At the beginning of the fall semester, Kresge Library announced its new 24-hour, seven-day-a-week awhile.

According to University Libraries Dean Adriene Lim, the idea of expanding library hours has been in the works for quite some time.

She said the original idea for the extended hours came from several sources, but students were the most vocal and important advocates for the expansion.

“Last year, the library’s 24/5 expanded hours were considered part of a one-year ‘pilot project’ to test the service model and to gauge how often the hours would be used by students,” Lim said. “The results were significant enough to warrant another round of temporary funding for this year and for us to increase the hours fully to 24/7.”

With the extended hours, students are studying and hanging out at Kresge Library at all hours.

Andrew Mandley, a senior majoring in human resource development, said he uses the library on an average of six hours a week.

“The extended library hours have been a huge benefit for me because it can be difficult to find a quiet, conducive study environment late at night if that’s when you study best,” Mandley said.

Keeping the library open all day, every day, does not mean the university is spending a large amount of money to do so, according to Lim.

“The costs are relatively low and cover the addition of two part-time librarians and student assistants to work during the night hours, although there are also associated costs involved with heating and lighting the building during those hours,” Lim said. “Many of the start-up costs, covering security enhancements for example, were one-time expenditures for the pilot project.”

As far as student participation among students in the program, Lim is pleased that the new library hours are utilized.

“Last year, the statistics demonstrated that our library’s expanded hours were well used by students, with door counts during overnight hours totalling 24,826 from August 2011 through March 2012,” she said. “We believe there has been a positive side effect of the program too, in that the use of the Library’s during regular hours has increased substantially, such as, the library’s’ overall door counts increased by 15 percent in October 2011 and by 45 percent during February 2012.”

Rebecca Cetnar, a junior majoring in elementary education, uses the library more than 10 hours a week.

“I am a commuter and I often use these hours to study during my classes,” she said. “I use the library because I feel like I focus a lot better there than I do at home or in the OC. I usually attend the library to do homework even though it is a 20-minute drive (from home). All of the other libraries near me close too early for me to even bother making an attempt to go there.”

Students are required to show school identification from midnight to 7 a.m.

 

Contact Staff Reporter Sarah Blanchette via email at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @S_Blanche_