Summer hours

You wrote:

I would like to have twenty four hour availability of the library during the  summer as well. As a summer student i need this. I got kicked out of the library
two days ago in the middle of an on-line quiz and that affected my grade. Midnight would be better than 9pm(weekends) and 10pm (weekdays)

I am sorry that you were asked to leave the library in the middle of an online quiz. The Concordia Student Union (CSU) Fund pays for the extended Library hours. Since, generally speaking, there are far less students on campus in the summer and it is a considerable expense to keep the library open for extended hours (security guard and cleaning staff), the Libraries do not remain open 24/7 in the summer.  Even if we were to extend the hours up to midnight, it would be at a significant cost to the CSU Fund.

However, the Webster Library will be open 24 hours a day during the summer exam period: June 18 – June 26. You can see our complete schedule at:

http://library.concordia.ca/services/hours

Thank you for your email.

Working past 10pm

You wrote:

I was wondering why in summers the library opens only till 10 pm, why not 24 hours like the rest of the year. I like to use library for studying late at night, but due to these timing limitation can do it. I am sure a lot of students feels that way. Is there any solution in this direction or at least increase the time. 

The Concordia Student Union (CSU) Fund pays for the extended library hours.  It is a considerable expense to keep the library open round-the-clock (security guard and cleaning staff).  Because there are far fewer students on campus in the summer, the Libraries have decided not to remain open 24/7.

However, the Webster Library will be open 24 hours a day during the two summer exam periods: June 14 – June 20 and August 15 – August 21.  You can see our complete schedule at:

http://library.concordia.ca/services/hours/index-summer.php

Thank you for your interest.

Library Hours

You wrote:

Please write the timings of library, up front on the web site. It has mission, jobs, events, .., but not the timings. “Timings of libraries” could the most frequently searched item, which should be accessible from multiple web pages of library site.

Thank you for writing to us.  You can quickly check the Libraries’ Hours from any page on our website.  On our Homepage, the Hours button is right over the Suggestion Box button:

Holiday access: Use the Mackay entrance

You wrote:

I don’t know why it was advertised that the Webster library would be open on Thanksgiving day for studying but ALL buildings on SGW campus were closed that day. It was definitely inconvenient for study plans! It would have been better to even err on the side of the plan that all buildings would be closed, so therefore no library access!

Wow, what  a nuisance! Thanks so much for bringing your experience to our attention. We just confirmed with Security that the Webster Library building was indeed open on Thanksgiving, though only the Mackay entrance was unlocked.  It is normal practice for that entrance to be the only entry point to the building on holidays, but there are also usually signs on the other doors redirecting you accordingly.  We have now added a permanent note about the Mackay street entrance on our web site hours page under holiday openings.  We will also include this information when posting the next holiday hours on our library plasma screen, and we will try to ensure that there are notes on the locked entrances next time.  We apologize for your incovenience and thank you again for the alert.

Summer Hours

We had two recent comments about summer hours at the library:

Hello, i want to know if the library will be opened 24 hours in the summer 1 in the exams period, because i really want to study for my hard classes and i just cant study at home because i live in noisy place especially in the summer, and my classes are all after noon ,so i cant just go to the library to study for 1 hour. plus i found that studying individually in the library is really good for me and i guess for all students who really want to study. thank you.

Another student wrote:

Hello, I would like to suggest the opening hour for study in Webster library. During the Summer time, it opens only from 8:30 to 10:00, but why don’t you open only second floor to study? In fact, there are a lot of student studying until later than 10 o’clock.

Thank you for your suggestions and questions about summertime hours. There are far fewer students on campus during the summer, so we do not keep the same 24/7 hours. It is a considerable expense to keep the library open for extended hours. We need to pay for additional cleaning and security. Since we use funds from the CSU to support the extra hours, we felt that we would not maintain the 24 hours during the summer session.

However,  we will be open 24 hours a day during the two summer exam periods: from June 17 -23 and then from August 13-19. We are happy to have your feedback on the hours.

ID required?

You wrote:

I’m surprised this is being taken seriously and it is truly appreciated. However there is an important issue I haven’t read about yet which concerns the amount of students/people that are in the library during examination periods. It becomes really hard for us, students at Concordia to find a place to study. It would be appreciated if security can check id’s since at least half of the crowds during the examination period don’t attend Concordia University. Thanks!

Thank you for your input. You are right in saying that there is a lack of study space at the downtown library. Its capacity is for 2950 people, yet an average of 5000 people visit the Webster Library on a daily basis! That number is sure to go up in the New Year, as the Webster Library will be open 24/7, as of January 4 2010! At that time, ID cards will be required to visit the library during the night.

As for checking IDs during the day, years ago, when the Webster Library first began the 24-hour-opening at exam time, security guards checked ID cards at the library entrance all day long. One year, they did this outside of exam time, just to keep track of who was coming through the doors. It was found that the vast majority of users were in fact our own students. So, it was felt that rather than spend money on keeping a guard to check IDs 24/7, it would be preferable to have a longer 24-hour-opening period, one that began well before exam time. In fact, this year, the Webster Library 24-hour-opening began November 30, 10 days before the beginning of exams.

Thanks for taking the time to write to us.

Media Services

You wrote:

I’m wondering why the weekend hours for the Media Services at the Webster Library have been cut. I’m taking a video class this year and I’m finding itdifficult at times to be able to view all of the materials I need to see. Since the media desk is the only access for these materials there should be weekend access.

Thank you for your comment about the Media Services Desk hours. It is never an easy decision to cut service desk hours, but given staffing levels and the amount of weekend traffic, it was decided to try keeping the desk closed on weekends and then assess the impact after the end of the academic year.

We thank you for your comments and they will certainly factor into our considerations of future hours for this service desk, and regarding the accessibility and location of the video/DVD collection.

Returning Books on Thanksgiving

You wrote:

Have more book drops around campus for after-hours book returns! I tried to get in the building [October 12th ]to return books and the BUILDING itself was locked. I had no way to return my books on time. Very frustrating.

The Library was open for study on Monday, so it was possible to return books that day. There was signage directing people to the Mackay street entrance of the building.  Nonetheless, sorry for the inconvenience.

 

 

24/7

You wrote:

Keeping Webster open 24 hours during the final stretch
of the semester is a great idea!

Thank-you for thinking about the students who are
still writing papers and studying for end-of-year
exams.

It’s appreciated.

Thanks for letting us know you appreciate the library being open 24 hours a day during the exam period. Good luck on all your exams and papers!

Later hours?

You wrote:

Hi, i’m a hard working student and sometimes i work better at night that in the morning, in order words, i would suggest that at least the computer section of the library stay open longer and later. i’m currently in the webster library, and it is 9pm and i had to make a line up for the computers. this proves that many other students enjoy studying at night as well but are limited to time and space and availability of computers. i’m not saying it should stay open 24/7 all the time, but maybe by extending the closing hours an hour or two later can make a big difference for any dedicated student. Thank you.

Thank you for your suggestions. I have shared them with the Library Administration. You may want to have a look at the most recent post below, because it also concerns later hours for the library. We are open to suggestions from students on how to afford to keep the library open later.