Since its official foundation in 1976, the Maastricht University has grown to 11,000 students and 3,000 employees who study and work in 25 buildings across two locations in the city of Maastricht. The University Library forms an important research and study environment for the students, especially thanks to the unique Problem-Based Learning concept used at the university.

The Challenge: Seamless Integration of Old and New

The University Library was renovated and partly rebuilt in 2002. An important goal in this project was the transition from being a traditional library, where possession of information is the main asset, into a modern library focused on access to information. The customer has a central role: the library user expects an adequate traditional collection but also state-of-the-art facilities. Libraries are no longer storehouses, but are turning into a people’s place.

“We were looking for a way to create a very modern Library to support our learning environment using electronic blockbooks, the syllabi needed for the Problem-Based Learning concept,” said Marc de Lyon, IT Manager at the University Library of Maastricht. “With the large number of students sharing systems, it is a real challenge for the system administrators to keep desktops under control, up-to-date and available.”  The library needed to improve the service level of its system administration and application management, improve the availability of services, and operate more cost-effectively.

Implementing a Citrix Solution for Application Deployment

After a pilot project with specialists from Open Line, a Gold-level Citrix Solution Advisor, the University Library implemented three separate server farms running Citrix® Presentation Server. Each Presentation Server farm supports a different type of use: student desktops, including standard and dedicated educational applications; employee desktops; and kiosks for catalog retrieval and research.

“Students use thin clients and do not notice any difference from traditional PCs,” commented de Lyon. “Every student has a customized desktop with selected educational applications available on any library workplace. This gives a high level of flexibility and transparency.”

Currently, about 300 students are able to access applications –- and the electronic blockbooks –- via Presentation Server at any given time, using thin clients located at Learning Resource Centers (“studielandschappen”). These Learning Resource Centers are unique facilities to support Problem-Based Learning. They consist of several types of reading and study rooms, suitable for individual or group study, and differentiate in atmosphere, size and functionality.

The same environment is created for library employees. Employees are no longer restricted to individual offices, but can select any location in the two buildings from which to work, whether a small closed office or even a lounge setting, using Linux-based thin clients. The library shares 90 of these flexible desktops between 140 employees, and thus saves valuable office space.

Finally, information retrieval PCs were replaced with Linux-based thin clients. “Our Web-based information retrieval desktops were used for many other purposes and were extremely hard to manage. Now, 60 kiosks allow access only to the catalogs,” added de Lyon. For specific multi-media and streaming-video applications, a number of PCs are left running, for example in the training room.

Becoming a Corporate Application Service Provider

“The Citrix access infrastructure enables us to offer and maintain a large number of specific educational applications for an even greater number of students. We actually became a corporate ASP, by publishing dedicated applications to the faculties,” said de Lyon. “This ASP service, combined with the kiosks and our flexible offices for the employees, realize a cost saving of 30 percent on the total cost of ownership.”

The University Library also found that the library’s IT staff gained more control over the student desktops, and that the pro-active system management and change management processes drastically improved because of Presentation Server. “For managing the centralized Presentation Server infrastructure and the Windows-based terminals, we save the equivalent of two full-time employees on system administration,” continued de Lyon.

The University Library succeeded in a seamless integration of the old (the unique library books and the renovated building) with the new (technology like Presentation Server, Windows-based terminals with LCD screens, and ergonomic office furniture). The result is a wide range of flexible study and employee offices and workspaces utilizing the latest technology.

Future Plans

The University Library, with the support of the Computing Center of the University, will soon implement wireless voice-over IP using Cisco phones, thus finalizing the mobility aspect of its flexible offices. In addition, the new role as Application Service Provider will be extended to support other student desktops within the University of Maastricht, desktops for trainees outside the university and home desktops. Finally, the University Library is looking into using wireless Tablet thin clients to create an even more flexible study environment.

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