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(Feb 4/16) I have been really surprised at how all the McMaster libraries close at the same time during the school year at 10:45pm. At my undergraduate university, which had only about 7000 students, the main library was open until 2am every day. The situation at McMaster really makes it difficult to find study space at night when I personally am very productive. I have actually found that there are usually a good number of people forced to leave at the end of every night especially during midterms. In addition, there are likely many students who do not come to the library because of their early closing time. I understand that running all libraries past a specific time is expensive. The Learning Commons are traditionally open much later, however they can be very noisy. I suggest that one of the major libraries like Mills, Thode or Health Sciences be open until 2am during the school year. This will allow students who get more work done late at night to study without distractions. Many of us including myself find it difficult to concentrate at home so study in the library.

Library response: Thanks for submitting your comments. Each term we roll out extended hours as demand and use dictates im Mills, Innis and Thode libraries. The Health Sciences library determines its own hours. For the first couple of weeks of each term we provide standard hours since late night studying is not something students want or require. Once we get past the 1st month or so, we start providing late night hours, Sunday to Thursday until 2am and Friday and Saturday until 10pm, in the Mills Learning Commons. The next milestone is reading week each term - the Learning Commons goes 24/5 at this point, Sundays to Thursdays. Last term we introduced Quiet Late Night Studying in the Innis Library (KTH-108) Mondays to Thursdays, staying open until 3am. We will be doing this again starting the Monday after the spring Reading Week. Finally, as we approach exams, we move into 24/7 in the Mills Learning Commons and Thode Library, and the main part of Mills Library and Innis Library go into extended hours, 8am to 11pm, 7 days per week. We will continue the Quiet Studying at Innis until 3am, Mondays to Thursdays. We re-evaluate our hours, based on statistics from previous semesters, and make changes as required. Complete details about Library Hours can be found on the library website.  (Feb 5/16)
Answered by: Anne Pottier (Associate University Librarian, Library Services/Facilities/Learning Support/Collections)
Categories: Hours  |  Permalink