2009 was an active year in the Bronfman Business Library and we made changes which I think have been of benefit to the students, faculty and staff who visit the library, either in person or virtually.  I asked the staff to identify their top ten changes and here is the list in no particular order.  If you have other items, we would love to hear from you.

1) We acquired a projector which students may borrow for use in the Library’s group study rooms.  This is much in demand and we hope to get a second projector.

2) We acquired a second printer (If you read my last point you will appreciate what this means!)

3) We are playing music for the last five minutes before closing time instead of making announcements over the PA.  A number of you have asked who the artist is and the music we generally play is Closing Time by Leonard Cohen.

4) The Library has been much quieter this fall and we appreciate your cooperation in making this an environment where we respect the needs of all students to have a place that is conducive to studying.  Spring of 2009 was a nightmare and I received numerous complaints from students who couldn’t hear themselves think, let alone study, because of the inconsiderate behaviour of other students sharing the same space. The staff were diligent at the beginning of the fall semester in reminding students that this is a shared space meant for studying and that there is lots of recreational space in the building for those who want to take a break.

5) The soft furniture in the Current Periodical Room was replaced by tables and a counter and this has created a space that is conducive to studying.  The feedback has been very positive to this newly created environment.

6) We installed many new power outlets on the counter area of the mezzanine floor and on the main floor of the library in the Current Periodical Room and Lounge Areas.

7) We removed the garbage and recycling bins from the Group Study Rooms and I am relieved to report that most students remove their garbage and recyling to the bins outside the library.  This removal of the bins was necessitated by a reducation in the services provided by the  York University cleaning staff.

8) Our public workstations were upgraded and MS Office 2007 was installed.  The upgrade has improved the response time at these workstations and has improved the speed of sending printing jobs although it unfortunately doesn’t affect the time to takes to print the longer jobs or the ones with a lot of graphics.

9) We have a great team of student assistants working in the Library and this means that our shelving is done quickly and correctly, the circulation desk is staffed efficiently as well as many little tasks that are completed quickly and which we wouldn’t notice unless they weren’t being done, e.g. searching for missing items.

10) It seems like a long time ago but when we were in the midst of the labour disruption which lasted well into the Spring we know that it was a very difficult time for our students, faculty and staff and we appreciated your understanding and patience.  The summer continued to be a stressful time and things weren’t back to normal until the end of August.  I am pleased to say that we survived and the 2009/10 academic year has been off to a fine start.

The staff of the Bronfman Business Library wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

The Bronfman Business Library staff welcome students new to York University and welcome back all returning students.  We hope you had a great summer and we wish you success in your studies.

Toni, Meghan and I have had the pleasure of meeting some of  you at a number of library orientation sessions.  However I know the orientation sessions only reach a small number of students.

As you begin your assignments, please do not hesitate to contact us.  I am always amazed at the number of students who when they finally ask us for research assistance, tell me that they have been trying to find information for 2 to 3 hours on their own.  We are here to help you cut down the time it takes to find the information you need.  We are experts in business research and we will spend as much time as is needed to help you identify the resources you need and to suggest how to improve your searching skills.  Most of the databases have different search interfaces, and we can help you to develop the best search strategies for the individual resources.  And don’t be shy about contacting us again when you have another assignment because the resources we suggested for your first assignment may not be the ones you need now.

And speaking of contacting us, there are six different ways.  You can drop by our research desk between 11 am and 7:30 pm Monday to Thursday, 11 am to 6 pm on Friday, 10 am to 6 pm on Saturday and noon to 8 pm on Sunday.  But we are available from 9 am to around 5 pm Monday to Friday if our office doors are open.  There is always someone available during these hours and we are happy to have you drop in.  Our offices are on both sides of the front area of the Library which is located on the second floor of the Schulich School of Business Building.

In addition, you can contact us by telephone during library research hours as noted above.  Our telephone number is 416-736-5139 and ask for the research desk.

You can email us at bgref@yorku.ca and we will answer you within 24 hours.

Your can chat with us using our online IM a business librarian service. We are bizyork on AIM and also bizyork on MSN and Google Talk. On Yahoo! we’re bronfmanlibrary. We don’t read e-mail at any of those addresses. If you don’t use an IM client, then you can talk to us through the chat window on the Bronfman Business Library homepage. It uses Meebo, a chat client that works in your web browser.  This service is only available during library research hours.

You can make an appointment with one of the reference staff or email us directly.  Please see our contact list.

If you need research help outside of library research hours please see the links from the Starting Your Research section of the Bronfman Business Library homepage.

We hope to meet you in the Library or “talk” to you soon.

It’s a quiet Friday afternoon, the first Friday of summer, and my thoughts turn to what a change from the last time I posted to this blog.  It was March and we were in the midst of surviving what was truly a brutal spring for a variety of reasons.  It is so peaceful in the library today.  The students who are taking summer classes are focused on their work and even though the library is generally quite full, there is none of the loud talking and disruptive behaviour that was the hallmark of March.  I am reminded of one of my favourite summer haiku.

Matsuo Bashō

furu ike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto

an ancient pond / a frog jumps in / the splash of water [1686]

But even in the midst of the summer doldrums we are thinking toward what changes need to be done to improve library services in the fall.

For example, we noticed that a lot more students are using Microsoft Office 2007.  Should we be offering 2007 on some of our public workstations and if so what is the right mix?  Please let us know if you are using 2007 or 2003.

Our IM Chat research service has picked up but not as well as I had hoped.  I wonder why?  Please let me know if you have heard of our IM Chat service and if you have used it what you thought of it.

We are also contemplating a mobile research service, i.e. a librarian would visit the marketplace and the downstairs study areas and be available to help with you with your research.  Do you think this is a good idea?

You will be pleased to know that we have upgraded our photocopiers and that you can now print on legal size paper at the public print workstation.

These are just a few of the things the staff in the Bronfman Business Library are contemplating.  What else should we be thinking about, in your opinion?

After a brutal period of noisy groups disrupting those of you who were trying to think, let alone study, reasonable calm has returned to the Library.

In response to vast numbers of complaints, the staff diligently roamed the Library speaking to noisy groups and if they wouldn’t respect the needs of the other students working in the Library, the staff asked them to leave.  This was a drastic step as the staff normally welcome all students to the Library but one that was unfortunately required under the circumstances.  Asking someone to leave the Library is always a last resort but one that we will continue to practice whenever we need to do so.

Hopefully we will not need to do this often but I and the staff are committed to ensuring the you have an environment in which you can learn.  We don’t have a lot of staff, so I am encouraging you to let me or the person at the public service desks know whenever there is disruptive behaviour in the Library.  This may be too much noise, inappropriate use of cell phones, an individual taking up too much space or someone who has the audio on his/her PC turned on without head phones.

And of course we ask all of you to be considerate of others.  We understand that you want to say hello to friends but you don’t need to shout to get their attention.  And please keep your voice library quiet and your conversations to a reasonably short length of time.   Also please do not block passage ways.

By the way do you know that when you are talking just outside the library entrance, your voice carries and we can hear everything you are saying.  Not to mention that you are blocking traffic.  Duff’s Cafe area has some comfortable chairs for you to sit in and chat without disturbing anyone.

One last thing, I notice that some of you are leaving your belongings unattended.  This is a very risky practice as there are thefts.  Remember that this is a public space and anyone can enter it.

Let’s all cooperate in maintaining a quiet, respectful environment.  There are lots of other places in this building where you can be noisy and let off steam.  This is a shared space and we are all responsible for ensuring that it is used appropriately.

You asked for more plugs in the Bronfman Business Library and we heard you.  Our renovations are complete.

Upstairs you will find 18 plugs installed along the length of the counter.  We also added two chairs to the Quiet Room

The Current Periodical Room has been totally renovated and there is now a counter along the wall which has seating for six students and plugs!  There are also two new tables which seat 6 students each and plugs!  This room is intended for quiet study and signs are posted asking that you speak very softly when you need to talk to someone.  It is not intended for groups working together.  Don’t forget you can book group study rooms up to two weeks in advance.

The fireplace lounge area on the window side has also been changed.  We have installed plugs along the windows and re-arranged the furniture.  Although this is a more informal area we ask that you have consideration for students working in adjacent areas and that you moderate the noise level when you are working in groups. You still need to speak softly because when you start speaking loudly, the group next to you has to start speaking loudly and so on and so on and you get the picture.  Believe me the staff hate to have to come round to speak to groups who are not being mindful of others who are sharing the same space but there are so many complaints that we will continue to do so and you may be asked to leave the library if you don’t respond to our request to speak softly.

So to sum up we have added 20 more seats and 62 more plugs.  Enjoy!