Responses to Suggestions - March, 2006
Updated: April 20, 2006Please refer also to General Library Questions or Responses to Suggestions
COMMENT RECEIVED on 2-26-2006: Am writing to say "thank you" to Dr. Nathaniel Citino and Ms. Naomi Lederer for their excellent webpage on Middle East sources.
RESPONSE: Thank you very much for letting us know that this web site is so useful. We really appreciate NaomiZ´s efforts and it is great to hear that others do too.
Allison Cowgill, Co- Coordinator, Instruction and Research Services
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-3-2006: I have noticed that all the computers freely available to students in the Morgan Library are locked at a Resolution of 1024x768 on LCD's that support resolutions up to 1280x1024. Operating at this lower resolution could cause eye strain, and for many people, make computing at these consoles a pain due to not having enough screen area to get work done. It would be wonderful if this were changed to allow users to set their own resolution on the console, possibly with a utility that would sit in the system tray. Many people, including myself, would be very grateful for this possibility.
RESPONSE: Thank you for your comment. We will address the customization of screen resolution settings on the library public computers over the Spring Break. The utility "Quickres" will be installed on each computer and it will reside in the System Tray (lower right hand portion of the screen). Quickres will permit any user to adjust the screen resolution according to their needs.
Lindsey Wess, Manager, Electronic information Center
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-14-2006: You really need to monitor and control these children that come in to the EIC and play that stupid runescape game. They curse, talk in loud voices, yell, whistle, bang on the keyboards and mouse and generally detract severely from quiet enjoyment of the library experience.
This is not their damn living room at home, and they should not be allowed to make it so. This is a place of study, not of playing some game, and especially so if it bothers other patrons. These individuals have no respect for other library patrons, and management needs to get on the ball. If you can't control these children then maybe a patron will be forced to intervene when it becomes obnoxious enough. I´ve personally felt many a time like picking up a chair and smashing it over their buggering, brat heads.
BTW: this is a set of 5 teenage children (13-15) that come in regularly and do this every time they sit down. The names I caught are John, Spencer, Michael, Jimmy…
If necessary, please block the runescape website so that the decorum of the Morgan library can be maintained. But whatever, please do not allow this to continue. This is a place of quiet learning, not a video game parlor.
RESPONSE: Library staff are always present in the Electronic Information Center and will definitely intervene when any library user is exhibiting inappropriate behavior. When your concentration or research activity is disturbed by the behavior of others, please inform the library staff person at the assistance desk immediately. We are happy to help resolve the problem.
Lindsey Wess, Manager, Electronic Information Center
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-20-2006: The Sociology Water Lab (http://waterlab.colostate.edu/) at CSU has focused on practical research in service to irrigated agriculture in the western United States. Is it possible for the Sociology Water lab to be listed on research page on sociology?
RESPONSE: Thanks very much for forwarding this suggestion. It is an excellent idea and a link to the Sociology Water Lab has been added to the Library's Sociology Resources pages. I sincerely appreciate your interest in library Web pages.
Allison Cowgill, Co-Coordinator, Instruction and Research Services
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-20-2006: I would like to order an electronic copy of my dissertation to post on a website related to my topic. Is that possible?
How does a person order a copy of a dissertation in general?
RESPONSE: In response to your question below, I called ProQuest UMI because this company is responsible for digitizing CSU dissertations. As the author of your dissertation, you own the copyright and can do whatever you want with it. According to one of the people that I spoke with there, you can purchase an electronic PDF file of your dissertation for $35.00. You can then provide a link to this PDF file on any Web site. You should be able to order it from the UMI Web site (www.umi.com). I just checked this site and could not readily find order information for electronic copies (there is order information for microfilm/fiche, and soft cover/hardcover paper copies). I suggest that you contact the UMI Dissertation Hotline for assistance; according to their Web site the number is 1-800-521-3042.
You didn't indicate in your email if you are currently affiliated with a college or university. If you are, you may have access to ProQuest's digital dissertations database. In that case, you could download a copy of your dissertation at no charge.
I hope this information helps. Please let me know if you have any questions about this or if there is anything else I can do for you.
Allison Cowgill, Co-Coordinator, Instruction & Research Services;
491-1876,
Allison.Cowgill@ColoState.EDU
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-21-2006: I did not know who to write to, but I have some Emerging Infectious Diseases hard copy journals that I no longer need and wanted to donate. Is it possible to donate them to you guys? Thanks.
RESPONSE: We forwarded your question to Mary Seaman who is in charge of gifts to the library. She will contact you directly about these issues. Thank you for thinking of us; we sincerely appreciate your interest in our collections.
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-26-2006: Please consider sending an email about due dates for books prior to the day they are due. Many books can be checked out for months at a time and it is difficult to keep track of the due date for each book. By sending an email a week prior to the due date everybody wins - the library gets its books back on time and library users avoid paying overdue fines.
RESPONSE: Thank you for your suggestion regarding notices. In the future we may be able to offer something like this if our circulation system permits it. Right now, however, it may not be as necessary as one would think. We only charge overdue fines for books that are recalled and have gone past due or reserve items that have gone past due. When one of your books becomes overdue, no fines are charged as long as it isn't a reserve item or recalled. Even if you wait a few days before you renew it––there are still no fines. We appreciate your concern about due dates. For us at CSU Libraries, the due date is kind of a guideline for each patron to help keep track of books. If the due date comes and you are finished with an item, please return it. Our overdue notices are called "REMINDERS TO RENEW OR RETURN" instead of 'OVERDUE NOTICE" because there is no penalty, but we'd like you to take one of those two actions: renew or return. If you have further questions, please ask. Thanks.
James Farmer, Coordinator, Access Services
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-24-2006: Two employees of the library are currently hanging out in the 'quiet room', carrying on and such in very, very loud voices so that students trying to study can hear them clearly. This is very frustrating to those of us that are trying to study and take advantage of the quiet time.
RESPONSE: We are sorry to hear that people are being noisy in Morgan Library´s quiet room. Please feel free to ask them to leave the room immediately if this occurs again. As the signs there indicate, there should be absolutely no talking in this area. Please contact me at the telephone number or email address below if you want to discuss this further.
Allison Cowgill, Co-Coordinator, Instruction and Research Services;
491-1876;
Allison.Cowgill@colostate.edu
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-30-2006: The library may want to update the fact that Isaac Asimov died in 1992. As it is, you list him as still being alive (i.e "1920-").
RESPONSE: According to the cataloging rules, it is an option to include both birth and death dates in headings for personal names when there is no need to distinguish between those that are identical. However, we choose to follow practice of the Library of Congress which does apply the option if the information is readily available. This means we would add the date of death as you suggestions. Asimov's name was missed as part of our database management process. We very much appreciate your calling this to our attention so we can update our cataloging records.
Dawn Bastian, Coordinator, Metadata and Digital Services
COMMENT RECEIVED (no date): Can you look into replacing the clocks with automatic clocks as they need replacing?
RESPONSE: Thank you for your suggestion. The clocks in Morgan are used by many people and when one is reported defective, we replace it as soon as possible—removing the broken clock immediately. Some clocks have outlets for AC power, but most have batteries. Before replacing a clock, we check the batteries first. Thanks for your suggestion.
James Farmer, Coordinator, Access ServicesPostscript: We found information on automatic clocks and have forwarded it to Jim Farmer for his consideration.
Allison Cowgill, Co-Coordinator, Instruction and Research Services
COMMENT RECEIVED on 3-31-2006: The Wall Street Journal is the premier business information resource and would be invaluable in the research I do as a student at Colorado State. Online access is essential for economics and business students. In doing my research, I do not have time to sort through an outmoded microtext archive. It is bogus that I have to suffer that. Thank you.
RESPONSE: We understand your concerns about access to the online version of the "Wall Street Journal". While it is obviously an essential resource for business and economics students, faculty, and researchers, it is also very useful to other disciplines as well. We have looked into the possibility of providing "Wall Street Journal" online. Unfortunately, the annual license for this service is approximately $12,000; an amount that the library is unable to commit to supporting on an ongoing basis at this time. Rest assured, however, that obtaining the "Wall Street Journal" online is a priority that we have been considering recently.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. In order to save time, you might want to use our "document delivery" service. If you have the citation information from the Wall Street Journal you can submit the information to inter-library loan and they will obtain the article for you.
See http://lib.colostate.edu/ill/index.html for more details on this service. The "Wall Street Journal" is indexed in both our Academic Search Premier and Business Source Premier databases.If you have any other concerns or questions regarding this or anything else, please don't hesitate to contact me at the telephone number or email address below.
Louise Feldmann, Reference Librarian, College of Business Subject Specialist,
491-4262,
Louise.Feldmann@colostate.edu
COMMENT RECEIVED (no date): I come to the library every week to look at the new books. Lately, this has become an impossible task, due to the presence of the study table that blocks the new book shelves. If it is used, which it usually is, it is impossible to access the books.
You are obviously trying to make your new books accessible, and the table is making it difficult to take advantage of this service. Please remove it.
RESPONSE: We have forwarded your comments to Jim Farmer, the Library´s building proctor. We certainly do not want to limit access to our new books and we appreciate finding out about this a problem. We will post his response as soon as it is received.
Allison Cowgill, Co-Coordinator, Instruction and Research Services;
491-1876;
Allison.Cowgill@colostate.edu
All responses by
Allison Cowgill,
Coordinator, Instruction & Research Services,
assisted by Janet Rombach,
Instruction & Research Services, unless otherwise noted.