The Student Multimedia Studio, a service of Library and Media Services, is a place to go where a professor won’t be hovering over the computers.

Located on the first floor of the library, the SMS is a resource for projects and presentations or somewhere to visit for media help. It’s a place students can go for course work or to launch an audio or video project of their own.

The work-oriented environment for students also has the benefit of being faculty-free.

The equipment can’t be taken out of the studio; however, the third floor of the library houses Audio Visual Services, which rents camcorders to students for one day at a time.

After working on campus for more than two years as a multimedia consultant, CourTney Collins now manages the Student Multimedia Studio.

Collins is there to help students if they have questions about the equipment or software.

“I like working with students one-on-one when I can,” Collins said. “There’s always someone there to help you. Not too many places on campus you can do that kind of stuff.”

Some features are: editing videos, transferring VHS to DVD, recording audio and recording PowerPoint presentations to video. The resource has numerous programs such as Photoshop, Encore and Premier Pro 2.0.

There are eight multimedia workstations with scanners, two video transferring stations, three for editing, one walk-in station and one animation station. The newly added laptop station allows students to bring in their own computers and work from them.

“We’ve got a lot of software,” said Patrick Kennedy, a senior general studies major who works at the studio. “Not a lot of people know about how much we have. This is also the only place on campus with PCs instead of MACs.”

The lab in the library is open to all students. There are more than just electronic media majors who use this, Collins said. Sports and hospitality management majors come in all the time to make presentations for their classes.

Last spring, more than 4,025 students used the studio, compared to Fall 2003 when only 1,130 students signed in.

More than 60 departments use this medium, and 359 courses used it in their lesson plans last spring.

“Stop in and use it,” Collins said. “It’s the best way to learn about it.”

Contact technology reporter Heather Vitale at [email protected].