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Survey leads to library changes

MCCC’s library will close an hour earlier next semester instead of all night Thursdays.

Barbara MacNamee, director of Learning Resources, announced the change following a campuswide survey.

The survey revealed that students and faculty preferred shorter daily cuts in hours instead of closing Thursday evenings, which the library began this semester.

The library was required to reduce hours as part of the college’s campuswide budget cuts.

As a result, the library closed four hours early on Thursday nights.

Following criticism from students and faculty, MacNamee decided to do a survey to search for a better solution.

“They indicated that the four hour cut to Thursday night’s hours wasn’t the right fit,” MacNamee said.

The survey was sent mid-semester via email to all students, faculty, and administrators.

“We also made the survey available if you came into the library or went onto our web page,” MacNamee said.

Some faculty members encouraged students to participate and gave them the opportunity to do the survey in class so their voices would be heard, she said.

“I really appreciated that,” MacNamee said. “That was exciting.”

Out of the 361 respondents to the survey, 80 percent were students.

“I was really happy about that, because the students were the ones most affected by this,” MacNamee said.

The majority of the votes pointed toward losing an hour a day, rather than a four-hour block. MacNamee allowed the voters to have the final say.

“It was the most popular vote,” she said. “And that is what we will do.”

Being able to change the Thursday night hours back to what they were before, and still meet the needs of the budget, is a wonderful thing because everybody wins, MacNamee said.

She encourages students to have a voice and speak up, so that change can be made if something is not working for them.

“That’s what we are here for,” MacNamee said.

“We want to take care of our students.”
 

The new hours of operation will take affect at the beginning of the winter semester. The winter course schedule was taken into consideration as well, she said. “All things considered, it’s the best fit,” she said.

After a lot of concern over the cuts, the survey produced a solution to the loss of hours, she said. Access to the library is crucial for a student’s academic career, MacNamee said.

Changing the hours for the winter semester will enable students to have these resources more available to them, she said.