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An Open Letter to Students...

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  • An Open Letter to Students...

    ...You've known from the start of term when this assignment is due. We understand that this paper is a bore. We also understand that the Prof is a slave-driver. Hey, have a heart. Your procrastination is not an emergency for us.

    We are not your College Library. We are not the Public Library system. We are a Museum Library that can provide exceptional service. We can do that only if you give us the time and the information to get what you need. We cannot provide optimum service if all of you decide to hit us at the same time. Here are some things you can do to help us better serve you:

    1) Make an appointment. There are only 2 people at the Reference desk at any given time. A Wednesday afternoon crush of 20 students isn't going to get anyone the best service.

    2) Do your homework before you come here. It isn't helpful when you come to the Ref. Desk and proclaim that you want information about "Egypt", "The Yoruba" or "China". The last makes us wonder if you are interested in the country, dinner service or any combination of the above. Please, if you can, show us the assignment.

    3) Use the catalog. It's right behind you on the public computers. We know you know how to use a computer. You've been trying to access your Email, MySpace or the deity knows what for the last 20 minutes and bunging the thing up for other people who really want to do research.

    4) We realise and respect that the espousal of new beliefs may lead to a change of name. That's a tradition that goes back thousands of years and it is done in many cultures. However, if the name on your photo ID is 'Claire Jones', don't present yourself as 'Ma'at As't Neteru'.

    5) You can do your research standing at the Ref Desk but it really isn't a good idea when there is a line of people waiting to actually get books and sit down in the Reading Room to work. Yes, take all the time you need to make your notes and decide what photocopies you need. Spread your elbows wide. Take up a lot of space. No one else needs any room at the Ref Desk, do they?

    The kicker of the day came from a young man who showed up at 4 PM. He knew what he wanted and I got it for him. He seemed very happy with his material until I told him that the Library was closing in 15 minutes. "Ooh, you close?"

    Well, yes we do close and we're doing so in 15 minutes. [As an alternative, we'll be open 24/7 and grab what sleep we can on unused shelves in the stacks].
    Research is the art of reading what everyone has read and seeing what no one else has seen.

  • #2
    Our apologies.

    Not for myself, for my fellow students.

    On the whole, we're all idiots unless someone holds our hands through the entire process. (Maybe thats why higher education has become an intellectual wasteland?)

    Perhaps you can take some small comfort in the fact that you may have been their first brush with reality that hasn't been filtered by either mommy/daddy or a prof/TA.

    So, for the sake of those of us who finished our research BEFORE the paper was due, please give them as much reality as you can dish out!

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    • #3
      College seems to have become more of a four-year stint of Remedial Life 101.
      "Always stand near the door." -- Doctor Who

      Kuya's Kitchen -- Cooking, Cooking Gadgets, and Food Related Blather from a Transplanted Foodie

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      • #4
        Quoth marasbaras View Post
        College seems to have become more of a four-year stint of Remedial Life 101.
        And, as evidenced by some of my customers* and by one of my wife's friends**, some people need to go back and try again because they didn't get it the first time.

        *A customer this week, when asked how he would be paying, blinked at me and told me he didn't know.
        **A former roommate who has delinquent accounts with Verizon and T-Mobile but has decided to ignore them and get a new phone with Sprint, even though she has no intention of paying the bills.
        I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
        - Bill Watterson

        My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
        - IPF

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        • #5
          **A former roommate who has delinquent accounts with Verizon and T-Mobile but has decided to ignore them and get a new phone with Sprint, even though she has no intention of paying the bills.
          Don't worry, we all end up paying the bills for her in the form of higher bills for us. How nice of us, eh?
          "Always stand near the door." -- Doctor Who

          Kuya's Kitchen -- Cooking, Cooking Gadgets, and Food Related Blather from a Transplanted Foodie

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth HawaiianShirts View Post
            **A former roommate who has delinquent accounts with Verizon and T-Mobile but has decided to ignore them and get a new phone with Sprint, even though she has no intention of paying the bills.
            and sprint is letting her have a phone ?!?

            oh and to the OP, not all us students are stupid... just the majority of us... and as one who tries not to be stupid, please do continue dishing out those little doses of reality to the ditzes out there who don't know anything (oh sorry, ditz is now an offensive word according to SLCC... I wish I was joking when I said the school is doing a campaign against hateful speech... they are doing this by putting up signs with words to avoid and their meaning... apparently now skinny is an offensive term... and as a fat guy please do insult me all you want by calling me skinny).
            If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

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            • #7
              You skinny, humorless geek. What's wrong with you anyway?

              OK?

              Comment


              • #8
                I work in a public library, so....hmm, can't imagine how diff. it is from a museum library. I imagine you also find unused condoms behind the microfilm readers, empty cans and bottles of beer behind the copy machines, and people leaving their kids dirty diapers behind a metal cabinet, when the trash can is 2 feet way (not even mentioning that the bathroom is 6 feet away...because that 6 feet to walk might as well be on top of Mt. Everest; though if you want to be PC you should refer to Mt. Everest as eitehr Jomolungma or Sagarmatha).

                4) We realise and respect that the espousal of new beliefs may lead to a change of name. That's a tradition that goes back thousands of years and it is done in many cultures. However, if the name on your photo ID is 'Claire Jones', don't present yourself as 'Ma'at As't Neteru'.
                We have a waiting list for the newspaper. So we call out names when it becomes available. One person gave me his name as "god". I called out "good" when it was his turn.
                Last edited by depechemodefan; 04-24-2008, 10:12 PM.
                Time! Time! Time is what turns kittens into cats.

                Don't teach me a lesson; all I learn is that you are an asshole.

                I wish porn had subtitles.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Ah, the lovely kiddies.

                  Passwords expire every semester. Do you know how many seniors have called and yelled at me for this "new" policy? Newsflash, guys, I've been here 3 years. It wasn't new then. Deal.

                  When I ask for a phone number, it should be a 10 digit number at which I can reach YOU. 10 digits. No more, no less. A 9 digit number isn't that helpful. Neither is the number to your parents' house.

                  We refused to fix the problem that we don't want to be held liable for. That's the end of our responsibility. We're being nice by supplying a business card for a guy in town. While we're sorry he screwed you over, there's nothing we can or want to do about it.
                  SC: “Yeah, Bob’s Company. I'm Bob. It's my company.” - GK
                  SuperHotelWorker made my Avi!!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I spent a semester and two summers at a college library...actually the worst people I had to deal with were the EW tenured faculty (what do you MEAN I have to bring back in my books to renew them?!?!)

                    But, yeah, waiting until the night before to do a paper/project/whatever is par for the course in college (especially grad school, I have now learned), but don't take the suckiness out on the library.
                    "Even arms dealers need groceries." ~ Ziva David, NCIS

                    Tony: "Everyone's counting on you, just do what you do best."
                    Abby: "Dance?" ~ NCIS

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Thank you to all who replied. I think we all know how hard College can be. I went through Graduate School and Menopause at the same time. I can't suggest that for anyone reading here. Young ladies (and gentlemen) get your degree as young as you can. Take it from one who has gone the long, strange trip it was.

                      I may have some issues with the young students. They are intelligent but they often do not know the basics of research. I have had to teach college students in an honors program how to read the index in a book.

                      It really isn't their fault. For their entire lives, these fine, young people have been told that they are the best that the world has to offer. They may become so but they have a lot to learn. Potential isn't actuality.

                      I've also encountered adult students who were going back to school. The school they found was nothing like the school they knew. These people have a High-School diploma or a GED. They know what the real world is like.

                      These people come to College with a refreshingly jaundiced eye. They learned how to do research many years ago. They may not be able to question their Professors in the classroom but they certainly do question their assignments in the Library. They want to know. They want to learn and they aren't going to take any cr@p from Profs who are 30 years younger than they are.

                      Let's sing a little encouraging song for Students of any age who want to work, who want to learn and who will succeed at last.
                      Research is the art of reading what everyone has read and seeing what no one else has seen.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I spent a semester and two summers at a college library...actually the worst people I had to deal with were the EW tenured faculty (what do you MEAN I have to bring back in my books to renew them?!?!)
                        At the college I went to the profs never brought the books back, much less renewed them.

                        Ok, my rant, which is not parent friendly. I hate it when parents do the kids work. Many times a parent calls and ask, for ex., "Do you have books on the slave trade in the Caribbean?" then I find out that their kid (sometimes senior high or even college) has a project, and mommy is looking for the books. Um, I think the teacher/professor wants the student to go to the library, look up the books in the catalog, pick the ones he/she feels fits the assignment. You know, do research. I don't think the teacher thinks the only part that matters is what the kid turned in. Ugh, hate it when the parents do the work. What do the students learn? I ahd one parent, who lived in the rich part of town (I even called her to tell her that we found some books that were missing when she put them on hold, and her maid answered the phone) who told me her child went to some high-faluting school and he got (whatever is high) on the SAT. Ok, so you could pay his ass for a fancy school and he tests well. We know when he has to make a decision, like what housing he gets, he has to call mommy to decide for him.

                        ugh.

                        Oh, and I remember this one parent with her offspring who must have been in his early 20's. They come in and the mom is the one who asks where he can take the GED and where are the study guides. He can't even ask a question, no wonder he couldn't bother to graduate school.

                        Ok, if someone says, "well I never graduated, I got an GED and I'm smart and make $120,000/yr" well, milage will vary.
                        Time! Time! Time is what turns kittens into cats.

                        Don't teach me a lesson; all I learn is that you are an asshole.

                        I wish porn had subtitles.

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