The forum on library hours Tuesday night discussed why extending the hours is currently not a possibility.

The Academic Affairs Committee and the Association of Honors Students hosted the forum to present the research done by the committee.

Allen Lanham, dean of library services at Booth Library, began the forum by explaining the problems with extending the hours of the library. Lanham said with the current economy, there are no extra funds to hire additional staff.

“While it would be possible to close certain departments of the library on certain days of the week, this is not the kind of service we want to offer,” Lanham said.

The library staff is not willing to sacrifice proper service and safety to stay open longer hours, he said.

Limited funding is not the only problem with extending the library hours at this point in time.

Lanham said there should be no need for hours to be added because the library is open 98 hours a week.

Lanham explained that even if a student in one week has 20 hours of classes, 20 hours of work, 20 hours of eating meals and at least five hours of meetings, that would still allow the student to be in the library for five hours a day.

“I haven’t been able to find the student that is (in the library) five hours every day,” Lanham said.

After about six months of research, Chris Kromphardt, chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, said he was expecting more students to attend the forum.

Excluding members from the hosting organizations, less than five students attended the event.

“This forum may not have been the most successful, but it’s a step in the right direction within a larger process,” Kromphardt said.

The process is still moving forward, but in a new direction than the committee originally planned. Instead of trying to lengthen the hours of the library, the committee would like to see other changes addressed.

A possible change the committee may look into is the possibility of shifting hours instead of extending them. According to the student surveys, there is a want for the library to open at 7 a.m. during the week for the students who would like to print or pick up material before their 8 a.m. classes.

According to the committee’s observations, Thursday nights are the slowest hours, but the committee will continue to do research to determine which hours will be most convenient for the majority of the students.

According to a report issued by the Informational Technology Service of about 20 labs found on campus, the library hosts 50 percent of the student computer usage.

Kromphardt said this could possibly be because the library is the only lab on campus that allows students to charge for printing directly to their student accounts.

Looking into expanding this capability to other labs found on campus may lower the students’ want for the extended library hours.

“I wish we could be open all the time, but we simply don’t have the funding to become a 7-Eleven,” Lanham said.

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu.

Student body president Levi Bulgar laughs at a joke told by Allen Lanham, dean of Booth Library, during the faculty forum on the extension of library hours on Tuesday afternoon in Booth Library. (Karolina Strack/The Daily Eastern News)

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