Hot water

Suggestion/Comment:

The water in the women’s restroom (on 3rd floor) is too hot!!! Can’t tolerate.

Response:

Thanks for alerting us. I have notified the building managers that this is an issue and they are looking into it. They should adjust the water temperature to something more reasonable soon.

Weekend Hours

Suggestion/Comment:

I wish the library opened earlier on the weekends. Opening by 8 would be great year round, but especially before finals. At a minimum, could “study hall” be extended to include weekend openings from about 8-10? Us early birds need somewhere to study!

Response:

Thank you for your suggestion. This will be passed on to our Administration Team.

In the meantime, feel free to study in other parts of the HSLC in the morning before the Ebling Library opens. Though it is not quite as nice as the library proper, there is lots of seating and you will have access to the HSLC wireless network.

Trash Cans

Suggestion/Comment:

We need more (or larger) garbage and recycling bins in the library. Too much garbage overflowing, especially on weekends. Can we get recycling bins that are clearly marked, like those in the HSLC? Thanks!

Response:

Thank you for the suggestion. Our administration team is already discussing this issue with HSLC building operations, as your’s is not the first complaint we have received about this. New trash and recycling bins will be added during the summer – look for them near the Infocommons computers and next to the K-Z stacks on the third floor, among other places.

Laptop Checkout Notices

Question/Comment:

It would be nice to get a notification that a computer (laptop) was returned not just checked out.  That is the more important documentation side of things for students.

Response:

Thank you for requesting this enhancement.

Our Infocommons manager will bring this up at the next campus-wide meeting and see if this feature could be added. Doing so would be trivial, but would effect the laptop-checkout in every Infolab on campus, so it needs wider approval. One issue could be that we will be “spamming” our users with extra email, something we try to avoid. If they manage to reach a consensus on this, expect to see this show up in mid-May (when the meeting is).

In the meantime, if you have an issue with returning a laptop, don’t hesitate to contact our Infocommons manager, Adrian Gay (adriang at wisc.edu). He can answer any laptop related concerns you may have.

iTunes

Question/Comment:

Please get iTunes updated on computers. Every time I need to load lectures onto iPod I have to download/install a new version.

Response:

Our version of  iTunes was once up to date, but we had to revert to an older disk image due to a printing problem. When the printing issue is resolved we will be able to update iTunes on our computers.

However, old versions of iTunes will work fine for most purposes (including interfacing with iPods). When iTunes asks you to upgrade, you can hit cancel and use the old version. If you encounter a serious compatibility issue with your iPod, talk with Adrian Gay, our Infocommons supervisor.

Broken Sink

Suggestion/Comment:

Please fix the faucet in the 2nd floor men’s room. It almost never will turn on.

Response:

That sink has been an issue since we moved in. We can usually coax it back into operation with a few firm slaps, so if you discover it is not responsive let the staff at our service desk know.

On a couple of occasions we have had to have someone come in and fix it. Ultimately, a full-scale replacement might be in order, but doing so is unlikely as long as we can repair it.

Weekend Reference Service

Question/Comment:

Lack of professional refrence service on the weekend. A time when I need such service.

Response:

Thank you for sharing your concern.

Staffing models are of ongoing interest; we regularly examine public services statistics. We agree that having reference service on the weekend is important and for that reason employ graduate assistants from UW-Madison’s School of Library and Information Studies. In this way we are building the professionals of the future while supplying a stronger reference presence than otherwise possible. Data show that the number of reference questions on weekends does not balance well against the absence of professional librarians on a week day, when their presence is required by a large number of questions, calls, database searches, faculty/clinical consultations, teaching duties, and campus obligations.

We hope you will leave your contact information so that we may help you with your information need. You can use our online “Ask a Librarian” form to request help from a reference librarian, or send an email to askebling@library.wisc.edu.

Door Alarms

Suggestion/Comment

When sitting on the third floor, twice some kind of alarm has gone off and a staff member has to come turn it off. This is annoying.

On another note, thanks for the hyacinth plant, it smells great.

Response

What you heard was one of our emergency exit alarms. Madison city ordinances require us to have a certain number of fire exits, and these have alarms on them to deter theft and control access to the library. In addition, these same alarms would alert us if there was an actual fire. As irritating as the alarms are, they really are there to protect you. The alarms shouldn’t sound for very long – we have a panel at the service desk that alerts staff to any activity with the doors.

Glad you like our hyacinth; we’ve been getting a lot of compliments about it lately.

Squeaky Hinges

Suggestion/Comment

Silence squeaky door hinges – 3rd floor bathroom area.

Response

Not sure which doors you are talking about, so I went up and applied some WD-40 to the worst offenders I could find. Hopefully it will make a difference.

In then future, try to bring issues of this nature directly to our Service desk staff. That way, they can be handled more promptly.

New 3-Hole Punches

Suggestion/Comment

Many of your 3 hole punches don’t release the paper afterwards, even if it’s just a few sheets – especially those near the med school printers on both the 2nd and 3rd floors.

Response

Thanks for informing us that our punches were getting dull – I imagine they get a lot of use. I have ordered two replacement punches and will place them in the copy centers once they come in. In the future, don’t hesitate to contact us about defective or missing equipment. You can use the suggestion notebook, contact us via phone or email,  or simply go to the front desk.