I would like to bring up the frivolity of most internet use within the building. At times it seems like people are camped out (and I mean for extended periods) at every computer on Facebook, doing absolutely nothing but wasting bandwidth. Furthermore, this problem appears to have expanded to the second-floor catalog computers, where students feel it is their right to take over these convenience pcs for double-checking call numbers to find books and searching for nearby items. I (and I can tell you quite a few of my friends) would support a measure to block Facebook from many of the library computers, to free them up for people like me and the original poster who was upset about not having a place to study. Please consider this — it would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your comment. We are aware that this is a problem on Hagerty’s second floor, and several of our library directors are in the midst of working out the best solution. We are considering several options, including adding more terminals and restricting access only to certain library resources.

Please clean the white MAC keyboards so they are white or somewhat white. Right now they are grimy. Thanks.

We regularly clean the laptops and desktops—MACs and PCs. However, they get a lot of use, and it can be hard to keep up. If you find yourself with a computer that seems grimy or germy, please see someone at the reference desk or circulation desk and we’ll give you a wipe.

The PC computers are garbage. I suggest that Hagerty get more Macs or upgrade their PCs because the PCs always get limited connectivity on all Dragonfly networks. Meanwhile the Macs get instantaneous, full bar connections. To accompany the growing Drexel library population, please buy more Macs.

We know that the Macs are quicker to connect to Dragonfly than the PCs. This has to do with the software that’s available for the different types of computers. We are hoping to replace some of our laptops soon, and most, if not all of the replacements will be with Macs (so we’ll have about half PCs and half Macs). It’s important that IRT know about any problems that you’re having connecting to Dragonfly on campus. Please let them know so they can continue to make improvements where they’re needed most.

It’s probably a pipe dream, but more working network jacks would be awesome.

Thanks for your suggestion. At this point we don’t have the funds to add more Ethernet jacks, and we don’t expect to receive those funds. The university’s hope is that Dragonfly will address the need for students to get online throughout campus. If you are having trouble getting online in Hagerty, or anywhere else on campus, please let IRT know. The more IRT hears about wireless problems, the more they can resolve them.

The Macs should have Photoshop on them; there’s no point in having them otherwise.

Thanks for your suggestion. Hagerty’s computers are equipped with the same software that is available to the university at large, and Drexel does not have a site license for Photoshop. However, software is constantly reviewed for all public systems, so your request has been noted. Meanwhile, if you need to use Photoshop, there are computers in Korman that have it installed. Here at Hagerty we have a wide variety of users, and we’ve had many requests for Macs, which is why we have them in addition to PCs.

Speaking on behalf of the student population, we do not believe that we should pay for printing. Don’t taxpayer dollars help us with free printing? Probably not because we are not a state funded school. But our tuition should be able to cover it. I know other schools like Temple have printing privileges. Why can’t we?

Thanks for your question. As you point out, Drexel does not receive tax payer funds to allay the cost of student printing. Temple is a state school, but we can’t say whether Pennsylvania subsidizes their printing costs. If you read the fine print in Temple’s policy, you’ll notice that printing actually isn’t free—each student pays a “technology fee” which goes toward printing. In fact, Temple students could end up paying more per page than Drexel students, since their technology fees are based on their course load, not on the amount of printing they do. On the other hand, Penn charges a per-page fee like Drexel. Like Temple and Penn, we just don’t have the money to cover printing and the associated costs of running and maintaining printers throughout the building.

Please install full Microsoft Office on the second floor computers. (i.e. Microsoft Word).

Thank you for your recommendation. The computers on the second floor are primarily intended for access to the library’s catalog—that’s why they’re placed near and among the book stacks. We know that people use them for checking email and other quick tasks, but we don’t want people to use them for more than a few minutes. This way everyone will be able to check the catalog when they’re in the stacks.

If you’d like to use Microsoft Office programs, they’re installed on the new computers on the first floor, and on the computers in the lower level classrooms (which you’re welcome to use as computer labs when there’s no class being held). Additionally, the Microsoft Office suite is installed in the laptops that are available from the circulation desk for two-hour, in-library loan.

Since Drexel is an educational institution, any time there is not a line for computer use, please extend or eradicate the 20 minute usage rule.

Thanks for making this suggestion. In general, if there is no line, we allow patrons to use the standing computers on Hagerty’s first floor for more than the 20 minute limit. However, these computers are not meant to be used for lengthy projects or in ways that violate the university’s acceptable use policy. If we feel that rules or privileges are being abused, we reserve the right to ask patrons to stop their use of these computers.

The new computers on the second floor are not secured to the table and look as if they could fall off and hit someone on the first floor.

Thanks for the comment. I’ve alerted our Systems Department, and they are checking the second floor computers to ensure their security.

The printer in the side room on the first floor is *never* working properly. It’s always off center!

Thanks for writing. The card scanner screen in the first floor copy room does sometimes annoyingly shift off center so that you can’t read it. If this happens, please come to the reference desk—we have a tool to quickly get it back on track.