Food & Window Policies

Food & Window Policies: Book Preservation & Security

Please keep the windows closed at all times and close the blinds when you leave the library. (If someone before you opened the blinds, don't hesitate to close the blinds on that person's behalf when you leave.)

The scenario: It's a nice, sunny day outside; you wish you were out of doors instead of studying in the library, and, you're right, that institutional air-conditioning is completely unnecessary in such balmy weather. Or perhaps it's mid-February and eighty-five degrees outside, and you can't figure out why the heat has yet to be turned off. You think it couldn't hurt anything if you just opened one of the library windows a little and let the fresh air in . . .

But that open window and fresh air translate into serious damage to our books! The change in temperature and the glow of the sun may feel good to you, but our books can suffer greatly from even minor changes in temperature and moisture level, and sunlight can also seriously harm our volumes.

In addition, unattended open windows on the ground floor of Voorhies represent a security hazard for the entire building. Don't leave yourself, your colleagues, and department and university property vulnerable!

Please deposit your crumbs and food-related trash items elsewhere.

The scenario: You have twenty minutes between your English 1 section and your graduate seminar. You know you won't spill your coffee on that nicely-bound volume you picked up off the library shelves, and you have so little peace and quiet during the day and so little time between classes that it'd be great to take a bite or two of your sandwich while you're there. You're sure you're not going to make a mess . . .

But those tiny crumbs you leave on the table and the dregs of coffee in the styrofoam cup sitting in the library wastebasket may attract unwelcome visitors. Voorhies plays host to an impressive population of insects. Many are cockroaches, some trophy-sized. They tend to lie low, but they are in the building. Your taking food into the library and leaving bits of it there will encourage them to frequent a place that we would like them to avoid entirely. Insects damage books and detract from a pleasant study environment, so help yourself and our books out at the same time by taking your food and trash somewhere else!

Collections & Catalogues * Policies * History * Using the Library * University Library Links

Contributions * O'Connor Library * English Department * UC Davis * Contact