The College and the School of Journalism jointly operate the center which is a reading room holding newspapers, magazines, books, and other printed resources for class projects and research. Four computer lab classrooms adjoin the CRC. The center also has additional networked computers and a variety of electronic databases.

The New Media Center is located on the west end of the Carbondale campus in the Communications Building basement. Occupying the south end of the basement, the New Media Center is comprised of 2 classrooms, 2 specialized labs and a general access area. The two classrooms are used primarily by the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts but are available for use by others on when feasible.

For students, faculty and alumni, the Brown Media Lab serves as an electronic gateway to the world. The facility supports teaching, learning and research.

The Lab is equipped with on-line support for computer-based distance learning, multimedia teaching systems, and more than 200 satellite television network linkages worldwide. Moreover, users may tap direct Internet hook-ups to preeminent marketing, advertising, sales and management research firms, and the Decision-makers Institute, a high-level research alliance between academia and industry using cyberspace technologies. The Institute provides Delphi Research data on vital issues about mass communications and media to public policy groups, research journals and industry executives.

The Brown Media Management Lab is funded by an endowment from Larry G. Brown, President of Forward Communications of Dallas, Texas. Other industry businesses have joined in financial and/or in-kind support of the Lab; they include: TapScan, AVERY MEDIA, Arbitron, Scarborough Research and the Television FactBook.

Information Technology manages four campus Computer Learning Centers. The CLCs are open to all students, staff and faculty with valid SIU Carbondale identification. CLC4 is lcoated in the New Media Center in the Communicaitons Building and is largely utilized by students from the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts.