On January 5, the Boyden Library staff extended their hours for student library use, now opening at 10 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, as opposed to the previous opening time of 12 p.m. However, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., while the building itself will be open, books can only be checked out using the self-checkout at the circulation desk.
The library is open and staffed for over 80 hours per week, which Director of the Library Marshall Carroll explained was “significant, especially with the range of services that we provide,” he said.
Before extending library hours, he said that the library staff “noticed that there was often a queue outside the door waiting for the library to open on the weekend” and resolved to address the growing lines. The process of changing the weekend opening times required “conversation and collaboration from the library staff to ensure that we were establishing appropriate schedules and operational procedures,” Mr. Carroll explained.
He also said, “The population of students coming in right when the library opened often wanted a place to study and were not necessarily needing reference help or other library services provided by staff members.” So, the library does not have to be fully staffed outside of the previous hours. Instead, before 12 p.m., librarians answer questions asynchronously via email, addressing the potential problem of overstaffing the librarians.
Allegra Alfaro ’25 shared her appreciation for the earlier opening time, saying, “The ability to get up and do my work a half hour before brunch is super helpful when managing my Sunday schedule.”
When asked about the trends in who used the library during extended hours, Mr. Carroll said, “As we just started this pilot, we don’t have any significant data yet as far as numbers or who has and will benefit.” But he assured that the new hours “will hopefully be a long-term change.”
The library hours will stay, but, as usual, Mr. Carroll reminds us they “still need people to bring back their chargers,” he added. The extended library hours especially help the athletes on campus. Three-year Varsity Squash player Kate Chorske ’25 said that “this January it has been super helpful to use the library at 10 a.m. on weekends because, with my squash schedule, sometimes it is hard to get work done. But, I love that I can go to the library earlier now.”
With the new hours, students can begin work earlier in the day and perhaps avoid late-night library cram sessions.