The UW Library is definitely the best operated university organization on campus, and perhaps even the best operated publicly-funded (Canadian) organization ever.

I was almost blown away last night by the dedicated staff and their strong desire to help students find what they need. I was attempting to get access on the RACER system. RACER, which stands for Rapid Access to Collections by Electronic Requesting, is a interlibrary loan system for books outside of the Tri-University Group of Libraries. I am dumb to have not used RACER before, because it’s just so easy. The librarian literally sat down and went through it with me for about 20 minutes. He actually went through all the nooks and crannies of the web site, which definitely helped me save time in fooling around with the web application.

Anyway, there were a few other memorable moments I’ve encountered through my university career.

I really commend them for their passion not only for providing unparalleled customer service (through instant messaging, email, telephone, and in person), but also for their great initiative in analyzing information needs.

From all the experiences at UW I can recall, I can say that I have nothing but compliments to the library staff. (Browsers, the Dana Porter coffee shop is another story), but they’re not part of the library organization). If there is a organization worthy of funding and awards, it’s the library.

I remember that Leo also had positive stories about the U of T library. I wonder if this good ‘library work ethic’ is consistent throughout the region or something?

UW Library - [uwaterloo.ca]