Now that the semester is coming to an end, projects are abundant and professors expect students to deliver a finished product that isn’t a last-minute production.

Barbara Schloman, associate dean of Libraries and Media Services, said both students and faculty expressed a need for both the space and the equipment to practice those projects with.

The library came up with the idea to have two portable presentation units available to students, faculty and staff at Kent State. The units, called PALS for projector and laptop and tabletop screen, can be checked out from the third floor Audio Visual Services counter for a maximum of two-hour time slots.

Schloman said there is no limit to the number of times a student can check the units out, only on the amount of time students are able to have the units.

The laptop is equipped with PowerPoint and Microsoft Office Applications, but Schloman stresses that the computers are not network accessible. Students cannot access any Web sites from these computers. The units can be used anywhere in the library that are not designated as a quiet study area. The group study rooms on the first and second floors as well as the entire fifth floor are available for students to practice their presentations.

“One of our long-term goals would be to build a presentation room with the equipment there already,” Schloman said. This room would be in place of students having to take the suitcase on wheels that the equipment comes in now and find a space to practice in, she said.

Library Associate Penny Englehart was one of the people associated with putting PALS together. She said she “had to get the equipment ready to be able to check out of our system and get the student employees trained in the proper use of the equipment, so they can teach anyone coming in to use it the proper way to do so.”

Those who wish to use this equipment must bring their Kent State FlashCard to the AVS counter in the library to check out the equipment. They will then be instructed on how to use it and instructed on where they can go to practice the presentation, Englehart said.

Contact libraries and information sciences reporter Sara Huebner at [email protected].