The yellow cables are back at the circulation desk of the Davis Family Library. The process is very simple: ID’s in exchange for a cable. No ID = no cable. No exceptions. And vice versa. No cable = no ID upon return. This is only at Davis – the branches are not providing cables.
Tag Archives: ethernet cables
The Yellow Cable Strikes Back
Coming soon to the circulation desk nearest you…
We will soon have a limited supply of yellow ethernet cables that we will be distributing to patrons until the end of exams. Please follow the procedure below and be sure to ask a supervisor if you have questions.
1. Take the patron’s ID card
2. Place the card in the special ID box in alphabetical order by last name
3. Give the patron an ethernet cable
4. When the patron returns the cable, return their ID to them. Please be sure it is the correct ID.
* If someone needs to check something out but their ID is in the special ID box, please find their ID by their last name, check out the item(s), and return the ID to the box.
* NO ID = NO CABLE
* NO CABLE = NO ID
* For Middlebury students, faculty, and staff only. No guest users.
* NO cables may be borrowed after circulation is closed for the evening. Cables can still be returned, however.
There is also information available in the wiki.
Requests for Ethernet Cables
Thanks for passing on the comments and requests about barcoding and loaning our Ethernet cables.
We are considering alternatives to the yellow cable program. A little bit of history – prior to the yellow cable program we loaned out cables with laptops and power adapters. It was a collection that required a lot of time to process, inventory, maintain, and circulate – and it was at the suggestion of Circ Desk student employees that we explored other options to barcoding loaner cables. At this time, we may not be able to justify the expenditure on time and budget dollars required to loan out a very affordable $5 piece of equipment.
Cables can be purchased for about $5 at the bookstore
Please pass on ideas about how we can encourage the return of the cables!
See below for Mike Roy’s comment on the LIS Suggestion Blog
The yellow cable problem is something we have, alas, given much thought to. What began as a simple way to provide students with a resource that they could borrow and return on the honor system has turned into a bit of a nightmare. It turns out that lots of people borrow the cables, but barely any return them, resulting in hundreds of cables having gone missing. When we decided that this was no longer a good way to spend our precious budget dollars, people started stealing cables from our printers and desktop computers, rendering these devices temporarily useless. While we agree that barcoding and loaning out cables might work, and we’ll explore the logistics and costs of this, we do wonder what’s going on that people feel it is okay to steal cables from the College’s computers and printers. Also, given that we provide wireless network access to much of the campus, we also wonder why these cables are still in such high demand. And then there is the same question that we wonder about missing socks: where do all these stolen cables end up?
Yellow Cables – Can They Be Saved?
The Yellow Cable Program is rapidly drawing its last breath!
Please pass the word to return the yellow cables to the bins at the Circ Desks so that we can resuscitate this program.
Unless we see an immediate return to SHARING the yellow Ethernet cables, the program will have to end.
Please refer users to the bookstore to purchase their own cables. Available for about $5.