Time doesn’t stop, but sometimes the chimes atop the University Library do.

Electrical shop supervisor David Samodell said the bells stopped working about a week ago.

“The modem went bad so we had to replace it,” he said, adding the bells are now working. Samodell estimated the last problem with the system was a few years ago.

The chimes are not actual bells. Rather, they are a digital sound system that is computer-operated within the library.

Shelley Ingraham, assistant to senior vice president for administration David Creamer, said she has access to the chimes via telephone.

“There’s a special line and a special set of instructions that I (use) to start the chimes and to stop the chimes,” she said.

The chimes can be stopped by request, she said. Those requests are usually for events in Risman Plaza.

Ingraham said she thinks the chimes were placed on the library because it is the tallest building and is centrally located on campus.

“You might be down in Merrill Hall, and if it’s a fairly quiet day, you can hear them,” she said.

Senior English major Kara Laughard, who works at the circulation desk in the library, said she relies on the chimes because “you can hear them anywhere, so it’s useful.”

“I haven’t heard them the past couple days, but I used to when I walked into work,” she said. “That’s how I tell time on campus because I don’t wear a watch.”

Ingraham said the chimes remind her of home, as her clock has the same Wesminster chime.

“For me, it’s a just a comforting feeling, just like being at home,” she said. “This is kind of my second home anyway.”

Contact general assignment reporter Nicole Stempak at [email protected].