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Campus Multimedia Labs and Resources

American University offers a variety of resources across the campus to support your use of multimedia to enhance your teaching, scholarship, creative activities, professional practice, and presentation skills.

Computer Labs

Equipment Available for Loan

The following multimedia equipment is available for loan to AU students, faculty, and staff via the Mac Lab (ML) and the SOC Equipment Room (SOC). A full list of Library Technology Resources including a visual guide is kept .

Music, Sound Effect, and Still Image Resources

Media Services in the University Library has a number of sound effects collections on CD, containing hundreds of sound effects. Additionally, the Canary Collection contains over 70 CDs of musical effects. They are all useful for enhancing student projects, films, and presentations. Up to six CDs at a time can be checked out of the library for three hours for AU student production work. You can find more information about these collections here.

AU students also have access to the Greg Smith Sound Effects Collection, which consists of 1450 sound effects tracks recorded by producer Greg Smith, during his 20 year career in the film and television industry. Mr. Smith has provided sound recording or post-production sound on many films including: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith; Jurassic Park; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Who Framed Roger Rabbit?; and numerous IMAX productions. Mr. Smith, an adjunct professor in the School of Communication, graciously provided this collection to the University Library with the request to share it openly for the benefit of filmmakers and video and audio producers around the world.

Additionally, the Canary Collection contains over 70 CDs of musical effects. They are all useful for enhancing student projects, films, and presentations. Up to six CDs at a time can be checked out of the library for three hours for AU student production work.

Workshops and Training Opportunities

Online Tutorials

  • is Adobe's tutorial resource for their entire suite of applications. You can create an account and save episodes for later reference.
  • The is a place to find tips, video tutorials, and best practices for all types of multimedia work.
  • is available for use by AU students, faculty and staff. This extensive online training library contains over 3,000 video tutorials on all types of software. Tutorials walk users through programs like Access, After Effects, Excel, FinalCut, iMovie, Photoshop, Pro Tools, and many more. 

Equipment Guides