READER COMMENTARY: Disappointing decision on library
Reader Commentary | 9/8/09
Posted online at 10:56 PM EST on 9/7/09
In response to your article "Library hours of operation reduced"?(News, Sept. 1): I would be the first to say that the reduced weekend hours stink.
I distinctly remember a time my first year when my roommate asked for the room, and all I wanted to do was curl up somewhere with a book. It was 9 p.m. on a Friday, and there was nowhere to go. The library was closed. There wasn't a quiet space to be found in the Shapiro Campus Center. There were people in the Usdan Student Center. And it was raining, so I couldn't even sit outside with a flashlight. I remember thinking, what kind of academic institution is this when a girl can't find a quiet place to read on a Friday night? Aren't universities supposed to encourage this kind of thing?
Last year, I often spent my entire Sunday working in the library from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. As a library employee, I spent a couple of hours of that behind the desk-two or four, depending on the week-and the rest I spent doing my homework. It was quiet, and the chairs behind the computer cluster in the library commons are insanely comfortable. I know I got more homework done there than I would have elsewhere, and it was even pleasant-when I liked my reading, of course.
I have to wonder where they came up with the statistics that led to this decision. While I never worked Friday nights, I was a frequent opener at the library, and there were always far fewer people in the library at 8:30 a.m. during the week than even an hour later. Do you remember seeing people walking around with clipboards, glancing at all the people studying in the library? That was us, the library desk workers. Every hour, we counted heads to see how many people were using the library because our bosses knew that these cuts were going to happen. The hours between 8:30 and 10 were quiet, enough so that one person could work the desk and easily do other things at the same time.
Why weren't those hours cut? Simply having the library open at 9 would save 4.5 hours a week, the equivalent of those cut weekend morning hours. Is it more important for people to be able to come in and print papers before their 9 a.m. classes than it is for people to be able to study on Sunday mornings? Or is it because that's when the staff arrives?
I may be abroad this year, but I still care about the Brandeis library. I sincerely hope that when I come back in a year, there is some solution to this problem of library hours. I will miss my Sunday mornings.
-Dev Singer '11
I distinctly remember a time my first year when my roommate asked for the room, and all I wanted to do was curl up somewhere with a book. It was 9 p.m. on a Friday, and there was nowhere to go. The library was closed. There wasn't a quiet space to be found in the Shapiro Campus Center. There were people in the Usdan Student Center. And it was raining, so I couldn't even sit outside with a flashlight. I remember thinking, what kind of academic institution is this when a girl can't find a quiet place to read on a Friday night? Aren't universities supposed to encourage this kind of thing?
Last year, I often spent my entire Sunday working in the library from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. As a library employee, I spent a couple of hours of that behind the desk-two or four, depending on the week-and the rest I spent doing my homework. It was quiet, and the chairs behind the computer cluster in the library commons are insanely comfortable. I know I got more homework done there than I would have elsewhere, and it was even pleasant-when I liked my reading, of course.
I have to wonder where they came up with the statistics that led to this decision. While I never worked Friday nights, I was a frequent opener at the library, and there were always far fewer people in the library at 8:30 a.m. during the week than even an hour later. Do you remember seeing people walking around with clipboards, glancing at all the people studying in the library? That was us, the library desk workers. Every hour, we counted heads to see how many people were using the library because our bosses knew that these cuts were going to happen. The hours between 8:30 and 10 were quiet, enough so that one person could work the desk and easily do other things at the same time.
Why weren't those hours cut? Simply having the library open at 9 would save 4.5 hours a week, the equivalent of those cut weekend morning hours. Is it more important for people to be able to come in and print papers before their 9 a.m. classes than it is for people to be able to study on Sunday mornings? Or is it because that's when the staff arrives?
I may be abroad this year, but I still care about the Brandeis library. I sincerely hope that when I come back in a year, there is some solution to this problem of library hours. I will miss my Sunday mornings.
-Dev Singer '11
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