About

Hours

Our main office in 4070 Wescoe is always open during the times listed below.  Other EGARC spaces, including all of our instructional spaces, can be reserved by faculty and staff throughout the semester, and thus availability is subject to change.  Please see our online reservation schedule for up-to-date information.  If in doubt, please contact us at (785) 864-4759 before coming to campus.

Hours of Operation

EGARC is open 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM weekdays whenever classes are not in session, including vacations and breaks between semesters, with the exception of the dates listed below.

Exceptions

Policies

All KU faculty, staff, students, and authorized affiliates are eligible for borrowing privileges upon presentation of a currently valid KU Card. Those not eligible for a KU Card should inquire about a KU Library Borrower Card at the circulation desk in Watson Library; borrowers in this category will have the same checkout privileges as students at KU.

The Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center is not part of the KU Libraries system. All items checked out from EGARC must be returned directly to us. Items turned in to branches of the KU libraries will be considered overdue until they have been recovered from the library. There is a drop slot located outside of the main entrance to 4070 Wescoe for those wishing to return items when EGARC is closed. Items placed in the drop slot after hours will be considered as having been returned the next day that EGARC is open.

Checkout Periods

Students may check out two items at a time, not including headphones and audio splitters checked out to watch videos within the Center.  The standard checkout period for students is one week.  Students may check out reserved items for two hours or the length of the film, and must remain within the Center while using them. Students can checkout tech items (voice recorders, PowerPoint presenters, etc.) for one day. All items except for reserved items can be renewed once.

Faculty, staff and GTAs may check out up to three non-DVD items at a time and up to six DVDs at a time. The standard checkout period for instructors is one week for films and textbooks. Technology items may be checked out for three days. Instructors may check out any item reserved by another instructor for a maximum of four hours.  Although there are restrictions during certain times during the academic year, some of our equipment can be checked out for extended periods away from campus to be used for research. Please contact the Director for more details.

Fines, Overdue Items and Holds

The late fee for standard items is $3.00/day. Fines for reserved items accrue at the rate of $1.00/hour. The maximum fine for any returned item is $20.00. An item that is damaged or not returned will accrue a fine will be equal to the replacement cost of the item, the total accrued fine, and a $20.00 processing fee. Notices of fines are sent out every other week using the official e-mail address listed in the KU on-line directory.

A fine will show up as an NPY hold on the patron’s account. That hold will remain on the account until the amount is paid in full, blocking initial enrollment and issuance of a transcript or diploma. Information on paying NPY holds can be found on the Student Accounts and Receivables website. Holds and fines cannot be paid in EGARC.

All overdue materials must be returned and fines paid before a patron can check out additional materials. There is often a slight delay in our unit receiving notice of fines being paid, so you may need to show proof of payment, which can be obtained through Enroll & Pay.

History

The unit that was to become the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center was founded in 1965 as the KU Language Laboratories.  It was established by Ermal Garinger, its first Director, in the Blake Hall annex, where it remained throughout the demolition of old Blake Hall and the construction of the current building.  In 1973, the KU Language Laboratories moved into a custom-built, state-of-the-art facility in the newly constructed Wescoe Hall.  The new facility featured closed-circuit television and centralized audio consoles that allowed the Laboratories to send out audio and video throughout the fourth floor of the building.  With the rise of VHS and the Walkman in the early 1980s, the demand for audio/video resources quickly spread from the foreign language departments to other departments within Humanities division of CLAS.  That increased mission was recognized formally in 1987, when the unit was renamed the Academic Resource Center on the occasion of the retirement of Ermal Garinger, who had directed the unit for 22 years.  As EGARC moves beyond the 50th anniversary of its establishment at KU, the unit maintains its original focus on helping students and faculty integrate technology into their academic study.

Who was Ermal Garinger?

Ermal Garinger was the Director of the University of Kansas Language Laboratories from 1965 until his retirement in 1987, when the unit was renamed the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center in his honor. Garinger received his B.S. in Education from Marion College in his hometown of Marion, Indiana in 1949. He received his Masters in Education from Ball State Teachers College in 1952. He supplemented the latter degree with subsequent coursework at Louisiana State University, the University of Puerto Rico (Río Piedras) and the University of Kansas. Garinger's career was one singularly focused on expanding the study of foreign languages in the state of Kansas.

He began the 1950's with a joint appointment as librarian and instructor of Spanish at Miltonvale College in Miltonvale, Kansas. This was followed by jobs in Kansas high schools in Glasco, Longford, and Sabetha. He began the 1960's as the head of the Foreign Languages Department at Campus High School in Wichita, and then moved on to a position teaching Spanish at Marion College, back in Indiana. He maintained close ties to Kansas during this time, however, by working as a Foreign Language Consultant for the Kansas Department of Education. In 1963 he returned to Kansas as an instructor of Spanish at the University of Wichita, only to take a job as Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Wyoming the following year.

In 1965, Garinger was hired as Director of the Language Laboratories at the University of Kansas and remained in this position until his retirement. In his twenty-two years as director, Garinger saw the lab from its beginnings in a temporary building behind Blake Hall through its move to its current location in Wescoe Hall. He assisted in the installation of much of the equipment used in Wescoe through the 1980's and 1990's, including the Sony 9000 language lab, which remained in 4068 Wescoe until 2005. Although he had built an impressive library of materials on reel-to-reel tapes, Garinger was among the first to recognize the expanded possibilities of cassette tapes as a means of individualized and at-home study.

While at KU, Garinger continued to serve the wider public by directing summer Spanish camps for high school students and teaching Spanish in adult education courses. He was a member of the Kansas Modern Foreign Language Advisory Panel for most of the 1960's and 1970's and editor of the Kansas Modern Language Bulletin from 1961-63 and 1970-78. Throughout his career he remained an active member of the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), attending their yearly national conferences.  His tireless dedication to language study continued well into his retirement, most notably in an adult education program for Spanish that he ran for his church.

Ermal Garinger passed away on November 19, 2010 at the age of 88. His legacy continues at the center that bears his name.

Who was Frank Bangs?

Frank Bangs graduated from KU in 1940 with a degree in Business Administration. During World War II, he served as a Naval officer in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, becoming a Navy pilot in 1943. Upon his return to Kansas after the war, he founded Frank Bangs Audio-Video, Inc. and became a pioneer in the use of audiovisual equipment as an educational tool. His company was actively involved in installing language laboratories in high schools and universities throughout Kansas, including those installed at the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center at KU. In addition to his work establishing his own company, Bangs served terms as both president and chairman of the National Audio Visual Association.

Upon Bangs' death in May of 1998, Charles E. and Charlotte Curry developed a $50,000 gift to establish the Frank Bangs Memorial Classroom Fund. The couple personally donated $10,000 and arranged an additional $40,000 gift from the Curry Foundation, of which Charles Curry was the chairman of the board and Charlotte Curry its president. Charles E. Curry graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Kansas in 1940. While at KU, he and Frank Bangs were roommates and members of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. They remained life-long friends. After serving as a lieutenant in the Navy from 1942 to 1945, Curry spent most of his career in banking. Among other positions, he was a member of the Missouri Commission for Commerce and Industry, served for eight years as the presiding judge of the county court in Jackson County, Mo. and was president of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. He also served as the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee in the 1980s.  Mr. Curry passed away in  December of 2010 at the age of 92.

The Frank Bangs Memorial Computer Classroom was dedicated in the Fall of 2000. Among the many friends and family at the ceremony were Margaret Wilson Bangs, wife of Frank Bangs and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of KU with bachelor's and master's degrees in English. Since its dedication, the classroom has been a vital resource for classes throughout the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  In the summer of 2014, the Bangs Classroom underwent a major renovation that doubled its size and transformed into an Active Learning Classroom.

In addition to the Sony 9000 language lab system at the heart of the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center until 2003, almost every classroom on fourth floor Wescoe had equipment installed by Frank Bangs Audio-Video, Inc. As such, Frank Bangs' name is inextricably linked with the history of language learning at the University of Kansas. The establishment of the Frank Bangs Memorial Computer Classroom insures that his name will be just as closely associated with its future.