A 7:45 a.m. sprint to the library to print a paper last minute will only leave disappointment and an unused print balance.
Both early risers and night owls have probably experienced a situation similar to this, and are out of luck when it comes to utilizing California State University, Stanislaus’s library resources.
Our school’s library should extend its hours to better facilitate our scholarly demands and needs as students.
In order to get some quiet time or computer usage, students must plan their day, or even entire semester, around the library’s limited hours.
The CSU Stanislaus  Vasche Library is open every day of the week, but with unaccommodating hours, especially on the weekends.
Monday through Thursday the library is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., which is difficult to work around for a college student with a heavy workload.
Friday students better dash in there before dinner time because it is only open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, the hours go from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which is ridiculous, especially because that is when students get papers and other homework done before Monday rolls around. Finally, Sunday, the library is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Now let’s take a look at other state colleges libraries around us who offer flexible library hours to their students.
San Jose State University’s is open until midnight every day of the week, with the exception of Friday.
California State University, Chico’s is open from 7:30 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. Monday through Thursday, as well Sunday.
Why do other school libraries stay open late while ours closes before the 10 o’clock news?
Our library staff wants to support students and provide them with the hours that will best accommodate them and and their needs.
The only problem is the extension of the hours depend on whether or not the budget and administration allow it.
After speaking with the library’s head of circulation, Dwayne Machado, it was easy to see that he has our best interest in mind.
“We are hoping that extending the library’s hours will grant more opportunities for students to succeed by being able to come in and use the tools they need when it is more available to them,” Machado said.
“Like when they get off work, or out of class.”
There is a large group of students that would benefit from extended hours: athletes, students with full time jobs or multiple extracurricular activities and let’s not forget about the students with sixteen plus units.
It is hard to find time to rush to the library when students have numerous activities to manage. Just about every sport team trains until six or seven at night, while full time jobs require eight hours of work daily.
Club and greek meetings are at all hours of the day and students have back-to-back classes from morning to night. Popular times to study are early in the morning or late at night.
Our library should make its hours more flexible in order to cater to various lifestyles.
“Being a student athlete, it’s really hard to get into the library to do my work, especially on Friday nights,” Jessica Stokes (junior, Business Administration) said.
“We get out of tennis practice at 5:30 p.m. and by the time we’re out, the library is already closed.”
The library should serve students in order to help us better ourselves and live up to our full potential.
We pay a high tuition not only for our education, but for the resources here on campus.
Limited hours may be okay for some students, but extending the library’s hours would accommodate all student’s needs.
Associated Students Incorporated is currently attempting to get our library hours extended.
Hopefully come Spring 2014 we see a change implemented and can use our resources to their full advantage.