August 2009 Archives

It's really cold in here. Can it be at least a little warmer? It doesn't have to be this cold.

Ah, if only we were able to achieve the ideal temperature setting in every area of Paley Library. But given the nature of our 165,000 square foot facility, and the idiosyncrasies of our heating and cooling system, were we to ask facilities to come and warm up the building, we might regret that the very next day by experiencing too warm temperatures. While we do our best to regulate the temperature across the entire Paley building, there are going to be situations where it may be too cold or too warm for individual preferences in any particular spot in the facility. But it would be a challenge to warm up or cool down any specific zone without perhaps affecting the temperature in another zone. The Temple University's facilities department regulates the building temperature on a seasonal basis. This can be a challenge if it is unseasonably warm or cold for a few days.

If you find the area where you like to study a bit cold from time to time, bring along your favorite hoody. And if you do want us to follow up on what you think is a particular problem, please be sure to let us know exactly what part of the Paley building you think needs a temperature adjustment. We will then follow up.

Your library does not allow visitor get into internet, even if the visitor uses his own laptop. It is unreasonble for a public university to refuse local tax payer to use their library. Suggestion: set up a public access code for vistor so that they can access the internet network, at least as they use their own laptop.

Your message has a few misconceptions that I'd like to clear up. Let's take them one by one:

Your library does not allow visitor get into internet: This is not correct. We do offer access to the Internet to members of the public. But you do need to be on-site and you must use a designated computer. For more information ask about Internet access ask at any Library service desk.

Even if the visitor uses his own laptop: This is correct - BUT - no college or university we know of allows members of the public to access their wireless network on their own laptop. If you know of one, please tell us where to find them. Our wireless network is an encrypted, secure network. We have to do this or anybody in the city could use our wireless signal to get on the Internet. Temple University's Computer Services Department does not allow us to create any codes to allow members of the public to access the wireless network because it is a computer security risk. We do not think this is unreasonable, and you are able to use the designated computers when you are here.

It is unreasonable for a public university to refuse local tax payer to use their library: This is incorrect. Not only are the Temple University Libraries open to the local tax paying public, but we are open to the entire world. We allow anyone from anywhere to use our Libraries. As long as any member of the public abides by our library use policies, they will never be refused access to our Library.

So we welcome you to use our library and its resources - and you can certainly access the Internet here even if you are not a student - but we are unfortunately unable to allow members of the public to access the Internet via our wireless network using a laptop computer.

We should be able to pay our library fines online It is 2009. You can pay for almost everything online. Why not Temple library fines? Other libraries provide this convenience, Why not Temple? Temple's library system seem awfully low-tech.

This is a fine suggestion. We'd love to be able to offer online bill payment for overdue book fines, lost book fines, etc. It may very well be that other libraries offer this option, but I am not aware of them. In any case, regardless of what other libraries may offer, Temple University (and this isn't something the Libraries can do independently - obviously we can only offer e-commerce options if the University makes it available) is currently in the midst of migrating its entire financial software system to a new system called Banner. We inquired about the possibilities of having an online payment option. That is definitely part of the future plan. However, given the implementation schedule we can't expect this to be available until some time in 2012.

In the meantime we do offer the convenience of Diamond Dollar payment for all types of fines - but only in person. Again, Diamond Dollars doesn't offer an online payment option.

If enough students feel strongly that Temple Universityshould make online payment options available, they may want to bring this to the attention of the University administration.