Giving it All You’ve Got:The Value of Extending Hours in an Academic Health Sciences Library
Author
Harmon, Geoffrey James Corey; Sewell, Kerry
Abstract
Objective: Students regularly state strong preference for increased library operational hours to accommodate learning needs. While many academic libraries provide extended hours, academic health sciences libraries appear to adopt such models less frequently. Budgetary constraints and lower gate counts in health sciences libraries may drive this, yet student preference remains strong. In response to student preferences for increased hours, our institution shifted its budget to provide an additional 10 weekend hours (Friday through Sunday). This study assessed changes in physical use of the library over weekend days, elucidating the relationship between stated preference and actual use.
Methods: This study utilized physical library usage data [gate counts, room reservations, and circulation transactions] for the time period January 2018-January 2020, restricted to Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The date range allowed for comparison of weekend physical use statistics during one complete year pre-extended hours with one complete year post-extended hours data. For the two time periods, for all periods except exams, we ran descriptive statistics to assess the percent increase in physical library usage, with sub-analyses by patron type whenever data allowed.
Results: Overall, we saw increases in all three areas of physical usage data studied. Our gate count increased by 17% on the days that we extended our hours, with entrances during extended hours accounting for 21%, 11% and 8% of total daily entrances on Sunday, Saturday, and Friday, respectively. Room reservations during the extended hours in 2019 accounted for 17.42%, 20.98%, and 18.92% of all reservations during the Spring, Fall, and Summer Semesters respectively. Following the increase in hours, our circulation increased by 32.92% with Saturdays seeing the biggest jump (39.66%) followed by Sundays (34.66%), and Fridays (22.86%).
Conclusions: Based on this data, we determined that the expressed student preference for increased operational hours was matched by actual increased physical use of library spaces and resources during extended hours.
Subject
Date
2023-05-18
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