located on the 2nd floor of the Lederle Graduate Research Center (occasionally referred to as the Lederle "low rise"). 　　UMass Amherst is home to the DEFA Film Library, the only archive and study collection of East German films outside of Europe. 　　Other libraries include the Shirley Graham Du Bois Library in New Africa House, the Biological Sciences Library in Morrill Hall, and the Music Reserve Lab in the Fine Arts Center. 　　Information technology 　　UMass Amherst is a member of Internet2. 　　The Office of Information Technologies (OIT) provides all faculty, staff, and students with an OIT account which provides access to a variety of services including email (UMail), online storage space (UDrive), web hosting space, and blogging space. 　　OIT maintains 11 computer classrooms across campus with approximately 300 computers available to members of the UMass commUnity. Many of these are the computer available in the Learning Commons located in the WEB DuBois Library. Additionally many departments and programs have their own computing resources available for members of those groups. 　　Many UMass Amherst instructors make use of Blackboard's WebCT Vista learning management system (which has been branded as SPARK on campus) for delivery of course content via the web. 　　In the winter of 2003, the Office of Information Technologies (OIT) rolled out the SPIRE system, which is based on PeopleSoft's student information system. At UMass, SPIRE is a web-based system used to register for courses, as well as a variety of other tasks. 　　On October 21, 2005 UMass Amherst was designated as the first-in-the-nation Microsoft IT Showcase School by CEO Steve Ballmer, recognizing the university's innovative leadership in applying information technology to teaching and learning. 　　In April 2008, UMass Amherst announced a campus alert system whereby members of the university can receive emergency notification via text messaging

Ranking and reputation

　　U.S. News and World Report's 2008 edition of America's Best Colleges ranked UMass Amherst as one of the top 100 universities in the nation, placing it at #96, and ranking it the joint 46th amongst Public Universities.The Times Higher Education Supplement ranked UMass Amherst as the 175th best university in the world.The MBA program is highly ranked by the Princeton Review.

Student life

　　Registered Student Organizations 　　UMass Amherst has many registered student organizations (RSOs). Most RSOs are funded by the Student Government Association (SGA), from the activity fee that all students pay, however, the SGA has oft been criticized for not funding all clubs fully or equally. In recent years, the fee has been about $81. In order to start an RSO, one needs a group of at least 8 interested students, who then petition the SGA for recognition. Each semester, the SGA reviews RSOs, and those which have too few members are considered inactive. Club Sports, which are non-NCAA athletic or organized sports teams, are considered RSOs. 　　On May 6 of 2008, the Center for Student Development hosted an awards show entitled The Sammies for the second time. The Sammies is designed to allow RSOs to give awards to other outstanding RSOs. Over 50 different awards were presented to student leaders and exemplary RSO in more than 20 categories. Among the winners was the Umass International