Director's Update: Electrical Outlets

Hello, my name is Tim Richards. It is my privilege to serve as director of the Mardigian Library. This is the inaugural issue of what I am calling The Director's Update. I hope to use my updates to share my perspective and thoughts three or four times a year on library issues that affect you and other members of this academic community . I also hope that you will communicate your thoughts, questions, ideas and suggestions to me in response to these updates.

One issue that library staff members and I hear about frequently from students is the lack of electrical outlets in the building. We recognize that this is a problem for students and we have actually tried to address it, obviously with little success. I thought it might be informative to provide a little bit of historical context.

This building was designed in the late 1970's, a time when the mainframe computer ruled the world. When this building opened in 1980, it had a card catalog, which was still here when I arrived in 1989. Back in that mainframe era, no one imagined that many (possibly most) University of Michigan-Dearborn students would be using laptop computers for their academic work, that there would be a campus network linking computers together, or that there would be wireless access to that network.

When we dismantled the card catalog and installed computer work stations on the main floor of the library in the early 1990's, we had to carve out channels in the concrete floor to run additional electrical lines to power the computer work stations that replaced the catalog, an early indicator that we had insufficient electrical outlets to run a modern library. That was when we discovered another significant electrical challenge: this building is "underpowered." Additional electrical equipment caused several power outages.

Where are most of the electrical outlets that you can find in the public areas of the library located? They are positioned at intervals along the base boards, near the floor. I'm pretty sure that the few electrical outlets that you can find in public areas of the building were designed to serve one purpose -- to enable cleaning crews to plug in vacuum cleaners. There are a few additional outlets on the fourth floor along the wall where pieces from the University's marvelous glass collection are on display. The point is that the few electrical outlets that you can find were not intended for library users but to serve building functions. That's how libraries were designed in the late 1970's.

We formed the "Library Power Committee" a few years ago to try to address our electrical power problems. The committee has had modest success (for example, a few power poles were erected to increase the number of outlets accessible to users), but overall, we have not yet found a way to solve the problem of too few electrical outlets to serve adequately library users' needs.

We have not given up. We continue to search for ways to increase both the availability of electrical outlets for your use and to increase the amount of electrical power that is available to us all. I welcome your thoughts, ideas, suggestions and questions about electrical power and about any other library-related issue that is of interest or concern to you. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tim Richards
Director, Mardigian Library