Today I am mostly

[lizziec]

Pissed Off

"why?" I hear you ask.

I'll tell you.

I have a 5k word essay due in on Friday at 12pm. I looked for the books in the library (of which there is generally one copy of each text for a class of 15 all of whom will be writing the essay) at the end of last term and found they were all out on four week loan and not due back until this Wednesday. I found the books I could and put reservations on the others and sent an email to my tutor for this subject explaining the situation and asking if he had any of these texts that I could borrow for the holidays, mentioning that I could collect them from anywhere in the Canterbury area.

The email bounced because his email box was full.

Today I found him to ask

1. Why the texts weren't in the short loans collection when there are so few of them and would clearly be in short supply


2. Why a certain text wasn't in the library at all


3. If I could have an extention in light of the fact that I could not get hold of a majority of the texts I needed to write the essay

He agreed at once to item 3 in light of the circumstances. In response to question 2 he said it was the History Librarian's fault and he had requested the book in 2003 and it still hadn't been purchased. This goes against everything I know of the History Librarian who when asked by my other history tutor always makes appropriate provision for the books of that module. To item 1 he said to me that I should have

1. started work on my essay when I got the title and book list in the middle of last term


2. appraised him on the situation of availability of books because he is "a very busy man who has to keep track of a great many things"


3. put a reserve on the items I wanted

Number 3 I did, but when the items aren't due back until two days before the essay is due in there is not a lot putting a reserve on an item can do. Number 1 is a fair point and I know I should have started sooner. However, I didn't and given the number of people who needed the books and the amount of time the chances are that without them being put into short loans not everyone would have had access to them anyway.*1 I believe point number 2 is him trying to excuse himself. It is not the task of the student to make sure that the texts they need are properly available from the library. Before he issued the book list he should have made sure that all items on it were easily available for the number of students who would need access to them. He is the lecturer and he should liase with library staff to ensure each book on that list has the relevant amount of loan time attached.

When I told him that I had emailed him during the holidays about it and the email had bounced he said "sweetheart, you need to be realistic about these things. Firstly I was in Suffolk*2 and secondly it's unreasonable for you to expect me to check my email on boxing day. Noone checks their email then".*3

After this I was far too pissed to speak any more so I thanked him for the extention after telling him once more that it was unacceptable and walked out.

I'm still livid. I know I probably overreacted, but I'm still rather angry. Just

GRRRRR

.

On top of this he was being all flappy all lesson about how the ten week term this term (usually 12 weeks - two weeks are carried over to the next term this year owing to an early easter). He told us he had cut some material because the shorter term meant he couldn't fit everything in. This is not true. The general understanding is that in this event the first two weeks are to be treated as the last two of the previous term. He explained that nothing like this had happened before. Bollocks had it - I know that at the University of Kent we used to run by a three terms of 10 weeks instead of the 12 12 6 system that we have at present, and this was not so long ago (though before my time ;)). Certainly during his. He's been here for years.

I give up with History Professors. I really do >.<

*sigh*

*grrrr*

*1 ordinary loan is 4 weeks. There are options available to tutors for soon to become high demand books to have them put to 1 week loan, short loan collection (a loan of overnight [from whenever the books is withdrawn until 10am the next day]) or even short loan four hour collection where the book is restricted to the library and only allowed to be used for a stretch of four hours at a time.

*2 may not have been Suffolk. I was a rather pissed at the time from him calling me "sweetheart". Was also very pissed for being patronised. I'm 21. There is no need to treat me as if I'm 6.

*3 I checked mine every day of the holidays including christmas day :o I wasn't asking him to check it then, or on boxing day, but at some point during the holidays was not too much to ask I feel.

Comments

[manyfacesofjase.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, i don't think you overreacted. In fact if that had been me, i would have been yelling at him.

*huggles*

[red-pill.livejournal.com]

set him on fire. or come and give me a lift and ill set him on fire. either works.

[xmassheep.livejournal.com]

when one has a lecturer such as this [and i think i know who it is- DO?], it is best to assume they are totally incompetent and will not be any help whatsoever. It makes things difficult at the time but you'll be able to look back on it and say 'I did it on my own with no help from that idiot.' and it will feel good.
With regard to the History Librarian- I've found that lecturers blame librarians for not getting the books and librarians blame lecturers for not giving them book lists. I'd suspect its the latter, but should you wish to double check there is a search feature for booklists by coursecode on the library catalogue...
Connelly is excellent at liasing with the library, but too many of the history lecturers are old, senile, arrogant and technologically incompetent. Also incapable of doing anything unless they are chased. Sadly there is very little you can do about it except complain to the Senior Tutor [who this year I think is a particularly evil git] or the Head of History [who is senile and incompetent].
If it does make you feel any better, we had 20 people with access to 5 libraries, including the British Library, trying to get books for the same essay over Christmas. I ended up buying half of them and still haven't seen 2 of them... There is a law somewhere that states the library[ies] will never have the book you want on reference or on the shelves when you most need it. Or if its a reference library and you've travelled for 90 mins to get there, someone else will be using the book...
However, I do highly recommend theft, bribery, corruption, blackmail and extortion as successful methods of obtaining library books ;op
Talking of which, I'll get back to my essay....
Best of luck

[lizziec]

yup DO :P How'd you guess? ;)

Apparently the head of history has been promoted (dean of hums now or somesuch o.O) and apparently in the running to get his job is CSl (as is MC and whoeverthefuck the senior professor is now [possibly CSm]) Can't be arsed to take it any further, was just superpissed he called me sweetheart! *grrrrr* However, I'm fairly sure DO lives on a different planet, which makes it slightly more excusable ;)

Good luck with your essay - I'm glad you've had your epiphiny for it :) Wish mine would come o.O :)

[xmassheep.livejournal.com]

heh, from what you said about him before [the field trip], and also i think i know exactly which courses you're doing this year...
The rumour mill told me that CSm was going to get the top dogs job and CSl was going to get his old job. Whatever, I'm happy that way, Go HistSci! Plus we learnt lots about how important and revolutionary CSm was in the 70's and I have more respect for him [and his steamships] now ;). But either way, I like MC too, he's a good guy, so i'll take any of those 3, preferably with a kick in the balls to US, GC and AB, and a promotion of any sort to CSl, who deserves it.
BTW [since we are using acronyms], don't forget your rights as a student not to be patronised too. I'm still not entirely sure how the complaints system works, but apparently its there for a reason. Just don't go to the Senior Tutor if its who i think it is [US this year?] as he is also patronising and called me stupid last year [i'd like to show him my marks this year and laugh in his face but i know it would never be as satisfying as i'd like it to be].
To be fair, most history lecturers live on a different planet, Planet Senile - http://quotes.fivegeeks.net/QUOTES-MISC-01.html#qc06f00c1 [i know its paul haine but its still funny]. Its not really excusable, but its not like you have much choice at this stage [ah, the joys of having a decent tutor and some lecturers [not all] who occasionally check in to planet earth/student]...
Now, that essay. Oh yes, I'm meant to be writing it. Maybe it was a mistake to say i'd hand it in tomorrow morning ;p
Hope yours goes well. Lets face it, its probly more interesting than trying to write 2.5k on the historiography of the Manhattan Project only having skimmed the books ;o)
Talking of which [spot my finely tuned procrastination skills], I reckon there should be marks available in essays for last minute quality, whereby if you state you wrote it at the last minute, you are eligible for an extra percentage point if its any good, and blagging marks, whereby if you blag something and pull it off [a good lecturer can tell whether you've read the book or not, even if you have top blagging skills], you get up to 5 percent depending on the quality of the blag.
Right, back to work, heh, this is much more fun