Greenwood Library is looking into the possibility of extending its hours Sunday through Thursday from midnight to 2 a.m., according to Brent Roberts, dean of the library.
Executive Senator of SGA (Student Government Association) Kevin Napier, a junior kinesiology major, approached Roberts in late Sept. inquiring about increasing the hours to accommodate students.
“Basically what we are doing in SGA as an exec board is to put together a resolution which is basically a plan trying to get Mr. Roberts to investigate more (about student use with the library),” said Napier.
SGA posted on Facebook and Twitter to survey students by asking if they would utilize the library in those extended two hours.
“We got really good feedback actually,” said Napier.
The Facebook post received 145 likes, 22 shares and 113 comments. The tweet received 427 votes with 82 percent voted yes and 18 percent no.
“(I would be) looking for statistics; how many people are in the library, when are they here, what are they doing, are they checking materials out right up until midnight or after a certain point of the day do library transactions drop off?” said Roberts, “I have already started looking at some of the statistics, and it really does look like the material check in and checkout drops off after 11 (p.m.), but there are still people in the library.”
Roberts explained that Napier and himself have been talking about the possibility of the time of 2 a.m. but “haven’t really locked it in yet.” Napier added how he realized that a 24-hour library was unfeasible in terms of costs.
“I would do a full environmental scan- I would look at internal things like staffing and also security issues… I’d also look externally; I’d look around to our peer institutions in the commonwealth of Virginia to see what are other academic libraries that are our size, what are they doing in terms of hours and maybe reaching out to see how they are staffed,” said Roberts.
“One of the challenges in making this happen is staffing,” said Roberts.
Roberts mentioned that his goal would be to trial the new hours in as early as Spring 2017 or Fall 2017. Roberts suggested to Napier that the SGA could possibly act as staff from midnight to 2 a.m. during the trial.
Roberts disclosed that the library is able to track those who come in and out of the library on a daily basis with heightened attendance at 8 a.m. then tapers off with a pickup in the early evening.
“Our target is to have as many staff as we can here when students are in the library so they can help with research, help them check materials, everything that they need; the library is here to serve the student needs,” said Roberts.
“I really want students, if they can, to reach out to other friends that they know on campus, try to get them excited. If they are interested in extending library hours, voice their opinion to faculty and staff on campus. If they really want it to happen, then we are going to have to get a lot of support behind this,” said Napier.
Napier explained that the next step in the process is to reach out to Longwood University Police Department (LUPD) to gain support in the security aspect of possibly extending the hours.
Napier also added that the issue of transportation to and from the library past midnight would need to be addressed since it was mentioned in the online surveys.
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