NMC library goes increasingly hi-tech

The Northern Marianas College Library is now one of the most “high-tech” libraries in the Pacific, according to the facility’s director Laura Kaspari Hohmann.

“Although college students have always gone to the library for a quiet place to study or to check out books, they are now just as likely to borrow a laptop and hop online,” said Hohmann.

She said the Olympio T. Borja Memorial Library at NMC has become increasingly technology-focused in order to serve students better.

Part of the improvement of the library is the new online catalog system, called “Horizon Online Catalog System,” which is the latest trend in library cataloguing technology.

The new system, said Hohmann, allows students to search the catalog from any computer on island that has an Internet connection.

The web address for this system is http://library.nmcnet.edu.

With the web address, students can manage their account by renewing books online, creating lists, and placing holds on books that are currently checked out.

In addition to the high-tech system, the new and improved library now boasts of a robust research database system that can store more than 200 magazines and journals that NMC currently subscribes to.

“Students have access to over 8,000 magazines and journals via 26 different online databases.”

Nursing students could also now access online health information and medical articles through Medline and Health Source and English composition students can access Academic Search Premier and Newspaper Source to do research for their papers.

Moreover, the new and improved NMC library is now a wireless library, which means it is connected to the World Wide Web through Wi-Fi connectivity.

It was reported that in the fall of 2003, the college library was the one of the first places in the CNMI to install a wireless network.

Currently, there are nine laptops available to NMC students, said Hohmann, adding that there is also an increasing number of students who use their own laptops to connect to the wireless network. Once they are online, students can easily perform research, login to course websites, check e-mail, and chat with classmates about upcoming assignments and student activities.

Hohmann said that, although the Olympio T. Borja Memorial Library’s primary function is to serve NMC students, staff, and faculty, the public is also welcome to come in and do research.

For book borrowing privileges, community membership can be purchased for an annual fee of $10 per individual, or $20 per family.