Magale Library Reduces Hours
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This semester the Magale Library shortened their hours from closing at ten p.m. Sunday through Thursday to closing at 9 p.m. Magale is also now not open on Saturdays at all, now only open for six days a week.
As one of the main hubs on campus for academic and social purposes, some concern among students spiked. Sophomore Elijah Smith expressed hope that Magale will be able to stay open later in the future, saying, “I personally use the library basement for D&D once a week, and most times those sessions used up all the time till ten o’clock, so I will definitely miss that extra late night time.”
Smith also points out the importance of having a physical space open for students to use, whether for “group studying” or "just to hang out in the study rooms.” While there are other buildings that are open for 24 hours with ID card access on campus, Magale is a space specifically designed with more than just classrooms or labs in mind. It is meant to invite students to use its spaces.
Senior and library student worker Rhys Deupree also voiced concerns about the new hours for Magale, pointing towards a lack of access for students on campus. Magale offers students more than a space, having different resources that aren’t available in other places on campus, like a text scanner, physical books and DVDs, a large-scale printer, and student workers who are trained to use the digital catalog OMNIA.
Deupree says that many students “have late-night obligations such as SGA meetings, Residence Life, and other miscellaneous activities,” and "sometimes someone may need something as simple as a print out of a reading or to scan a reserve text.”
Although students are taught to be conscientious of their time, it is “a skill acquired over time," and that does not stop Magale’s hours from being something that “makes or breaks their access to text,” as Deupree states.
Library Director Patrick Morgan says that the decision to cut hours was not an easy one to make. After losing librarian Christy Wrenn to retirement, they have been unable to replace her. This caused them to have to lean on student worker staff more heavily in order to keep Magale open later, but this has just put more strain on the schedules of both students and the librarians, Morgan and Kat Williamson.
Some schools, such as George Washington University and The New School, have tried relying solely on student workers for night and weekend staffing, but Morgan says, “both have abandoned those experiments within the past year and a half for logistic and safety reasons.”
Although hours have been cut, Morgan has both hopes and expectations that Magale will return to longer hours. Magale’s just under 70-hour weeks are much lower than other similar institutions’, and the goal is to increase to around 80 hours open each week. Before that change can be made, Morgan says, "We will certainly find a way to be open until at least 11pm during midterms and finals.”
Just as there are concerns with too few hours, Morgan also has concerns about too many hours. Many other schools that used a 24-hour system, such as Washington and Lee University, have debated on whether or not something like that is truly good for students. Morgan agrees with concerns that it could contribute “to negative mental health outcomes … because it encourages an all-nighter, work-until-you-drop mentality that ultimately doesn’t serve anyone’s well-being.”
Despite the concern and current uncertainty about Magale Library’s hours, Morgan says he is striving for balance and “confident we’ll achieve that, and soon.”