Just as I finally got settled into my Tuesday morning readings on the fourth floor, I was unsurprisingly, rudely disrupted. This went beyond the usual whispered-gossiping or crisp-packet-wrangling, and I was left wondering if my desk mate was accidentally blasting their heavy metal.
But no, what I see instead is ‘The Library Robot,’ loudly clanking straight towards me, bristles supposedly cleaning the carpet. Described online as delivering “consistent, quiet, thorough vacuuming,” the library robot fails gloriously in its promise. It insistently cleans up the same spot over and over, before repeatedly bashing into desks and chairs, all whilst having the same noise level as a small-scale explosion.
In a university marred by budget cuts, questionable spending, and frequent miscommunication one must ask — is this really the best choice? Is the university that desperate to cut costs? Never mind, for something that is so obviously incapable. A friend stated that they had seen the library robot emerge once a few years ago, so maybe it’s not a new toy. Nonetheless, one must question the ethics of sending it out at the prime-time study hour of 10:30 am.
Perhaps as a fourth year with a measly four contact hours and dissertation to write, I have taken more offence than most to the disruption caused by the library robot. But I remain entrenched in the belief that it is simply not very good at its job, and that just employing a real human being is a much better use of the advertised price of £26,000.
Image for The Student by Elizabeth Price.
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Short Rant: The library robot
Just as I finally got settled into my Tuesday morning readings on the fourth floor, I was unsurprisingly, rudely disrupted. This went beyond the usual whispered-gossiping or crisp-packet-wrangling, and I was left wondering if my desk mate was accidentally blasting their heavy metal.
But no, what I see instead is ‘The Library Robot,’ loudly clanking straight towards me, bristles supposedly cleaning the carpet. Described online as delivering “consistent, quiet, thorough vacuuming,” the library robot fails gloriously in its promise. It insistently cleans up the same spot over and over, before repeatedly bashing into desks and chairs, all whilst having the same noise level as a small-scale explosion.
In a university marred by budget cuts, questionable spending, and frequent miscommunication one must ask — is this really the best choice? Is the university that desperate to cut costs? Never mind, for something that is so obviously incapable. A friend stated that they had seen the library robot emerge once a few years ago, so maybe it’s not a new toy. Nonetheless, one must question the ethics of sending it out at the prime-time study hour of 10:30 am.
Perhaps as a fourth year with a measly four contact hours and dissertation to write, I have taken more offence than most to the disruption caused by the library robot. But I remain entrenched in the belief that it is simply not very good at its job, and that just employing a real human being is a much better use of the advertised price of £26,000.
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Image for The Student by Elizabeth Price.
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