Monthly Archives: April 2010

A Safe Library

Now that the tower has wireless access, there is a lot more opportunity for students to work up there.  The prospect of more people working in the tower, plus the 24 hour library during the month leading up to finals, has led to some people wondering about the ways that the library is trying to keep people safe.

So I asked around, and learned several useful things from our security chief.
First, security patrols the entire building every hour, but not necessarily at the same time each hour, because they don’t want to establish a pattern.  When it’s after dark, and they find people by themselves in the tower, they usually add one round on that floor to the usual sweep, to check on that person.  Sometimes, they let the person know that they are alone on that floor, in case they want to move.
There is an emergency button near the elevators on floors 5-8, that can be pressed if there is a need for police/security.  Even if a person does not talk, it’s registered that the button has been pushed, and security has to tell the police not to come, if they find out it’s a false alarm.   Otherwise, the campus police come automatically. 
There are emergency buttons in each elevator, as well.  They look like this:

Our security chief said, too, that this is a very safe library—since the 24 hours experiment has started, there have been no incidents.
Is this your experience of the library?  Did you know about the emergency buttons?  
If your experience is different, please let us know.  Problems unidentified are problems that don’t get fixed.

Weekend Pop Culture Library References

Well I work in a library now, so I can’t help but notice references to librarians, libraries, etc in my everyday life.

NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell me had not one but two library-based riffs this weekend:

a question about really old library fines,
and
in their Limerick Quiz (second question):

And Doonesbury features an archivist and an important primary source.

Wordle, Reference Desk Help

A representation of what you all asked for from our reference librarians, in the space of one week in March.  (with the help of  www.wordle.net).
Anything look familiar?



Wordle: Reference Desk


And here’s a wordle that includes what the reference librarians did, not just what they were asked:


Wordle: Reference Desk 2

					

		
		
	


	

	

				

			
						

				A Quiet Zone Experiment
			

								


				

			
On the Third Floor of Atkins, which is now a Quiet Zone, you can now find some of these:








Both skeptics and supporters of self-policing in the library will soon have information about whether it’s a feasible way to try to keep Quiet in the QZ.
Skeptics seem to be of the mind that 1)  UNCC students are incapable of policing themselves, and 2)  that it’s somehow the job of library staff to make sure people keep quiet all the time, in all areas of the library.  These cell citation pads are scattered in the Third Floor Quiet Zone as a way of giving license to self-police.  And maybe, to add a little humor to the stress of trying to find a place to study in the run-up to final exams and research papers.


So, let me know if you use one.  Or if you receive one.

					

		
		
	


	

				

			
						

				24/5, so it begins!
			

								


				

			
Well this is what many of you begged and pleaded for.  It’s happening– a 24 hour library.  It will be 5 days/week up until reading day, and then 24/7 for the rest of Finals.


So, what are you doing in the 24 hour library?
Group study?
Paper writing?


What are the advantages to you?
What problems are you encountering?
Etc.


Please, do tell.