The Ohio State University Libraries

Before I launch into my scathing review of customer service at the newly renovated Thompson library, I’d like to point out the things I really like about this space. The one star review is based on my interpersonal experiences here over the last three years, and specifically the experience I had just moments ago.
The renovations to Thompson are gorgeous, mindblowingly so. You can go up to the 12^th floor and sit in a velvety, comfy loft that has a 360 degree view of Columbus from the middle of the OSU Oval. The glass walls surrounding the stacks and the glass staircases are an elegant touch; this library looks exactly how I’d expect my dream university library to look — modern yet classic, cozy and with many quiet areas, easily accessible, and clean.
HOWEVER. Customer service just blows, and I really wish I could rate the library higher, because it is such an awesome space, but bad experiences keep overwhelming me. The library workers and work studies are generally all nice, so I don’t think they’re doing this on purpose — but basically, they’re almost always extremely unhelpful if you’re doing anything other than checking out a book.
Today, I brought in a book that I’d recalled, but which my friend ending up being the person from whom it’d been recalled. So basically, I wanted to check a book out that should have been on hold for me. This should be excessively easy. Touché.
Apparently, my hold got «lost» and they’d re-​assigned the hold to someone else. Okay, fine. Annoying but fine. So, I just need to use the book, then, for like ten minutes to photocopy this one chapter I need for my doctoral exam. Come on, I’m not going to steal «Interrogating Postfeminism.» Seriously.
The workstudy student (who gets at least three stars personally), understandably, couldn’t let me take the book out of the library (I seriously wouldn’t want her to get in trouble, so I get it). I asked her to ask her supervisor, who told me that I could use the photocopier in the library to copy the chapter — which you have to pay for. I’m sorry, but absolutely not. I could have just taken the book without even re-​checking it in, if I’d wanted to, but I was being honest and wanted to put it under the correct name. Absolutely not will I submit to PAYING to copy a few pages that I could copy in my office for free. Which by the way, is the building NEXT TO the library.
The «supervisor» was actually quite rude. She looked me in the eye and said, QUOTE, «I can’t let you take this out of the library. I would kill even my grandmother before I let her take it out of here.» What the??? Really? So apparently the library workers would rather adhere to an arbitrary and unhelpful rule, rather than help someone out? Even if I DID steal the book, which I would never do, I’d have to pay some huge fines, and they’d get another copy of the book. So, really? You’d kill grandma? Awesome. (I mentioned this to the supervisor and she seemed unimpressed… and while I’m tempted to congratulate her for being a strong woman, I would ask her to reconsider her stances on bureaucracy and murder).
I still wouldn’t relent (seriously? It would take like ten min. to run to my office and copy this 10 page chapter! That I need for my doctoral exam! And I seriously doubt that this other patron who needs the book will show up at the exact moment I borrow it for ten minutes!!!) and so another supervisor person came over. Finally, this supervisor, after chastising me and talking to me like a child, let me take the book out for half an hour — I copied it in my office and returned it in ten minutes.
Seriously? How is that at all customer service, or caring for people? Oh, wait. I forgot. Rules and regulations über alles. I mean, if they let ME check out a book, even briefly, that is on hold for someone else… MASSES might run to do the same. Or the person who it’s now on hold for might show up at the exact same time that I leave the library with the book. And then what? What are people so afraid of? Will chaos break loose?! Will the world end? Ughhhh. I’d do a theoretical analysis of governmentality and the regulation of bodies for the purposes of the state, but I’ll leave that for teaching in half an hour.
So unimpressed. And this isn’t the first time. (Anyone who has been slammed with Ohio Link fees, even when they renewed the books online and it apparently didn’t go through, prolly knows what I mean). Boooooo. Please, I don’t need another reason to lose faith in the institution of academia.