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The David B. Weigle Information Commons (also known as Weigle Information Commons, the Information Commons and WIC) is a technology hub located in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center (Van Pelt Library) at the University of Pennsylvania. WIC supports collaborative learning by providing training, resources, and group workspaces equipped with computer and digital technologies. The facility offers group study rooms, data diner booths, and alcove meeting areas. It houses the Class of 1968 Seminar Room and the Vitale Digital Media Lab. WIC sponsors its own workshops and partners with academic-support services to provide instruction and assistance to members of the Penn community.[1]

History

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With participation from the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, the Office of the Provost, and the Penn Libraries, planning for the two-million dollar project began in 2001.[2] The University performed an environmental scan, looking at similar facilities already in existence to assist in the design phase. Students, faculty and staff from the Penn community participated in focus groups. Before construction, Penn Libraries and the School of Arts and Sciences commissioned a feasibility study. The Boston firm, Ann Beha Architects, was hired to assist with the center's design and to build the commons.[3]

The Information Commons was named after David B. Weigle. A 1969 Wharton alumnus, Mr. Weigle is a member of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries Board of Overseers.[4] He donated a one-million dollar gift toward the building of the center.[5] WIC officially opened on April 5, 2006. The first public event hosted at the Information Commons was an open house held on Tuesday, April 11, 2006.[6]

Donors of the David B. Weigle Information Commons[7]

  • David B. Weigle, W'69
  • The Class of 1967
  • The Class of 1968
  • The Class of 1973
  • The Class of 1975
  • The Class of 1978
  • The Class of 1983
  • Charles D. Dickey, Jr., PAR'71, HON'88
  • Lenovo and Microsoft
  • Julia Lang Mally, W'83, & Edward P. Mally, W'83
  • School of Arts and Sciences Board of Overseers in honor of Professor Richard R. Beeman
  • Esther and Philip Klein, C'28
  • Ira A. Lipman, Penn parent, in honor of his parents Mr. and Mrs. Mark Lipman
  • Annie, Pamela, Ian & Jeffrey L. Seltzer, W'78 (Seltzer Family Digital Media Awards)
  • Alberto Vitale, WG'59

Facilities

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WIC occupies 6,600 square feet in the west wing of the first floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. The space provides seating for 187 and is home to three complementary centers: the College Technology Center, the Digital Media Lab and the Academic Consulting Services.[8]

The table below is a list of the workspaces of the Information Commons as of March 2009[9]

Workspace Description
Alcove Meeting Areas Two alcove areas -- Lenovo/Microsoft Alcove and the Sandra S Kerbel Memorial Alcove -- each equipped with a 42" plasma monitor, installed computer with wireless keyboard, laptop, connections for user computers
Consulting Room One of the locations for Academic Consulting Services, equipped with a 42" plasma screen and desktop computer
Data Diner Booths Twelve booths, each with a 20" monitor on an articulated arm, a laptop, and connections for user computers
Group Study Rooms Six group study rooms, each with a 20" monitor on articulated arm, laptop, connections for user computers
Video-Recording Group Study Rooms Three video-recording rooms, each with a 42" plasma monitor, video system, installed computer, connections for user computers

Vitale Digital Media Lab

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Located in Weigle Information Commons, the Vitale Digital Media Lab serves as a work center for digital production and editing, the first lab of its kind available to the general Penn community. Common uses of the media lab include conversion of audio and video formats, scanning and printing of large and complex images, and the creation of graphics, Web designs, audio recordings, and video projects. During hours of operation, Lab consultants are on-site to provide assistance to individuals or technical training to entire classes. The media lab was named after Wharton alumnus Alberto A. Vitale.[10]

Equipment Lending Program

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The Vitale Digital Media Lab sponsors one of several equipment lending programs at Penn. [11] Equipment may be borrowed for academic or personal purposes for up to a three-day period. Loan requests may be made by completing an online form.

The following items are available for loan through the Vitale Digital Media Lab as of March 2009:[12]

Item Qty Available Replacement Cost Notes
Panasonic GS320 video camera 3 $800.00 Standard Definition, no earphone or microphone jack. Mini-DV cassettes not included.
Sony HDR-HC7 video camera 4 $1200.00 Capable of High Definition, includes earphone, external microphone jack, and spare battery. Mini-DV cassettes not included.
Tripod 3 $45.00
Zoom H2 Handy Recorder 3 $250.00 Records to WAV or mp3. SD card included. Powered by 2 AA batteries or AC Adapter. PC or Macintosh.
Snowball microphone 3 $140.00 For use with your own laptop or desktop computer. USB interface. Does not connect to video cameras.

Class of 1968 Seminar Room

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Room 124 inside the Weigle Information Commons is a location for class meetings, workshops, and training. The Seminar Room seats thirty-five and is equipped with the following tools:[13]

  • Multimedia projection system with a CD/DVD player
  • Wall-sized dry-erase white board
  • Twenty Lenovo Thinkpad laptop computers
  • Twenty Macbook Pro laptop computers
  • Video Camera
  • Twenty external USB mice
  • Twenty microphone headsets
  • Thirty-five Turning Point student response system (SRS)

Program Partners

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The Weigle Information Commons is a location for Academic Consulting Services, which offers appointment and walk-in assistance for members of the Penn community. Walk-in services include public speaking, study strategies and time management, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and technology. Appointment services include research and writing. [14]

The Information Commons has three program partners:

Communication Within the Curriculum (CWiC)

"CWiC is a University of Pennsylvania program that supports student speaking as a means of both communicating and learning. CWiC works with students to help them improve their speaking abilities and with faculty to help them integrate student speaking into their teaching in order to achieve their educational goals.

To help students express themselves more clearly and compellingly, CWiC supports speaking-intensive, CWiC-affiliated courses in a range of departments. Students are also invited to visit CWiC's Speaking Center, where advisors are available to consult on oral projects and speaking in general.

And CWiC offers diverse speaking workshops and events open to all students. Selected interested students may join the CWiC staff or participate in CWiC's Emerging Scholar Talks." [15]

The Writing Center of the Critical Writing Program

"As part of Penn's Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, the Critical Writing Program strengthens the university's deep commitment to developing and refining the critical thinking, writing, and collaborative skills of our undergraduate students. Dedicated to teaching writing and to creating a community of writers across schools and disciplines, the Critical Writing Program brings together a uniquely discipline-based writing curriculum with dynamic out-of-the-classroom writer's workshops, symposia and readings; student-centered literary projects and publications; world-renowned Writers House Fellows; and Penn Senior Writing Fellows, distinguished writers and scholars, nationally recruited."[16]

Weingarten Learning Resources Center

"Learning Resources has been a part of the University of Pennsylvania's landscape for many years. During academic year 1937-38, the Reading Clinic was established at the School of Education and provided some testing of incoming first-year students.

Over time, the Reading Clinic experienced several name changes and expanded to support students in all of Penn's undergraduate and graduate schools. In the 1980's, the program, then known as the Reading/Study Improvement Service, joined the Division of University Life.

Although time has brought many changes to the University and the field of Reading, Writing, and Literacy, the original mission-to provide assessment and support student learning through instruction in academic reading, writing, and study strategies still prevails."[17]

Workshops and Events

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The Weigle Information Commons offers workshops -- called WICshops -- to faculty, staff, and students of Penn. WICshops are offered on a weekly basis and cover a variety of educational technology topics and tools. In collaboration with the program partners, WIC provides the workshop series From Assignments to References [18] Some workshops are delivered by guest presenters, including corporate vendors, in the Technically Speaking Series.


The following is a subject list of educational technology workshops offered by WIC:

In addition to workshops, the WIC periodically cosponsors and hosts special library events. The Mashup Multimedia Contest is an annual video contest for undergraduates sponsored by Penn Libraries, the Cinema Studies Program, Penn Humanities Forum, and College Houses and Academic Services. The first Mash-up contest was held in 2007.[19]

First awarded in 2008, the Seltzer Family Digital Media Awards annually finances several year-long student media projects. The awards are funded by Jeffrey L Seltzer and Ana L Seltzer and sponsored by Penn Libraries and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF).[20]

The Students Experiences Abroad is an annual showcase of presentations in which students discuss their experiences living and studying abroad; the event was first held at WIC in 2007.[21]

In 2009, WIC and Penn Libraries, in conjunction with POW!: Comics, Animation, & Graphic Novels at Penn and the Penn Reading Project, sponsored the Your Inner Fish Comic Contest. The contest -- open to Penn undergraduates and graduates -- is based on the Penn Reading Project's selection, Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin.[22]

Hardware and Software

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The following is a list of the software and media players available in the Weigle Information Commons as of March 2009.[23]

Adobe Creative Suite 3 ArcGIS Audacity Comic Life
Endnote Internet Explorer JMP (Version 7) Leash 32
Macromedia Studio Maple Matlab (Version R2007b) MDL Crossfire Commander
2007 Microsoft Office System Microsoft Office 2003 (Multilanguage Edition) Movie Maker Mozilla Firefox
ReadIRIS OCR Software (on WIC scanner station only) Refworks SAS (Version 9.1 English) Scifinder Scholar
SecureCRT SPSS STATA (Version 1C10) QuickTime
RealPlayer Windows Media Player WinDVD

The following is a list of the software available in the Vitale Digital Media Lab as of March 2009[24]

Adobe Creative Suite 3 iWork 08 iLife 08 Final Cut Studio 2
Microsoft Office 2004 (Excel, PowerPoint, and Word) Microsoft Office 2008 (Excel, PowerPoint, and Word) Audacity 1.2.5 Audio Hijack Pro 2.8
Comic Life 1.4 Data Comet 10 Fetch 5 Mozilla Firefox 3
Gimp 2.4 Google Earth 4 Google Sketchup Kerberos 6
MPEG Streamclip 1.9 MSN Messenger Nikon Scan 4 Scifinder Scholar
Norton Antivirus OmniGraffle 3 Opera 9 Profcast 2.1.3
QuickTime Pro 7.5 RealPlayer Safari 3 SecondLife
Skype 2.7 Snapz Pro X TurningPoint Anywhere Toast Titanium 9
VLC Media Player 0.8.6 VueScan 8.3 Windows Media Player Windows Remote Desktop

The following is a list of the hardware available in the Vitale Digital Media Lab as of 2009[25]

Workstations 11 PowerMac computers w/ 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon (10 student + 1 Instructor)
8GB RAM
320GB SATA Hard Drive
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, 512MB
2 Koss headphones
Apple Cinema Display Monitor, 1680 x 1050
Printers HP Color Laserjet 4700n
HP Laserjet 4350m
HP DesignJet 800ps poster printer
Scanners Epson Expression 10000XL 12x17 flatbed scanner
HP Scanjet 8250 flatbed w/ document feeder
HP Scanjet 8200 flatbed
35mm Slide Scanner (Nikon Super CoolScan 5000) with film scanning attachment(4000 dpi true optical resolution)
Bulk Slide Loader (Nikon SF-210)
Audio and Video Equipment Universal VCR (Samsung SV-5000W "World Wide Video")
Mini DV/S-VHS VCR (JVC SR-VS30U)
3 Mini DV HD Videocassette Recorders (Sony HDV 1080i)
DVD Recorder (Sony RDR-HX715)
CD/DVD Multi-region Player (Sony DVP-NS50P)
Cassette Deck / CD Recorder (TASCAM CC-222mkII
Turntable (33-1/3rpm and 45rpm only) (Denon DP-300F)
CD/DVD Duplicator (Discmakers Reflex 7)
7 Video Cameras (Sony HDR-HC7 and Panasonic GS-320)
3 Zoom H2 Handy Recorders (audio recorders)
4 Tripods
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Notes

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  1. ^ WIC: Welcome, retrieved 2009-03-10
  2. ^ Building the Information Commons, retrieved 2009-03-10
  3. ^ "Library Journal Talks To Carton Rogers, Director of Libraries University of Pennsylvania". Library Journal. 2006-05-16. Retrieved 2009-03-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ The Campaign for the Penn Libraries: David B. Weigle, W'69, retrieved 2009-03-10
  5. ^ The Campaign for the Penn Libraries: David B. Weigle Information Commons, retrieved 2009-03-10 {{citation}}: Check |url= value (help)
  6. ^ Weigle Information Commons Open House: April 11, University of Pennsylvania Almanac, 2006-03-28, retrieved 2009-03-10 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ WIC: Donors, retrieved 2009-03-10
  8. ^ Building the Commons, retrieved 2009-03-10
  9. ^ Facilities and Equipment in the Weigle Information Commons, retrieved 2009-03-10
  10. ^ Vitale Digital Media Lab, retrieved 2009-03-10
  11. ^ Equipment Lending Program, retrieved 2009-03-10
  12. ^ Equipment Lending Program, retrieved 2009-03-10
  13. ^ The Class of 1968 Seminar Room, retrieved 2009-03-10
  14. ^ Program Partners and Services, retrieved 2009-03-10
  15. ^ Penn Arts and Sciences: CWiC Goals, retrieved 2009-03-10
  16. ^ Critical Writing: Overview, retrieved 2009-03-10
  17. ^ Weingarten Learning Resources Center: Welcome, retrieved 2009-03-10
  18. ^ WICshops: Programs and Events, retrieved 2009-03-10
  19. ^ Mashup Contests: 2007-Present, retrieved 2009-03-10
  20. ^ Seltzer Family Digital Media Awards, retrieved 2009-03-10
  21. ^ David B. Weigle Information Commons: Student Experiences Abroad: Penn Students and Global Engagement, retrieved 2009-03-10
  22. ^ Your Inner Fish Comic Contest, retrieved 2009-03-10
  23. ^ Hardware and Software in the Weigle Information Commons, retrieved 2009-03-10
  24. ^ Hardware and Software in the Weigle Information Commons, retrieved 2009-03-10
  25. ^ Hardware and Software in the Weigle Information Commons, retrieved 2009-03-10

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