Brooklyn College Library Cafe Open 24 Hours A Day

Spotlight Graphic Spotlight

May 2, 2000

Brooklyn College Library Cafe Open 24 Hours A Day

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Alice Newcomb-Doyle (718) 951-5882

Brooklyn, NY -- The Morton and Angela Topfer Library Cafe at Brooklyn College--a state-of-the-art computer center that affords a place to browse the World Wide Web, complete on-line assignments, plug in a laptop, or have a bite to eat--began 24/7 service to students on April 15.

Located on the ground floor of Whitehead Hall, the sleek electronic center was funded with a $1.6 million capital grant from the New York City Council and is supported by a gift from Brooklyn College alumnus Morton Topfer, '59, formerly vice-chairman of Dell Computer Corporation and now counselor to the chief executive officer of the company.

"I am extraordinarily proud of the council's support for these expanded services," said Herbert E. Berman, District 46 council member and finance chair. "Not every student has the freedom to use library resources during traditional hours; this project addressed a major accessibility issue with a creative approach to modern learning."

Day and night, students now have access to 50 high-speed, networked computers and all the amenities that go with them, including e-mail and a large selection of software packages. The cafe features power plug-ins, network connections for laptops, and four group-study rooms.

"The goal of the Library Cafe is to provide up-to-date computer resources, solitude, and study space to our students, even if it's in the middle of the night," said Christoph M. Kimmich, president of Brooklyn College. "It is an important component of a student-centered institution."

The cafe has library or technical support staff available during the day and evening. After 11:45 p.m., students sign in with a security guard at the Campus Road entrance to Whitehead Hall and have unlimited access to computer services, such as the Internet, word processing, and certain software programs. A snack bar in the cafe is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; vending machines are available after these hours in Whitehead Hall.

The space also provides information while the College library undergoes a major renovation and expansion that began last June. All library services, including the on-line catalogue, electronic journals, reference sources, indexes, databases, and CD-ROM products, are located on the library's local area network, which may be accessed from any Library Cafe computer.

Barbra Higginbotham, chief librarian and executive director of academic information technologies, pointed out that workshops are available for people who would like to improve their research and computing skills.

The Library Cafe, an elegant combination of warm woods, brushed metals, transparent wiring tubes, and halogen lighting, was designed by the architectural firm of Thanhauser & Esterson.

Alumnus Morton Topfer (left), who recently gave a gift of $1 million to Brooklyn College, toured the campus with President Christoph M. Kimmich on Wednesday, May 3, visiting the Topfer Library Cafe.

Brooklyn College, founded in 1930 and located on a twenty-six acre tree-lined campus in Flatbush, is one of the eleven senior colleges of the City University of New York. It enrolls 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students who are representative of the diverse population of Brooklyn and New York City. The school is nationally known for its core curriculum, which has been hailed as one of the "bright spots" in American higher education.
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