--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 21:53:48 -0400
From: Michael A Tomlan <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: voracious archies <fwd>
Sender: Michael A Tomlan <[log in to unmask]>


Hello Alice,

As a former department of architecture design instructor, first let me
assure you this plague is not likely to continue indefinitely.  The
international focus on the rebuilding of Ground Zero has caused faculty in
the design disciplines to seize the pubic discussion, especially as the
idea of a competition spurs their imagination.  As you know, the problem
you are facing lies in the repetitive nature of the requests, and the
relatively uninformed patrons.  Both might be better addressed by
contacting the faculty member directly as soon as their first student
crosses your threshold.  Although you seem to believe that these
instructors have visited your facility previously, my guess would be that
they have not (or, if they did, they did not learn much at the time), and
are simply assuming that whatever you have will be made available ad
nauseam, gratis.  Pointing to the electronic material is important, but
from the students' perspective, it is all about discovery, which we would
all agree is wonderful.  However, I'm quite familiar with the technique of
hanging others of my kind.  It simply takes a call to the dean's office.

With continued thanks to the staff of your fine facility,

Michael T.


At 15:37 09/23/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
>Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 11:29:40 -0400
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: voracious archies
>Sender: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>Dear fellow map librarians and curators,
>
>At NYPL we have been having a serious problem recently with visiting "out
>of town" college and university architecture classes from [I will just name
>large political entities to maintain privacy and not embarrass the subjects
>involved] various states and nations: Germany, Southern Florida, Kentucky,
>Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, UK, and others. And we also have some
>high school classes now appearing, doing almost the same level of projects
>as the undergrads. We suspect their teachers were once in the map room on
>similar assignments when they were in college...and had memories of such
>sterling service...sigh, now they are sending their students.
>
>The baby architects swoop down on the map collection, and in a period of
>say a week, go through the collections like termites. Copying everything in
>sight, over and over and over, for educational use, of course.
>
>As a public library we cleave to the idea of public access, but...this is
>beginning to cause preservation and access issues. When 20 students from an
>out of state university swarm in, almost universally without the professor,
>without an appointment, or the courtesy of prior arrangements from a
>professor, the ill-will it causes among reference staff results in less
>than good public service on the part of staff who feel abused and put upon
>by demanding undergrads who have been told less than the truth about how an
>adult behaves in a library. It also shuts out, or causes regular NYC
>taxpaying researchers to leave, or give up, due to the noise, lack of
>space, etc.
>
>Do you feel my pain? Anyway, my query, after this diatribe, is...how do
>other map collections handle large groups arriving sans appointment, and
>almost always, sans professor [!]? As a public library we cannot exclude
>them because they are not matriculated. We cannot exclude anyone without a
>library card, because such cards are not required here, as our maps do not
>circulate [nothing in the Humanities Center circulates, as part of the
>Research Libraries. Branch Library materials do circulate.] And, we do not
>want to exclude anyone anyway.
>
>We try to ferret out the syllabus, and make a copy, as soon as we smell a
>class project. We try not to help the first student any more than the last
>student who arrives. Once we see the syllabus, and understand a project, we
>may well set aside a folder of the maps required for each student to use,
>so we are not pulling and filing these over and over, causing even more
>wear and tear on maps and staffers.
>
>So gang, please let me know if you have some ideas on assisting these
>students, which WE DO WANT TO DO, without sacrificing the heart of our New
>York City map collections.
>
>Digitizing is a fine answer, but somebody's gotta pay for that. Hanging the
>unprofessional and discourteous professors out to dry is probably illegal.
>Nice thought though...
>
>The NYPIRG OASIS map site has been helpful, and I suspect we will refer
>more and more students to that if we can convince them to use it, as it has
>"Sandborne" [sic] quality maps on the site, along with aerial photography,
>ownership, assessed value, and other info on each building.  May I
>recommend it to you also? Just type the words in all caps in any search
>engine and it will come up.
>
>Many thanks for your input on handling disruptive groups...we are just
>running out of ideas on this here.
>
>
>Alice
>
>Alice C. Hudson
>Chief, Map Division
>The Humanities and Social Sciences Library
>The New York Public Library
>5th Avenue & 42nd Street, Room 117
>New York, NY 10018-2788
>
>[log in to unmask]; 212-930-0589; fax 212-930-0027
>
>http://nypl.org/research/chss/map/map.html
>
>
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