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Language Resource Center
Mission Statement. The mission of the Language Resource Center is to serve, support and promote the study and instruction of foreign languages, cultures, and literatures at all levels within the University of Michigan community. To fulfill this mission, the Language Resource Center provides leadership and excellence in the application, creation, and dissemination of innovations with respect to information, technology, media, and materials for all University individuals who utilize foreign languages in their studies, teaching, or research. In addition to supplying diverse resources and services to the University community, the LRC is dedicated to strengthening foreign language instruction at the University of Michigan by informing faculty and GSI's of theoretical and practical developments in the following fields: language pedagogy, teaching methods, educational research, language acquisition, instructional technology, evaluation and productivity. Services and Facilities. The Language Resource Center is located on the second floor of the Modern Languages Building, which stands on the corner of East Washington and Thayer, next to the Burton Memorial Bell Tower. The Language Resource Center has a diverse collection of unique resources and facilities. The Center and its resources are available to anyone within the University of Michigan community either free of charge or at a low fee depending on the user's affiliation, and on the type of services requested. The LRC is anchored by a 35 station open computing lab available to both faculty and students. There are audio listening/recording stations, video stations, textbooks and dictionaries, a free-reading text library, audio tapes, video tapes, software, realia, and copy machines. Space is available for students to work individually, in small groups or with their classes. Additional resources for faculty include equipment reservation and loan services, two 25 station computer classrooms for group use, video and audio collections with over 4000 items, a pedagogical resource text library, multimedia development stations, and space for office hours or tutorials. The Center also provides satellite services, video duplication and standards conversion, audio and video production, workshops, foreign language instructional technology development, and curricular consultation. Computing Stations. The LRC workstations contain a wide variety of software including both class specific and general use applications. Both Macintosh and Windows machines are available. The LRC supports multilingual fonts including Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Cyrillic, Hindi, and Urdu for word processing and e-mail applications. This is the only computing site on the UM campus that does support non-roman fonts. A picture ID is required to check out an LRC computer (excluding email express stations). Computing assistants are available to answer questions in the Center. The LRC also maintains two computer classrooms (one Mac, one Windows NT) that can accommodate classes up to 25 students. Reservations are required to use these facilities. Audio and Video Collections. The Language Resource Center video collection contains over two thousand titles. When combined with the language, literature and cultural programs of the Film and Video Library, language faculty have a rich resource available for use in instruction and research. The Language Resource Center audio collection contains a diverse body of material in more than 50 languages. The collection consists of music, literature, exercises, cultural materials, and dialogues. There are also audio exercises corresponding to textbook courses, supplementary materials and self-study materials. The LRC audio catalog lists, by language, all audio materials available, as well as denotes which are available for duplication. There are two options for access to audio materials: 1. The audio equipment in the LRC allows students to listen to tapes, as well as record their own voices on a second track for comparison. Students must check out audiotapes and headphones from the distribution center with valid U of M ID cards, returning the materials when finished. 2. Students may request that copies of individual tapes be made for use at home. Students must purchase or provide the necessary blank cassettes. Not all materials are available for duplication and are denoted throughout the catalog. If duplication is allowed, the requested tape will be processed within twenty-four hours. Duplication rights are dependent on permission from the publishers. The LRC allows duplication of only one cassette tape per day. The LRC has a series of video stations located in the center that can be used individually or in groups of up to 4 to view video material required for class. Instructors can place video materials on IVA (individual viewing access) with the reservations desk. These materials are then made available to students on a first come first serve basis. Video materials are not allowed to be checked out of the Center. Course Reserves. Faculty can put their course materials on reserve at the LRC for students to access. This helpful service gives students access to limited materials such as texts, answer keys, video and audio material.
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