Maroon Opinions

complaints.uchicago.edu

FYI, your link to the SG complaints site is dead. It looks like they don't have any complaints anymore :)

Indeed, surfing over to complaints.uchicago.edu generates the dreaded 404. Hopefully this is just a temporary situation, so we'll keep our link active for now.

The Library Suggestions Office and SG Complaints have traded suggestions in the past, so if you've got a suggestion for SG that can't wait,  send it to us  and we'll make sure it gets to the right people. 

Wireless in Crerar

[from SG]

There is unacceptable wireless network activity in the southside of Crerar Library. The network is experiencing major problems with connecting. This issue needs to be resolved immediately. Please forward to the appropriate NSIT staff.

There are not enough wireless routers in Crerar to allow access at all points. There needs to be more, the signal quality is not sufficient.

Thank you for letting us know; we have contacted NSIT, who handles the wireless network in Crerar (and all campus buildings).

[readers: it's helpful to know your approximate location in the library, so we can pinpoint the "holes" in wireless coverage.]

Clocks

Can somebody fix the clock on the fourth floor Regenstein library south west side?

It has been months since it pointed way off time.

It is sad that nobody cares.

Thank you for the suggestion--we've passed it along to our Building Services department.

Hours: Crerar

Why do grad students have the luxury of staying at Crerar after-hours but not undergrads? It seems we work just as hard and pay at least as much as them to attend this university.

A full answer requires a review of history. Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for 1984....

Back before Crerar was built, the science collections were dispersed around campus in small departmental libraries. Chemistry had rooms in Jones Hall, easily accesible from Kent and Searle. Medicine occupied a room in Billings Hospital (now the Surgery Waiting Room). Biology was originally in Culver Hall, then relocated to the B-Level of Regenstein. Likewise with Geology and Geophysical Sciences.

Eckhart Library, the surviving member of this cluster, continues to house the math, computer science, and statistics collections.

Faculty (and sometimes graduate students) needed 24-hour access to their libraries for research purposes, in case they need to consult a book or journal at night or on the weekends. They obtained a door key, usually from the departmental secretary. Mathematics faculty still have door keys to Eckhart.

When most science collections were consolidated into Crerar,  it was impractical to hand out a door key to every faculty member in the BSD and PSD. Instead the Library stationed a staff member at the entry control desk to admit faculty and science graduate students who needed to do research when Crerar was closed.

Thus the Crerar 24-hour privileges were (and are) a way to let people use the library at night to do things like look up a constant they need for an ongoing experiment, or a medical article for an admitted patient.

Hours: the A-Level

I would very much like longer library hours at the Regenstein library. By this I mean not more hours at the A-level, since that tends to be a noisy place unconducive to efficient studying, but more hours for the entire library...

[this is related to an earlier post.]

Having pulled a few all-nighters in the 24-hour study space, the Suggestions staff agree that the A-Level is not conducive to intensive study. (Merely mentioning the A-Level among the Suggestions field staff provoked heated discussion of its noise, smell, and general unsuitability for anything but group work.)

However, the Library advertised (and still advertises) the A-Level as "study space."  Over time students who enjoyed group study and a certain level of ambient noise moved into the space, and other students who wanted to study quietly moved out, but this was a cultural change, not the Library's decision.

The Library is a little wary of opening up the other floors on a permanent basis, because there's no guarantee the "students who enjoy ambient noise" won't simply migrate upstairs.

(digression: the first-floor lounge in the Reynolds Club--opposite Hutch--was designed to be a conversation and hang-out area. Instead, that place is a tomb. We should do a trade or something.)

Hours (longer)

I would very much like longer library hours at the Regenstein library....

SG recently forwarded several complaints about hours: essentially, that we should be open earlier/later on either weeknights or Sundays. Official responses are in the works, and as those become available we'll post them here.

However, at the risk of "rushing in where angels fear to tread," we over here at Suggestions will make a few informal observations.

First, keeping the Library ( = the Reg) open longer means finding additional staff to provide basic Library services during those times. When we keep the first floor open during finals week, we have a third Entry Control staff member (in addition to the person at the main desk and the person downstairs on the A-Level). The Library also pays for a member of the UCPD to remain on duty in the building.

Second, keeping the building open later than 1:00 am has ripple effects for other campus departments, most notably the evening bus service, as well as affecting our arrangements with ABM (the company who provides custodial services for several buildings on campus, including the library).

Many Library and University staff work behind the scenes to ensure the "study space extension" happens smoothly during each finals week. However, making these arrangments on a permanent basis presents some challenging hurdles. Although not insurmountable, it's more than simply keeping the doors unlocked.

More to follow in a subsequent post.

Videos

I am eternally frustrated at the lack of video resources at our school. We have obscure foreign movies, a copy of the Matrix on DVD, and some bizarre outdated videos about the NYC art scene in the 80s.

Why doesn't the school maintain a collection of educational DVDs, especially ones that are science related. I'm taking a marine biology course and would like to be able to see footage of some of the things we are learning about, something that can be far more helpful than researching from books. I also ran into this problem last quarter while trying to find video resources on primate behavior. Thank you for your time.

[With this post, we begin fielding suggestions from complaints.uchicago.edu, the SG complaints website. Thanks, SG--keep 'em coming!]

Generally the Library’s video/DVD purchases have been reactive, rather than proactive: we have bought videos when requested (usually for a class), but have done little systematic acquisition. Thus the collection is very deep in some areas but quite shallow in others.

We are happy to provide videos that complement classroom instruction, but that usually requires instructor (or student!) cooperation to find a good video that covers the subject at a college level. For example, some National Geographic videos are a wonderful supplement to classes, while others are completely irrelevant. It all depends on the subjects the class emphasizes.

Overall responsibility for the video collection is divided up according to the pattern used for the book collections: e.g., the bibliographer (subject specialist) who has responsibility for biology is in charge of ordering both books and videos in biology. The bibliographers are happy to discuss purchase suggestions, so if someone has a request for a specific title, please ask them to let us know.