Suggestions & Questions from Our Library Users December 2011 Suggestions and questions grouped according to category where possible. 1. You can fix self check out. We are aware of inconveniences at the express self-checkout terminals and will be working to correct these in the coming months. 2. There used to be recycle boxes for ink cartridges, eye glasses & hearing aids, etc. Will those be back? Yes, those will be back. We are still settling in to our new building and have yet to determine the most convenient locations for recycling bins and boxes. 3. To better serve your patron, you should allow family members at same address to pick up reserved books on an alternate card at counter. We have heard your need and similar needs from other patrons and are looking into modifying our computer system to institute family checkout. In the meantime, I would remind you that you can share cards among family members with our new duplicate cards. 4. This is for all the employees. I want to say how wonderful the people are here. They’re very helpful, patient and accommodating. I know most of them. Today Ron Kilik helped me. He was so helpful and went out of his way to accommodate me. A very good person. Thanks very much for sharing your good experience with us and for the nice compliment for our reference staff member. We appreciate his efforts to go “out of his way” in helping you. 5. Could you in the future have some DVD movies for sale in the used book room? Thank You! I’m happy to inform you that the Friends of the Library sell DVDs at their Saturday sales several times a year. For security reasons we do not offer them on a regular basis in the Book Ends used bookstore. 6. Please provide a filter adult computer station for women or adults who prefer a filtered area. Thank you. The library board will be looking at revisions to our Computer and Internet Use by the Public Policy, and I will bring this to the board members for consideration at that time. Collection-related comments 7. I’m a senior in my 80’s. I come to the library weekly and check out DVD that I enjoy. I used to like to pick my DVD from the return carts, it saved time and I was able to enjoy a good variety of DVD. My friends have also made comments that like to pick from the carts. Please return them. Thank you for your great service. You’re welcome! In the past we used the return carts to handle overflow for when there was no room on the shelves. Now that we are in our new and improved library, we have additional shelving for our DVD collection. Thus, our DVDs are now shelved immediately because there are no space limitations. 8. I suggest getting some more sheet music. If possible, group the selection you already have together. I am always looking, but search results are nothing. I prefer browsing, but you can’t if books are scattered. Thank you for a great library . Thank you for your suggestion. Most of our books that include music scores or printed music are located within the Dewey decimal numbers 780-789 in the adult or juvenile non-fiction areas. The books are classified by type of music and are incorporated with other books on the same subject, for example, printed classical music would be located with books about classical music. Most of our printed music books can be searched in our online catalog to locate a specific song title. Please ask for help from one of our staff members at the Reference Desk or Children’s & Programming Desk. Building-related comments 9. Why can’t the fiction & mystery books closer to the front? Too far to walk when you have trouble walking? Do not like the general layout of the library. When designing our new library, our prime directive was to keep in place what we could in order to save money. The location of the fiction and mystery books is the same as in the previous configuration. The adult nonfiction collection is now nearer to the front door. 10. About Vending Machines. Can we have one that has sandwiches, soups, also ice cream? Thanks for the suggestion! Now that the vending area is open we will be evaluating how it is used with an eye to selecting the most popular items. When we had the café in the past, we had determined that quick snacks were the most popular items for our public. We may introduce a refrigerated vending machine later this year. We have no plans to offer the use of a microwave at this time. 11. The old library had two restrooms. 12. 2 Bathrooms. This is to far back from book & computers. As you can probably imagine, in planning a new facility we had many things to take into consideration, not the least of which is trying to fit everything within the limits of our site. In planning the public restrooms, we determined that one location with more stalls near the front entrance would be the most feasible. Handicapped parking spaces 13. My concern is for your handicapped parking. I hope that you take in the consternation people with disabilities and limited walking. Please don’t have it too far from the entrance. Thank you. 14. The handicapped parking is too far to walk. You are not thinking about the Seniors & disable. 15. Handicap park not in front of entrance to Library!!! 16. The new set up is not handicapp friendly. It’s to far to walk from the car. The side walk along side of building is to steep. I worry about winter. I used to love comeing here now I HATE it. 17. I am handicapped. The handicap parking is where the old entrance used to be. Can you please move them closer to the entrance (as soon as possible). I am also 66 yrs. old. We have heard you and others of your fellow patrons about the location of the handicapped parking spaces. I would like to tell you that those spaces must by law be placed on level ground and so at this time cannot be put directly in front of the new main entrance. We are putting on our thinking caps to come up with a solution to the distance-problem, and hope to have it in place come springtime. 18. Pour concrete over the area that’s currently dirt in front of the main entrance. THAT was not a good idea. I’m glad to inform you that the front of the building is not yet complete. We have landscaping and other work in the front that will be finished in the spring of this year. In the meantime, we are cordoning off the plot in front so that walkways are more clearly indicated. Please bear with us and pardon our dirt. 19. Please remove or reduce the air fresheners. I am allergic to them and become very sick when I visit. Thank you. I regret that you were made uncomfortable when you visited the library. Our air fresheners are claimed to be hypoallergenic. We will investigate more to ensure that they are. 20. Music CDs on the bottom is very low. Many people have to sit down. How ineffective is it compared to old ways: outstanding. Very effective. I’m pleased to point out that there are stools located throughout the library that can be utilized to browse book and CDs that are housed on lower shelves. We designed the new shelves to hold more items in a smaller space. 21. If you can have a room where kids all ages can just have fun and do whatever they want like play video games watch tv do homework. While the library does support recreational activities, we generally keep those related to learning activities, even our video games. We feel it is not in our mission to have a playhouse atmosphere here. 22. I think you should have a train going around the tree. Sounds like something fun, perhaps for a special event! 23. Nice remodel in many ways many not so many ways – Get rid of the unsightly carts at the check out desk. Make it look welcome for the public. Thank you for your suggestion. We are in the process of looking for ways to improve our new work spaces. Carts for moving library materials around are very much a part of what a library is all about. 24. Please put garbages at more convenient places at self check-out so as to dispose of hold slips. I’m happy to point out that there is a recycle bin located next to the first self check-out unit. 25. Nothing will change, but here goes: a. Bathroom location not convenient if one is using the computer lab. Please see my answer above. b. The cards did not require a password that had to be explained to use the printer. New system to allow all of library payments to be made with one card tied into your library account. As part of our revised computer reservation and printing systems, a PIN is now required to log on to a public Internet computer as well as to retrieve print jobs. In most cases, for registered library card holders, the PIN is the last seven digits of your phone number on record; however, this is not true for all patrons, especially those who have established PIN’s of their choosing, or have revised their PIN’s. By using an individual login and PIN at the printing system, this prevents others from accessing or accidentally printing other patrons’ print jobs, which patrons had expressed concern about with our previous system. Staff at the Reference or Children’s & Programming desks would be happy to help you if you experience difficulty in using a PIN with our computers or printers. c. The young ones have their section in the entrance. Seniors have to really be inconvenienced to have a visit. Thanks for the “New and improved library”. Please note that we have comfortable benches and chairs throughout the library. Our Quiet Reading Room, where many of our seniors like to gather, was not moved from its original location and is roughly the same distance from the new front entrance as from the old. d. Info desk not centrally located either. This is better for whom? Staff members at all desks are available and willing to answer your questions. If you need in-depth research, we offer that service in our Reference Department. e. Walking in each time to stack upon stack of books is not the best bet inviting. f. Really the beauty of the library visit was utterly defrayed. I appreciate your sharing your viewpoint on how the new building looks. I feel that we have done a good job in balancing utilitarian space needs with aesthetics in design. I have to be honest to say that, contrary to your opinion, I’ve heard many more compliments on the way our renovation turned out. g. Patrons think computer lab has internet. Being interrupted to attend to their questions is very irritating!! Where is a sign for computer. NO INTERNET ACCESS! Good idea. Thank you for your suggestion. A sign for the Computer Lab is in progress. 31. I used to enjoy coming to the library and go to the “Quiet Reading Room” to sit and read a good book. Can’t do that in the general area because the Warren Newport Library is one of the noises libraries I have ever been in. so the “Quiet Reading Room” was great. Went last week, picked a good James Patterson book and went into the “Quiet Room”. Sat down on one of the new chairs and was very disappointed. The chairs are hard and the seats are not accommodating for people of shorter stature. The seats hit at the wrong spot and my legs were literally dangling. The people/person who chose these chairs must not like sitting and enjoying a good book/magazine or whatever. Some of them have arms and some don’t. Who wants to sit in an uncomfortable chair without any arms? Very disappointed and I truly feel that who ever chose these chairs put good money into a bad decision. There has to be a remedy? Sell these outrageous chairs and get some good comfortable chairs. The ones that you let go were ideal and I realize some not in the best of shape but they were COMFORTABLE!! Please consider those of us who enjoy this space and do something about these awful chairs!! Thank you. Thank you for letting us know how you use the library and our furniture. I must tell you that we’ve also heard many positives about our new chairs from other patrons. Based on your comments, we will look into chairs that are more comfortable for patrons of shorter stature. Thank you for taking the time to help us improve our service to you. Stephen Bero, Director Patron comments appear here unabridged and unedited.