College and Research Libraries


STITH M. CAIN 

Service Hours in Selected 

Acade~nic Libraries 

F arty-three state and private university libraries were polled as to 
the number of hours w eekly they remained open, and the reasons for 
having chosen these hours. The average respondent was open 94.3 
hours weekly. Few libraries staying open past 10:00 P.M. give profes-
sional staff services in the late evening hours. 

MANY COLLEGE and university librar-
ies are being pressed to remain open in-
to the early morning hours and in some 
cases to remain open twenty-four hours 
a day. In order to determine how many 
hours weekly their libraries were open, 
a questionnaire was sent recently to 
forty-three selected state and private 
universities. Thirty-six questionnaires 
were returned. The average library in 
this group stayed open 94.3 hours a 
week. One stayed open 110 hours a 
week, while another stayed open only 
81 hours a week. The closing time of the 
libraries is as follows: 

Closing Time 

10:00 P.M. 
11:00 P.M. 
12:00 Midnight 

1:00 A.M. 
No Information 
Total Libraries 

Number of Libraries 

7 
20 

7 
1 
1 

36 

The average library in this group 
served an institution with 8,764 under-
graduate students and 2,201 graduate 
students. It had 619,489 volumes and 
circulated an average of 21,670 pieces 
of reading material a month. There were 

Mr. Cain is Director of Libraries, Wiscon-
sin State University, Whitewater. 

35.8 librarians and 48.1 clerical workers 
on its staff. Student assistants worked 
1,158 hours a week, and $47,259 was al-
located for student assistant wages. 

A second questionnaire was sent to the 
twenty-eight libraries that were open lat-
er than 10:00 P.M., and to the library that 
gave no information in the first question-
naire about its hours. Twenty-six librar-
ies returned their questionnaires in less 
than three weeks. Information was also 
obtained from the University of Wiscon-
sin in Madison and the University of 
Wisconsin at Milwaukee concerning their 
library hours. 

It was found that in twenty-five li-
braries librarians do not work after 10:00 
P.M., while in only three did they work 
after 10:00 P.M. It was also found that 
clerical workers work after 10:00 P.M. in 
eight libraries and do not work after 
10:00 P.M. in seventeen libraries. Stu-
dent assistants worked in twenty-five li-
braries after 10:00 P.M. Graduate stu-
dents only worked in six libraries after 
10:00 P.M., while clerical workers , 
worked after this time in seven libraries. 
One libra1y had only ROTC personnel 
working after 10:00 P.M., while another 
library had a sub-professional worker 
working after this hour. 

Security officers worked in seven li-

/ 265 



266 I College & Research Libraries • May 1969 

braries and did not work in eleven li-
braries, although they went into the li-
braries when they made their regular 
rounds of the campus. Custodians 
worked in four libraries after 10:00 P.M. 
Four libraries had two security officers 
working, while two libraries each had 
six security officers working . Some of the 
duties of the security officers were gen-
eral supervision of reading areas, in-
spection of the library, closing the li-
brary building, and handling discipli-
nary problems. 

Thirteen libraries provided only study 
space after 10:00 P.M., while seven li-
braries gave a limited amount of service 
by student assistants. Some of these sev-
en libraries allowed students to check 
out reserve reading materials, while one 
allowed the books in its three small 
undergraduate reading rooms to be 
checked out before midnight. 

Several that had once remained open 
later reported that there was not enough 
use made of the library to justify keep-
ing it open to the early hours of the 
morning, and have cut their closing hour 
back to 11:00 P.M. Several reported that 
they thought students should budget 
their time better and use the library 
during the ninety or more hours it ·was 

open. Some libraries reported their cam-
puses had many other study areas for 
students to use between 10:00 P.M. and 
midnight, such as study rooms in the 
university centers, church religious cen-
ters, dormitories, food centers, and fra-
ternity houses. 

Comments seemed to indicate that 
academic libraries should stay open af-
ter 10:00 P.M. only where universities 
can afford it and where there are enough 
security officers and student assistants 
on the library staffs to give adequate 
supervision. There should also, of course, 
be enough students using the library 
facilities to warrant keeping the library 
open. 

On the other hand, academic librar-
ies should not stay open after 10:00 P.M. , 
where there is little use by students and 
where the universities do not have the 
money to pay the extra wages of stu-
dent assistants, the extra salaries of se-
curity officers, etc. Some academic in-
stitutions encourage students to budget 
their time and to study and use the li-
brary in the early evening hours, when 
their minds are fresh. Students on some 
of these campuses have their fraternity, 
sorority, and other meetings after 10:00 
P.M. , when their libraries are closed. • •