The Greenwood Library will be extending its hours starting fall 2017 to accommodate for students looking for later hours to study.
“In response to a request by the students, we will be extending our hours (from) Sunday night through Thursday night in the fall. Currently, we close at midnight, and starting in fall 2017, we will be open until 2 a.m.,” said Brent Roberts, dean of the Greenwood library.
Kevin Napier, a junior kinesiology major, who has also been working with Roberts on behalf of the Student Government Association (SGA) to make this happen said, “I really want to commend Dean Roberts and his staff for trying to help the student body as a whole.”
Roberts said, “We (the library) are very sympathetic to our students and I know that our students, they’re incredible students, they’re citizen scholars and not only that but many of them have part time, almost full time jobs, they’re taking a full course load and then they’re involved in activities and sometimes we see students coming in at 10 (p.m.) at night and that’s the first time of the day to start to get to their homework and projects."
“Kevin has been very open and communicative with me and I have appreciated that connection with SGA,” he added.
Napier, along with the SGA, drafted a resolution at the end of last semester requesting Roberts to look into the logistics of increasing the facility hours.
Roberts said delaying the hour extension until fall 2017 would allow the library to reach out to other libraries to facilitate the transition.
“We decided that I wanted a little bit of time to one reach out to these other libraries and see if there’s any consistent best practices or standards in the area of library building access and also give us some time to hire additional students to make the staffing transition,” he said.
Roberts has reached out to numerous other academic libraries to ask how they handle an increase in hours, learning students usually staff those additional shifts.
“At this point that is the model that we are planning to model. They will be here and take responsibility for the building and close up the library at 2 a.m.,” said Roberts. “In order to handle these extended hours, we are going to be hiring more student workers and if there are folks out there interested please watch the student employment website.”
The students staffing those hours will receive a pay differential for working the later hours of the library, according to Roberts.
Those hired students in the upcoming months will receive additional training to take on the increased responsibility with closing the library with no full-time staff members present, according to Roberts.
“Another cost will be custodial and I’ve been talking with people on campus about those custodial needs that we will have. Even now, Greenwood Library is one of the busiest, most hopping places on this beautiful campus, and when we are open till 2 a.m., those are just additional hours there will be people here that will be here eating and drinking,” said Roberts.
Additionally, the cost of utilities will increase to supply the additional hours, according to Roberts.
In terms of transportation, the Farmville Area Bus (FAB) stops running at 12:35 a.m. according to farmvilleva.com.
“Those students who are there after midnight would either have to live close by or provide their own transportation, as many students do so it may not be a problem,” said Roberts.
Roberts has reached out to Longwood Chief of Police Col. Robert Beach to discuss the safety and security of the building at later hours. There have been discussions regarding the increase of security cameras throughout the library, according to Roberts.
“The previous dean of the library (Suzy Palmer) had inquired about cameras and had a quote of around $50,000 to install additional security cameras at multiple points in the library,” said Roberts.
“We had some early conversations about the feasibility of 24-hour access and at this point that would seem to really present some challenges," said Roberts. "So that’s really going to be something that we access and monitor very closely we will be watching."
In addition to expanding its hours, the library has already made some changes upon request of the students.
“They asked for some study rooms we cleared out three rooms that were used as storage to create newly accessible study rooms and we are in the process of getting quotes on expanding electrical access,” said Roberts.
Napier said, “It’s really important to have a space like the library available to students to get their studies done in a reasonable manner."
In addition to the study rooms, Roberts said the library is partnering with the university's Digital Education Collaborative to get new computers with a "maker space."
“That is a creative tinkering space," he said. "It is a space to focus on technology, so some 3D printers, some robotics, some other coding and programming tools that we think will give students an opportunity to come in and be creative."
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After multiple talks between SGA senator Kevin Napier and Dean of Greendwood Library Brent Roberts, the library will extend its hours to 2 a.m. from Sunday to Thursday beginning in the fall.
