Sub Ubi

I’m going through email from when I was away, and found this gem:

The Library is introducing on Monday October 18th a £5 charge for a Day Card for students who wish to use the Library but do not have their Library card with them. As my attached letter explains we have been surprised to find that we have been issuing hundreds of visitors’ Day Cards a week in term to University members who do not have their Library card with them when they visit the Library.

Last year, the library placed turnstiles at the doors, and we had to swipe our card to get in. Now, if I don’t have my card with me, I can’t get in without paying £5. And guess what—I’d sooner not use the library than pay £5. What if I want to run in and check my email, why do I need a card? What if I just want to look up an article and photocopy it—why do I need my card? In short, if I’m not checking out a book, what resources in the library are so critical that we have to make sure that only students and staff with a valid card can make use of them?

I understand they feel the “guest card” was being abused, but that’s only because the library chose the wrong technology for tracking students’ use of the library; now, they’re compounding one poor technological choice with an ugly rule and fines. The end result will be that people will avoid using the resources the library provides; it will not, as they would prefer, make more people remember to take their card out of their squash racquet case after going to the sports center.

Good luck, kids. You’re on a downward spiral now. If you really want to track usage of the library, put in a kiosk that requires you to push one button on a touch-screen before the turnstile can be traversed. This way, I walk in, press “Undergraduate,” “Graduate,” or “Staff,” or (God forbid!), “Random Member of Community,” and then I can walk through. You get your usage data, and you don’t discourage usage of the very resources you are paid and expected to increase the usage of.