Anyone who has ever loved or hated computers will be able to get something out of the Morris Library open house today.

The open house is designed to show faculty and students what new technologies are available in the library, a library official said.

Carolyn A. Snyder, Dean of Library Affairs, said the library decided to host this event because they wanted to demonstrate the technology efforts of the library over the last year.

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Scheduled events will go from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m on all seven floors of the library Snyder said.

Snyder said some of the scheduled demonstrations taking place today will be a video encyclopedia of the 20th Century, mouse demonstrations, access to government publications, using campus maps and building the on-line catalog.

Snyder said the primary goal of the library is to give attention to the current needs of its patrons and to explore emerging technologies.

This open house will give students, faculty and staff a chance to see what the library has to offer, she said. It will give them a chance to see what resources that they are interested in.

Snyder said there will also be demonstrations in Lawson Hall.

In Lawson Hall there will be something for everyone, she said. There will be things on science, education, social studies and humanities just to name a few.

Jay Starratt, library director of Technical and Automation Services, said the library is also demonstrating some new computer products they have installed.

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The computer tools may be new for people who only work on one floor or on one tool, he said.

He said one of the new products is called the electronic resource library (ERL).

ERL means a search across databases, he said. It will give people a chance to search all over the campus from just one computer. Undergraduate students will be able to do a paper without leaving their dorm room to come to the library.

Starratt said another new product is the CD-ROM, which stores more information than a regular computer disk.

We are the only library in the country to have a lot of databases and digital products, he said. There is something new happening all the time with geographic CD-ROMs.

Starratt said the library staff is having difficulty keeping up with all the new technology being offered at the library.

Snyder said if the library open house is successful this year, a similar workshop will be scheduled for next year.