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Library serves up java among the journals
December 17, 2004 | ||||||
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KOKOMO, Ind.—Just in time to fuel students through final exams and research projects, the Indiana University Kokomo Library introduced a self-serve coffee cart during the first week of December. Located on the Library's first floor near the circular stairwell, the cart carries regular, decaf, and three flavored coffees, as well as hot chocolate. Patrons pay $1 per cup, on the honor system. Supplied at cost by AVI, the campus food service, the drinks are available weekdays from approximately 9:30 a.m.–6 p.m. The beverages can be consumed in the Library, said Library Director John Stachacz, “although we do provide and encourage the use of lids with the coffee cups.” The coffee service is “an experiment,” Stachacz said, that will continue if demand for it grows. That growth is likely, considering the swell of people coming into the IU Kokomo Library ever since student computer stations and support moved there in August, in an area called the Information Commons. “People who previously did not come in to the Library are coming now to use the Information Commons and the IT Helpdesk by the Library's Reference Desk,” Stachacz said. Between August and the end of October, the number of people simply entering the Library went up 40 percent. Circulation counts and the use of electronic databases and other Library facilities have also increased, Stachacz said. “Many more students are using the Library's study rooms and computers for group projects.” Making computer use even easier, the campus' Information Technology staff has installed a high-speed printer in the Information Commons and a printer for patron use on the Library's second floor. The next step in integrating library and computer services for students will be to upgrade the Library's facilities for computer-assisted teaching, making them “more conducive for teaching,” Stachacz said. Library staff recently surveyed IU Kokomo faculty and students, asking how services could be improved. “I was very pleased with the number of responses,” Stachacz said. Many of the respondents' suggestions pointed “in the direction we already wanted to go,” such as adding the coffee cart and more printers, he said.
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