General Information Commons Policies

1. You must be affiliated with the University or have requested a computer only access card from any UF Circulation Desk. Some areas, including the media production studios, are reserved for University-affiliated patrons.
2. You must comply with all Library-wide computer use policies.
3. You must provide your own digital media for storage. (e.g. floppy disks, CD-R/CD-RWs, or USB flash drives). See general Information Commons and Digital Media Hardware and Software pages for details.
4. You should know how to use the equipment and software available. Library reference staff will help you with your research needs. Library IT staff will also be on duty to provide basic assistance with the equipment and software. The Information Commons Tutorials page and your workstation's desktop contain links to more in-depth tutorials and help pages.
5. You must always logoff the workstation when you are finished using it. Never shut the computer down. Never leave your session open for others to use!
6. No food or drink allowed near the computers.

Information Commons Use Policy

Most of the information commons workstations are available on a first come, first serve basis. Priority for use is given to those conducting academic or course-related work.

The Digital Media Lab consists of 18 specialized workstations available on the east end of the 3rd floor. Patrons requiring the use of these multimedia workstations are given priority. We reserve the right to request that patrons who are not using the specialized multimedia software move to the general computing areas. The locked media rooms and the large presentation area can be reserved.

Food, Drink and Cell Phone Use Policy

The ground floor of Library West is the only designated food and drink area. You may bring drinks that have a well secured top to the other floors, but they must be kept away from the computer equipment. If you have food or drink near the computer workstations, you will be asked to discard these items or leave the premises. Cell phones should be placed on silent mode and phone conversations should be held outside.

File Storage Policy

You can save your work on the desktop of the workstation, but once you log off the computer, your work is automatically cleared and unrecoverable. All workstations are equipped with CD-burning capability, FTP capability to upload/download to your server space, and USB ports to connect portable storage devices such as jump drives.

No disks or other storage media are available for purchase at the Library.

Reservations Policy for Media Areas of the Information Commons

For more information on reserving the two multimedia production/ADA studios (Rooms 335 and 336), the Media Viewing/Video-conferencing room (Room 229), or the Presentation Area, please view the Reservation Procedure Page.

Headphone Policy

Each workstation on the 3rd floor is equipped with headphone jacks; the Library does not provide headphones for checkout, except for the reserved Digital Media rooms. Please note that while the reserved rooms are enclosed, patrons should not play audio loudly on the provided speakers. Please use your headphones or the available noise-reduction headphones as much as possible.

Damaged or Lost Equipment or Hardware Policy

If you encounter a damaged computer, please notify the Research Assistance Desk staff immediately; they will try to address the problem or complete a trouble report for that workstation. Please note you are responsible for any damaged or lost peripherals/equipment that you reserve.

Use of Copyrighted and Licensed Material Policy

The Libraries hold licenses to information resources available on the public computers located throughout the libraries. These systems are available for legitimate academic purposes only. Many of these licensed resources as well as those you find on the open Internet are copyright protected. You may use all or part of a copyrighted work only if you have the copyright owner's permission or your use falls under a legal exemption. Please refer to the Libraries’ Copyright and Disclaimer statement for more information.

Software Download Policy

Due to the security system in place, you may download necessary plug-ins and software, but these utilities and applications will be automatically cleared from the workstation when you log out of your session.