Timeline People Services

11:33 a.m.

Rae Padulo, a cardholder for 22 years and resident of the Tree Streets neighborhood, makes it three study room questions in a row for Dana. (Editor’s Note: During the course of an hour, Dana answered seven questions about study rooms.) Rae said she uses the study rooms occassionally for work related to her freelance writing business, but visits the library all the time. “This is the best library ever,” Rae said.

11:36 a.m.

A customer walks up to the desk and picks up a guest pass to use a public computer. Guest passes are some of the most frequent transactions at the Information Desk; this one required no interaction with Dana since the customer is a regular visitor who knows the protocol for using public computers.

11:38 a.m.

When Kwangran Qian is having difficulty finding a chemistry book in the collection, Dana looks for the book in the online catalog, walks with him to the Science and Nature Neighborhood and helps him find the book.

11:44 a.m.

Inspired by something they read earlier that week in the Library Connections newsletter, Beth and Casey Lew-Williams come to the desk looking to learn more about the history of their Princeton neighborhood, Jugtown. Dana reviews the holdings in the Princeton Room and shows them how to search the Papers of Princeton database.

11:52 a.m.

Dana leaves the desk to help Lauren Valvanis retrieve a document she sent remotely to the printer in the Business Center.

she said. “I’ve made a lot of friends here over the years. The library is definitely a part of my daily life. I love it here.” industrialist Andrew Carnegie. Most of these libraries had fireplaces.

New Library Cards

Along with their card, new customers get the first of a series of emails outlining library services. The emails cover borrowing, the collection, digital resources, events and study rooms.

Public Use Computers

BINITA ADHIKARI is executive director of Health Foundation Nepal and a doctoral candidate in nursing at Johns Hopkins University. “I love this library and am grateful for it,” she said. “I work from home and it’s great to get out of the house and have another place to work and meet with people.”

The second and third floors have Windows and Macintosh desktop computers for public use. Cardholders can log in with their cards to initiate hourlong sessions, which can be renewed up to five times a day. Visitors can use guest passes, which can be renewed once before a new pass is required. Public computers are equipped with Microsoft Office 2019 and have the ability to print. The Tech Center contains a Pro Row of iMacs featuring software for editing film, audio and images. Cardholders can also borrow MacBook Air laptops for use in the library and Chromebooks and other gear for home use.

Collection Neighborhoods

The second floor contains most of the adult nonfiction collection, which is organized into “neighborhoods” of books organized by subjects. Within each neighborhood, books are arranged according to the Dewey Decimal system.

Newsletters

ADI CASPI is a visiting student in the Department of Politics at Princeton University from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She lives in the neighborhood and had used the library many times before getting a card to borrow materials

The library’s Office of Marketing and Communications produces the weekly Library Connections email, which is mailed to 30,000 cardholders a week. OMC produces the monthly Books & Authors; Kids, Teens and Families; and Tech newsletters.