University of Virginia Library

Closing Time At Alderman

Yesterday in these columns we considered
the question of why the athletic facilities
close at 11 p.m. on weekends. We believe that
the athletic facilities (the gym, cage, or both)
should remain open until at least 1 a.m. every
night, and that such an extension of the hours
is possible with no prohibitive expense. The
same is true of the library...or, at least it
should be.

We were told that the library attempts to
cater to students' demands; and we
acknowledge that, in some respects, the
library staff has filled those
demands adequately. However, one major
complaint we have heard many times for
several years is that the library only caters to
students' demands during very limited
working hours (8a.m.–11:30 p.m., S–F; 8
a.m.–6p.m. Sat.). There is, of course, no
absolutely correct number of hours
for a university library to be open, but, as the
University grows, and demands for all
University-related services and facilities
increases, there will be increasing pressure to
keep it open 24 hours daily.

Perhaps 24-hour service is not yet
warranted, but it is a service which the
librarians should consider aiming to fulfill.
Unfortunately, library officials feel that
present demand is not such that they can even
justify the expenditure on the requisite staff
of seven to keep it open past 11:30 p.m.
Those students and faculty who differ with
this opinion should make it known, not only
to The Cavalier Daily, but to the librarians. If,
as the librarians proffer, they want to cater to
student demands, then possibly the students,
by demanding the services of the library more
forcefully, will impress upon those who
control the purse-strings that the library is
needed at night–even (much to the library's
surprise) on Saturday night.

Saturday night is an especially strange
case. In September 1971 the hours of
operation on Saturdays were changed from
8:30 a.m.–10 p.m. to 8 a.m.–6 p.m. A
library source suggested to us that the change
was in response to a poll which showed that
the demand was greater between 8 and 8:30
a.m. Saturday than 6 to 10 p.m. While that
may (strangely) have been true, there is still
sufficient reason to operate the library on
Saturday nights rather than simply assume
everyone at the University is a die-hard
Wahoo who would not consider studying on a
Saturday night. Times have changed, and
there is scholarship going on here which does
not come to an abrupt halt at 6 p.m. every
Saturday night.

What we have in both the library and
gymnasium cases is a study in majority rule
without concessions to the minority no
matter how eager or dedicated that minority
is. If you consider that those who use either
building after 11 p.m. are demonstrating their
fervent desire to reap the benefits of its
availability, it no longer seems justifiable to
cater only to the desires of the daytime
majority.

A passive check of who is in the library at
closing time is not sufficient evidence that no
one wants It to stay open past 11:30 or 6
p.m. The Catch-22 nature of claiming that
"everyone has left at closing time, therefore
there is no one to stay open for"–when they
all left only because the place closed, defies
logic, whether it is presented by the
doorkeeper at Memorial Gymnasium or the
Bookchecker at Alderman Library. This is
not a junior high school where everyone is
tucked in by 11:30 so that the school can
shut down. This is a major university, where
some people are only able to use the library
or the gymnasium late at night. Those people
pay for the same privileges, and should not be
denied them.

If it takes larger staffs, surely the Office of
Financial Aid can provide the manpower. And
if that takes more funding (and it would
not amount to very much), that money can
be raised by taxes, tuition increases, fee
increases, bequests, or charging an entry fee.
Most of us would gladly pay the cost of
maintaining a skeleton crew to oversee the
library and gymnasium later than they are
presently kept open.

It is time Virginia woke up to the fact
that, for better or worse, it is a large state
university which can not act like a quiet, little
gentleman's boarding school any more.