Shifting library hours reinforce inconvenience

By Roxana Samano
The Collegian

ONE OF THE biggest problems I have seen on our campus has been finding a place to study. I am aware that a new library was desperately needed here, but for the students who are currently attending school it has been almost impossible to find a place to study.

This situation should be a higher priority — we are a university, after all, and studying is key. Many of my friends have never even considered finding a place to study on campus because they say the hours and locations are constantly changing.

Encouraging students to do well in school is fantastic, but if you’re not going to give them any real place to study and work on their homework then it is merely a hopeful wish.

Another issue that I have found is that even though there are a few places to study here on campus, it is hard to remember the handful of locations that are available and open.

I am aware that Associated Students has a link on their Web site where you can go and see the study areas and the times that each different place opens and closes, but these fliers need to be displayed all over the entire campus and not just in select areas.

One more downfall to having the library reconstructed is that only a small percentage of the books are actually being kept in the library, while the majority of other books are being stored away.

While I do know that you can request for a book, it often takes a couple of days to actually receive it, which puts those of us who like to procrastinate in a very bad place.

Also, some of us, before we check out a book, like to go through it to make sure that it contains the information that we’re looking for.

Walking in the library and having books at hand also makes it easier for us because the books are in categories, so if one book fails to meet the criteria that we are looking for we can simply but it back on the shelf and grab the one next to it.

I suppose that one benefit of our library situation is that it is forcing students to learn to adapt when resources are taken away from us.

At first, I admit, it hurts losing something that we’ve always had to start with, but it seems we’re learning to deal without it.

In this particular case, we either get our sources online or we go to the nearest public library to get our information.

Another upside is that the majority of the professors here understand the dilemma we are going through and when they assign us a topic to research they are either a more lenient about the due date or allow us to use more online sources.

Either way, I still feel that this area on campus can be looked at a little closer and harder from a student’s perspective and can be a little more accommodating to our needs.

Roxana Samano is a senior majoring in mass communication and journalism with an option in print journalism.

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