Update on Printing and Lab Computers from Technology Services

Posted on September 15, 2011 by rkuglitch

We’ve received a lot of feedback about printing since the beginning of the semester. We have a guest post from Cindy Riche,  Director of Client Support & Educational Technology Services to address your concerns.

Hi, all!  I just wanted to thank everyone for hanging in there as we worked to resolve some start of the semester issues with printing and computers in the library.  We are really sorry for the inconvenience this created for many of you.

We made updates on Friday, Sept.9, that we believe have fixed the problems, but if you continue to experience any issues, please contact the Technology Service Desk at 253.879.8585 or servicedesk@pugetsound.edu.

Thank you so much,

Cindy Riche

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Study Carrels on Mezzanine

Posted on September 13, 2011 by jpelger

I have written every 5+ page paper since Spring of freshman year at the big desks in the music section.  Now I am a senior and they are gone.  I would like to see more individual study spaces outside of main areas (2nd floor desks are too loud, basement rooms too claustrophobic).  Thank you!

Thanks for the feedback.  It must be a shock to lose your favorite study space.  We have heard from a lot of students about bringing more natural light into the building and increasing seating.  We also wanted to open up the music stacks and make them more appealing to students in this discipline.  We take your comments seriously and will consider how to build in more quiet, personal study and work spaces into the library spaces.  In the meantime, why not consider being part of the Library Advisory Committee?  This way you can directly impact the planning of library spaces.  Check-in with the library administrative office.

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Learning Commons Screen

Posted on September 9, 2011 by rkuglitch

While most everything about this library is superb, I find the TV in the 1st floor computer area to be an unnecessary distraction. I’m not sure if the intention of playing CNN all day is to engage students with world news – if it is, I appreciate the thought. However, I believe that TVs are more at home in sports bars and airports than the library. If students really want good news they can find it on the internet! I think having the TV off at all times would foster a more serious and focused study environment

Thanks for your feedback! We really appreciate your complement, and thanks for letting us know that the TV is distracting right now.

The Learning Commons screen was installed last year, and functions as an electronic notice board and display and, as you’ve noticed, also as a TV. You’re exactly right that we hope having CNN on will connect students to world news. During the quieter, more informal summer months, we commonly turned to the screen for a news stream.

However, now that the college is in session, we agree that it’s more useful and less distracting to revert to mainly library announcements, with only an hour or so of news per day or when special events occur (for example, State of the Union addresses and so forth).

So, if you haven’t noticed it already, we hope you’ll soon notice the change.

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New DVD section lighting: We heard you!

Posted on August 26, 2011 by rkuglitch

The Lighting in the New DVD section is poor/dim

We agree. We did some major renovations and collection moves in that area this summer, and are currently working with university electricians to improve the lighting.

Thanks for letting us know, and please be patient with us, as we hope this will be resolved in the next few weeks!

Update, 9/1/2011: The light situation should be resolved. Light bulbs have been replaced, so it is much brighter!

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We look forward to hearing from you

Posted on August 24, 2011 by jpelger

Welcome back to our returning students and a big welcome to our new campus members.

Please don’t hesitate to share your library feedback with us.   There are comment boxes at both of the library service desks.  You can also send an e-mail to libref@pugetsound.edu

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LIBRARY LOGGED: See you in the fall…

Posted on May 10, 2011 by jpelger

Thank you to everyone who has submitted comments this year.  We appreciate the feedback.

Congratulations to our graduates.  For those of you coming back in the fall, we look forward to your return.

Have a safe and happy summer!

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LIBRARY LOGGED: Snack Machine!

Posted on May 6, 2011 by rkuglitch

You should put a snack machine in the basement — just take McIntyre’s

We think McIntyre might have something to say about  that (like, maybe, “Stay away from my snack machine, library!”).

However, if you do need a snack in the library, there is lots of room in the downstairs break area for snacking on what you’ve packed in and some comfy couches to sit on while you snack.

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LIBRARY LOGGED: A compliment

Posted on April 29, 2011 by rkuglitch

Thank you for being so nice!

You’re welcome!

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LIBRARY LOGGED: Printers…

Posted on April 26, 2011 by jpelger

Printers Suck!

One of the library’s main functions is to provide working printers that operate on a consistent basis.  This is often not the case.  The directions offered on the console for self-repair and management are often hard to follow and ineffectual.  Work study employees infrequently seem to know how to fix the problem.  I suggest that the library hire, train or borrow a Technology Services technician who does know how to deal this this issue.  Students would be happier and they might even have recourse to recycling single-sided paper if only the printers worked enough to allow this.

We understand that the printers can be frustrating and problematic at times.  It is most helpful for us to address these problems if we are alerted to them at the time they are happening and which specific printer is experiencing the problem.

While printing is available in the library, ultimately, the printers fall under the purview of Technology Services.  The library staff do all they can to fix printer issues, but some problems are beyond our capabilities.  Many printer problems do not lie with the actual printer but perhaps with the print server.   In these instances, it requires Technology Services to address the problem from the server level.   In other instances, the problem lies with the print job being sent to the printer.  This was the center of the problem with the laptop printers in the library Reading Room several weeks ago.  Essentially, there were “bad” (for lack of a better word) print jobs sent to the printer.  This resulted in a vague error message and prompted the user to turn the printer off and on again to cancel the current print job causing the error.   If an individual continued to send problematic print jobs, not realizing they were the source of the error, it would just cause the error to continue.  In this case, it is a matter of extreme patience to continue to cancel the problematic prints and encourage library users to re-install the laptop printers with the updated instructions that will prevent this from occurring in the future.

Technology Services is working on campus-wide changes to printing that should alleviate many problems experienced in the past.

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LIBRARY LOGGED: Limiting search to Collins

Posted on April 22, 2011 by rkuglitch

The new database interfaces are ridiculous and impossible to use. While I appreciate the attempt to increase our access to sources, you’ve made it nearly impossible to find sources in OUR library. I have to go digging to limit my searches to sources I will actually be able to use. Please stop FORCING me to search the entire planet when I’m just trying to find sources that we have here.

As you’ve noticed, our default searches are very wide, well beyond the confines of what the library owns. We’ve chosen to make that level of discovery the default in Puget Sound WorldCat because we want Puget Sound students to be aware of the widest possible options and to be able to select resources on their topics based on the relevance and excellence of the source, not just on availability. As the library is part of Summit, which allows us to exchange books and videos with 36 other academic libraries in the Pacific Northwest, and has an interlibrary loan program, we hope you can actually use what you find outside the library.

That said, there are definitely times when it’s essential to just look at what’s here at Collins, so while it’s not the default, we do have a couple of options to make that possible.

  • If you’re looking for books or videos at Collins, use Collins Catalog to search just our books, videos, and ebooks.
  • Alternatively, if you prefer the interface of Puget Sound WorldCat but don’t want to search the world, you can use Puget Sound WorldCat to just search local materials. Enter your keywords, press search, and then use the dropdown menu below the searchbox to limit to just Puget Sound materials.

Hopefully, exercising these options will make it possible to calibrate your search to what you need and want, but please let us know any other feedback. We’re always interested in what we can do to make our tools better suit your needs. Add a comment to this post, send us your thoughts on a comment card (real or virtual) or just stop by and chat with a librarian.

The new database interfaces are ridiculous and impossible to use. While I appreciate the attempt to increase our access to sources, you’ve made it nearly impossible to find sources in OUR library. I have to go digging to limit my searches to sources I will actually be able to use. Please stop FORCING me to search the entire planet when I’m just trying to find sources that we have here.

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