The Problem with Teens

Suggestion/Comment

“Kids use the computers even on the 3^rd floor. They make loud noise and use the computers only to play games. They run around in the hallways. They are barely teenagers. I don’t understand how they can play games on the 3^rd floor or even use the computers. Are they students here in the first place?”

Response

Ebling Library has always been a welcoming place for all members of our community – medical students, practitioners, UW faculty, hospital patients, undergrads, visiting scholars and community members. Teenagers are as welcome here as anyone. However, we expect all Library users to follow the rules. That means no running, no loud voices, and no game playing except for in our Decompression Zone. We do ask users who are breaking these rules to stop or leave the Library. We can’t be everywhere, so if you have any concerns about another user’s behavior, please let us know at the Service Desk.

Sound Off

Suggestion/Comment

“People with headphones cranked to full blast is distracting to those trying to study even 3-4 tables away. I had to move twice today just to find some peace and quiet in this place. Can you try to enforce some kind of maximum volume policy? Thanks.”

Response

Thanks for letting us know about your concerns. At this time, we do not have a maximum volume rule. However, as a matter of library policy, we do try to make sure that all areas of Ebling — conversational and quiet/silent — are kept free of disturbances that affect other users. What that means is that even in the conversational areas of the library (2^nd floor), it is the right of all users to not be unreasonably distracted. In your situation, it sounds like (sorry about the pun!) that the folks with headphones were being a little too loud. If you are not comfortable with asking other users to turn their sound down, please do not hesitate to ask for assistance at the Service Desk.

Quiet!

Suggestion/Comment

“Librarians must work harder at reinforcing the rules for quiet. There are too many students using cell phones and talking in groups around computer kiosks in the library. They must be told that this is inappropriate. It seems as if they are simply allowed to talk as obnoxiously as they desire until patrons themselves ask for quiet. This is wrong.”

Response

Thanks for letting us know about your concerns. One of the most difficult hurdles in managing any modern library is to make space for the many uses patrons have for it. We want to make sure there is room for both the student who is here to study in silence as well as the groups that need to collaborate around a computer. We have tried to accomplish this at Ebling by making the 2nd floor a “conversational” area — library users are welcome to talk in normal conversational-level voices as long as they don’t disturb their neighbors — while keeping the third floor a quiet/silent area, where users are asked to use hushed voices and conversations are discouraged. Does this work? For the most part, it does. Most of our users respect the different zones and try to maintain a sound level appropriate to that area. This is not to say that we don’t have a few folk who talk loudly from time-to-time, especially in the conversational area. We work at reminding these folks that this is a multi-use library and will ask them to leave the Library until they’re finished with their phone conversation. We can’t be everywhere so if you are ever bothered by another library user’s actions, please feel free to let us know at the Service Desk. We’re happy to be of assistance however we can.

More Macs in Ebling?

Suggestion

“I just wonder if the library has any plans to add some Macs. It was a bit hard to find an available Mac during class season.”

Response

Currently there are no plans for adding more Macs within the next year or so. DoIt has a 4 year cycle of purchasing computers for us. When that cycle is up, we will likely get more Macs.  Also, it is possible we may have Mac laptops in the future. There are other labs on campus that checkout Mac laptops such as College Library.  See this link for more information:

https://laptop.library.wisc.edu/

New Scanner

Suggestion/Comment

“Please put instructions for new scanner on wall. I do not know how to use it!”

Response

Our new scanner was a bit of a surprise to us – we didn’t know we would have it as a “test unit” until a day or so before it arrived. We certainly don’t want to make it a test of our customers’ patience, so we are quickly completing a new instruction poster that we hope to have up by the time you read this. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Where are My Bookmarks?

Suggestion/Comment

“None of the public computers allow bookmarking as of about 3 weeks ago. This was changed from where a user could bookmark sites. Can this be changed back, please? Thank you very much!”

Response

According to our Library Technology Group, this feature of Internet Explorer (IE) on our public PC’s was not purposefully disabled, but “broke” during one of the systems many security upgrades. We are currently working with the technology group to add the bookmarking feature back to IE. We hope to announce a fix soon. In the meantime, you can still save bookmarks in Firefox. Please remember that these bookmarks will only save until the next time the public computer is restarted or reimaged. Also, all of our InfoCommons computers allow for bookmarking in IE and Firefox. These bookmarks are also lost when the computers are restarted.

Follow the Rules

Suggestion/Comment

“Especially during finals, there are high school students who use the computers to play games and use the quiet study rooms to be loud and play card games. I don’t mind if they use this library (it is public), but the Library was designed for health care professional students. Please be more attentive or do something to prevent these high school students from abusing the facility. Thanks.”

Response

You are correct. Ebling Library does open its’ doors to the general public as well as health care professionals and students. We get users with very different reasons for being here, and we try to make sure that the environment allows for all of those pursuits without any one interfering with another. To this end, we have a policy in place that prohibits anyone from playing games on public computers, with the exception being the Decompression Zone, which was created for game players. We also made the 3^rd floor a Quiet/Silent zone, so that folks who did not want to have to deal with the conversational nature of the second floor had a place to go. In the cases you mention, it does not sound like we were properly enforcing these rules. Please accept our apologies, and know that we will try to make sure that these rules are more diligently enforced going forward. And please feel free to let us know of any concerns you have at our Service Desk.

The Dean’s Party

Suggestion/Comment

“If the Dean of the Medical Society wants to throw a party, it probably shouldn’t be in the library … much less the quiet study area during the quiet hours for finals!!!”

“I also believe that the Med School party in the middle of the Library was inappropriate. There are signs, all ones saying that Ebling is quiet study, especially during finals time. I believe this shows a lack of respect for students during the most busy time of the semester.”

Response

We received a couple of complaints about the Dean’s Centennial event on Tuesday the 6th. The party planners were warned that the event was during finals; we were hoping that by limiting it to the late afternoon, early evening-(4:30-6:30) that we would not disrupt your studies too much. We did not appreciate how loud the caterer set up would be, well before 4:30. We were hoping that by warning the student body (all health sciences students) that the party was pending (which we did in an e-mail last week) that it would not be too disruptive. We have held numerous events in the Historical Reading Room before which went smoothly-it was the addition of the caterer and the extended 3rd floor venue that made this event problematic.

In response to your concerns we will make it a policy NOT to have any functions (or caterers) in the Ebling that move beyond the quiet confines of the Historical Reading Room during the two week finals period in the Spring or Winter.

Our profuse apologies. This open landscape building was designed as a multi-purpose, multi-use facility, in order to encourage collegiality, and interchange (as well as studying and quiet). Sometimes those initiatives get confused. We will continue to make every effort, under the constraints of the building’s design and initiatives, to protect your quiet in our future endeavors.

Ebling Library Administration

Noisy Carts!

Suggestion/Comment

Over the last week we have received quite a few comments (often impassioned) from you, our customers, about the noise our bookcarts make on the Library’s textured carpeting. Ebling Library Director Terry Burton has responded to these concerns:

Response

Sadly, I am all too aware of the cart-to-textured-carpet noise problem. The carpet choice was not ours and we will continue to try to get it changed. We have tried several cart noise reducing strategies (including cart types) and, so far, have achieved slightly quieter, but not anywhere near silent.

The library is concerned about maintaining quiet conditions during finals. We will be minimizing cart traffic as much as possible, with fewer trips (and hand carrying when loads are small enough to do so).

We appreciate your courtesy to our employees with carts as they can do little to ease the situation. Please continue to use the suggestion box or direct concerns to me, Terry Burton, Health Sciences Library Director (262-5943, tburton@library.wisc.edu, HSLC 3322).

Coffee Cart?

Suggestion/Comment

“A coffee cart in the Library would be sweet!”

Response

Thanks for the interest. Currently, the Library’s director, Terry Burton, is working with medical student representatives to see if a sponsored cart could be provided during the evening hours of finals week. It’s not a done deal, but we’re hopeful. Unfortunately, a non-competition agreement between the HSLC and the Daily Dose does not permit us to provide a coffee cart during the day.