The Tango Campus Technology

Okay, so maybe that's a little too obtuse of a "Rent" reference, but I'm too tired to do better.

I just spent the most irritating ten minutes at the Campus Technology "help" desk (more like "Go Away" desk) and I thought if anyone would appreciate how irritating they can be, it would be you fellow library employed folks. Three out of five of the public computers in the lounge area of the Student Union were not working - one won't turn on and two are frozen. It's like that every time I go in there for day long meetings: at least one, if not three of the computers are crapped out. I thought, "You know, WildLibrarian, all this internal bitching about Campus Technology being about as useful as gills on the Wicked Witch is, well, about as useful as Campus Technology." hahaha!

So I decided to go let them know that they have actual work to do. I was very polite (although more by rote than by design, as I can't really bring myself to complain without being polite). The girl at the desk was dismissive and irritated, bordering on surly and jerktastic. I wish I wish I wish there was a way to complain that would be heard by the people who need to hear it, be weighty enough to incite action and change for the better, and would not ultimately just be another instance of the blame game, which inherently leaves someone feeling wronged. I'm sure that many of the people at Campus Technology work very hard and take their work seriously. (Okay, maybe it's just some rather than many... there's got to be a couple, right?)

This girl claimed that someone checks on those machines everyday, but that just can't be! How are they getting frozen and crappy so quickly?? Yarg. I deeply dislike unnecessary confrontation, but I felt so justified and then so thwarted and I didn't feel any guilt at all about being rather terse with Campus Technology "Unhelp" Desk Girl, and ending the conversation with a very perfunctory "Well, thank you very much," in incredulous response to her curt reassurance, "Yes, I'll inform the lab manager."

Now I'm in the science library. Campus Technology better not be responsible for the machines in here, because the first two I tried were either logged out (and unlike my library, you can't just restart them to relog in) or off-line. I feel like Goldilocks and Three Attempts To Get University's Infrastructure To Live Up To Its Name.

Okay, that's all the venting there is. Thank you for listening, erm, reading... I'm going to go finish reading my article on the many uses of library assistant training programs for my report tomorrow.