[greeneyedgirl]

(Original post by oo00oo)
Social media should be banned from library computers unless you get permission from your department which confirms that you are studying social media - but anybody studying social media wouldn't be in the library anyway, they'd be in bed, in the pub, or dead in a ditch somewhere.

So, there we go.

Not so sure about that. When I'm on fb in the library it's normally because I have fb groups for all my courses and it's useful looking at questions there etc.

But then again I normally take my laptop to the library

[G8D]

People tend to be on 4oD/iPlayer or that Chinese(?) desktop/chat thing.

Occasionally you'll find someone half heartedly looking at a powerpoint though.

[ArcadiaHouse]

(Original post by 0404343m)
RANT ALERT

Yeah, my mum didn't understand when I told her the library was "too noisy" for studying

Go to the Mitchell. The computers suck but it's so quiet and you're guaranteed a seat with so much ROOM.

[0404343m]

(Original post by ArcadiaHouse)
Yeah, my mum didn't understand when I told her the library was "too noisy" for studying

Go to the Mitchell. The computers suck but it's so quiet and you're guaranteed a seat with so much ROOM.

At the risk of making you all insanely jealous, I don't really have to worry too much about the library (although for everyone else's sake I'd still like to do what I can to make the place a good place to work in again) as I have my own office on campus. New i5 computers, 19" display, printer, scanner and a few shelves, filing cabinets. The view from my window is the QM fire escape though, so I'm sure I'm still deserving of some sympathy...

...about as much sympathy as I give to the second years' essays I most recently marked. Seriously, if you're the kind of person that thinks citing infoplease.com at the end of second year is a good idea, you really should have anticapted the E that came your way.

[greeneyedgirl]

(Original post by 0404343m)
At the risk of making you all insanely jealous, I don't really have to worry too much about the library (although for everyone else's sake I'd still like to do what I can to make the place a good place to work in again) as I have my own office on campus. New i5 computers, 19" display, printer, scanner and a few shelves, filing cabinets. The view from my window is the QM fire escape though, so I'm sure I'm still deserving of some sympathy...

...about as much sympathy as I give to the second years' essays I most recently marked. Seriously, if you're the kind of person that thinks citing infoplease.com at the end of second year is a good idea, you really should have anticapted the E that came your way.

It's almost as bad as citing wikipedia...

[ArcadiaHouse]

(Original post by 0404343m)
At the risk of making you all insanely jealous, I don't really have to worry too much about the library (although for everyone else's sake I'd still like to do what I can to make the place a good place to work in again) as I have my own office on campus. New i5 computers, 19" display, printer, scanner and a few shelves, filing cabinets. The view from my window is the QM fire escape though, so I'm sure I'm still deserving of some sympathy...

...about as much sympathy as I give to the second years' essays I most recently marked. Seriously, if you're the kind of person that thinks citing infoplease.com at the end of second year is a good idea, you really should have anticapted the E that came your way.

An E?! Ooooh


I like the library when it's quiet Strathclyde's was really depressing.

[0404343m]

(Original post by ArcadiaHouse)
An E?! Ooooh


I like the library when it's quiet Strathclyde's was really depressing.

To be fair, he could probably spell anticipated better than I managed to.

Glasgow's library is still damned good by comparison with probably 100 of the other 120 libraries (although seven years ago, I'd have said 115/120). It's still got more books than virtually anywhere else. That being said, it also used to be a good place to go and get the head down to work. Adding in the social areas and trebling the computers have made it into a place to hang and maybe do work if there's nothing on FB or you have no friends to chat to. My sympathy levels for the people who want the luxury of having more convenient places and ways to avoid work is pretty low.

[0404343m]

(Original post by greeneyedgirl)
It's almost as bad as citing wikipedia...

Interesting fact: Glasgow University, 1991 (the year before polytechnics became universities) had a total of 14,000 students, of which 1,900 were postgraduates and under 20% were non-Scottish. In 2011 it has 26,500 students, of which 6,500 are postgrads and 40% are non-Scottish. My own take on this (and the take of at least one Prof who has been there since the 1970s) is that standards are going down, not up, in the sense that for every extra very good student they get, they add two to the ever-lengthening tail of zoomers, and rather than a seminar of 7-8 students with one tube, there's 12 students with four that would be lucky to say one smart thing all term.

...and, according to a recent table, this is a place that's 11th out of 129 institutions for entry standards. I often wonder what it's like at Bolton or somewhere. Are they trying to stick pencils up their noses?

Could be worse mind you. My experience of an un-named university in a small town known for golf on the east coast is even worse. Lots of students with lots of As who went to a school where they were expected to get even more As and thus actually are the stupidest ones from their peer group at school, ending up there instead of where their cleverer mates went. Bloody good education, but no brain cells. Takes less to get them to write polished essays, but twice the effort to get them to use the grey matter in a semi-useful way.

To which, I cite this: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.u...orycode=419733

"So we have to put more effort into recruiting overprivileged students who aren't bright or diligent enough to get three As despite all the money poured into their private education but who manage to scrape two As and a B. They are probably a lot less sharp than the students who get an A and two Bs in struggling comprehensives and come to us, but needs must. Where can we find the recruiting team to send out to the fee-paying schools?"

Nail-on-head.

But aye, while most of my students were at least competent, there are some absolute nutters out there.

[Beneb]

(Original post by 0404343m)
RANT ALERT: The library is no longer a good place to study, it's full of people who are there because their conscience tells them they should be, but don't really have any intention of using the resources for more than about five minutes every hour. I reckon the average productivity of people in the library is about 20%. Went to pick up a book, literally the majority of people on level eight at a PC were on Facebook, iPlayer, Amazon or generally not typing an essay/taking notes/reading a pdf. Maybe I just caught them all on a hard-earned 11.42am break or just happened across the one row of PCs where the lazy people were sitting*.

Countless times have I searched every level of the library for a free computer in vain, because as you say most people are looking at Facebook photos of their partying hijinks or suchlike. I've stopped doing it because I believe the misanthropic hatred it instills in me is damaging to my mental health.

[Celtic_Anthony]

I'm pretty sure if you walked into a seminar at some Unis there would be a kid in the corner chewing lego.

/Undegrad Glasgow Uni snobbery.

[oo00oo]

(Original post by greeneyedgirl)
Not so sure about that. When I'm on fb in the library it's normally because I have fb groups for all my courses and it's useful looking at questions there etc.

But then again I normally take my laptop to the library

Exception.

[Z-6H820]

(Original post by 0404343m)
RANT ALERT:

I've given up going. The one time I actually sat next to someone doing any work, she was so incredibly annoying I had to leave - she kept going "aaargh!!" and frantically typing backspace, getting a bit of paper out, writing something, scribbling it out furiously and ripping the paper up, going back to the computer, getting chewing gum out and chewing so angrily I'm surprised she didn't choke.
Finally left, somehow found another computer, started typing and realised somebody had been munching and the keyboard was all greasy and there was a Milky Button melted onto the table

these things are funny except when you have an exam coming up:P

[Cressida]

had a wee argument with a girl over a computer. so frustrating.


haha i'm pretty sure i was seated pretty close to celtic anthony on the 7th floor today.

[Celtic_Anthony]

(Original post by Cressida)
had a wee argument with a girl over a computer. so frustrating.


haha i'm pretty sure i was seated pretty close to celtic anthony on the 7th floor today.

You weren't, sorry. I decided to go for post-exam pints rather than studying.

You should have said hi, anyway. That would have been funny.

[G8D]

Going in tomorrow for one of my last times on campus for (most probably) a year. Feels weird.

[Cressida]

(Original post by Celtic_Anthony)
You weren't, sorry. I decided to go for post-exam pints rather than studying.

You should have said hi, anyway. That would have been funny.

I did.

[Celtic_Anthony]

(Original post by Cressida)
I did.

Wish I'd seen that.

[d123]

(Original post by 0404343m)
Interesting fact: Glasgow University, 1991 (the year before polytechnics became universities) had a total of 14,000 students, of which 1,900 were postgraduates and under 20% were non-Scottish. In 2011 it has 26,500 students, of which 6,500 are postgrads and 40% are non-Scottish. My own take on this (and the take of at least one Prof who has been there since the 1970s) is that standards are going down, not up, in the sense that for every extra very good student they get, they add two to the ever-lengthening tail of zoomers, and rather than a seminar of 7-8 students with one tube, there's 12 students with four that would be lucky to say one smart thing all term.

...and, according to a recent table, this is a place that's 11th out of 129 institutions for entry standards. I often wonder what it's like at Bolton or somewhere. Are they trying to stick pencils up their noses?

Could be worse mind you. My experience of an un-named university in a small town known for golf on the east coast is even worse. Lots of students with lots of As who went to a school where they were expected to get even more As and thus actually are the stupidest ones from their peer group at school, ending up there instead of where their cleverer mates went. Bloody good education, but no brain cells. Takes less to get them to write polished essays, but twice the effort to get them to use the grey matter in a semi-useful way.

To which, I cite this: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.u...orycode=419733

"So we have to put more effort into recruiting overprivileged students who aren't bright or diligent enough to get three As despite all the money poured into their private education but who manage to scrape two As and a B. They are probably a lot less sharp than the students who get an A and two Bs in struggling comprehensives and come to us, but needs must. Where can we find the recruiting team to send out to the fee-paying schools?"

Nail-on-head.

But aye, while most of my students were at least competent, there are some absolute nutters out there.

It really frustrates me in seminars, particularly History ones. It was worst in first year - there'd be about three of us that would ever say anything. The rest just turned up and sat there doing nothing. It hasn't been as bad this year, probably because everyone has to do a seminar paper so everyone has to talk for at least one week, but I find it really frustrating when I'm interested and I've done the reading and can talk, I hope intelligently, about the topics and no one else says anything at all.

[ArcadiaHouse]

(Original post by d123)
It really frustrates me in seminars, particularly History ones. It was worst in first year - there'd be about three of us that would ever say anything. The rest just turned up and sat there doing nothing. It hasn't been as bad this year, probably because everyone has to do a seminar paper so everyone has to talk for at least one week, but I find it really frustrating when I'm interested and I've done the reading and can talk, I hope intelligently, about the topics and no one else says anything at all.

It gets quite heated in English Lit. Only when everyone's read the book of course. If it's something massive and no one's bothered the deathly silence is pretty awkward.

It was hilarious last semester when I said something completely random about the text that I hadn't even read and our tutor said "OMG Arcadia, you have perfectly summated the ending of the novel!!11!11" and I just sat there like ...

But yeah seminars make me nervous as I'm not sure what counts as meaningful contributions

[G8D]

Only one of my tutorials has even been graded and I think that it's come as quite a shock to certain ( the majority) people. Tutorial preparation should have some sort of weighting on the final grade in all courses tbh.