Proposal Presentation - On-Campus Library Hours Extension

On-Campus Library Hours Extension Taylor, Morgan, Jazmin, Daniela, and Princesleah

Introduction The library on campus is a space for studying, writing papers, meeting with groups, and using software only provided on those premises. We are proposing that St. Edward’s begins a timeline to extend the hours of operation at the Munday Library.

This presentation will explain the timeline of keeping the library open until 2:00 am, then a 24/5 schedule, to lastly achieve a 24/7 schedule.

We believe this timeline could beneďŹ t our growing population and the growing desire for these services to remain open on campus.

Main Points of the Background Information ● ●

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As college students, the hours of productivity vary greatly. Students with jobs or other obligations need a time and space to get work done during the little free time they have.

Our research has supported our proposal for implementing the 24/7 hours over time. These hours, or hours close to this (24/5) have been implemented in other universities and have been successful Successful methods included a head count where students were counted throughout the new hours. At first, the number of students decreased as it got later, but students were still staying through the night Over time, the number of students increased through the night, and eventually, the hours became permanent.

Research Questions Necessary? ● Why is it important for the campus to have a 24 hour library? ● Would productivity change with a 24 hour library? ● Would this help international/exchange students that need to use the library to get in contact with home at different times of the day?

Costs and Allocations? ● Can St. Edward’s University afford to have a 24-hour library? ● What ways could we plan to save money with this plan? ● What costs will we have to allocate for the plan?

Research Questions Continued Safety and Security? ● What security measures would the university have to take to make these things happen? ● Would we do an ID entrance after certain times?

Benefits? ● How do differing campuses average a studying night/day? ● Would students use this year round or would it only be pertinent during finals? ● What services are you looking for the library to provide after outside of its current typical weekday business hours?

Other campuses that use the system ● What other campuses utilize these hours and make it work? ● What other campuses tried this but weren’t as successful?

Problems with the Present System ●

Library hours are not ideal as it is not always accessible to students

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Library resources such as printers, databases, and librarians are limited from 7:30am Midnight

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For students with early morning classes such as 8 am and 9 am, these hours offer limited time to utilize the library before class

Problems with the Present System â—?

For students who prefer to work/study at night, as most do, closing at midnight gives them limited time to continue working

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While there are 24-hour labs in certain dorms where students can work, these resources are restricted to students who only live in those dorms

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Commuter students do not have access to these dorm labs

Objectives ●

Provide students with a more accessible library

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Restructure security system with library to ensure safety i.e. using Student ID cards to enter the library after-hours

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Having campus police officers monitor the surrounding area

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Hire employees for graveyard shift at library

Main Points of the Methodology Survey: This survey ask students six multiple choice questions, which allow us to see whether or not they would be interested on having the library open for 24 hours.

Main Points of the Methodology Research:

Place Matters: Undergraduate Perceptions of the Value of the Library.

Wide Awake at 4 AM: A Study of Late-Night User Behavior, Perceptions and Performance at an Academic Library

The article shows the data that explores different cases on student’s views on the library at the University of Cape Town (UCT) campus. This data was assembled from separate investigations that constructed an idea on the students’ value for 24/7 libraries during finals. All of this data was put together to show the differing opinions over a particular issue which is the physical value of a 24/7 library.

A study was conducted to see what services and facilities are used after 11 pm and what concerns users have regarding the late night library. The results showed a significant effect on institutional recruitment and retention.

TREND #10: MEET NEEDS: 24-Hour Library Story

This article discusses the possible cons of having 24/7 library hours. The article tackles issues that opposing board members had when the notion of a 24/7 library was proposed. The article covers issues relating to safety and staffing.

Keeping the Doors Open: Exploring 24-Hour Library Access at Washington University

This article discusses how Washington University did a trial run of a 24/4 schedule for their library. The trial run was conducted in response to students requesting readjustment of the hours through a survey sent out every year.

“24/7 Library Operations- Will They Actually Come?”

This article cover the experimental study of a 24 hour library and the methods used to obtain favorable conclusions.

The library extended its hours to 24 hours and they counted the number of students in the library each hour.

However, they did not calculate the student’s interaction in the library (meaning if they used labs or just the common rooms). The first graph had a significant drop in number of students after just 2 am. However, after a few more semesters, students were beginning to stay in the library unti; 6 and 7 am. The number of students were still small but there were enough to remain open.

Measurement and Reporting Q 1- What grade are you in?

Q 2 - Do you live on campus or commute?

Measurements and Reporting Q 3 - Do you have any electronic devices at home?

Q 4 - How many hours on average during the week do you use the library?

Measurements and Reporting Q 5 - How likely are you to stay in the library if it was open 24/5?

Q 6 - What facilities do you use the most (you can pick more than one)?

Proposed Solution Our group is proposing that we gradually expand the the library hours from the current times, 7:30 am - midnight, making the library more accessible to students who live both on and o campus. First, we aim to change the hours to 7am - 2am, Sunday through Thursday. We will test out these hours in a trial, evaluating the number of students that utilize the new hours in the library. If the new hours are a huge success, then we will further expand the hours of the library to be open 24/5.

We will keep the closing time on Friday night the same, at 9pm. As for Saturday and Sunday, we are choosing to keep the current Saturday hours of 10am-10pm. For Sunday, we want to open the library earlier at 10 am compared to the current time of noon. We will also have the library stay open later, at 2am, on Sunday nights.

Budget To ďŹ nd an estimate for the budget for our project we looked at the yearly operating budget of the 24/7 library in UT, and adapted it to work for our library size.

Official Budget These are the recommended steps to get the budget approved:

STEP 1

Munday library Expenses Find distribution of expenses for 2018.

STEP 2

UPD Meeting Discuss security measures.

STEP 3

Financial Aid Examine possible work-study opportunity.

STEP 4

Librarian Meeting Discuss division of workers.

STEP 5

STEP6

Make a budget

Approve a budget

Outline potential expenses.

Acquire approval from administration.

Closing After reviewing the information and background with other post-education campuses, we found that there is a need for these services to be more available and to be prominent at all hours of the day. Although people feel that there isn’t a dire need, there is still the desire coming from the students.

The proposed timeline allows a gradual transformation to eventually keep the library open at a majority of hours during the school day and keep the community happy while achieving it as well.

For more information, review upon the extensive proposal prepared by the group.