Students concerned about Library hours

The University of South Florida’s short Library hours have some students hitting their foreheads instead of the books.

The Library closes at 6 p.m. on Fridays and at 5 p.m. on Saturdays. On all other days, it’s open until midnight. On Sunday mornings the Library opens at noon, leaving many students waiting anxiously outside for the doors to open.

A number of students feel this is unusual. USF has the largest enrollment numbers in Central and Northern Florida, and many students have more time during the weekends to catch up on their studies.

“I don’t think it’s feasible for students who work during the week because it is depriving them of the resources and ability they may need for assignments and research,” senior Jessica Brady said. “It does not create equal education assistance to students who are forced to have a job and cannot come during operating hours.”

Compared to local state universities, the USF library remains open the least amount of hours. Florida State University’s Library is open until 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and opens at 10 a.m. on Sunday. On every other day, it is open until 2 a.m. The University of Central Florida’s is open until 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and until 1 a.m. on all other days.

One student thinks the short hours interfere with a typical student’s schedule.

“College students are notorious for staying up late,” said freshman Rachel Vistein. “Lots of students probably wake up at 3 in the afternoon on Saturdays, and it closes at 5… It seems like a really bad idea because it’s one of those days where students can catch up on their work.”

One working member of the staff who asked to remain anonymous offered reasoning for the Library’s hours.

“We don’t have a sufficient staff to run an all-night operation,” the staff member said. “You can’t get quality librarians to facilitate the students. To become a quality librarian, you have to age and learn your collection and know your resources.”

The Library adjusts its hours to remain open until 1 a.m. during finals, but doesn’t have plans in the future to open on an all-night basis.

“There are a lot of security issues to being open all night, and we’re in a metropolitan area,” the staff member said. “If you do the cost analysis on it, it is just like running a business. Is the cost to run the Library all night worth the volume of students that will be there during the night? You’d have to pay a large staff to accommodate a small group. It’s not cost efficient. It’s wasting money they could spend on better resources such as better databases or more books and DVDs.”