Your comments are important to us: they let us know what you need in your library.

We'll post our replies to your comments here if it's appropriate and we'll email you the answer if you include your email address.

Make a Comment.

03.07.12 More powerpoints in the silent areas please

Hi, It would be extremely helpful if the silent zones in the library had more power point access, as there is only a few spots in which they can be located. in which makes it harder for those who bring laptops to study with. Just a suggestion! Thankyou :)

Thank you for your timely suggestion. As you may know, we're looking at a plan to refurbish the Library over time and I have forwarded your suggestion to the group who are planning this.

22.08.12 Hot Water for Vend For Yourself

Hi, is there any possibility that the library could have a boiler or something in the Vend For Yourself area where we could get some hot drinking water? Thank you.

Thank you for the suggestion. We have looked at providing this but at the moment there are difficulties in providing plumbing to the area. We are continuing to seek ways to improve such services in the Library and please check out other options.

02.07.12 BIOL120 Assignment

I recently went on the library subject guide for biology to try and find information for my essay due at the end of the month and found to my dismay that the guide has not been updated for biology 120 and has no links to sites for plant biology. also the essay help is still set to DFTD and the databases all seem to be based around animal biology. i have trouble with writing tasks at the best of times and it is extremely disheartening to find that a university specialising in external studies with one of the best library facilities cant update the systems to help struggling external students. Cassandra.

Hi Cassandra, sorry you couldn't easily find what you were after, and thank you for getting in touch with us.

To find help with your BIOL120 assignment, can I recommend that you use the specific guide for plant science Botany?

We don't have a specific Assignment help page for the BIOL120 essay because each student has a different plant species.

However, if you would like some assistance in locating useful information, please submit a Subject Search request.

A librarian will send you helpful information on how to search for information on your topic.

Subject search forms are on most Library pages: try the Student Services page and choose Subject Search from the green menu on the right.

30.06.12 Drinking Taps

Please clean up the drinking taps (fountains) located each floor. Thanks.

Thank you for the information and we'll attend to this promptly.

15.06.12 Library Forms Inconvenient

I think the off campus library form for item request is inconvenient. Why isn't all the details for the request on one web page (it is spread across three pages)? It also seems impossible to request multiple items.

Also why do we have a different login and password for the Library and another login and password for myUNE. Jonathan.

Thanks for your email, Jonathan, we appreciate the feedback.

I’m sorry you’ve found the form inconvenient. Many patrons found our older single page form difficult to use as there was too much in one place. On one screen, especially for novices to the system it can be a bit overwhelming. Of course, once you’ve got your head round it, I can see that it could be annoying to have to step through the process. If we get a number of complaints about the multiple pages, we will of course revert to the single screen.

It is currently impossible to request multiple items because our current understanding of the legal requirements on us. We are however, reviewing the system to see if multiple requests can be accomodated.

The problem of the multiple logins is one we’d very much like to solve. We are working with the University’s IT department to try to have this changed but it’s a big job and requires time.

I hope we can make the system better for you and everyone else in the near future.

14.06.12 Online dictionaries

Is there an online dictionary? Anthony.

Dear Anthony, we have lots!

Firstly, we have subject dictionaries. A quick way to view these is to click on the Subject Guides button on our Library Home Page and then find your subject. Most subject pages have a listing dictionaries and encyclopedias.

If it’s a dictionary of English language that you’re after, see the Oxford Reference Collection which contains lots of subject dictionaries as well as dictionaries specific to different forms of English: UK, Canadian and US.

You can also find an English language dictionary via title search in our catalogue on "Oxford dictionary of English".

20.04.12 Library Opening Hours

I think it would be very helpful to have a link to the library opening hours on the Library homepage! This is not something we students need to waste time trying to find. I only found it when I clicked the make a comment link and many people don't take the time to do that! Wendy.

Dear Wendy, there is already a link to the opening hours on the home page, under the menu item About us. However, we are planning to do better. Keep an eye on our Home Page, which will soon show the day's opening hours.

04.04.12 Cost of Book Returns

As a new external student, I am disappointed to learn that I will not be able to access the UNE library for borrowing items sent by mail, as the return postage costs are too prohibitive especially for someone on a very limited budget (e.g. pension). I have just returned my first, and last, borrowed book! So much for "free" library service for distance students. Liz.

Hi Liz, I regret that you find the return postage costs for books will limit your borrowing. The Library does provide other information resources which will benefit your study:

• Electronic books are an increasing percentage of books purchased by the Library.
• Scholarly journal articles are available full-text online.
• Scholarly journal articles and individual book chapters available only in print can be scanned and emailed to you. You need to follow the instructions for requesting them.
• The University Libraries Australia borrowing scheme allows you to register at your nearest university library and borrow directly from them.

There are links on the page http://www.une.edu.au/library/services-for/students.php to tell you more about each of these services.

27.03.12 Noise in the Library

Maybe some signage asking people to keep conversations to a quiet level would help. Also asking people to put their mobile phones on silent, and to make phone calls outside the library. The library should always be a quiet place for students to work, but unfortunately at times it is not. Ben

Hi Ben, thanks for your comment. If you are in the Learning Commons (the ground floor) of Dixson Library I’m sorry to say that you should be experiencing noise. The idea of the Learning Commons is to encourage collaborative learning and joint (noisy) working conditions. Quiet areas should be available on the other floors however and indeed, these are signposted which helps if you are trying to encourage fellow students to be hushed

All that said, I think it’s quite reasonable if you are in one of the designated quiet areas to either ask others to respect the quiet zones OR ask the staff at the Service Desk and we will arrange for someone to make the request for quiet. In the Learning Commons, staff will request quiet if patrons are being unnecessarily loud or if the noise is clearly unrelated to group study or learning, so again, under the right circumstances you can request Library staff to assist.

Mobile phone usage is always an issue in public spaces and whilst we hope that people will be thoughtful about their use, we can’t guarantee it. We know from experiences in other libraries that bans on mobile phones don’t seem to work and are very hard to police.

26.03.12 Opening Hours and Computer Access

I think the library needs to consider opening from 8:30am - 5pm on Saturday and Sunday to cater for students who want to study at this time also. Also, the library needs to really consider investing in more computer terminals as there has obviously been an increase in student enrolments, but no increase in facilities and it is really hard to find a computer during the day. Trent

Dear Trent, thanks for your comments. See my answer to Jason (below) for our plans to extend opening hours on a trial basis. We are certainly open to the idea of more computers in the Commons.

26.03.12 Opening Hours

I was wondering if consideration has been given to open the library eariler on the weekend? I have studied at other unis and find it a bit odd at UNE I have to wait until 1pm on a Saturday or Sunday? Thanks Jason.

Dear Jason, The Library staff have been discussing this for several months. We hope to offer pilot expanded hours on weekends, soon. Unlike other university libraries, we have quite a small staff and having staff work weekends can reduce our numbers at our busiest times during week day business hours. This year we have increased our hours across the year to accommodate the new trimester system and we will also be open for 3 public holidays. Thanks for your comment. It's always good to hear what patrons really want and I hope the planned changes suit your needs.

26.03.12 Cutting and Pasting into the online forms

I would love to see the online catalogue system letting us automatically transfer the relevant information into online request forms. At the moment we have to cut and paste the information into say a word document and then copy and paste it line by line into the online request form. It would be great if the two systems worked together. Leigh

Dear Leigh, thanks for your comment, it's certainly a valuable suggestion. We are planning a project to look at how we might make it easier for students at a distance to request items. We realise it's frustrating to have to copy and paste. If you are copying and pasting, can I suggest that you open two browser tabs so you can copy directly from the catalogue or summon into the request form? This will save copying twice. Also, for those of you who use Endnote, we're hoping to solve the problem we have with Endnote export this year. That would mean enabling you to save material into Endnote from our catalogue. We're working on it.

02.02.12 Problem with online book loan request form

There is a problem with this form - you enter your phone and address details, the next page comes up and you enter the book details, then you get a message saying you have not entered your phone and address details, the next page asks you to enter those again, the next page asks you to re-enter the book details, then finally you can submit the request. Kerry.

Dear Kerry, thank you for your email. Issues with some of our web based forms have been identified we are working to rectify this problem as soon as possible, this problem is intermittent and if it continues to prevent you from accessing our borrowing services please use the email-based alternative at http://www.une.edu.au/library/borrowing/email-forms.php. Craig Stainton

18.01.12 Advanced Search on Summmon Tab

I am wondering if, on the new library home page, there could be a link on the summon tab to "advanced search", as there was on the old page. Even when I know I need to do an "advanced search" to get what I want it appears that I have to do a search to get to the search results page from where I can choose advanced search. (If there is another way to get to advanced search please let me know). Genevieve Noone.

Dear Ms Noone, thank you for your email. The decision to remove the Advanced Search link was mine. My assumption was that almost all users of Summon would employ the basic search interface, not the advanced search. Following your email, I have reconsidered. The Advanced Search link is now back on the Summon search box. Cameron Barnes

10.01.12 New site

Front page of the Library website has a box with the headings Summon, Catalogue and Google. I'm wondering why the order isn't Catalogue, Summon and Google, since I would have thought most users would be after the catalogue rather than the other two. I have been caught out a few times. Peter Robertson.

Hi Peter, Thanks for the email. We have deliberately put Summon at the front because of its ability to search across the catalogue AND so many of our databases simultaneously.  Undergraduates (the majority of our users) will, in general, find this search the most useful especially as it offers up so many of our online resources.  For those of us who are regular catalogue users, this arrangement does mean having to select catalogue if we want to search there, or bookmarking the catalogue.

19.12.11 New site

I am looking for the appropriate Library Staff member to contact for a specific matter, so clicked "staff". This does not lead to a Library staff page but (I presume)expects me to categorise myself as "staff" and anticipateds my needs as a "staff". I don't want a site that requires me to guess what sort of person I havew to be to get information. I want a straight map, in which the heading "Staff" leads to what any library site user expects - a library staff directory.

Contact details for our staff can be found by selecting the menu About Us and then Contact details.  The Staff link you clicked on is under Services.  I'm sorry if you found it confusing. One of the difficulties in building effective web pages is that we all have differing expectations of the same words.  We have also put contact details for particular services (loans, off campus document delivery, reference staff, etc) on the pages detailing those services to make it easier to find the people you need. If you have any difficulties finding something on our pages, please contact the Service Desk by phone or use AskaLibrarian and we'll send you the information you need.

08.12.11 Catalogue error

I am from another Australian library trying to find out about purchase of a thesis from yr collection — there is no information for outside libraries as clients of UNE at all. Most unhelpful.

The usual method of purchasing a thesis from another Library is via the interlibrary loan department of the University Library you belong to.  The purchase is managed by Library staff and not directly by individuals, so libraries do not usually put instructions about this on their web pages. Please contact the interlibrary loan staff at your university's library to purchase a copy of the thesis.

30.09.11 Catalogue error

A catalogue record is wrong. The author of the following record is Sternberg not Steinberg as indicated in the OPAC.

Call Number  153.9/S839h
Author  Steinberg, Robert J. 
Title  How can we teach intelligence? / Robert J. Steinberg. 
Publication  Philadelphia : Research for Better Schools, 1983. Subject  Intellect Study and teaching (Secondary) Subject  Intellect Study and teaching (Primary)

Thank you very much for letting us know about this. Errors do creep in from time to time and we appreciate anyone notifying us when they detect mistakes. I have passed your email to our cataloguers who will attend to it as soon as they can.

7.09.11 Availability of local papers

Is there any reason why we can’t keep past issues of the Armidale Express and Independent in a box near the current issue? Or somewhere else that is accessible? I often miss out because I can’t come here every day and the procedure for getting back copies from the desk is more trouble than it’s worth: it seems a terrible waste of time for both staff and readers. Please can you come up with something better so we don’t miss out on local news? Hopeful.

Dear Hopeful, Thank you for your suggestion.  The last 2-3 months of both these papers are available in the Current Newspapers area on the First Floor.  We do this for several papers including the Sydney Morning Herald. In the meantime, are you aware that both these newspapers have quite a bit of content available online? You can keep up to date with the daily news that way too:Armidale Express, Armidale Independent.

5.09.11 Lack of e-books on linguistics

As a fully online student doing a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics, I am endlessly frustrated and amazed at the lack of ebooks available to students studying in our area. It makes writing essays and doing any kind of research quite difficult. Would you please consider investing more in online resources in the future? I realise that we are able to request photocopies, but many of our subjects actually require that our sources can be found online.

Thank you for your comment and I appreciate your frustration.  Currently we have over 10,000 e-book titles in our catalogue and offer access to over 200,000 further titles via the individual packages and Summon.

Some of the problem is of course that the books may not be available electronically.  Now we've all got used to e-books and how handy they are, we all tend to expect that we can get any book in electronic format. Sadly, that's not the case.  Some publishers and many authors are still not happy about their books being published electronically. A further limitation is that in some cases, publishers will not supply electronic copies of books to libraries, only to individuals.

There are many ebooks on linguistics in our catalogue. Go to the Library catalogue and click on Keyword on the black toolbar at the top.

• In the first box type: linguist* (which will find linguists, linguistics, linguistically etc.)
• In the second search box type: "electronic resource" (using quote marks makes this a phrase search).
• Click Search.

The result will be a list e-books and some e-journals. To go directly to an e-book, click the words: Click here to view book

The Library has a policy of purchasing e-books in preference to printed copies where possible. If you have a particular title in mind, please submit a Book Recommendation form to us. We will investigate and look at buying the item.

31.08.11 Cataloguing error

ENGLISH SCHOOLS IN THE MIDDLE AGES / NICHOLAS ORME/ 370.942/O73E is not fully catalogued, so an author search on Orme won't find it. I just chanced on it on the shelves. I have now returned it. Janice.

Dear Janice, Thank you for the information and I apologise for the error. I've forwarded it to our cataloguing staff who will correct it next week. Please do send us any errors you find as we will correct them if at all possible.

28.06.11 Access to journal

I can't access the following journal article — Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.  I get a website stating that "Content Not Found - No longer available on IngentaConnect"  So what do I do? Bruce Stevenson.

Dear Bruce, thank you for your email. This journal is now only available through Springer and ProQuest. There was a separate entry in the catalogue for these sources.The URL for the Springer holdings (1997 to present) is:

http://www.springerlink.com.ezproxy.une.edu.au/openurl.asp?genre=journal&issn=1069-9384

The link to Ingenta in the catalogue has been removed.  Thank you for bringing this problem to our attention. Our apologies for the incorrect entry.

01.05.11 Forms problem

There is a problem with the external forms for book chapter articles — no matter what format I enter the date I need the article by, it won't accept it. This effectively means I cannot order it. Perhaps the form could be improved with either an example of the exact format needed, or alternatively the field could be updated to needing text only. In the past there has been a calendar there that I just had to click on, but this is missing today. Jane-Anne Denison.

Dear Jane-Anne Denison, Thank you for your email. Occasionally students report problems with the date widget in these forms. Clicking on the date widget icon does not launch the widget and it is impossible for student to proceed with submission of their request without a valid date in the field.

There is, however, a quick work-around. The steps are:

1. click in the date field.
2. type your preferred date using the format 31-Dec-2011 or 02-December-2011.
3. click on the Submit button.

If this doesn't work, you can order books and journal articles using our email forms system. For further information, see our page on email-based requests.

I sympathise with your frustration at the date widget. My hope is that we can remove the date widget during the next revision of the form software. Unfortunately, the forms are not under our direct control.

28.04.11 Catalogue Link

Would like to know why the UNE logo has the link to www.une.edu.au on the Library front page, while the Catalogue has a totally different link for the UNE logo which deos not go to the homepage of the UNE. Even the Library Home link goes to something like www.une.edu.au.ezproxy.une.edu.au/library rather than the expected www.une.edu.au/library! Peter Robertson.

Dear Peter, thank you for your enquiry and for pointing out this error. We have written a fix and this will be uploaded in the next upgrade of the Library Catalogue.

05.04.11 Summon feedback

The entry I entered was directly from readings listed for my unit. I gave exact details but not there. Crazy. Would Recommend: Not very likely. Email: padnderson108@live.com.au

Dear panderson108@live.com. Are you looking for this: http://www.historians.org/info/museumstandards.htm? The search string you entered was a plain language description of the standards in question, not a citation. Summon's basic search works on keywords only. More importantly, Summon isn't a Web search engine and the document you want, if I'm right, is posted on the Web. If I haven't identified the right document, can you let me know so we can help you out.

16.03.11 Can the Library subscribe to
The Pennsylvania Gazette?

At http://www.accessible.com/accessible/subscribe.jsp there is an archive which has editions of The Pennsylvania Gazette — Benjamin Franklin's newspaper. I wonder if you would get a subscription to it? Tanya.

Dear Tanya, thank you for your suggestion that the Library subscribes to the Pennsylvania Gazette archive. Unfortunately, it is not possible to subscribe to just one title in this case. The database contains:

• African American Newspapers
• American County Histories to 1900
• The Civil War (A Newspaper Perspective, The Soldiers' Perspective, The Generals' Perspective, A Midwestern Perspective, Iowa's Perspective) including: Godey's Lady's Book, The Liberator, The Pennsylvania Gazette, The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue, Pennsylvania Newspaper Record, South Carolina Newspapers, The Virginia Gazette.

I don't know the exact cost of this database, but the cost of an annual subscription is determined by the number of full-time enrolments at UNE. We would have to ask for a quote to find out the exact price. Someone would also have to pay for a subscription: the School of Humanities would have to decide if they wanted to bear the cost. The number of students studying American History would probably not justify a new subscription, so it is unlikely we will start one.

8.03.11 Feedback on Summon

Would it be possible for the sign-in credentials of student user name and password to be required as soon as the user accesses any online source? I've used Summon, with mixed results, and it is frustrating to find something through that, to browse, and then to find that access is denied. The user has to go back to the beginning, essentially, to sign in. Curtis.

Hi, Curtis. Thanks for the feedback. Systems like Summon can work in one of two ways:  either you have to logon to use it at all or you logon once you get to an article or ebook. We have to have the logons for licensing reasons, to prove to the suppliers of the online articles etc that the people who are accessing them are bona fide members of UNE.

So why not have the logon up front before you search? Well, it means that we would cut off access to searching to anyone who wasn't a current member of UNE.This will also mean (a little later this year) that non-UNE people couldn't even search our catalogue. Anyone, including local members of the public are eligible to use the library's print resources and we would like to continue giving them access to the catalogue at least. It would also mean that if you just wanted to do a search and not actually connect to any online articles or books, you'd have to logon before you could search.  This could be annoying for some of our patrons.

Summon isn't completely bedded down yet, so I suspect there may be other problems you're encountering as well. I'll talk to you about that offline.

19.02.11 Request for updated dictionary

I notice that the UNE library has the 4th, 3rd and 2nd eds of A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics by David Crystal. Would the library consider buying the 5th and making it available as an ebook resource? It would be awfully handy, failing that perhaps the other editions? Tanya-Cherie

Dear Tanya-Cherie, thank you for your suggestion. We are ordering an online copy of the latest edition of A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics as suggested.

04.02.11 IEEE Explore

I an about to begin post graduate research at UNE and require access to IEEE Explore, but notice that it is not amongst your journal subscriptions — is there some way around this? Helmut.

Dear Helmut, thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately, budgets being what they are, we have to choose carefully which resources are purchased. Acquiring a new database can sometimes mean we have to consider losing a subscription to another database which is already being used by other students and staff. Each year we try to acquire new resources and we welcome suggestions, even though we realise that we won't always be able to purchase what is suggested.

At this stage we won't be purchasing IEEE Explore, but we'll keep it on the 'wishlist'.

Postgraduate students who are having difficulty finding resources can contact their Faculty Librarians for help as well as information about useful services like borrowing in person from other libraries around Australia, setting up RSS feeds from journals, and borrowing from Australian and overseas libraries via our interlibrary loan service.

Kim Harris, Faculty Librarian Arts and Sciences kharris@une.edu.au
Leonie Sherwin, Faculty Librarian The Professions lsherwin@une.edu.au.

24.11.10 Catalogue Error

Searching the database for a book and noticed that there are 3 different entries for the same author:

Michalewicz, Z.
Michalewics, Zbigniew.
Michalewicz, Zbigniew.

These errors do creep in from time to time and we are grateful to the eagle-eyed user of our catalogue for reporting them to us so we can correct them.

28.10.10 More Magazines Please

Can we get more magazines at the library? I just read that there are over 2,000 magazine subscriptions available but I do not see anywhere near that number here.

Thanks for your suggestion.  We do have subscriptions to a large number of serials.  Being an academic library, we direct our purchasing to titles of academic interest (be they research or teaching) rather than serials of general interest which are often referred to as magazines.

I recommend that you visit the City Library as they have a good current collection of print based magazines covering a wide range of interests and they may be able to add to their list based on your suggestions.

15.10.10 Relais Complaint

I just wanted to say that the new ILL system "Relais" is absolutely terrible! It gives false answers and then at times it creates multiple enquiries of the same thing. Bring back the old system — it was so much simpler and a lot less hassle.  Lauren.

Thanks, Lauren. We have had some teething problems with the new system and we're keen to hear from anyone who is having problems. If you have any questions or you are having problems with the interlibrary loan system — please email docdel@une.edu.au and we will assist you.

26.08.10 Fewer Distractions, Please!

I am a regular user of the medical reserve for study purposes, as it is where resources are available and one of the few places within the library with wireless internet access.

I have a few questions which relate to the ability of myself and others to learn within the university.

1. Why is there a television in the adjacent eating area?

2. Why are there limited wireless capabilities within the library?

3. Why are there adequate wireless capabilities outside the library?

4. Can the reserve area become a designated quiet area?

It is frustrating that while attempting to learn, within an appropiate area within a library, distractions such as the above are permitted. John.

Dear John, thank you for taking the time to send us your comments. Vend for Yourself was designated as an area for eating, drinking, socialising and relaxing when the Learning Commons was established and hence a television was included.  Being at some distance to the main areas of the Learning Common it was hoped this would  limit the amount of purely socialising noise which the Commons might attract.  At the time we created an Open Reserve area to provide more immediate access to that collection. As the items are borrowable, it was not anticipated that students would spend  much study time there.  We will look into the issue of television noise from the area.

Wireless connection is available throughout the Learning Commons and on some parts of other floors.  The best connectivity can be found in the part of the Library nearest Booloominbah and we are putting in new benches with power in this area, shortly.   On the first floor, the best connectivity can be found near the Curriculum Collection. The Library will be increasing the area of wireless connection across more of the Library as funds are available to install the wiring.

ITD are installing wiring in buildings across campus over a period of time to extend wireless capacity across as much of the campus as possible.  This is an expensive exercise and takes time.  ITD are working as fast as possible.

We will consider making the Reserve Area a designated quiet area, however, its proximity to a busy Service Desk would prevent its ever being a reliably quiet area at all times.

14.08.10 An Online Suggestion Box?

Quite a few Universities have an online Suggestion Box, and I think that UNE could also benefit from following this lead. An online Suggestion Box would allow staff, students and the community to make positive suggestions, pose questions to the University and generally open up a forum for communication.

When you get an opportunity have a look at the following links:

• Central Washington University's online Suggestion Box
  http://www.cwu.edu/~hr/suggestions/suggestionbox.html
  From what I can tell, this is an internet based survey allowing users to submit a comment or suggestion and ask questions. Responses are posted within approximately 10 days on the CWU Suggestion Box sight with details of the original question or suggestion and who within the University posted the response.
• Coastal Carolina University
  http://www.coastal.edu/president/
  This suggestion box is focused on the Universities strategic goals.  It asks staff, students and the community to give general suggestion on ideas that will build a stronger and better University, and how to building a leaner, more cost-efficient University in light of the current economic situation.

I really do think this would be a positive initiative at UNE and return good results in opening up staff communications, and indentifying future directions.

The suggestion box could be run by the Human Resources department - Organisational Development section or by SRM Team (Ask UNE).  UNE could employ a couple of Students part -time to collate the suggestions, send on questions to the right area and post the responses.

Many thanks for your comments and the links.  Both are interesting sites and it's good to see how closely our Library is replicating the service, for library matters.   We receive comments, ideas and feedback from a range of people and endeavour to respond to the comments within 24 hours (some questions have taken longer to completely answer).  The questions and responses are then posted on our Web site on http://www.une.edu.au/library/about-us/comments.php, a similar page to the one you sent us from Central Washington. We will pass your suggestion for a University focused suggestion box to the Project 2012 staff.

03.09.10 Disappointment over Saturday closing

I think it is incredibly disappointing that the library is not open at all tomorrow (Saturday 4th) for when many externals are arriving for schools that start on Sunday. From what I understand the library is opened every Saturday for internals ... why are externals being treated differently? What this means is that externals will have to do any library work in the evenings after long days of intensive lectures. Extremely disappointing.

Thanks for your comments. The Library endeavours to provide a balance between patron requirements and costs of opening hours. Decisions about opening hours are usually based on actual use of the Library at key times. Of course the use which many people make of a resource does not reflect the needs of all individuals. Inevitably individuals are inconvenienced at some point, especially with access issues. In due recognition of student needs in Intensive Schools, the Dixson Library is open longer hours on Fridays and weekends as well as maintaining the late close during the week. The Library is currently reviewing future opening hours to ensure we best meet patron needs and your comments will be included in the deliberations so, again, thank you for your thoughts.

03.08.10 Love the Library #2

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the library at UNE? Fabulous, absolutely fabulous-both the virtual and the hard copy and the staff are rock stars. Just thought I'd mention it.

Many thanks for your comments.  Let us know if there are other services we can offer to help you with your assignments — we can always improve and we love to hear suggestions especially from our distance students.

15.06.10 Coffee Cart for the Library

It would be great if rather than just vending machines there was also a station where hot beverages can be made, or even better a coffee cart. I love studying at the library, but often stay at home for want of a hot cuppa too! Manda

Dear Manda, a coffee cart in the Library would probably be welcomed by many, including the Library staff!  Unfortunately, economics gets in the way and it seems it isn't economical for anyone to run a coffee service in the Library.   One of the few disadvantages of being an on campus student at UNE. Thanks for the suggestion though.

15.06.10 Congratulations

I would like to congratulate the library's document services branch for the great work they do in providing "hard to locate" documents for students and staff alike.
Thanks very much. The staff and student thank you. :)

Thank you for the compliment.   Our staff do work hard to supply requests and as you say, some of the documents can be hard to track down.

11.06.10 Library Staff Helpful

I find the staff at the desk very friendly and helpful and I couldn't be happier with the service I have encountered from these people.

Many thanks for your comment.

08.06.10 Smoking in the Entrance

Thank you for your reply. One thing is, it would be nice if the smoking area is a bit far away from the entrance. I am not offended, but sometimes there are children, babies and pregnant women using the library. Thank you. Phonwon.

Dear Phonwon, the University does have regulations that require anyone who is smoking to stay 3 metres away from windows and doors of buildings and at least 10 meters away from air vents.   These details are available in the Smoke Free Workplace 4.07 policy on the University's web pages. I'm sure that as people get to learn about the regulation they will respect it, so thanks for mentioning it.

07.06.10 Noise Problems

I like to learn in the library. It is nice and warm, but sometime I cannot bear the noise. Also, sometime I could not find the paper as it said Findit @UNE. The result showed no found even though it showed URL. Overall, I like the library. Phonwon

Dear Phonwon, thanks for your comment. Noise can be a problem at times.  The Learning Commons (the ground floor of the Dixson Library) is a space for groups to work so sometimes it is better to use another floor if you want some quiet.

Please do talk to our staff at the Service Desk if you can't find an article: we can show you several ways to find these articles.  You can come and see us in person or ring us on 67732458, or online using Ask A Librarian, and we'll be happy to help you.

07.06.10 Three Enquiries

1. Will wireless services be introduced to the top floor of Dixson?  It would be nice to be have the ability to browse the catalogue and databases while next to journals — I often forget the volume number.
2. Can we a get a map around the P635 area to show how the shelves and call numbers go together.  Its not intuitive to me.
3. Animal Science (the journal) is available on the web.  Searching the UNE catalogue (or linked from Google scholar) says it is not available.  It has been renamed to Animal and that is correctly shown but the link only provides the issues since the rename.  Past issues are available back to 2000. Example, paste "Resistance and resilience to gastro-intestinal nematode parasites and relationships with productivity of Red Maasai, Dorper and Red Maasai 5 Dorper crossbred lambs in the sub-humid tropics" into Google Scholar and ... Gareth

Dear Gareth

1. We do intend to extend the wireless services across all floors of the Dixson Library.  We hope we can begin this process next year.
2. I will look into the possibility of a map for the P600s
3. We hold print copies of Animal Science 1995–2006 but electronic access is only available to us from 2007 onwards — ie for Animal. If you've found the full text of an article from the Web earlier than 2007, that's great and it may be for a number of reasons.  However, in this case we don't actually have a subscription that supplies full text in Animal Science and that's why it's not linked in the catalogue. Thanks for letting us know about this as we like to check on any possible errors in the catalogue and correct them where we can.

07.06.10 Longer Hours

The library is a great facility, with lovely staff and boasts an excellent work environment. It's a shame that it's opening hours are so short. When every other uni library in Australia is open 24hours. MAKE OUR LIBRARY 24 HOURS.

Thank you for your comment we think the Library is a great facility too.

I agree our doors aren't open 24 hours a day, but we do have a lot of online resources which are available 24x7: over 6,000 ebooks and more than 30,000 full text journal titles and we're increasing these each year.  We are also investigating extended hours of access to facilities in the Dixson library.  Whilst some University Libraries do have some access 24x7 many are, like us, still investigating how best to do this given the costs and also security issues for patrons.  Thanks for the suggestion.

07.06.10 Barcode Stickers

Could the barcode stickers be placed more considerately, please? I realise that they need to be confined to a certain portion of the back cover but all too frequently they are placed over the blurb giving important information about the book. They can almost always be positioned to avoid this while still being in a location for successful scanning.

We appreciate that occasionally the barcodes do cover key text on the back of the book.  However as you seem to appreciate, the cause is technical — the equipment which reads things like the barcodes, can only read in certain places and therefore it is inevitable that some books will have key text blocked from view whether we have a system which reads higher up or lower down.

One thing I can suggest — many of our books have reviews linked in our catalogue which might help in some cases.  Overall, though, it's a problem we have to keep living with until someone invents a better system than the barcodes.

Thank you for the reminder and we will endeavour to check more closely in the future when placing the barcodes.

07.06.10 Positive Feedback

I have been very pleased with the library in my ten years at UNE. Keep up the good work! John Malouf

Dear John, thank you very much for your comment.

I love the Library and the amazing men and women who work there! You make it so easy for me to research my assignments, especially since I'm a distance ed student. Thank you!!!

Thank you for your feedback.  We're really pleased that we've been able to provide this service to you.