Grossmont College Library and Tech Lab...

I came down to Grossmont College (in El Cajon, near San Diego) since Jeff had a meeting here. I had never been on the campus before and I loved the openness and spaciousness of the campus. Since I come from a landlocked, urban college, this campus environment with its low profile buildings and open spaces seemed so refreshing!

I love to ask students where the library is...and this student I asked actually was walking that way so he escorted me. He suggested that instead of walking around to the main entrance, that I walk through their Tech Mall. Grossmont College now has a "Tech Mall" where the old library used to be. The new Library is at the very end of this large facility that houses approximately 200 open lab computers on the main floor with a second tier of offices of other Learning and Tutorial Resources.

Although it was a little strange to have the main entrance of the library not easily accessible, it was interesting to see how this mall could be kept open 24/7 (it maintains similar hours to the library).

Once I entered the library, I found everything to be easy...walk up workstations in carrels where all I needed to do was to open the browser and begin my work. I had hauled my laptop in since I thought I may want to use wireless (if it was available to me). What really struck me was how seamless everything was...no network logins, no time restrictions, no hoops to jump through. No one asked if I was a student or resident...no problem.

Now granted, their enrollment is 17,000 students compared to PCC's 30,000...so that demands for services and computers is much greater at PCC. You can easily see an online orientation of the Tech Mall, by clicking ont his link...(Unfortunately their was no online orientation to the library that I could find...however, there is a tutorial that students can take.

http://www.grossmont.edu/techmallorientation/