BCFE Bulletin, March 2011: “College facilities improving”

My story about the library and resource room facilities at Ballyfermot College.  It was written in a neutral style and appears on page 4 (not available online).

Frustrated BCFE students will be delighted to hear that they can now loan out reference books.

Library Assistant Michael Wright has great news for students that have suffered the inconvenience of not being able to loan out books for home study.

“People can [now] take books out, and they can keep them for up to a week,” he confirmed.

“We’ve also been ordering a lot of new books – and we’ve received quite a few already – that cover various areas including business, social care, music, and economics.”

Mr Wright went on to explain that books can be taken out for up to a full week.

Deputy Principal Diarmuid O’Brien explained that there was a good reason for not widely publicising the loan facility at the time.

He explained that due to the “limited number” of books available, the college decided to not formally announce the policy changes – primarily to ensure that all students have access to the maximum number of books.

However, Mr O’Brien pointed out that the Ballyfermot Library is “on schedule to re-open in September” and that students will then be able to avail of the much greater number of books, as well as benefitting from long-term loans.

Additionally, within the next month the resource room is due to set up four “research and study” computers that can be booked for up to an hour, and it will also be adding a DVD/Video player and a Vinyl record player that allows the audio to be converted into MP3 files.

On the subject of technological improvements, Deputy Principal Kevin Devine explained that the college had recently received a grant from the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE).

This money was part of an NCTE “pilot project” and it allowed the college to begin upgrading the IT network in the Arts building, as well as allowing for the installation of ceiling-mounted projectors in many classrooms.

Mr Devine said that the college is expecting further NCTE funding once this pilot transitions into a full national project, and that this money will most likely be put towards upgrading the IT infrastructure in the main building.

According to Mr Devine, the end result of this work should be “dramatically improved” internet speeds and network robustness, as well as additional projectors.

And finally, a reminder to all VTOS students that the college crèche still has eight places available and is completely free.

For details, please contact the crèche on 01 620 7145.