Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya Two flat-screen moniters provide close-captioned news feeds in Lauinger’s lobby.

Lauinger Library might retain its 1970s architecture, but on the inside, the library has made a concerted effort to enter the new millennium with the recent additions of two flat-screen televisions and a do-it-yourself book checkout machine.

Located in the third-floor lobby, the monitors provide live feeds from major news outlets including CNN, C-SPAN and Fox News.

Events in Gaston Hall can also be broadcast live, as was done earlier this month with Georgetown’s Afghanistan-America Summit.

The television monitors are part of a program called the illennium News Room, which seeks to complement the library’s scholarly resources with other mediums of news and information.

Also in the lobby is the new FlashScan machine, which allows library users to personally check out and demagnetize their books. The machine is operational 24 hours a day, but library officials say it is particularly useful during late-night hours when the circulation desk is closed.

According to Deborah Cook, head of access services for the library, 150 of the first 546 users have checked out items on the machine between midnight and 8 a.m.

Some late-night library-goers, like Dan Spector (SFS ’04), were not immediately aware of the machine at first.

Spector admits trying, in vain, to sneak books out of the library one night last month when the circulation desk was closed and he needed to finish researching a paper. The desk guard directed him to the new checkout machine.

Spector, who has since checked out more books with the machine, was pleased to see the addition.

“It’s very convenient,” he said. “It helped me get books when I needed them in a bind. You don’t have to rush to the circulation desk before it closes.”

The FlashScan machine cost $24,300 and the televisions – with state-of-the-art plasma screens – were about $7,000 each. But University Librarian Artemis Kirk said the money did not come out of university funds.

“All of the components of the [Millennium News Room], including renovations and infrastructure, have been funded by external monies raised by a group of alumni. The checkout machine came from a technology gift fund, also given by a donor,” Kirk said.

The televisions are the first phase of the news room. By next spring, the former photocopy room off of the main lobby will be converted to a news media viewing room, which will feature more televisions and also seating in order to watch the news more comfortably.

Kirk said plans are also in the works to develop a section of the Pierce Reading Room where visitors to the library can sit and read print newspapers.

Library employees are generally satisfied with the recent advancements. Desk guard Pat Watkins said, “Improvement is always welcome and I think it’s good for the kids.”

Watkins, who has worked at the library 26 years, said she never imagined a self-checkout machine when she first started.

“They were still using the card catalog back then,” she said. “We have come a long way and I think the kids should be very pleased.”

Students working at the circulation desk were enthusiastic about the new checkout machine, and also said they did not feel their jobs were being threatened.

Nick Grant (COL ’06) said that some people cannot figure out how to use the self-checkout machine and have to come back to the circulation desk anyway.

His co-worker Patricia Bowles (COL ’06) said she knows that machines cannot replace her job. In general, she said that library users “have so many problems that we have to fix personally that they could never take our jobs away.”

“And we still have to collect fines,” Grant added.