Many students have a difficult time finding a computer in the library to quickly print documents before class. I believe that this can simply be solved by restricting access to sites that are unrelated to academics such as facebook, myspace and youtube.

When we redesigned our Paley Library computer commons and opened it up to students in the fall of 2008 we thought it would be a significant improvement, and we are pleased to see that it is being heavily used by Temple University students. In fact, as you point out, the usage is so heavy that it can often be difficult to find a computer, especially when one is in a rush and there is a need for a quick printing job – or anything that will just take a few moments.

You actually raise two issues in your suggestion. First, why can’t we make it simpler and faster to just print out a single document. Second, why do we allow students to spend time on web surfing when other students must attend to urgent schoolwork. Both are good questions. As for the second one, please take a look at this prior suggestion in which we respond to this matter.

As for the first item, we think there may be a better solution to the problem than restricting what students can do on the computers. We are going to look into adding an “express printing station” that we would place directly in the printing area in the computer commons. This computer could be used only to retrieve and then send a document to the printers (please note that we would not plan to add a printer for this “express print station” – the existing printers can easily handle the additional jobs coming to them). We think this should be a big help to any student in a hurry who just wants to print something quickly and can’t find a free computer.

Finally, please know that we recently added an additional printer on the second floor east of the Paley Library. If you need to print something and you don’t see an open computer on the first floor, consider heading to the second floor where we have additional computers.

Thanks again for your suggestion which prompted us to consider how we might further improve library services for our user community.