Author Archives: Steven Bell

Let’s Keep Paley Library Open 24/7

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I would like to say that I have had great experiences at the library. There is one thing that I would like to suggest though. Currently I am at the TECH center studying because the library is now closed. The noise level here does not allow me to study and focus very well. I would like to suggest to the library and university personnel that the library stay open either later or also 24 hours as it would be a great be a great benefit to those students that focus best in a quiet atmosphere. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to your response and what can be done in this matter.

We are pleased to know that you would describe your experience with Paley Library as “great”. Thanks for sharing that with us. We take the experience you and all the other members of the Temple community have at our libraries seriously, and we are always open to ideas for improvoing that experience. Requests for additional hours is a suggestion we do get from our user community from time to time. If the library offers a great experience, why not make that experience available for even more hours.

The library administration has discussed whether keeping the Paley Library open 24 hours every day or even five days is feasible. Adding more hours is primarily a budgetary matter. Not only would we need to keep Paley open, but Tuttleman as well, since that is the location of the circulation desk. Currently the Paley Library (including the Tuttleman service desk) is open 118 hours a week (Note: Our official opening hour M-F is 8 am, but we unofficially open the doors to students at 7 am). You can imagine the added cost of keeping the buildings open plus the added staff needed for the additional hours (50 of them).

Still, we understand the value of being open to students around the clock. If the University was to move ahead with plans to build a new library facility it is likely you would find a 24/7 or 24/5 section of the building. This allows for a smaller space for those students who are seeking a quiet study area at all hours of the night. We recently received a report compiled by another research library that collected data about the number of large research libraries that are open 24/7 (the Association of Research Libraries includes 113 of the largest research libraries in North America). Of the 66 libraries that responded only 6 reported being open 24/7. Another 17 reported being open 24/5 (same as the TECH Center). Another 24 reported being open 24/7 or 24/5 – but these libraries did have a separate facility or section of the main library dedicated to 24/7 or 24/5 hours.Another 13 libraries, like Paley, were open 24/7 only during finals. Yes, for an approximate 12-day period during reading week and finals Paley Library will remain open 24/7.

We will continue to monitor the usage of Paley Library to see what the late night hours traffic is like (currently – quite light).  We will also consider the number of students requesting additional hours (currently – rare). We do appreciate your suggestion and use of Paley Library. Thank you.

Quiet – Please, Please, Please

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Please please please start enforcing the quiet zone rules! I’ve started off in the tech center, which became to loud, so I moved to the library which was okay for awhile. But now people just come to the quiet zone because it’s quiet enough for them to talk or do group work.  Please hang up more signs on the table and walks  or even get someone to walk around to maintain silence. Thank you

 Thank you for sharing your concerns about the noise you are hearing in our library quiet zones. It is unfortunate that students are talking and doing group work in these spaces. While the library staff are not about to become a team of roving quiet police, there are a few things to share that might be helpful when this happens.

When you are in a quiet zone, there should be “quiet zone” stencils in the area. We put them up not only to indicate where the zones are – but also to help students who are seeking quiet. If you are in the quiet zone and other students are not respecting the quiet, simply get their attention and point to the “quiet zone” stencil. Remind them where they are in the library, and you might also mention that the 2nd floor east is the noise tolerant space for groups or those who like to talk in the library. If other students are ignoring these very large “quiet zone” signs and the signs on the stairwell doors, more signs are not going to solve the problem.

According to experiences here and at other similar libraries, student self-policing of noise and other annoying behaviors is far more effective than asking library staff to enforce rules. If you feel uncomfortable asking others to be quiet, then by all means seek out a staff member who will do this for you. All staff will be reminded that they should assist students who need help with a noise situation. I hope this will help to improve the problem.

Those New Student Tour Groups Are Creating A Problem

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The prospective and new student tour groups need to adjust their meeting spots in such a way that minimizes the impact upon those attempting to make use of Paley Library. Currently, the tour groups tend to mob the self-checkout machines, drop boxes, and leisure Reading sections severely impacting and often preventing their usage.

 

Thanks for sharing your concerns about the impact the new student tour groups have on the first floor of Paley Library. We too have observed this problem in past years, and we have repeatedly contacted the office that supervises the tours to remind the students guiding them that they have to be aware of where they are in the Library, and to be careful not to create an access barrier for students wanting to use the self-checks, get to the stairwell or whatever it might be.

I will take two actions in response to your complaint. First, I will send a reminder (and your complaint) about this to the the person who supervises all the campus tours for prospective students.Second, I will send a reminder to our staff members who work at the “Ask Here” desk asking them to remind the students leading the tours to keep pathways to doors, collections and equipment clear when this becomes an issue.

To what extent these actions will improve matters I cannot say – hopefully quite well. I can only hope the student tour guides will remember this. In the future if you or other students have a problem being created by one of the student tour groups, keep in mind that you can ask the groups to move aside, or work your way into or around it, or ask a librarian to assist you.

But do let us keep in mind that these tours are important, and that we want our prospective students to come into the library. Let’s just hope we can have it be less of a barrier to access for you other students.

What’s Up With Requiring a Login At Paley?

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What were the reasons behind the recently implemented decision to require us to login to search the library catalog?

 

Thanks for getting in touch with this question. Others may be wondering the same thing. But first, allow me to clear up a few things about the library catalog.

 

Here at the Temple University Libraries we refer to the catalog as Diamond. You can call it whatever you like as long as you know how to get to it and how to use it (but if you don’t – just ask any of our friendly staff for assistance). You should know that there has never been a requirement to login to Diamond, nor is there currently a requirement to login to Diamond. We make our library catalog freely accessible to the global Internet community. Try it from off campus sometime – you won’t be asked to login just to search our catalog. If you are – let us know immediately because something isn’t working right.

 

That leads me to ask what has prompted your question. Not knowing exactly I’ll address two possibilities. First, you might be asking about the new procedure in Paley (actually in place since September 2010) where students must login to get access to the desktop on any personal computer in the library. We made this change for several reasons. First, we are now more compatible with the policy used in the TECH Center – students always had to login there – and now we have the same policy. Second, we moved to requiring a login at Paley because we found that many non-Temple guests were getting on our computers and then students were having a hard time finding a computer they could use. We wanted to come up with a system to better serve students and our guests. With the login requirement, guests can no longer login – and it is also really important for students to logoff when they are done with computers so no one can get on one using their account. Now guests use dedicated computers in the Tuttleman area of the Library.

 

BTW, if you are in Paley Library, keep in mind that we have several “search the catalog only” computers – no terminal login ever needed – you’ll find them at the “Ask Here” desk, by the circulation desk and in the Media Services area.

 

The other possibility is that you are trying to access a subscription-based library database (such as those from Ebscohost, JStor, or many others) when you are off campus, and are being asked to login with your account. That has always been the case as we require Temple community members to authenticate themselves in order to access one of our licensed databases from off-campus. On campus, once you login to the desktop and open a browser, you should never be asked to login to the database – it knows you are from Temple when you are on campus. Again, if you are on campus and are being asked for an account, please report that to us right away.

 

So that summarizes why we added the login requirement for the computers. However, just to reiterate, there is absolutely no login required to access the library catalog. If you are just using the catalog and being asked to login, please report this to us as it is an error that we would need to correct.

Why “Home” Doesn’t Mean Paley Home Page In Our Catalog

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Often when I am perusing the library card catalogue, I have wanted to return to the home page for something. When I click on the “home” link it only takes me back to a new search in the card catalogue – NEVER to the homepage. I always have to open a new page and start over just to get to the homepage. What a nuisance! Surely the web master is not aware of this glitch.
Believe me when I say that I feel your frustration. As a librarian I use the catalog extensively and show others how to use it. It would seemingly make more sense for “home” to mean “library home page” and not “catalog home page”. But here’s the glitch. 
This catalog is used by all Temple Libraries, Paley, Medical and Law (and soon our Japan campus). So if the  “home” link took you to the Paley home page, that wouldn’t work very well for someone at the medical or law library. And as far as I know there’s no way to program it to intuitively know which library you want to be home and there’s not much space at the top for links to all the different home pages. The easy solution is to go to the bottom of the page – not the top. On any catalog page, just scroll to the bottom and you will find a link to the home page of all three libraries. That’s definitely not as intuitive as we like, but it does serve the purpose.
So we are indeed aware of this. However, I’ll bring your concerns to the attention of the web programmer to see if there are other solutions to explore. I guess the other easy solution, if you use the catalog enough and our links at the bottom of the page don’t suit you, is to create a link on the bookmark bar of your browser to the Paley Library Home Page at http://library.temple.edu. I hope you think we deserve a piece of that real estate.
Thanks for sharing your concerns with us.

Please Do Something About Unruly Teens in the Library

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There is a group of teenagers that are often in the library and they have no respect for anyone else in the library. I always see them running around and screaming. Today, I could hear them shaking and pounding on the vending machines in Tuttleman. Shouldn’t they be more respectful of our campus and library? Who is supposed to be supervising them?

 

Yes. They should be better behaved and respectful of others when in Temple buildings. Yes. Someone should be supervising them. Unfortunately for others on campus neither of these things is happening. I spent some time investigating the problem by trying to find out what group this is and who does supervise it. It turns out that Temple has multiple programs for teenagers during the summer, including orientations, admission programs for high school students, special programs such as Outward Bound, and programs sponsored by the Russell Conwell Center and other offices. Without much information to go on, it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what group sponsors the teens you enountered. After an exchange of emails with other Temple departments including admissions, student services and the student center, I think we were able to indentify this group and the supervisor is going to be notified and made aware that more adult supervision is needed. I have also notified all library staff that they should be alert to unruly teens, and to engage them and find out what group they are with. That may further help us to put a stop to this unruly behavior.

 

Please know that the Temple University Libraries does have a policy that forbids those under 18 to enter the library unless accompanied by a supervising adult. However, this doesn’t apply to those under 18 entering the library who are part of  a program that is officially sponsored by Temple. So we are aware that unsupervised teens can create problems for others, and we are sensitive to this issue.

Deeper Backfile Access to This Journal Would Be Appreciated

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Please obtain online access for clinical orthopaedics and related research prior to 2004.  It is great that you have hard copies, but when doing research at home or looking up an article before an operating room case, online access is key.  Thanks.

You and others have discovered that there is often little consistency in the range of dates for which we can offer online access to the complete holdings of a run of journals. Sometimes, with a database such as Project JStor, the entire run of a journal is available. That level of coverage is typically an exception. For most journals it can depend on what the publisher offers or what we can reasonably afford to acquire.

The journal that you are interested in, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, is available prior to 2004 through the OVID system. Through Ovid we have back to 2001. However, for the period from January 1, 2008 it is available from Springer Online Journals. Whenever checking for our availability of online journal content check our Journal Finder – on the home page of the Temple Libraries.

If you believe that the older holdings of this title warrant the library purchasing online back files, please send us a recommendation through our online Purchase Recommendation Form . 

 When the Library subscribes to an electronic title, a decision needs to be made regarding how far back to purchase the older issues. In some cases, the publisher makes available back to a certain date (say 2001) and prior to that date the library must pay an additional fee for the older content (the archives). The Library needs to balance the need for online access to the current materials, which in the health sciences disciplines are often considered the most valuable for patient care and research, with the need to provide convenient access to older issues. If the library already holds the print title (say back to the early 1960s), the library has to decide whether or not to purchase essentially duplicate issues online. In some cases, the need for full runs of titles is significant, and certainly the library purchases those backfiles.

[This response was authored by Barbara Kuchan, Interim Director of the Health Sciences Library]

 

 

Movie Screenings Would Be Fun

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The library should do something like a monthly movie screening. It would promote DVD rentals which, somehow, are still under the radar of a lot of people I come into contact with. And it’s just kind of a fun idea…

You are correct that the Temple University Libraries does have a great collection of DVDs, and that we should do more to promote them. We like the idea of some movie screenings at some regular frequency, possibly each month. Do know that we are unable to show entire films because that requires the payment of a public viewing license, and it can be rather expensive. But we might be able to show previews or clips from a variety of new films. We can certainly explore the possibility, and will consider it for the next academic year. Would you like popcorn with that?

BTW, we don’t do rentals. All of our videos may be freely borrowed by those with a currently valid Temple ID card.

Please Do Something About Missing Books

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I am writing to complain about missing books  that are listed as in the library in the online card catalog.  I usually just let it slide, but today marked the third time this week that a book I need is listed and is not on the shelves.  Please address this issue.  I know it is a big collection, but this has to be addressed. 

 

Thank you for sharing your concerns about the frequency with which books are not found on the shelves of Paley Library where they are supposed to be located.  Please be assured that nothing would please us more than to unravel the mystery of missing books. Our shelving team is well trained and capable of getting the books into their proper shelf location. Still, there are any number of reasons why books go missing, including everything from patrons reshelving books in the wrong spot after browsing them, human error, intentional misplacement and even theft. As you point out the collection is vast, and it simply isn’t possible or practical to constantly read the shelves or inventory the books to check for missing items.

 

We have policies in place for quickly replacing missing books when we learn of them. The problem is that our community members may not report something that is missing. Unless we are informed about missing items, we won’t know they need to be replaced. It is easy to notify us about a missing book – just use the form on our website. Once a book is reported missing we will follow up by searching for it several times. If we fail to find it we will report it to book selectors who then decide whether a book is worth replacing. But if someone is requesting it we’ll obtain a copy. Alternately, if our copy is missing try using EZ-Borrow to quickly order and obtain the book from another Pennsylvania.

 

If you book(s) are missing try to avoid giving up in frustration. Please visit our Circulation/ Reserve Desk for assistance or use the form to report a missing book. We will do our best to get it for your quickly.

 

And for the long-term outlook, we are currently exploring technologies that will help us to conduct more frequent shelf inventories so we will know what is there and what’s not.

 

As A Recent Grad What Library Services Am I Entitled To?

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I just graduated in February. I have been offered a free email address, but I cannot find information regarding whether I can continue to use the library. I tried looking up an article online and found that I have been locked out of the system. Do you offer any online library services to alumni?

 

Congratulations on your graduation and welcome to the ranks of Temple Alumni. The Temple Libraries offer a wide range of services to our alumni and you can find more information about them on the Alumni Services page on our website. Here is what that page says about access to library databases for alumni:

 

Owing to license restrictions alumni may only use the Temple University Library databases (LexisNexis, EBSCO, Historical New York Times, etc) on campus. To get logged onto a computer in any library, speak to a staff member at the reference or main service desk for that library. To access the databases please present your Temple University alumni card to the staff member. All Temple University graduates receive an alumni card upon graduation. If you no longer have your alumni card it is best to obtain a replacement prior to visiting the Library. See the link at the bottom of this page for more information on how to obtain an alumni card. See our A-Z listing of databases for more information on available databases.

 

So unfortunatley we are not able to allow access from off-campus (and that is the case with most academic institutions), but if you are able to come onsite then you can use the databases in the library. If you have any additonal questions about getting access to or identifying a library database please contact our “Ask Here” desk at 215-204-8212 or get in touch via our Ask-a-Librarian services.