Old "Electronics" magazines anywhere?

Hello George,

Sorry but I don't keep magazines that long anymore. Maybe ask David Clark in the UK who won that Intel prize because he could dig out a really old copy with their story?

Ahem, what's the point in storing stuff if they can't get to it?

Ah, I just found out you CAN get them to put stuff on the elevator if you can wait 24 hours. We'll see...

Hello George,

Great. Question, in case you already graduated: How do you gain access to that library? An alumni deal? Our local U grants access only to enrolled people AFAIK. Besides the fact that it's a 30+ mile distance that kind of makes it rather expensive. No alumni deal here since my alma mater is over 6000 miles away.

State universities in the US generally allow everyone (i.e., all taxpayers) to use the library as a guest (not check books out). At least here (Georgia), that includes requesting things to be brought out of the repository.

Well, yes, they'll let me inside but I really wanted to be able to take a book home and read it with enough time. Also, the parking scheme at Sacramento State is kind of weird. Since I am not enrolled as a student or faculty I have to get a "pre-issued" parking authorization when visiting an institute there. Can be done via the web but those are only valid for a couple hours and enforcement is aggressive, you see their little golf carts buzzing about all the time. Not nice.

You're just not aggressive enough, Joerg!

I once parked in a "visitors" lot at ASU and got ticketed.

I called the ASU police department and read them the riot act, "I'm a taxpayer, an alumnus, I'm a P.E., and I was visiting a professor."

They tore up the ticket.

Likewise, at the Hayden Library, they decided they could issue me a library card when I told them I would make a scene if they didn't ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Bound magazines aren't lent out at any library unless you are an exalted person like myself (associate director of a research unit)...

Parking is always a problem; it's extremely scarce around any university.

But you may be able to get permission to check books out, at least for a short time. Ask. If you are a working engineer residing in the community near the state-funded university, they may well be willing to let you check books out.

Right -- their main concern is that you might have been one of their students or employees who was supposed to be paying for, and using, a parking space somewhere else. Occasional visitors are not a serious part of the parking problem. The problem (at least around here) is sorority girls and frat boys who figure they can park their SUVs anywhere they jolly well please, no matter who else can't get to work as a result of it, and Daddy will pay the fines. Also, a few employees who feel they need not obey any rules. And the problem, of course, is that those parking space already belong to somebody else who is counting on them.

Also, avoid 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. if you're going to visit a university. That's the time of peak parking occupancy and most aggressive enforcement. After 5 p.m., many universities have free parking, and the libraries are open until midnight.

Hmmm, I've always found the courteous approach preferable. You don't want to win their distrust. Even if they issue you a card, they'll be inclined to be uncooperative.

I got a ticket for parking in a visitor spot at the Atlanta headquarters building of the company for which I formerly worked. However, it wasn't ticketed until the third day (I was working there for a week).

Nice weather in Atlanta. The car was air-conditioned, the factory was air-conditioned, my hotel was air-conditioned, and I spent very little time anywhere else.

You mis-read me, I am a very courteous fellow until crossed, then I become the Meanest SOB in the West.

Some young punk denied me the card. I removed him from his seat (this was ~35 years ago, before the Post Polio and arthritis set in) and suggested he find the head librarian. I courteously explained to her the punk's anti-social behavior and she embossed me a card right then and there.

...Jim Thompson

You can usually buy a 'membership' in the library, actually a contribution to some foundation or the other, that lets you check out books for a period, usually a year. It can be relatively steep, say in the $100 range, at some schools, but if you need to use the library and check stuff out, it can be worth it.

Or, sign up for an extension course or two in something interesting...

Charlie

Then how are students supposed to stay on top of the latest research if they can't have IEEE transactions? Most of them certainly cannot afford the fees of IEEExplore.

It's the common dilemma: There is no public transportation to speak of. The only buses around here are for gvt people that work strictly 9-5. We taxpayers just get the distinct pleasure of subsidizing them, big time. And AFAIK they don't stop at Sac State anyway.

Ok, I'll try that. Although technically I reside in the next county.

Isn't it a "state" university?

...Jim Thompson

Hello Jim,

Yes! And I am a taxpayer plus a state resident. Thanks for the pointer.

Hello Charlie,

That would be worth it. Especially after the technical sections of typical public libraries have deteriorated below science project level. I had donated quite a few good high-tech books there but they seem to forward them to bigger libraries. At least they don't show up on the shelves. I guess nobody out here would be interested in digital filter design or beamformer technology.

When I was a kid the public libraries contained a lot more tech books, and really good ones. No more.

That was the thing to do at my alma mater after you got your engineering degree. But it only worked for folks staying in the area.

Dont mess with the library these days unless you want pre 2000 hardcopy, starting roughly in 2000, most journals went electronic and you need a ID on the university computer system to read and search them. Getting that ID and access unless your a Alum might be tricky. Sadly our lib's periodical room, which used to be a great place to chat up nursing students waiting for the photocopier, is now nearly empty and just about anything over 10 years old is out at the "repository" library. Some of the journals are starting to issue CDs, but many of them are not cheap.

Steve Roberts

By going to the library, of course! The library can't lend the latest issue of a journal simultaneously to 30 people. That also is why online journal access has really taken off recently.

County doesn't matter if it's a state university.

That's good, I suppose that means online access is possible at the university library. It wasn't at our local library when I checked earlier this year. Wish it was since it would reduce traffic and pollution if students living out here could reach a "knowledge gas station" in two miles instead of 35 miles.

Thanks, that is encouraging.

Hello Steve,

Hmm, I still have to try. MC hinted that online would be the only way. IEEE charges a lot for that and this still blocks you from all the others such as Elsevier etc. Often I find an abstract hinting that a paper might be interesting. 95%+ that I find somewhere turn out not to be but often they charge up to $30 (per article!).