Brown University Library Adds Video Wall to Enhance Educational Experience

The Brown University Library, in the state of Rhode Island (EU), has recently opened its laboratory Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship, where a huge video wall created with LED screens has been implemented that allows the display of a single image of almost five meters and with extraordinary resolution, or join different touch monitors from groups or classes working on collaborative projects.

Brown University Library Just Dedicated Its New Patrick Ma Digital Scholarship Lab, a center that offers students access to software used by a variety of disciplines in a state-of-the-art audio and display environment. The centerpiece of the laboratory is a video wall made up of 12 LED screens 55 inches, that can be used together to display a single image of 7 feet per 16 feet or video at a resolution of 24 megapixels, or linked to the various touch monitors for groups or classes working on collaborative projects. The video wall is also prepared for video conferencing, which will facilitate events such as group meetings and long-distance conferences.

The visualization that this wall allows, both for its size and its resolution, it is impossible to get it with a projector. Besides, by letting users control parts of the video wall, opens a whole world of possibilities and methodologies in fields such as education, the investigation, teaching and learning.

There are different forms of collaboration, Patrick Rashleigh explained, data visualization coordinator for this library: you can have a large group of people looking at the same “visual artifact” on the screen, Or you can have several people use their own gadgets and everyone can see them and work together.

Enriching space

Harriette Hemmasi, librarian of this university, has commented that the possibilities that students will have to show the images, the data and texts they have collected, and show them to the rest of the laboratory group, They will make this place a very enriching space for everyone..

The idea to create this lab arose when the library acquired a Microsoft Surface – now known as PixelSense- and this could be connected to a large screen, that worked as a “slave screen”. From there the university realized that it was necessary to have a place to work individually and in groups., “a place where people could talk and so could machines” – explains Harriette Hemmasi.

This laboratory was conceived, explains the librarian, as a space that was useful for various disciplines, from the humanities to biomedicine, and where students and teachers could drop in from time to time and find a way to use the system.

The role of university libraries has always been to provide students and teachers with the resources and tools necessary to interact with diverse forms of knowledge., explica Homesi, but the form and scope have changed considerably. Now there are new technologies and libraries are very interested in being part of this environment. Hemmasi believes that the future of these libraries lies in working with technological discoveries and new teaching methodologies that emerge..