What does that mean?

IMS Questions and Answers

How do I find the materials I need?
IMS has a permanent collection of over 10,000 titles. You can access our catalog online through our website, or you can look at a hard copy in either IMS office. While IMS staff members are not content specialists, we can help you find potentially useful items in our collection. We also have a budget for rented materials, and we can help you obtain titles you need; just be sure to give us as much lead time as possible (usually at least 3 weeks). Also, if you can rent a useful title at your favorite local video store, bring us the receipt, and we'll reimburse you.

What about getting AV materials on interlibrary loan?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Interlibrary loans are reciprocal agreements; if we borrow from another institution, there's the implied condition that we will lend out our own materials. We don't loan out our materials to other institutions or people outside the college because of logistics, licensing arrangements, and the fact that we can't always meet our internal demands for materials.

What is all this equipment in my classroom? Who will operate it for me?
Instructional Media Services has some pretty cool equipment. Most of it is easier to operate than you'd think. You can manage your cell phone, right? Well our equipment is no more complicated -- and our buttons are usually bigger and easier to see! This is the new millennium, and this isn't your grandfather's AV department.

Everybody can learn to operate our equipment, and the IMS staff is here to help you. We are happy to do one-on-one consultations with you, often in the classroom(s) you use, to teach you to operate equipment to meet your specific needs. We also have room specific reference guides available -- either through this website or by asking an IMS staff member. Please contact the IMS office at either campus to arrange a consultation.

Why are my equipment and software deliveries late?
We're sorry when that happens; please let us know ASAP so that we can make every effort to correct the situation and to eliminate future problems. We're limited by the amount of equipment, number of personnel, the size of our buildings, location of storerooms, elevator access, etc. Add to that last minute service requests, patrons who can't (or won't) operate the equipment in their classrooms, classes running past their end times, 10-15 minute periods between most classes, crowded hallways, and not really wanting to run over students, hit walls or do wheelies with 75 pounds of equipment on a cart.

Over 90% of classrooms and labs on both campuses are permanently equipped with video projectors, VHS decks and computers. You don't have to ask to use the equipment, and you don't have to wait for it to be delivered. Let us know if you're in a room with equipment locked in a cabinet or closet, and we can arrange to have it open for your classes.

It's only a projector lamp. What's the big deal if I forget to turn it off?
Technology is expensive (so is electricity). Video projectors cost well over $3,500. Replacement lamps are $400-$500 EACH. If you forget to turn off the projector, not only do you shorten the life of the lamp, but the projector will overheat. Since the projector is mounted in the ceiling, it's more difficult and time consuming to service. Forgetting to turn off equipment impacts your classes as well as those of your colleagues. And as a green college, we want to conserve our resources.

Why do I have to reserve equipment and software in advance?
IMS needs at least 24 business hours lead time for all equipment and 48 hours for software requests. We're moving equipment around two big buildings and sharing materials between campuses and hundreds of faculty members. We need time to plan, to work out logistics, and to actually move equipment and software to get everything where it's needed.

We're happy to accept service requests further in advance -- up to a full semester before usage. It helps us plan more thoroughly and sleep better at night. There are now three ways to initiate a service request -- you can speak with an IMS staff member in person or by phone, and now you can make your request online through this website. Because of the hierarchy of our online system, please try to make those requests 72 hours in advance.

I can't keep all the equipment names straight. What difference does it make?
It makes a big difference. This past semester we had an unidentified patron leave the following phone message: "When can I get the little camera in the conference room?" OK, this was a tough one... Who was the patron? When was the equipment needed? Where was the conference room? And, what was meant by "little camera"? Digital camera, camcorder, document camera -- they're all small. Without more information, there was no way for IMS to help this patron. Not all cameras are little, but we have a lot of little cameras, and they all have different functions and purposes.

The term "overhead projector" causes a lot of confusion too. To presentation professionals, overhead projector means a transparency projector which sits on a cart on the floor, usually in a corner of your classroom. Your video projector may be mounted in the ceiling (i.e., "overhead"), but it is properly called a video projector or LCD projector. We wish we had a dollar for each time somebody calls the video projector the "overhead projector" -- we could have one heckuva party. And just to confuse you further, not all video projectors are mounted in the ceiling -- some of them are on carts too!

We also need to know WHERE you are; knowing your room number is a big help to us, especially for service requests and emergencies. Really. We once had to deliver a TV cart to a classroom. The first try was the wrong classroom; the teacher called. The second room number given us was an office. Another call. The third room number was the ladies' room. At that point, when the teacher called again, we asked her to stand in the hallway and flag us down as we went by. It wasn't a pretty sight.