© 2012 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
The worker at the circulation desk refused to take my dollar coins as payment for a fine. They are legal American tender; why are they not accepted?
This was a misunderstanding with the coin handler. There was confusion over the Susan B Anthony coins looking like quarters. There was no reason for this problem to have occurred. It should not have happened, and will not happen again.
Brenda Pratt
Unit Head for Circulation/Reserve/Photocopy/Security
1. Please change the screen savers to not go on every minute. It is extremely annoying.
2. Please extend the screen saver time out from one minute to something like five minutes. It is very annoying to be reading something and have to move the mouse every minute, breaking my concentration.
Thank you for your suggestion. I have passed it on to our systems group, since they control the timing of the screen savers. One of the reasons the time is so short, is that we have a program that monitors when the public workstations are not in use, so we can direct students to those workstations. I do believe that a two minute threshold is more appropriate, and I have asked our systems group to consider changing it to that interval.
Buddy Litchfield
Va. Tech Libraries
The bathrooms need better maintenance. They are very messy and unclean.
I will pass your comments on to our custodial staff. I know they maintain the restrooms very well during the day, and that the problem is probably occurring during the night when they are not here.
Buddy Litchfield
Va. Tech Libraries
More (public) computers would be helpful, especially some that are Macs.
In recent years public workstation usage has never been overburdened accept for on opening day of each school year. We have found that the number of public workstations are sufficient for our patrons.
You can use the availability page to better utilize your timing and to find available public workstations in the Newman
Library. http://crow.lib.vt.edu/avail/avail.php?onfloor=2
Curtis D. Carr
Director Library Systems
1. Where's the Cafe?
The Library has a contract negotiated with a company to run the Study Cafe. The contract is being reviewed by the University lawyers. We should hear something soon as to when the Cafe should open.
2. The elevators that come down to the Cafe area are very noisy, and come too frequently. They are destroying my brain cells.
I am sorry about the noise caused by the elevators, but they are inherently noisy machines, and there is not much we can do about them. The frequency with which they come to that floor is set so that they stop at equal intervals at every floor in the building. Again, there is not much we can do about it.
Lighting Issues:
3. The light from the windows is too intense. The area needs shades.
4. The area around the new desk in front of the elevators on the first floor needs softer lighting and solar blinds. The photon noise from the outside world is too overbearing.
We are very sorry about the current lighting problems in the Study Cafe area, but there is not much we can do about it at this time. If possible, we suggest that people move away from the windows during sunny hours. Currently there are no plans to install shades on the Cafe windows.
Buddy Litchfield
Va.Tech Libraries
Quite a while back I noticed that the VT library has some links to LibraryThing. At that time I was told the VT library would be one of the libraries you could use from the LibraryThing site. That still hasn't happened. If you still expect to be listed there, it might be a good time to check with them and see what's going on.
Thanks.
Our LibraryThing venue account is active (http://www.librarything.com/venue/20524/) and it shows our holdings are integrated with the Local Book Search feature. Here's an example; we are the first listed library.
I'm not a LibraryThing member and so can only do what our institutional account allows, but if you expect to see us listed somewhere and we're not there, please let me know and I'll contact the LT staffer responsible for LibraryThing for Libraries.
--
Robert Sebek
Webmaster
University Libraries, Virginia Tech
I just read through the "My Library Account Help" page and found several typographic errors. For example, student was spelled "studenty" in the "Modify my Info. paragraph. I strongly recommend that you proof read the page and correct the errors. It really doesn't look good for a library document to have so many errors.
Thanks for pointing out this typo; it's nice to know that someone is reading our help files.
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Robert Sebek
Webmaster, University Libraries, Virginia Tech
There are many veterinary journals that we no longer seem to have access to. Also, several links for veterinary articles through "Get VT Text" on pubmed are linking to incorrect websites. I am not sure where the problem is but there seems to be something going on with accessing veterinary articles (at least) through our library site. This happens even when I go to a journal directly rather than from the database link.
There are some Vet Med journals that require special passwords for access, but in general, if a Get VText window provides an article-level link, you should be able to access that article (Off Campus Sign In is required when not on the campus network).
Otherwise, there are no significant changes in our Vet Med journal subscriptions.
If you have specific examples of problematic links from PubMed, please send them on so we can take a look at what is happening. (We can work with the article citation, Pub Med ID number, or Get VText window URL.)
Keep in mind that we often receive access to journals from a site other than the publisher's site; the Journal Title Database will specify where to go for access (it's the same database that drives the Get VText window).
So please write back with specific journals or citations that are causing problems so we can fix whatever is going on.
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Robert Sebek
Webmaster, University Libraries, Virginia Tech
Hi,
Your RHPP link is not working: http://www.rhpp.vt.edu/datasets/1/maps/index.htm. I was looking for a map listing all of the hospitals in Virginia, any idea where I can locate one?
Thank you.
Thank you for reporting the link error. The agency that has the data is the Va Economic Development Partnership (VEDP). They have a quite a few mapping layers both in a GIS format and a Google format (kmz).
Hospitals in Virginia Emergency Management 07/09/2010 Shapefile KMZ VEDP Metadata Shapefile - http://gis.vedp.org/downloads/hospitals.zip
Google KMZ - http://gis.vedp.org/downloads/kml/Hospitals.kmz
Thanks,
Ed Brooks
GIS Specialist
The elevators are way too loud and disturbing. I don't like being near them.
I am sorry about the noise caused by the elevators, but they are inherently noisy machines, and there is not much we can do about them. The frequency with which they come to that floor is set so that they stop at equal intervals at every floor in the building. Again, there is not much we can do about it.
Buddy Litchfield
Va. Tech Libraries
I love coffee, can the cafe come soon?
The Library has a contract negotiated with a company to run the Study Cafe. The contract is being reviewed by the University lawyers. We should hear something soon as to when the Cafe should open.
Buddy Litchfield
Va. Tech Libraries
Add, Too Wong Fu to your collection. Only the best movie ever!!!
Thank you for the suggestion, I will order it today.
Ana Dubnjakovic
I think the Library should have a copy of textbooks that could not be checked out, and was for students studying in the Library. Or, use the current copies of textbooks as a Library copy.
At the University Libraries we have a system in place where textbooks or other high-demand items may be put on reserve by course instructors - See http://www.lib.vt.edu/circ-reserve/reserve_info.html These materials have a short checkout period, ranging from two hours to two weeks, to allow multiple individuals to access the items.
Both library materials and personal copies can be put on reserve for a course and we encourage faculty to take advantage of this service for their students. We are happy to work with course instructors and try to acquire needed materials where appropriate but they need to initiate the process and allow adequate lead time. More information may be found at http://www.lib.vt.edu/circ-reserve/reserve-instructors/
That being said, textbooks are a complicated issue with several factors to consider. There are about 3,000 textbooks in use for any given semester and the titles are often not the same from one semester to the next. Some textbooks may only be used for a single semester, especially if the course is not offered regularly. Certain textbooks may be used across multiple sections while in other cases different instructors may choose entirely different textbooks for the same course.
Finally, when purchasing library materials we try to select books that are likely to have lasting value and interest. Many textbooks, particularly those for introductory courses, have new editions that come out quite frequently, making them quickly obsolete. Our textbook information page at http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/byformat/more/textbooks.html has more details on how to search the library catalog for those you need.
Ed Lener
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© 2012 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University