This week I traveled north to do some research in the University of Florida library. I knew I was in trouble when I reached the outskirts of town and saw this sign:
Welcome to Gainesville
Don't Even Think about Parking Here
A short 40 minutes later I was jogging and dodging cars across a busy four lane road that runs between a very expensive private parking lot and the main library. Me and about 50 students. This goes on all day, every day. No stop light for blocks. I hope that one day a PhD in Engineering will come up with a solution to this complex problem.
The UF library system is huge and the main library is not someplace you want to go without your laptop. You will need your laptop for two reasons. The first is that you can only make copies by logging on to your laptop and going to a secret site and entering a secret code to put money on the copy card that you are given. Make a note that you will also need your wallet with charge cards for this. The whole procedure takes no more than 10-15 minutes, including the time it takes to interact with the librarian to be authorized to receive the copy card with a $0 balance to get you started.
The second reason is that you will need your laptop to take notes from all the books you have pulled from the shelves when the network goes down and the copy machines no longer work, due to the fact that they only take copy cards, not cash, and the machines have to check your balance through the network to make sure you're not ripping them off. Wow! I hope that one day a PhD in Information Management will come up with a solution to this problem.
I miss the UT library, where they seem to understand that life just does not have to be this complicated.
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