Shirley Mathis McBay Science Library

Special Update: 

The 4th floor of the Science Library is currently closed due to renovation. Access to materials is affected. 

See: Alternative methods to access materials during the McBay 4th Floor Renovation.

 

Located in the heart of South Campus, the Shirley Mathis McBay Science Library houses materials related to the natural, physical, and life sciences, as well as medical and technical subjects. It is also home to the Makerspace, the South Campus Writing Center, and GradsWrite: Graduate Writing Center.

 

Science Library named for Shirley Mathis McBay

From UGA Today:

It’s been over 30 years since Shirley Mathis McBay first went to Capitol Hill with an urgent message. She implored members of Congress to take action to increase the numbers of minorities and women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. And she didn’t mince words.

“In the search for knowledge in science and engineering, the worst intellectual crime one can commit is to prejudice one’s results, to prejudge how something will turn out. However, this is precisely what we are doing when we fail—from elementary school to graduate school—to encourage women and minorities to enter the fields of science and engineering,” McBay told the congressional panel, titled “Reclaiming Human Talent.”

At the time, she was MIT’s dean for student affairs and chair of the National Science Foundation’s committee on equal opportunity in science and engineering. A few years later, she’d launch the Quality Education for Minorities Network, a nonprofit dedicated to improving education for underrepresented students throughout the country.

She knew firsthand the difficulties facing African Americans who aspired to pursue advanced degrees. She earned her doctorate in mathematics from the University of Georgia in 1966, just five years after the university was desegregated. And she’d previously earned master’s degrees in math and chemistry from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University). But it wasn’t an easy journey. [continue reading the article, Shirley McBay: The advocate]

 

Tech at the McBay Science Library:

Oculus Quest 2 Virtual Reality Headsets available to Borrow

oculus quest 2 virtual reality headsetsIn addition to circulating two Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets with gaming laptops, students may borrow Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headsets for a period of three-days. Oculus Quest 2 headsets are an all-in-one setup and do not require a separate computer. Like apps for smartphones, virtual reality experiences are available online through the Oculus app; many free of charge, allowing students to explore this technology without incurring personal costs. Students will need a smartphone and Facebook account to utilize the Oculus Quest 2 headsets; Facebook owns Oculus. Virtual reality headsets are available at the Shirley Mathis McBay Science Library Circulation desk. Check the library catalog for headset availability

High-Performance Computing

A hive of eight performance computers are available for use on the second floor of the Shirley Mathis McBay Science Library. These computers are loaded with a variety of software to support student and faculty academics and research. Software includes: Autocad Architecture; Autocad Civil 3D; Autocad LT; Inventor; Maya; Revit; Fusion 360; ArcGIS; QGIS; Anaconda; Blender; Ghostview; Gimp; GitHub; GSView; Inkscape; Java; JMP; Microsoft Visual Studios; La TeX; Matlab/Simulink; MeshMixer; MultiSim; Netbeans; R; Unity Game Engine, and Weka.