Piping Up

We will look into having the carrels cleaned. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Job postings at SFU, including SFU Library positions, are listed on SFU’s Human Resources page at:

http://www.sfu.ca/human-resources/index.html

Click on the link, “Employment at SFU” in the left hand column. Or you can take this direct link:

http://www.sfu.ca/human-resources/hr_services/advisory_services/employment_at_sfu/index.html

Best regards,

Thanks for your feedback. We have tried technical solutions at least with respect to the gaming and have not yet found a solution to that problem. The other whittling away activities are even more problematic because short of blocking specific websites such as YouTube, mySpace or Facebook it’s impossible to restrict access to them. And blocking websites is not a practice we undertake.

If students are disrupting others through loud gaming, we will talk with them and we have had some success in blocking SFU computing IDs where someone is signing on their non-SFU friends using their own ID. That is not allowed.

We are continuing to look at other technical solutions but in the end your suggestion of “asking people to be a little more friggin’ courteous” may be the best approach but I realize that it is not an option that many students which to take.

Thank you very much for your feedback. I’m very happy to hear that you are pleased with the renovation of the new quiet study space on the 6th floor. Most of the recent physical upgrades to the library study/lounge spaces over the past 5 years have been funded through a mixture of Campus Campaign dollars mainly donated by library staff as well as endowment monies and some direct library budget dollars. As you are well aware the University is in a tight budget situation so further dollars from the central pot have been difficult to secure. Receiving feedback directly from students will certainly help in our drive to improve the Bennett Library space. I’d be happy to do a walkthrough with you to get your ideas on these “wasted areas”.

But on the financial side, who to contact? There are three individuals that come to mind:

1. Lynn Copeland, University Librarian, who would be happy to include student experiences and needs when reporting the Library’s funding request to to University’s senior administration. Lynn’s email is copeland@sfu.ca and I’ve cc’d her on this message.
2. Dr. Mario Pinto, VP Research, to whom the Library directly reports. Mario’s email is vpres@sfu.ca .
3. Dr. Pat Hibbitts, VP Finance and Administration, who leads the financial discussions. Pat’s email is pat_hibbitts@sfu.ca .

Both Mario and Pat have been big supporters of the Library through their respective VP portfolios.

Thank you for your support.

Best regards,

A: Hi. We are also frustrated at times on the best way to present the thousands of databases and other electronic resources available from the SFU Library’s website. Apart from the large, and still growing, number of resources, determining the most popular ones can be problematic. Quite often, this can be a very discipline, or even course, specific consideration.

We do provide something similar to the Library website at Monash University at the subject or discipline level. For example, if you follow our “Journal articles & databases” link from the SFU Library’s home page, and select one of the choices under “Browse databases by subject area:” the resulting display usually shows the “Top Resources” in that discipline followed by “Other Resources. Here is an example for the subject area of Global Health:

http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca/CRDB/BVAS/browse/facets/subject/636

Now I have to admit I’ve cheated a bit with the above example. Some of our subject areas have more Top Resources than Other Resources and the list can go on for several screens. Which is very frustrating and probably still doesn’t provide exactly what you would like to see.

Yes to both your questions! Your original University student card is still good as your library card; for full details on alumni borrowing see http://www.lib.sfu.ca/my-library/services-for-you/alumni

On page 41 of Hugh Johnston’s book, “Radical Campus: Making Simon Fraser University”, he states the following:

“Surrey identified 800 acres south and east of the Pattullo Bridge over the Fraser River, an area that has since been preserved as the Green Timbers Forest Reserve. Coquitlam promised 800 acres at Essondale, which survive today in their semi-natural state as Mundy Park.

To view these sites and the road systems that served them, Shrum took a slow-flying B.C. Hydro seaplane, an amphibious Grumman Goose, over the lower Fraser Valley (at Hydro expense). That gave him a bird’s-eye view of all the locations, but the Langley, Delta and Surrey sites never were in the running: they were too far east or south. The Coquitlam site was closer in an had potential; but Shrum had his mind set on Burnaby Mountain.”

Johnston, Hugh J. M. Radical campus: making Simon Fraser University. Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre, 2005; page 41.

For further explanation you may wish to contact Dr. Johnston at hjohnsto@sfu.ca .

Best regards,

Todd M. Mundle
Associate University Librarian

Thank you for your request. I have ordered a copy of this title “on demand” for you. This means that you will be notified via email when it is ready for you to pick up.

Thank you for your request. Unfortunately, we will not be purchasing this title as it falls outside of our collection development policy (see section 2.4 at http://www.lib.sfu.ca/collections/collections-policies).

As it is such a recent publication, it does not seem to be available yet at either Vancouver or Burnaby Public Libraries, but I would check back again soon.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

The Fall semester Food for Fines campaign begins this Sunday, November 22, 2009. You may pay off up to $20 worth of fines by contributing food for the SFU food bank. The food items should be non perishable and you will receive a $2 fine reduction for each item (up to a maximum of ten (10) items). Just bring the food to the Loans counter at the Bennett, Belzberg or Surrey campus library and your Fine will be adjusted accordingly.

I hope this answered your question.