On 5 June, mobile umbrella cabinet service was launched in the library. Located outside the lending and reading rooms at each floor are the innovative umbrella cabinets with 15 clearly-numbered and well-ordered umbrella racks both horizontally and vertically, able to house altogether 225 folding umbrellas. This innovative practice can guarantee a better study and reading environment for the teachers and students on rainy days with well-arranged umbrellas and clean floors inside the library.

The umbrella cabinet was designed bylibrarystaffin 2013and has acquiredinnovationpatent in 2014. Modifications on the details were carried out afterwards subjected to the current situations, its production was initiated this year, and it was officially put into application on 5 June this year.

As rains visits Wuhan quite a lot, umbrellas arerandomlyplacedoutsidelending and reading rooms of the libraryon rainy days, resulting inmessyenvironment and frequent loss of umbrellas, as well as water stains on the floor.

To solve the problem and for the purpose of tidiness and waterstainremoval,library staffdesigned the umbrella rack sloping with two drawer-like water pans in the bottom where the water can drop. Moreover, since the umbrella cabinet needs to be removed on sunny days, designersputfour mute universal wheels under the cabinets to guarantee handy movement of the cabinets without disturbing readers in the library.

When investigating the user experience of the cabinets,said Zhang Na, a student of 2016 class from the School ofChinese Language andLiterature,“I think the design is very creative, space-saving and can make library tidy and clean. It also embodies the staff’s care and loveforthe library and students”. “I think it can protect umbrellas and avoid being trampledormistook”, said Chen Ziwei, a student of 2016 class from the School of Journalism & Communication. Buton the spot, some students stillhavn’tplace the umbrellas inside the umbrella racks,when asking about this they replied with“it’stroublesome to fold the umbrellas”, “maybe I’m not used to it”, “wet umbrella may damage the cabinets”, etc.Librarystaffexplainedthat students would get accustomed to it as time goes on. Since there is a distance from the library to the umbrella cabinets, staffurged, “we hopereaderscanslightlyswing the umbrella before entering the library to avoidrain dropslippery. ”

Moreover, some students also mentioned the disadvantages of the dense umbrella racks, including the inconvenience of placing stick umbrella andit’shard to remember the umbrella’s number plat that result in umbrellas hard to find.Luckilythere isn’t manystick umbrellaowners. Thesepractical problems raisedfromactual application will be gradually tackled, and better service will be provided to allthe readers. (CCNU Youth,Shu Jiaxin)