LIS Suggestions

Why is wireless slowest when everyone needs it?

Carrie Macfarlane — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:52:04 +0000

Why does the wireless not work in the library when there are more people (between 8-11pm) in it? This seems to be when it is slowest or not working at all. During the day, midd_unplugged seems to work the fastest but is slow at that. Why does the library always have such problems with wireless? There are plenty of transmitters/routers mounted around, but I’m looking at a page that has been loading for 7 minutes now, still unsuccessfully. At peak calling hours or during heavy network usage my cell phone does not take a long time to connect via its wireless towers…

From Evan

Netbooks available for borrowing?

Carrie Macfarlane — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:50:44 +0000

Is the library planning to add some netbooks (Dell Mini or EeePC or the like) to the faculty/staff (and/or general) loaner pool? They would be a welcome addition to the current options. Thanks!

From Jess Isler

Bring back book retrieval

Carrie Macfarlane — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:02:13 +0000

Please bring back that service where you can request book/cds online from other Middlebury libraries and then simply pick them up from the one closest to you . I was really able to utilize that for the music library because I rarely have the opportunity to go down there. It was such a great service…I really hate to see it go

From sherb

Option to change output printer at print release stations

Carrie Macfarlane — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:46:17 +0000

Yesterday, I was irritated by the fact that both 242 & 242k printers were supposed to work (green signs), so I sent my document to 242k (default), went to the print room and saw a guy in front of me who’s document has just caused a network problem (error 33 I believe) on the 242k printer. I wish I would have sent it to 242 instead (or both) because as a result of the malfunctioning printer, I had to make one more trip back to a carrel and back to the print room.

I wrote on the poster that we should have an option (in print release stations) to manually change the output printer on demand. That would be handy especially in cases of 242k or 242 not working and the other printer working. The green/red signs are great but they cannot be updated realtime. Thence from now on, I do not trust them until I see a printer working on my own.

Anyways, so today I see that somebody wrote a comment “Amazing Idea” next to my original post. I wonder if it was a staff member (and so we might actually see an improvement in possibilities of our print-release software) or it was another student standing behind the idea. In the later case of two, I would like to speak up hoping that a qualified staff member will provide a feedback.

Thanks, Erik Fendik (student & Wilson Media Lab Tutor, LIS)

Contact HelpDesk via website

Carrie Macfarlane — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:51:47 +0000

Link for emailing the Helpdesk DIRECTLY from the web, without having to use email. This is because a recurring problem (that is taking exceedngly too long to fix) is occuring. A number of people can’t log into their webmail middlebury address so they have no concrete way fo contacting the helpdesk from the coputers. And therefore they have no way to immediately communicate the continuation of the problem to support. When we call, we are asked “are you at a computer now?” Therefore, it seems a necessity to have a direct communication other than webmail to the helpdesk.

From Annalisa

Link to library hours

Carrie Macfarlane — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:48:34 +0000

Is there a link to library hours? If so what is it? If not my suggestion is that one be created with hours for all libraries.
Thanks,

david

From David Dorman

Change passwords at a more convenient time

Carrie Macfarlane — Thu, 07 May 2009 19:46:50 +0000

A professor’s point of view: I don’t know if everyone has to change their password by next week but it is possibly the worst time of year in terms of being busy for faculty. Two weeks later when grades are in would be much smoother I would think. Just my two cents.

Display more location info in Midcat

Carrie Macfarlane — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:11:58 +0000

This is not really my suggestion; I’m passing it along:

A user from outside the Middlebury College community (a college library director from another Vermont institution) using the Middlebury catalog remarked that it was difficult to determine which library housed the particular item she was interested in. A patron of hers planned to travel here to use the item, and wanted to make sure she had her destination correct.

I have no way of knowing whether or not this is a common concern, but I wonder if it might warrant exploring additional options for displaying additional location information? Would it help to add “Main Library/Armstrong library/Music library” in addition to the current location information for those patrons who don’t know what “Armstrong stacks” or “Main stacks lower level” mean? (Or to help those who aren’t even aware that we have branch libraries?)

Thanks!

From Jess Isler

Link to course descriptions from course schedule page

Carrie Macfarlane — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:33:50 +0000

it would be nice if you could get to the course descriptions straight from the course schedule page. At the moment, when you click the CRN of a course on the page it takes you to a BannerWeb page labeled “Class Schedule Listing.” Could the course descriptions that are on the various academic department pages be linked or pasted into this BannerWeb page?

From Nolan Maier

Add a street address to “Campus Maps” page

Carrie Macfarlane — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:23:39 +0000

Let’s add a street address for Middlebury College to our “Campus Maps” page so that visitors can enter the address into their car’s GPS. The St Michael’s map does this.