Maroon Opinions

Additional printer in Crerar

Please consider moving more printers (especially those with cheap color and front-back printing) upstairs to accompany the recently relocated computers in Crerar.

Thank you for your suggestion - it's quite timely as we do have plans to move an additional printer to the first floor of Crerar. Barring any delays, I'm hopeful the printer will make an appearance this week or next.

Clean the Keyboards and Vacuum the Floor!

There is a strong, strong need to have a twice weekly (at a minimum)cleaning with a bleach solution of the desks, wiping of the keyboards and mouse, and have the housekeepers actually "wash" the plastic garbage containers. The garbage containers are filled with spilled coffee and other sticky beverages and is going to soon be the source of bug and possible rodent infestation if this issue is not soon addressed. Regarding the wiping down of the keyboards and desks, this is a basic public health issue as keyboards in libraries are now one of the major transmitters of bacteria as they are often overlooked for regular cleaning. And last but not least, at least weekly, the housekeepers need to do a more thorough job of vaccuming away the crumbs and related debris under the tables.

Unfortunately our custodial contract does not cover keyboard cleaning, although you are welcome to bring your own wipes or gloves. However, they are supposed to be vacuuming (as far as we know), so we will ask University Facilities to take this up with the custodial company.

Acme Newspictures

I don't have a question or comment, but I do have a picture from my grandfather's estate that has the words "ACME NEWSPICTURES, INC" on the back. Since my grandfather played both college and professional football in the 1930's, I presume that this picture is of him with the ball running up field. I see no numbers on the photo. Can you help me validate the origin?

As you've probably found, Acme Newspictures operated from 1923-25 until about 1952, when it was bought by United Press and eventually became the photo arm of UPI. Unfortunately without seeing the photo I can't tell you much more than that. However, we have digitized many of our archival photographs and put them online: http://photofiles.lib.uchicago.edu

You might try searching the Photofiles to see if any of the pictures look similar to yours. I tried searching for "Acme" and while you get some pics, they aren't of athletic events. I'd suggest searching "football" or "athletics."

A Note of Appreciation

I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!

THANK YOU for discontinuing the printing of receipts with every single item that is checked out.
sigh.
what a relief.
woooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you! We're happy too, for all sorts of reasons.

Platner's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome

http://www1.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eos/eos_title.pl?callnum=DG16.P72

This site has not been working for a long time. I have found it enormously useful in research for my book. It would be great if someone could get it working again. thanks

Fixed! Feel free to search Samuel Platner's A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome to your heart's content.

Wireless on Sunday

Wireless during finals week gets so incredibly slow in the libraries, that at times it's impossible to use. I was attempting to notify the library of a book off the shelf, but the wireless was running so slow, I couldn't even open lens. I know more students use the libraries during finals week than during any other time, but is there a way to allot a certain period of internet usage time per individual so that when we do use it, it's not running impossibly slow? I admit to being a culprit myself, but I feel like a standard put in place like this would go a long way.

My apologies for the belated reply. I asked NSIT about recent wireless usage, and they said that the wireless can get bogged down when a great number of people are connected, but didn't provide any specifics about Sunday. That afternoon, from my experience walking around the Reg, seemed< like one of the busiest times of the year, so I wouldn't be surprised if we maxed out the wireless that day.

We'd rather not place any limits/standards on the wireless if possible, just because it's really hard to draw those lines -- some people's research really does require a stable connection for several hours. (For example, someone reading a non-downloadable e-book.) However, NSIT (and us) do monitor network usage, and will try to ensure we aren't constantly hitting upper limits on the  system.

Lights in East Asia Reading Room

I am a regular patron of the East Asian Reading Room (on the 5th floor) of the Regenstein Library. Quite a few of the lights in the room have been broken for a while (and some of them do not work well now), and I am wondering if it is possible for the library to send someone to fix the lights soon...

After studying at the library for few months, I have already started to feel the impack of the damaged lights on my sights, and I wonder if other patrons of the library would have the same problem as well. I thank you very much for your response.

Thank you for your comment about the broken lights. We will ask University Facilities to investigate.

Access to D'Angelo During Finals

In regards to the recent policy change at D'Angelo library:

As a former resident of BJ, and a former regular user of D'Angelo library, I would hope that the law school will provide a better explanation for this change in policy. I have a few questions and concerns that I would like to see addressed by those who have created this policy.

First, I may be incorrect, but I do not believe any other library that stores a large portion of non-law related materials (fun fact: Seasons 2 and 3 of Battlestar Galactica on DVD are at D'Angelo) has a similar policy. As I recall, Crerar only allows medical students on the 2nd and 3rd floors after regular hours, but even during regular hours all students have full access. Thus, I would like to know why the law school believes this policy is necessary, and why D'Angelo is different from all the other large study spaces on campus.

Furthermore, though this was several years ago, while D'Angelo was busy during finals and reading period, it never seemed overly crowded. At least, not crowded enough to warrant the barring of any non-Law school students to use the study space. This raises the possibility that students who used to study regularly at D'Angelo will now have to study at other libraries, making them even more crowded, which hurts College students and other graduate programs. Thus, I would like to know if D'Angelo has been seeing increased usage over the past few years, and if so, of what proportion of the increase are non-law school students. Hopefully, this will also address how many non-law school students who used to study in D'Angelo will now be seeking space in the other libraries. Also, I would like to know how crowded D'Angelo has been during reading period and finals week compared to the other libraries.

Furthermore, if D'Angelo can set this precedent, is it possible for Crerar to also bar students during reading period and finals week?

While I appreciate that D'Angelo will make sure that all books are still accessible to non-law school students at the reference desk, there is still a hassle involved in trekking all the way over to D'Angelo, and then having to immediately return to another library. This, however, does not address the issue of any books that are on short reserve times nor books that cannot be checked out.

Finally, I am curious how D'Angelo has the jurisdiction to actually bar non-law school students from a library where many regular circulation books are stored. If these are regular books that my college tuition went towards (or the tuition of any non-law school student), and if any of non-law school tuition went towards the library's upkeep, then my peers and I should be able to have access to it.

While the law school may be within their right to enact this new policy, I believe many questions need to be answered, some of which I hope I've raised with my comments above.

By now I'm sure readers have seen the emails from the Law School Dean of Students posted to the SG blog. Unlike Regenstein or Crerar, access to the D'Angelo Law Library is controlled by the Law School, and we have to abide by the rules they set.

This being said, any non-Law student who needs access to the library collections, or would like to consult a reference librarian, will be admitted to the building. My understanding is that you only need to state the purpose of your visit to the VCA (the security guard on the first floor) and he/she will let you in. We want to make sure that all students and faculty can use Library materials and services during this time.

[UPDATE: The Crerar staff inform us that all floors of Crerar, not just the first floor, are open to all students when the Crerar All Night Study Space is open.]

Face Masks?

Judging from all the coughing and nose-blowing I hear on the first floor of Regenstein when I am using the computers, I assume many people are sick. Would it be possible to provide Purel and face masks like the ones offered at DCAM to minimize the spread of infection by all the sick people?

Unfortunately, the Library cannot provide face masks or sanitizer, although you are welcome to bring your own.