The University’s Library and Information Technology (L&IT) has two new services available to both students and faculty this fall semester: the new First-Year Librarian program and the software visualization program, which will familiarize students with the Ellen Clarke Bertrand Library. 

L&IT provides intellectual and technical resources that enable students to engage critically with research materials and databases. It can assist students with everything from setting up their personal technology to accessing library databases.

“We are rolling out some exciting new student-centric services this semester. The First-Year Personal Librarian program will connect students with L&IT resources and people to assist them in their academic journey,” Param Bedi, the vice president of Library and Information Technology, said.

The First-Year Librarian program familiarizes students with both the library resources and staff. The librarian staff helps students find and access materials relevant to their research topic. This program seeks to facilitate a relationship between students and library staff, as they begin to build connections with faculty who can advise them during their college experience. 

“Bucknell offers tremendous opportunities for students, and we are working to make sure that our community takes advantage of those rich resources. Our other project, software visualization, will allow students and faculty access to specialized software that is currently only available in computer labs. Students and faculty will be able to access specialized software from anywhere, at any time, and from any device,” Bedi said.

This change grants more flexibility in terms of when and where students can work on homework or projects. Students no longer have to rely on when computer labs are open in order to access this software.

“I’m sure students will thank us for this when they are working on SPSS, Matlab or Solidworks at 2 a.m. from their residence hall, instead of having to walk to a computer lab. This will also allow faculty greater teaching flexibility as they do not have to be tied to a dedicated lab,” Bedi said.

“I am really excited to be able to use the specialized software that the University offers on my own laptop because now I can work on projects whenever I need to,” Marta Majewski ’22 said. “It is great that we can now access these programs off-campus and we do not have to worry about planning our study schedules to when the computer labs on campus are open.”