Feedback to the Library, September 2007
NOTE: Comments are edited to remove names of specific employees or users. Comments with names go to "Askref" for response or are forwarded to the appropriate person for a reply.
The location is only identified as "Library", "Campus" or "Off-Campus" to protect the anonymity of users. Comments received on paper forms may be entered several days after they were submitted.
Date/time Location
Sun Sep 2 23:33:10 2007 Campus
It appears that we now have electronic access to the journal Mobilization but no link to it in the catalog.
Here is the journal:
http://mobilization.metapress.com/app/home/main.asp?referrer=backto.
Library response:
Thanks for notifying us about this. What I think is happening is that we just got electronic access to this title and that the catalog record hasn't been updated yet. These records are updated by a machine load once a month. So the link for this title should be in the catalog within the month. The link in the electronic journals page is there and working. But just to double check that I'm interpreting this situation correctly, I'm also including the Technical Services staff in this email. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Tue Sep 4 17:20:42 2007 Library
To whom this may concern:
It has been my experience in dealing with the information commons reference desk and the main library circulation desk that I have come to discover that some of the people working in this library are not only deliberately unhelpful but also unfriendly. On Saturday September 1st at around 10:00 am, I went to the main library desk to borrow a laptop. The two people working at the desk spent twenty minutes trying to figure out how to get a key to open the laptop drawers. They let me wait there and they would have kept me waiting some more if I hadn't spoken up and said I had a tutoree waiting for me downstairs. I don't appreciate having my time devalued in such a manner while employees here haven't had the proper training to figure out how to get a key. Eventually I was able to borrow a laptop some days later, and it wouldn't connect to U of A's wireless network. I was told by the information commons desk that they would call upstairs to let them know I had a non-functioning laptop. When I got to the main library desk, the people there told me no one had called. The only reason I'm borrowing UofA's laptops from the libraries is because I can't connect to UofA's internet through my own laptop, even though I've registered my computer properly. Again, no one would help me or give me answers as to why my laptop couldn't connect to the network. All I was told was that it should work. When dealing with people and providing a service, it would be reasonable to show some respect and knowledge. My suggestion is if you cannot provide a functioning service consistently or equally, don't provide it at all, so you don't waste people's time. I feel frustrated, mislead, betrayed, annoyed, disrespected by your LIBRARY of all places. Ridiculous.
Library response:
I will try to answer this comment as briefly as possible. This comment addresses several different interactions this customer had with library staff:
The customer came to the Information Help Desk on Saturday to borrow a library laptop. She says she had to wait 20 minutes while the staff tried to get the key to open the laptop cabinet -- the staff member working on that day says that she had the wrong code to the drawer and had to call the Science Library to ask for the code, which she did. While this caused a short delay, she was able to open the laptop case in about 2 minutes, not the 20 minutes reported by the customer. Unfortunately, the customer had already left the desk. The staff member says: "It's unfair when customers exaggerate and make us look horrible without providing all the details."
The second library related situation with this customer was Tuesday afternoon, when she came to the Information Commons Reference desk because the laptop she had borrowed from the library did not connect to the UA wireless. One of our students tried to get it to connect to the UA wireless, but he was unsuccessful. It was suggested that she go back to the Information Help Desk and swap out the laptop she had for another one. The librarian working at the desk said she would call the Information Help Desk and let them know that she was coming. The librarian tried to call the desk two times and no one answered at that desk. The customer was able to trade laptops, but she was angry because she said she felt "mislead, betrayed" because no one had called from the Info Commons Reference Desk to the Information Help Desk.
So far in the story, the library was unable to get into the laptop cabinet immediately, had to make a call to get the proper code, and thus caused a short delay in offering the service of checking out a laptop. One of our laptops did not connect to UA wireless, but it was easily traded for one that did. A call from one desk to another did not get through, although the call was attempted twice. We apologize for these inconveniences. But we take exception to the accusation that our staff "are not only deliberately unhelpful but also unfriendly." None of the small glitches in the library's performance, as reported in the comment, lead to the accusation of unhelpful or unfriendly.
We believe that this customer's initial frustration was caused by her own computer not being able to access UA wireless. Students can get help with their own computers at the Office of Student Computing Help Desk, located in the Integrated Learning Center in room 136. The OSCR staff are the people who are trained to do this level of computer trouble shooting, not the library staff who work at the Information Commons Reference Desk. This student was referred to the OSCR Help Desk several times by staff at both the Information Commons Reference Desk and Information Help Desk. We sincerely hope that she got the help she needed and that her laptop can now access UA wireless. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Wed Sep 5 21:41:24 2007 Campus
This feedback was forwarded to me based on my work with the Family Care Workgroup of the Commission on the Status of Women. I thought you might want a chance to respond to me and I will forward your response back along with the response I get from the Student Union.
> Here is some information about the lactation facilities around campus.
>
> There are four lactation stations / family rooms that I know of on campus.
> The two lactation stations are in the Student Unions (I have not
> checked out the one in the Park Student Union because it is too far
> away from where I work on campus, so when I refer to the lactation
> station, I mean the one in the Student Union Memorial Center), and the
> family rooms are in the Main Library and the Science-Engineering
> Library. For me, the two most important things for an ideal lactation
> station / family room are privacy and cleanliness.
>
> As for privacy, I think the family rooms in the two libraries are very good.
> It is actually a room with real walls. The lactation station in the
> Student Union is a space cornered with temporary walls, and it is
> right next to an entrance, in the middle of the corridor leading to
> the Center for Student Involvement & Leadership. So, if you choose the
> wrong time (around lunch time), there is a lot of noise with students.
> Next to the door to the lactation station (which is only the size of
> an individual toilet) is a tinted glass, which you can see through.
> However, this door does face away from the corridor.
>
> As for cleanliness, the family rooms in the two libraries are awful.
> The one in the Main Library has bits of paper scattered all over the
> floor. Neither of the family rooms have a waste basket. The lactation
> station has been the cleanest so far (which is why I have been using
> this place). However, the lactation station may have been the cleanest
> just because they put this station up right before the school year
> started, and now that it is two weeks into the semester, the waste bin
> is overflowing (despite the fact that I let the staff at the Center
> for Student Involvement & Leadership know about the waste bin, it has not changed).
>
> For other stuff, despite the fact that Life & Work Connections
> recommend there to be hand washing facilities nearby, none of the
> lactation stations / family rooms has one. The lactation station
> offers supplies of paper towel, wipes, breast pads, and so on. This is
> a nice gesture, and I hope they will continue. Unfortunately, family
> rooms do not offer such supplies. However, these supplies are extras.
> I wish there would just be a private room that is clean.
>
> I just wanted to let you know what was going on with these rooms. If
> you and your committee could do anything to make these facilities more
> comfortable, I'd really appreciate it.
Library response:
The feedback that you sent the library has sent us scurrying around to investigate and fix any problems with our family rooms. We have just changed the codes to those rooms, we know that some non-family users had found out about them and how to get into them. We are working on ways to prevent the rooms from being used by anyone except mothers and babies. We are also trying to figure out how we can prevent used diapers from sitting in those rooms. The rooms do have wastebaskets in them, but we think if someone puts diapers in them, then places the wastebasket outside the room, for obvious reasons, then sometimes the wastebasket doesn't always get put back into the room. Also, if the wastebasket is sitting outside and someone is in the room, they won't see the wastebasket. The rooms are cleaned by our custodial staff -- but like the library buildings as a whole, they are not cleaned often enough. The university just does not supply the library with sufficient custodial staff time and the whole library suffers because of this. We are going to put a map in the room that shows the closest bathrooms to the family rooms and asks people to take used diapers to the bathrooms for disposal. The rooms are clean right now and hopefully they will stay clean. We have a staff member who just returned from maternity leave and she uses the family room in the Science Library regularly and she says it has always been clean when she used it. Thanks for the feedback, I think it made us take a close look at this service that we provided, but were kind of ignoring. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Fri Sep 7 18:12:24 2007 Campus
I think it would be great if the U of A library acquired the 2005 edition of "Las Cortes de la Muerte" attributed to Lope de Vega, Linkgua Ediciones S.L., ISBN-8498162025. Aside from its publication by Menendez y Pelayo in the late 19th century and its republication with no additional comments around the middle of the 20th century, I know of no other publication. Critics attribute it to one of the most prolific Spanish writers of all time, Lope de Vega, and many also claim this is the play mentioned in Miguel de Cervantes "Don Quixote"--Book 2, chapter 11. IF FOR NOTHING ELSE, THE NEW COMMENTARY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WORK WOULD MAKE THE PURCHASE OF THIS EDITION WORTHWHILE. It should be noted that this is not the same play as the one by Miguel de Carvajal and Luis Hurtado de Toledo that shares the same title.
As far as I know, there are no other libraries in the United States that have purchased this item yet, but it was recently added to Worldcat/First Search.
Thanks!
Library response:
I believe this book will be a great resource for our users who are doing research in this area. I have forwarded this purchase request to our ordering unit. Please check our library online catalog for its availability. Thanks a lot for your suggestion! Sincerely, Ping Situ
Sun Sep 9 08:09:49 2007 Off-campus
Hi,
I accessed to "dissertation and theses database", but I was unable to download the PDF files at home or school. Please checked the database. Thanks a lot!
Library response:
When checking this database this morning I found that the PDF files were failing to completely download and were not displaying. Checking later today they now seem to be OK. If this was the problem that you were having it may be that the database vendor has fixed it. Please check to see if this is the case. If you are still having problems please try to include a description of what is happening. Are you being asked for a username and password to see the files, for example. Thanks, Gene Spesard, Digital Library and Information Systems Team
Tue Sep 11 00:23:29 2007 Library
Your website includes everything except how to find the card catalog or how to search the catalog contents... nice work!
Library response:
I don't think our website is perfect by any means, but there are 4 major categories in red on the website and the first one is SEARCH & FIND. The very first link under this is "Search the Library Catalog." I'm not sure how much more prominent we could make this link. The catalog defaults to the keyword searching screen, but you can select author, title or subject, if you prefer. If you need help in searching techniques for the catalog, you can contact the Main Library Information Commons Reference Desk at 621-6442 or come by that desk, 1st floor main library, right the middle of all the IC computers. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Sun Sep 16 02:00:35 2007 Campus
The Main Library should have a permanent signboard at the top of the open air staircase regarding the facilities that are down here.
Also, the mainframes on the several seem extremely slow to respond. I suggest you have your maintenence team routinely compress and/or clean out memory on each one.
Thanks to ALL, with BLESSINGS !
Library response:
Your suggestion about a sign at the top of the stairs telling people what is on the 1st floor -- the computers, the reference/research desk and the express documents desk -- is a great idea. We have discussed such a sign, we just haven't acted on it yet. Your suggestion about the computers has been passed on to the Library Systems staff. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Mon Sep 17 00:35:09 2007 Campus
I know the U is in a major budget crisis, but I figured I would request the following online journal subscription anyways. This is an important journal, and it is surprising that our library is not subscribed.
1) G^3 (Geochemistry, Geophysics, and Geosystems - published by AGU and the Geochemical Society)
Library response:
The library actually added a subscription to G-Cubed last year. We have access to the full-text from 2006 forward. You can access the articles by going to the library’s homepage and clicking on “Article and Database Searching” under Search & Find and then selecting American Geophysical Union from the list. That takes to you to the list of AGU journals where you select “Geophysics, Geochemistry, Geosystems.” Or you can search the library catalog by title “Geochemistry, geophysics, geosystems” and the resulting record has a link to the online version. Chestalene Pintozzi, Science-Engineering Team
Mon Sep 17 02:06:41 2007 Off-campus
This thing sucks. it gives me no information and when I do get something it won't give me the full article. It needs to be changed or something
Library response:
This kind of comment isn't very useful. What exactly is "this thing" that is being referred to. We have 100s of databases, some with all full-text articles and others that have access to some full-text, but not all full-text. But if anyone is having trouble finding articles, the very best thing to do is either do chat reference, call or come to the Library's Information Commons Reference desk -- information for all of these options are found under HELP -- Ask A Librarian on the Library's homepage. We can often help you either find the full-text of an article or help you get the full-text emailed to you in a couple of days. So rather than getting angry about not finding full-text articles, come ask for help. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Mon Sep 17 08:09:16 2007 Off-campus
Good day, I would like to recommend a book to your library. In your library you have already a book by the same author, Paran Margo, `Pa-am hayu ba-Kishon/Once down the Kishon stream`,Sifre Iton77, 2004, ed. Yaacov Besser. The new book of that author is,`Li-nedod ahare remazim ketanim/Wandering after little hints`,Sifre Gezuztra,2006 Atlit, . It is a Hebrew poetry, short stories and paintings book. The book is already in the libraries of Harvard, Princeton, UCLA, Ohio,Berkeley.
The book can be found in the book shops in Jerusalem.
Library response:
This request was sent to the subject specialist for her consideration. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Librarian
Mon Sep 17 16:24:37 2007 Library
I enjoy the computers you have on the third floor. They provide me a non-crowded environment to do any studying i need to on the computer. There is one problem though, I think the employees in room A304 need to understand that a library needs to be quiet in order to provide a good learning environment. I understand these ladies have work to do (sounds like not enough) but I would appreciate it if someone would bring to their attention that the entire third floor can hear their gossip and conversations. I would appreciate it if that door to room A304 could be closed so all those on the third floor can study without distractions. Thank you for your time.
Library response:
I went and talked to the staff in that office about your complaint. One thing about that office is that the staff working there do our financial stuff, so people are always coming and going from that office to get paychecks, to turn in time cards, to get hired, to get reimbursements, etc. Also that space was never really designed for office space, it was originally storage space and then it had computers and servers in it, before we put people there. It is not really a very good space for people, in my opinion -- but we don't have any other space for those people. The space has awful circulation, so they often keep the door open to provide more circulation and because it is either too hot or too cold in there. But I did talk to them and asked to be more aware of people using those computers to study. They will probably alternate between keeping the door open and being more quiet and closing the door when they are talking. We are sorry for any inconvenience this causes. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Wed Sep 19 16:41:42 2007 Campus
I am so surprised and disappointed at the Library's decision to charge twice for a two sided print page from your networked printers. As a single parent graduate student with two sons the additional cost is prohibitive. I wish you would reconsider your decision.
One suggestion too. Would it be possible to receive a receipt for money placed on your cat card that is used for printing so that this could be used at tax time as an expense of being a student. As it stands now, there is no record that can be used, and the machines only accept cash.
Thank you for the wonderful learning environment you all create. You have truly created a dynamic information commons.
Library response:
Thank you for you comment. I understand your disappointment in the change that we made when charging .10 per imprint (per side) rather than .10 per sheet. We made this change in order to keep consistent throughout the University. All the OSCR labs on campus that offer double sided printing, charge .10 per side. I apologize for causing any more financial strain. To answer your question about the receipt, if you go to the Cat Card Office, they can print a statement of transactions that occurred on your cat card chip. You would need to take your cat card to the Cat Card Office at the Student Union. Deborah Quintana, Office Supervisor
Thu Sep 20 10:13:31 2007 Library
the book
Call # RA418.5.P6 F37 1999
Author Farmer, Paul, 1959-
Title Infections and inequalities : the modern plagues
has been gone for some time now. Could this please be replaced? Thank you.
Library response:
This request to replace this book has been forwarded to the subject specialist. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Thu Sep 20 13:06:31 2007 Campus
why do I have an expiration date on my library account? And will it be renewed? I am a staff member of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Library response:
I just took a look in our library's system and your account appears to be updated with the correct expiration date. I am not sure what the problem was yesterday but you should now be receiving access to library resources. Let me know if you continue to have difficulty or if I can be of further assistance. Rebecca Blakiston,
Materials Access Team
Thu Sep 20 16:13:29 2007 Library
the book drop at the science library is not very well thought out. its small and you have to push the books in which sometimes causes damge to the books
Library response:
Thank you for your comment. Several staff members have also pointed this out to us as a problem. We have actually recently been investigating a way in which to improve the functionality of this book drop and hopefully the problems you point out will be rectified soon. The book drop is relatively new and we were hoping that the poor spring function would alleviate over time but it appears this has not been the case. We will continue to look into this. Thank you again for your feedback.
Rebecca Blakiston, Materials Access Team
Sat Sep 22 11:26:01 2007 Off-campus
That Central Search thing gives me the weirdest results that don't make any sense. I tried using all sorts of keywords but kept getting irrelevant results. I don't understand it.
Library response:
If you would like help in learning how to use Central Search, you can come to the Main Library Information Commons desk for help. But it might be easier just to use the Library online catalog when you are looking for books on a topic. And when you are looking for articles, use one of the many article databases we have listed under SEARCH & FIND -- Article & Database Searching. A good multidisciplinary database is Academic Search Complete, which is right on that Article & Database page. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Sat Sep 22 13:30:29 2007 Off-campus
I used the live talk to a librarian service today and I wanted to praise you for the service. The librarian was most pleasant and helpful. He/She was able to direct me to the place I needed to go. I really appreciate the resource. It really saved me today! Thank you!
Library response:
We are glad to hear that your good service from the Library and it is a boost to us to hear feedback like this. Thank you for taking time to send your comment. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Mon Sep 24 07:59:15 2007 Campus
I am amazed at how unhelpful the library staff has become. I have seen several of the library presentations out on campus and the staff always mentions that they are willing to help and they assure the students that we should "just come ask." However, I have been in the library doing research for two days and I have had to ask for help with the microfilms and those space saving shelves- in both situations I was greeted by rude library staff members who offered no assistance. And then you wonder why equipment gets broken-it is because when students ask for help with it your staff refuses to help us and instead comes up with an excuse.
Library response: I'm really sorry that you have had such bad experiences in our library. I work at the Main Library Information Commons Reference Desk and I truly believe that we all try to give good service in a respectful, pleasant way -- however, I realize that everyone has bad days and sometimes we slip. But it is embarrassing to hear that this happened more than once to the same person. I have shared your comments with all the staff who work at all the desks in the library. I apologize again for this and hope that it doesn't happen again to any of our customers. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Thu Sep 27 23:04:48 2007 Library
Do you have a map of the main library on your website? It would be helpful if I could click on it after looking up a book...so I knew which floor to get to. Thanks.
Library response:
We don't have a map, but we are working on one. It is a very good suggestion. Vicki Mills, Undergraduate Services Team
Fri Sep 28 16:33:08 2007 Library
Inside book drop at the science library sometimes causes damage to books because they have to be shoved in. It is not a very efficient way to return books to library.
Library response:
Thank you for your comment. Several staff members have also pointed this out to us as a problem. We have actually recently been investigating a way in which to improve the functionality of this book drop and hopefully the problems you point out will be rectified soon. The book drop is relatively new and we were hoping that the poor spring function would alleviate over time but it appears this has not been the case. We will continue to look into this. Thank you again for your feedback. Rebecca Blakiston, Materials Access Team