Cups

Not CUPS. Cups. American River College's library provides conical paper cups near drinking fountains on the second floor. I'm curious why they chose conical cups. My first thought was that students might bring them back to their cubbies so they wouldn't have to bring a cup or bottle with them. Then I realized students can't rest them on the desk because of the shape. One could invert the cone for an inch to make a circular base, but it seems a bit more trouble than it's worth. I'm stumped. Maybe this has an answer which I'm just not getting immediately.

Update: I thought maybe for people who can't bend over to drink? People with disabilities? Regulations for accessibility reasons? That seems to be the best ideas I can come up with. Maybe I'll ask the librarian. ;)

Update: Question asked! ;) Doing my part to bring silly and time-consuming questions to our campus's Library staff.

Update: Librarian Tim responds:

Kevin, the conical cups are available for ADA reasons. It is college policy to have them available, so it's not a just a library thing. Tim

Update: Librarian Connie Fererra writes:

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for emailing the library. To answer your question, the ARC facilities people had the red holders and white cone cups installed. As you guessed, it was done in response to an ADA (American Disabilities Act) assessment of the campus. Since some people can't use the regular drinking fountains, I think the idea is to enable a quick drink, and then have a convenient trash can to discard the cup. If you wish to find out more, the Director of Administrative Services would be the one to contact at 484-8300 or you might email his assistant Shelly Lloyd at lloydsinsertedtopreventspam@arc.losrios.edu.

Again, thanks for writing askref.

Connie Ferrara
Public Services Librarian
American River College
4700 College Oak Drive
Sacramento, CA 95841

This is real investigative journalism folks. ;)