc players, DVD players, or multi-standard VCRs. Groups of three to five students may view videos in the small group video rooms. An on-line circulation system maintains records of video usage; instructors receive weekly reports of their students' work.

The LMC has six multi-standard video monitor/player configurations that will play videotapes in any of the three major color television standards (PAL, SECAM, and NTSC) used in different parts of the world. Our 15 DVD players are region/code-free and can be set to play DVDs purchased anywhere in the world.

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LMC Multimedia Development Studio

Located in 651 Phillips Hall, the LMC Multimedia Development Studio provides the opportunity for graduate students in the language departments to develop their skills with multimedia and with computer-assisted instruction in foreign languages. For more information, click here.

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Policies

Clean environment
No smoking is permitted in the Language Media Center or anywhere on campus. No food or drink is permitted beyond the front desk of the Center. Instructors are expected to see that their students refrain from eating and drinking in the classrooms. Lab privileges may be revoked for persons refusing to comply with LMC policies.

Accessibility
If you need assistance with any LMC facilities or equipment, please talk to the staff member at the front desk or to the lab monitor at the ITC monitor's station. We will be glad to help you.

LMC-ITC computer workstations
Because of the very high demand for workstations, you may be asked to give up your workstation if you are doing personal chatting or other non-academic activities. Games are not allowed on LMC workstations. Please refer to the Instructional Technology Center list for other nearby computer labs. Workstations left unattended for more than five minutes will be restarted and made available to waiting patrons. Computer users should save their work often on their H-drive (Documents) or on their own media, such as flash drives, CD-RWs, floppies, or by email; failure to save may result in lost work and frustration. You should also check "Print Preview" often if you will be printing your file, as you will pay for any formatting mistakes you make. If you have lost a CD or flash drive, ask the Computer Lab Monitor. We may have it, and if not, we can lend you one to use in the meantime.

LMC microcomputer facility is part of the campus system of Instructional Technology Centers and offers access to a wide variety of computer-based activities, including computer-assisted instruction for language learning, word processing, e-mail, Internet browsing, text and graphic scanning, programming, InfoHawk (the UI Libraries’ on-line catalog), ISIS (the student registration and information system), and Web page development. Students may use computer equipment for any of these activities with their HawkIDs, and faculty and staff may use their own HawkIDs or a guest ID in the facility. Computer-assisted instruction materials are currently available for American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese, Classics, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Medical and Technical Terminology, Yoruba and Zulu. LMC student employees are present at all times to assist patrons in using the computers and the software.

The LMC Front Desk has equipment for special projects in the computer lab or in the small group rooms, including 13 USB Plantronics digital headsets, an 80 GB Firewire drive formatted for Macintosh, an HP CD-Burner, three scanners (CanoScan, HP, and Epson 1260), two Web-cameras (Logitech and Creative), portable 250M zip drives with USB cables, an Omniflash drive (reads Multimedia, Secure Digital, Compact Flash and SmartMedia cards), and a SmartCard/Compact FlashCard reader. This equipment may be borrowed by presenting the student's ID card.

The LMC has a number of older CD-ROMs for language learning, which do not function on the cluster computer. The CD-ROMs are marked whether they will work on the Dell laptops in the small group rooms or on a Mac laptop running OS9 that is available at the Front Desk. LMC student monitors can assist in setting up these CD-ROMs. Students can work easily with microphones and record themselves for practice, such as with the Zulu CD-ROMs or with Spanish. All of these computers have wireless capability for accessing the World Wide Web and can print to the ITC printers by using iPrint. Please ask the LMC Monitors for help as needed in using these computers.

To check out software and discs for use in the Center, users must leave their ID cards with the Front Desk Attendant. Illegal copying of copyright-protected software is strictly forbidden, as is game-playing on Center machines.

LMC-ITC printing
General student use of the computer cluster is regulated by the HawkID, and one of its features is the individual printing accounts assigned to each student to pay for laser prints. A certain amount (at present $10.00 per semester) of laser printing will be free to students each semester. Students pay for printing beyond that amount on their U-Bills.

Only LMC staff cares for our printers, and only LMC paper is used in the laser printers. Some other ITCs do allow users to use their own paper, for example, for a resume; the lab monitor has information. All printing should be started at least 15 minutes before the lab closes.

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