Reference Computer Use by the General Public
It is our policy that the general public does not have access to our computers. This includes “Special Borrowers” who have paid the $50 to be able to borrow books for a year. The public membership is only for checking out books.
The Reference Department is also going to be removing the “Public Access Terminal” that has been available among the other computers. That computer’s typical use is by students who bypass the catalog-based startup and then use it like any other lab computer.
Instead, to accommodate people from the general public who want to search our catalog, the person at the Reference Desk must either do the search for them (if it’s only one or two), or else log them onto a computer whose screen is visible from the desk, just to make sure they stay using the catalog instead of the Internet or subscription databases.