GENERAL/MONOGRAPHS
1. Also, I have to say that the library collection is not nearly as
complete as I would have hoped. I came from an undergraduate
institution that is not as prestigious as the U. of C. and the
library there almost always had the books I sought. There have been
several instances here in which the U. of C. library has not had
what I am looking for, and I am baffled as to why this is the case
because the titles I am seeking are not especially obscure or
out-of-print. I can even remember some of these titles of the top
of my head and I am almost positive they are available from
amazon.com or anywhere else
2. I find that the collections don't always seem to be as good as
at my undergrad institution (Cornell).
3. I think there are ways to better the electronic resources,
especially older issues of journals, and subscription to journals
that the library isn't subscribed to. Also possible is to have
access to foreign newspapers and resources. Books, both foreign and
domestic publications, need to be covered more extensively and more
copies of specific books need to be acquired. Some rare books could
also be better accessed through e-books, so i think the library
should attempt to widen its scope of subscription and attempt to be
more proactive. But thank you otherwise...
4. Certain collections are in decline
5. My biggest concern centers around helping students obtain
information (newspapers, journals etc.) that may be outside of
InterLibrary loan - mostly international in scope. I have found it
difficult in obtaining materials I need for my academic pursuits
that are from a foreign country. I know this may be difficult to
do, but my perception is that the University does not have the
international network that I would think a university of this
caliber would have. For example, I needed to obtain some newspapers
from Bolivia that are well known, but the University of Chicago
does not have the information or the resources to network with
Bolivian Universities or other universities that might carry
collections that I need.
6. The Library should try to refine its collections policies to
build up areas of particular strength relating to faculty research.
The Library will not be able to buy everything in the future, but
it is important that we maintain outstanding collections that build
upon current areas of scholarly strength in the faculty.
7. Is there any way to improve book acquisition processes?
8. Buy more new books
9. Also, please buy the books that we request!!
10. You need people who are better aware of the needs in my field
and more budget to purchase resources.
11. The library is extremely responsive to my ordinary needs for
books and journals, but the library has not responded well to my
needs for specialized acquisitions to support research. This has
been an issue for many years, and many opportunities for building
the collections in my fields have been lost.
12. Other than that, and although it wouldn't affect me personally,
the only thing I'd like to see the library do would be to expand
unique collections to attract top scholars in a range of
disciplines to the university. I'm sure though that this is one
goal the library already has.
MULTIPLE COPIES SEE ALSO: "RECALL"
13. If all 5 copies of a book are checked out it might be nice if
you bought some more because demand is obviously extremely
high.
14. There need to be more reserve copies of books that are widely
needed in core classes. For example, there is [no] reason the
library should not have 30 copies of The Wealth of Nations or The
Marx-Engels Reader, 10 on 2 hour reserve and 20 in circulation. If
there are 5 sections of a SOSC class that need these books, 20 kids
per section, why not at least attempt to serve a third of them?
Libraries are for borrowing books. Forcing students to purchase
books for classes is not nice (and more than a little wasteful).
Battling for reserve books stinks, but consistently not being able
to do the work for classes because you can't afford the books and
the library does not have copies of them or has one copy on
two-hour reserve that is perpetually checked out really stinks. I
think the library system needs to reexamine how it can better serve
not only those doing research but those members of the community
who would prefer, or have no choice but to, check their books out
of the library.
15. I believe it would be helpful if the library bought multiple
copies of popular books, particularly those used in the humanities.
I have often been placed 5 or 6 in the recall queue for a book,
which hinders my access to needed material.
16. Library has to have more copies of books that are frequently in
use.
17. The books I want are often checked out. Consider purchasing
replacement copies for used material over unused material.
18. Also, in particular, many of the texts I use for research,
especially translations, there may exist one copy in the entire
library system, although in general the library is very good about
having enough copies available, I find that often times with these
translations I am having to wait multiple weeks to get the
material. It would be useful if there were more copies, I know it
is unreasonable to ask for this, but nevertheless a change in this
area would make my library experience essentially perfect.
19. Greater collection of books or e-books (I regularly am unable
to check out even basic academic books without waiting several
weeks)
20. Also; many a times i was disappointed to see some great works
are always unavailable unless untle i go for recalling them.It
would be more helpful if you provide such works atleast 2 or 3
copies at hand for regular circulation.
JOURNALS
21. Don't have all the journals that I would like to access, but
who does.
22. Too few academic journals.
23. The library should subscribe to more academic journals.
Subscriptions are expensive and all students can benefit from
access to more journals.
24. My biggest issue is that certain journals I am looking for are
not available via online subscription OR in print.
25. I wish that hard copies of journals such as PMLA and
Shakespeare Quarterly were still available and not moved to
storage.
26. More access to journals besides the top tier and also have
publications that are older issues.
27. I would like the Law School Library to keep its magazine
subscriptions updated. Especially Harper's--it stopped coming last
year.
SPECIFIC SUBJECTS/FORMATS
Arts/multi-media
28. I like that there is a DVD collection at the Reg, but I wish
there were more movies, especially foreign films.
29. More dance resources please, both DVDs and books.
30. More information on New York ballet from the 1950s-80s!
31. I wish that materials at the Chicago Jazz Archive were
available for everyone to use (I think that, as of now, they are
not).
32. . . .that the recordings collection's very small archive of old
blues and country-blues music be expanded to match its excellent
archive of old jazz music; and that the library acquire more VHS
tapes and DVDs (they're very popular and half the collection seems
to be taken out at any given time).
33. Library's film and video collections are surprisingly bereft of
classics, making the process of teaching film more arduous, because
students are more comfortable with the Reg than they are with the
film studies center.
34. I would appreciate more attention to user purchase requests for
important materials. An expanded DVD collection would also be
great. In my opinion, these should be higher priorities than the
physical environment in the libraries. Mostly I check out materials
to use at work and at home.
35. The music library needs some more contemporary music
scores.
36. Personally, I'd like to see the TR section expanded, and
generally for more image-based material to appear in the
collection.
37. Greater collection of books or e-books (I regularly am unable
to check out even basic academic books without waiting several
weeks).
Humanities, Area Studies
38. Books on Objectivist philosophy are absent from the university
collection (though books criticizing the philosophy are
available).
39. One major lacuna in library services is in providing access and
information about non-English language resources. My research uses
with French, German and Scandinavian sources - hardly obscure, but
I often found non-English material to be seriously underserviced
from the electronic resource perspective (although the Scandinavian
printed resources at UofC are amazing.
40. The items are received late (Middle Eastern History).
41. The library is missing some very important cd resources in
Jewish studies such as the DBS Torah cd-rom library.
42. The library does not have enough academic journals in my
discipline (Italian literature). Many subscriptions appear to have
been cancelled.
Fiction/General
43. Aside from the law school libary, which is directly related to
my studies, I have actually made an effort to look for a library on
campus that has a fiction section, the type you'd expect to find at
a public library. In my undergraduate experience at another school,
there was always a browse section that made new books (fiction or
non-fiction) available. If there is one available on campus, I am
unaware of its presence and would appreciate it if this type of
information were more widely available.
44. More general reading material, like you would find at a public
library would be nice as would a convenient way to browse such
material.
45. It would be nice if the library had a larger collection of
contemporary novels.
Sciences & medicine
46. Relative to the libraries of the other institutions that I have
been at (Cornell, U. Washington, UC Berkeley), the extent of the
collections in my field (ecology/marine biology; including
government gray literature) are not very extensive, which can often
be very frustrating.
47. I would like to see more health care quality and safety
journals available.
48. It would be extremely helpful if the library renewed its
membership to BiomedCentral.
49. The library lacks access (particularly electronic) to all the
major plastic surgery journals that I use regularly. These include
(but are not limited to) Annals of Plastic Surgery, Journal of
Reconstructive Microsurgery, British Journal of Plastic Surgery,
etc.
50. I'm a bio major but rarely use library sources for sciences
(which I think are lacking) but often use them for my Art History
minor, for which I think they are excellent
Business & social sciences
51. I was hoping the library would have recent business books -
such as in investing, but it is really outdated.
52. As a GSB student, do not use the library a lot--can get most of
the stuff I need electronically through the GSB. However, the times
I have used it, I have been disappointed by the lack of resources
available for business related study.
53. We need more primary sources for the late 19th and early 20th
century America. I am surprised to find that we don't have many
journals or bulletins from civic associations (even in Chicago)
during this period of time.
Textbooks
54. The library will be even better if it strives to buy more
electronic books online and makes them downloadable. Also I hope
the library to buy more textbooks for students to borrow and learn
by themselves.
55. Need to have more real and relevant (updates) textbooks there.
Most of the material related to courses is dated and old. This is
very dissatisfying. Although I understand some legal issues in not
keeping latest editions of textbooks, there are many other great
semi-textbooks that the library can keep and thereby help student
learning.
Return to TOC
1. I am still awed to find almost any book I want is in the Reg.
It is still the best library in the country, if not the world (in
my humble opinion).
2. In general, I find the University's library services
satisfactory, especially with regard to the completeness of
coverage in my field.
3. The library materials (electronic journals and books) are
incredible and so useful.
4. I like that there is a DVD collection at the Reg,
5. The library resources are very good.
6. In general the Regenstein is the best thing about the University
of Chicago, at that is no small compliment. On the whole, the
concentration on building and maintaining a library for
professional researchers is, to my mind, right and proper and I
greatly appreciate the efforts that the Reg makes to put its
limited resources into objects that are crucial to the
accomplishment of serious scholarly aims and not into
cosmetics.
7. Generally pleased with the library resources, but would like to
see more Ejournals.
8. I'm very happy with the range of journals subscribed to - I can
get almost anything I want without leaving my chair.
9. The resources of the Regenstein are unparalleled.
10. I am continually grateful for the richness of the
collections
11. This library has a comprehensive collection.
12. Our collection is one of the most impressive in the
country,
13. In terms of the resources in the library and the website, it is
pretty good.
14. The library does have an amazing selection of books that I used
often last quarter.
15. I was able to find everything I needed for my thesis without
having to travel all the way to the campus where I had class
16. Must keep print access to journals.
17. It is a excellent resource library where I can find all that I
need.
18. The collection is amazing.
19. In general I am very pleased with the resources at the library.
Most things I need I can either find online or through
inter-library loan.
20. The Reg has an unmatched collection.
21. Library materials are great.
22. collections are amazing. Thank you!
23. Very happy with the resources.
24. The collection is quite good.
25. The libraries are excellent and there has hardly ever been a
time when I didn't find what I needed.
26. Overall the books available from the Regenstein library are
excellent.
27. Materials are good, the libraries as study spaces are not so
much.
28. the collection of materials is astonishing.
29. Overall, the library enjoys an amazingly large and
comprehensive collection of books and it helps me a lot with my
study because I can virtually find whatever books that I want
here.
30. 90% of all materials I am looking for are available through the
UofC
31. Overall, though, the library staff is extremely helpful and the
resources are very good.
32. I go to the Regenstein mostly for leisure. I appreciate the
availability of so many books, novels or essays, and CDs as
well.
33. I am continuously amazed at the collection
34. I think Regenstein is a good library, both in terms of its
collections and the usability of those collections.
35. I am very satisfied with both the collection and the services
that the Regenstein provides.
SPECIFIC
36. To end on a positive note, as a student working on Middle
East/Zionist history who more often than not expects that they will
have to find their resources abroad, I am consistently impressed by
the collection retained by the Regenstein in these areas.
37. I feel that this library is a wonderful library and my work in
the field of statistical inference could not be carried on without
it. Some of the reference materials are available only through
libraries and can no longer be obtained any other way.
38. That said, one high praise I would give is the recent
acquisition of the Criterion Collection DVD's and the ability to
check those out.
39. I'm a surgical resident at the hospital. I feel the physical
and virtual collections of the library are one of the greatest
assets of this institution. It gives me so much pleasure to pull a
1932 JAMA off the shelf to read the original article
40. I'm very happy with the scientific and medical journals that
are available through the library, but would like them to be easier
to access from home.
41. The collections are awesome (even if the library hasn't managed
to teach any of the patrons not to write in the books - half the
philosophy collection is underlined in pencil AND pen),
42. The Scandinavian printed resources at UofC are amazing.
43. South Asia collection is amazing.
44. I'm a bio major but rarely use library sources for sciences
(which I think are lacking) but often use them for my Art History
minor, for which I think they are excellent.
45. I am always surprised by the breadth and depth of the Japanese
language print materials. Numerous trips to Japan have been avoided
by the availability or reprint Japanese educational journals from
late Meiji-Taisho-early Showa eras.
46. I must say our East Asian collection is rather good.
Return to TOC