--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 20:40:39 -0400
From: "Weessies, Kathleen" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: re: voracious archies <fwd>
Sender: "Weessies, Kathleen" <[log in to unmask]>


This is a very typical situation in any college/university library.  I very frequently find out the instructor's name and send a friendly email suggesting how to 'improve' their project.  I've never had an instructor take offense.  In fact they usually welcome the collaboration.  I'm responsible for maintaining relations with the geography faculty on campus, but I also freely email instructors of non-geography and non-MSU classes.

This won't stop your visits, but it may channel them in a direction you can bear.  You are certainly within your rights to formulate whatever strictures your collection needs.

Suggestions can be that the instructor warn you before the hordes descend, that the instructor explain research collection etiquette, that the assignment be restricted to a certain selection of items, or that library X nearer them may better suit their needs.  People email me all the time from around the US with questions outside my collections strengths -- they just don't know that a much better collection is right around their corner.

Kathleen Weessies
Maps/GIS Librarian
Michigan State University
517-432-9669

        -----Original Message-----
        From: Johnnie Sutherland [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
        Sent: Mon 9/23/2002 3:37 PM
        To: [log in to unmask]
        Cc:
        Subject: voracious archies <fwd>



        --- 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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