Architecture, Technology and Statistics

Architecture

ARCHITECT: Moore Ruble Yudell of Santa Monica, California

The structure, designed by the architectural firm of Moore Ruble Yudell of Santa Monica, consists of five levels, three above ground and two below. The first basement level, the east ground floor, and floors one through three will house the Library; the subbasement are to be used for Chemical Engineering Department laboratories and offices.

The Sherman Fairchild Library's design was influenced by the work of Bertram Goodhue and Myron Hunt as a fresh and appreciative interpretation of Caltech's historic architectural tradition. Noteworthy in the design are three principal elements. First is a clearly expressed base, providing scale at the pedestrian level, which leads to Dabney Garden on the west and a more formal terraced garden on the east. Second, like many of Caltech's older buildings, most notably Parsons-Gates and the Guggenheim Laboratory, the design concentrates ornamental details at the entrance with their scale, texture, and material dominating the whole composition. And third, while its cornice height closely follows its historic neighbors, the vaulted third floor pushes past the cornice line at the center, giving the building architectural distinction and importance.

WIRING

The Sherman Fairchild Library provides both 10 Mb/s and 100 Mb/s shared Ethernet ports for public use.  Networking between floors is accomplished via Centillion Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switches. The switches have a backplane capacity of 1 Gb/s and are interconnected with ATM at OC-3 (155.52 Mb/s) rate via multimode fiber. Five remote, departmental reading rooms are also interconnected with this network through multimode fiber.

Ceiling cable trays serve the perimeter conduit and smaller areas. Split Walker duct at 5-feet intervals serve the largest areas on each floor; outlet monuments are located every 2 feet.

COMPACT SHELVING

Two floors of the library (ground and second) are outfitted with compact shelving. The shelving is motorized with optical safety sweeps and aisle access controls.

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Computer Hardware

THE WORKSTATIONS

The standard set-up:

The basic workstation in the Sherman Fairchild library is a Dell Optiplex equipped with CPUs ranging from Intel Pentium Pro 180 mHz through Pentium II 450 mHz whose hard drives range from 2 to 6 GB, 64-128 MB of random-access memory (RAM), CDROM and floppy drives.running the Windows NT 4.0 operating system.

Workstations in public areas are outfitted to attach a stereo headset.  Users need to bring their own headset.

Workstations in the group study rooms (rooms 229 and 231) and in the document work room (room 331) have stereo speakers.

Workstations in the Document Work Room:

The workstations in room 331 are set up to run the most challenging applications of authoring and multimedia tools. The Dell Precision 610 comes equipped with 512 MB of random-access memory (ECC RAM), a 8 GB (SCSI) hard drive, and a top of the line graphics board (Five GL 1000 Pro video). In addition, a CD recorder, DVD, a JAZ drive, and a ZIP drive are attached to each of these workstations. 

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DATA STORAGE DEVICES

The computer system in the library has been setup with the intent of assisting users in all aspects of information gathering:

1. Find the information in books, journals, technical reports, on-line data bases, or on the internet
2. Scan the book excerpts, papers, reports, and/or pictures
3. Load the data files
4. Assemble information from different sources
5. Prepare a presentation, a paper, a report, a book.

Although high-resolution printers, presentation software, and the multimedia conference room support the last item on this list, it is expected that users will use the library facility most for the first four steps in this process. A large part of the last step will most likely be done away from the library. It is, therefore, crucial to give our users access to technologies that allow them to take the data with them.

Hard disk on the server:

All  users having a Caltech Library System NT account store data on a central server. Library  users are allowed to store files in a temporary local partition from which they can move large files over to other campus computers for permanent storage or use floppy, JAZ, ZIP, and/or compact disks.

Hard disk on the workstations:

This space (D:) is used for temporary workspace. No back-ups are taken of user files stored on the local hard disk.

Floppy disk:

Standard 1.44 MB floppy drives are available on all workstations. A floppy disk is an inexpensive method to store small files.

ZIP disk:

A ZIP disk is a floppy-sized disk that stores up to 100 MB and costs about $15.00. The ZIP drive has a seek time of 29 milliseconds. ZIP Tools software is available to help you store, back up, and organize your data. On every floor of the Sherman Fairchild library, at least one work- station with a ZIP drive is available.

JAZ cartridge:

A JAZ cartridge stores up to 1 GB and costs about $100.00. The JAZ drive has a 10 to 12 millisecond seek time, which makes it competitive with most hard drives. JAZ Tools software helps you use the drive and cartridges. On every floor of the Sherman Fairchild library, at least one workstation with a JAZ drive is available. 

CD Recorder:

Producing a CD is still somewhat problematic. However, once produced, it can be read by any CD player. At about $10 per recordable CD, it is an inexpensive technology. However, a CD can be recorded only once, and the process can be time consuming. The workstations in the document work room, room 331, each have a CD recorder.  These workstations can be reserved for up to four hours and are the best location for this activity.  In addition,  three workstations in the basement are also equipped.

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FLAT-BED SCANNERS

The HP ScanJet 4c scans in 24-bit color images at a resolution of up to 600 dpi. 

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WIRELESS (LAPTOP) NOTEBOOK CHECKOUT

The Sherman Fairchild Library has fifteen notebook computers available to current Caltech campus-id carrying faculty, students and staff. These notebooks can be checked-out at the circulation desk upon presenting and leaving a currently valid picture id and signing a use agreement. The borrower must be registered in the library's circulation system. The notebooks may be used only in the library for up to 4 hours at a time and cannot be individually reserved in advance.

Requests for group use of up to five of these notebooks in the Multimedia Conference Room must be specifically requested in the reservation form for the Conference Room. Such use must be between 8am and 5pm on a regular working day. Library staff will elaborate on conditions for check-out and use when confirming the room reservation.

Interested external library users are encouraged to bring their personal laptop computers. Over 50% of the seating in the Sherman Fairchild Library is outfitted with network and electrical connections

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THE SERVERS

Windows NT server:

Two Dell Power Edge 6300 with a pair of Intel Pentium Xeon 450 mHz processors and 512 MB RAM.

UNIX server:

Our two principal databases (SCIsearch, and the technical report data base) are served by a DEC/alpha server 2100A 5/300 running Digital UNIX. The data bases are stored in an attached RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) initially consisting of twelve 4.3 GB disks for a total initial capacity of 41 GB (one in five disks is redundant).

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Statistical Information

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