Library Message Board

[RobFett]

Hi everyone,

Basically this message board is here as another means of putting forward your queries, comments, suggestions, aggrivations etc about the library.

Fire away!

Rob Fett
SRC Member for Library and Learning Resources

[Thalia]

Change long loan so that the longest you can take a book out for is maybe a month, tops. It always irritates the hell out of me when the book i want is long loan and someone else has it cos if you recall it, they rarely bring it back when they're meant to.

[hr]

The shadow proves the sunshine...

[nighteyes]

Buy more books that are on the reading lists for a subject, and buy them in time for people to actually be able to borrow them before the exams!

[hr]

i didnt say i was consistant, just right!

[Jono]

Vector weekends into the Short, 3 day and 7-day loan systems! Its not fair that someone who takes a 3-day loan out on Monday only gets it until Thursday, and yet someone can take it out on Wednesday can hold onto it for over half a week!

[hr]


http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37105376

[Thalia]

Well actually, i like being able to take short loans out over the weekend - mainly because if it's a whole book you want and it's only in short loan, it's a pain to try and get through everything in the few hours you'd normally get it for.

[hr]

The shadow proves the sunshine...

[Guest]

is it true that the booking system for short loan is going to be abolished? Think someone told me it was.

[RobFett]

Quoting from 12:40, 5th Jul 2006
is it true that the booking system for short loan is going to be abolished? Think someone told me it was.

There might be some changes to the short loan system such as changing the time you can take books out for. What might be abolished however is the booking system since it is incompatible with the self issue machines. However Jon Purcell has contacted the company who designed the software to see if it can be altered to make it compatible, and they are looking into it.

[RobFett]

Quoting from 12:40, 5th Jul 2006
is it true that the booking system for short loan is going to be abolished? Think someone told me it was.

There might be some changes to the short loan system such as changing the time you can take books out for. What might be abolished however is the booking system since it is incompatible with the self issue machines. However Jon Purcell has contacted the company who designed the software to see if it can be altered to make it compatible, and they are looking into it.

[Adam Fellows]

Wow, I didn't even notice this thread existed. LOL, good work Rob. That'll teach me to pay more attention.

[Adam Fellows]

Quoting nighteyes from 01:57, 3rd Jul 2006
Buy more books that are on the reading lists for a subject, and buy them in time for people to actually be able to borrow them before the exams!

[hr]

This is not the library's fault. Your department is in charge of ordering books. If you feel there is a need for a certain book to be ordered, then tell them. All the library does is hand out the money.

[RobFett]

Quoting nighteyes from 01:57, 3rd Jul 2006
Buy more books that are on the reading lists for a subject, and buy them in time for people to actually be able to borrow them before the exams!

[hr]

i didnt say i was consistant, just right!

Also pressure your departments to get their reading lists into the library as early as possible. If books aren't in the library in time then raise it at your SSCC or go straight to your lecturers and/or head of school.

[HarryP]

The new WebCT - can you get the "checker" to stop coming up every time you go onto a new page?

[RobFett]

Quoting HarryP from 12:05, 6th Oct 2006
The new WebCT - can you get the "checker" to stop coming up every time you go onto a new page?

I'm not sure what you mean - can you describe it in more detail? Nothing like that seems to happen when I go to new pages.

[Thalia]

I'm assuming he means the browser checker which is an annoying pop-up that appears all the time to tell you that your browser can use webCT

I do find it rather irritating that i should have to turn my pop-up blocker off to use webCT. And sometimes my computer will block me from downloading an article until i tell it it's okay, and then instead of just opening it, it'll go all the way back to the first page and i have to find it all over again.

[hr]

The shadow proves the sunshine...

...And I am a Sinner Goddess.

[Guest]

There are over 300 people in IR1005, it therefore makes sense for the required journal articles to be accessible online as everyone needs to read them for the same week. For example, the library has one copy of this week's journal reading which is signed out until monday, which does those of us with monday or even tuesday and most likely wednesday, thursday, or friday tutorials no good.
I inquired after this and was told to stop being ridiculous by the library help desk as apparently articles more recent then 2003 are not online and according to the multiple library staff I spoke too, those articles were put up for free.

[RobFett]

Quoting from 11:24, 6th Oct 2006
There are over 300 people in IR1005, it therefore makes sense for the required journal articles to be accessible online as everyone needs to read them for the same week. For example, the library has one copy of this week's journal reading which is signed out until monday, which does those of us with monday or even tuesday and most likely wednesday, thursday, or friday tutorials no good.
I inquired after this and was told to stop being ridiculous by the library help desk as apparently articles more recent then 2003 are not online and according to the multiple library staff I spoke too, those articles were put up for free.

If the article you are searching for is The Good State by Peter Lawler, it is now available on WebCT and there is also a copy in short loan that your can photocopy from.

The reason the journal was not available online was because the IR department had not subscribed to an online version since 2003. It will be availble online from January since the subscription has now been renewed.

If anyone else experinces a similar problem with journals not being availble then go straight to the short loan section of the libary and they will do their best to get an electronic version available as soon as possible.

[Linsey]

The library needs more books. There are between 12-14 people in my Linguistics honours modules, and usually when a book is on the reading list, there is one copy of it in the library - sometimes on short loan, sometimes on long loan. These are books which are required reading for everyone in the honours modules, and also necessary for second and first years. Just for example, Words and Rules by Steven Pinker and Politeness by Brown and Levinson are books which are required reading, cited by everything, and the library should have more than one copy of them but does not. I've been under the impression from the Linguistics program that it's not enough for a department just to ask the library to buy more, they'll often just say no. I don't think this situation is restricted to Linguistics - I've encountered the same in English honours modules, and heard the same from people in IR, for example.
On another note, I would definitely agree that long loan should be shorter, and a 7-day loan for students other than evening degree would be a good idea too. At the moment it's a bit all or nothing -- 4 hours, three days or four months. There should be more in the middle.

[RobFett]

Quoting Linsey from 20:34, 8th Oct 2006
The library needs more books. There are between 12-14 people in my Linguistics honours modules, and usually when a book is on the reading list, there is one copy of it in the library - sometimes on short loan, sometimes on long loan. These are books which are required reading for everyone in the honours modules, and also necessary for second and first years. Just for example, Words and Rules by Steven Pinker and Politeness by Brown and Levinson are books which are required reading, cited by everything, and the library should have more than one copy of them but does not. I've been under the impression from the Linguistics program that it's not enough for a department just to ask the library to buy more, they'll often just say no. I don't think this situation is restricted to Linguistics - I've encountered the same in English honours modules, and heard the same from people in IR, for example.
On another note, I would definitely agree that long loan should be shorter, and a 7-day loan for students other than evening degree would be a good idea too. At the moment it's a bit all or nothing -- 4 hours, three days or four months. There should be more in the middle.

It is not the library who controls the books that are in it, it is the responsibility of the department since it is them that have the money. You should put pressure on your department to have spend more of the money that they have been allocated and buy the books you so desperately need. If those books are published in the UK then they can be photocopied for free. This is not the ideal solution of course but it will be a short term solution until your department buys more copies for the library.

I will ask the short loans department to have as much of these two books photocopied and/or scanned as possible so that they can be available to you even when the book isn't. If there are any other books please let me know.

I will also rase the issue of having a middle-term loan.

[LibrarydDirector]

Despite all the electronic gizmos we have in the Library, we don't have a crystal ball which will allow us to predict which articles lecturers are going to refer to. Where we have advance warning, we try to digitise the article (as we did with this particular instance) and attach the digitised article to the relevant Webct module for true multiple 24/7 access.

We try our best in the Library.

Jon Purcell. Director of Library Services

Ps Any crystal balls going spare on campus?

Quoting from 11:24, 6th Oct 2006
There are over 300 people in IR1005, it therefore makes sense for the required journal articles to be accessible online as everyone needs to read them for the same week. For example, the library has one copy of this week's journal reading which is signed out until monday, which does those of us with monday or even tuesday and most likely wednesday, thursday, or friday tutorials no good.
I inquired after this and was told to stop being ridiculous by the library help desk as apparently articles more recent then 2003 are not online and according to the multiple library staff I spoke too, those articles were put up for free.

[1Bker]

Quoting nighteyes from 01:57, 3rd Jul 2006
Buy more books that are on the reading lists for a subject, and buy them in time for people to actually be able to borrow them before the exams!

[hr]

i didnt say i was consistant, just right!

Very valid point!