Library Project

Objectives

Our club library is pretty impressive, for 1980. We should seriously consider changing this to 2007. Content decisions seem to generally be made by strongly opinionated individuals whereas we should be focused on providing resources for anyone on campus who is interested in computer science.

• Update and improve library content.
• Bring in a proper library management system.
• Set up some method of keeping the library current in the future.
• Re-evaluate the purpose of our library.

Books Wishlist

Theory

• Approximation Algorithms
• Randomized Algorithms
• Computer and Intractability (Grey & Johnson)
• Knuth Art of Computer Programming
• Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Project Management
  • Software Requirements
  • Software Design & Architecture
  • Software Testing
• Concurrency/Multithreading
• Security (Firewalls)
• Introduction to the Theory of Computation
• Numerical Analysis
• Numerical Methods? (Stoer & Bulirsch)
  • This is probably not the actual title. We want a book on numerical methods by Stoer & Bulirsch

Programming Languages

• Python
• Perl
• Haskell
• Ruby
• C#
• Visual Basic .NET
• OCaml
• Lisp
• Scheme
• F#
• Basic
• Pascal
• Java
• Groovy
• Javascript
• C/C++
• Assembly
• Fortran
• Databases [SQL]

Technology Books

• Ubuntu
• Unix/Linux Beginner Books
• OpenGL/DirectX
• GTK
• Unix Network Programming

Proposed Library Update Plan

One of the problems in keeping any library relevant is to ensure that reference material is up to date and current with the area of study in question. This is especially true in the area of computer science and technology where ideas change fast. The following are some suggested considerations which could aid in keeping our library up to date now and into the future.

• Safari Bookshelf Subscription

Safari Bookshelf is a online web service that allows you to read any O'Reilly book for a subscription fee (usually around $40/month). This service will give the CSC an excellent online library resource, where members can login and view all of the latest O'Reilly books including those yet to be published. Access control would be a concern which would need to be addressed in using such a system, however the concept of having an electronic resource of continually up to date reference material is tempting.

• What are the new technologies and ideas in computer science?

This is the question that we should be asking ourselves at least at the beginning of the term to determine what new books need to be purchased to fill the reference gap that builds going from term to term. We should have a firm commitment of purchasing at least 10 reference books per term to ensure that we are getting the breadth and depth requirements of having a successful CS library, especially when it is common for dozens of new CS books to be released every term.

• What are the official CS course textbooks?

The CSC should have an up to date library of all of the required textbooks for all of the CS courses offered at the University. This will allow our members to quickly access their course reference materials should they ever leave their books at home, or need to look at the book desperately for an assignment that is coming due soon. The CSC be a source of reference for CS students who need the references that drive many of their CS courses.

• What books are getting old?
  • How relevant is the book's content today?
  • Has the book gone to a new edition?
  • Have their been fundamental changes in the topic which are not reflected in the current book?
  • How popular is the book? (This can be determined by how many times it has been checked out from the library system)
  • Does the material fill a large gap in our reference material?

Library Accessories

There has also been some talk for suggested accessories or tools for our library system. The following is the current list of such accessories and reasons behind getting such accessories.

• Magstripe Member Cards

Each CSC member could have a magstripe member card which would allow them to check-in and checkout books by swiping their card at a swiper and then scanning the book in question. This could speed up the check-in/check-out times since they do not need to enter information into the system, but rather scan their cards. The magstripe cards could later be extended with CEO to allow term renewal via card swipe, as well as other value added features.

• Wireless barcode scanner.

The wireless barcode scanner will allow us to go up to the books and scan them in, rather than having to move the books over to the barcode scanner to have them scanned. This will allow for a degree of more freedom when scanning in books (especially when we receive the stack of new books)

• RFID tags

When we receive new books, RFID tags encoded with book information is attached to each book. Whenever, someone checks-in/checks out books, all you need to do is wave the book in front of a scanner without having to locate the barcode, which could speed up the process of checking in and out books