Written by: Alvin Wang
While the library is an invaluable student resource, its effectiveness is restricted by the limited hours. There are many tools in the library that attract students during school and even after school. However, students aren’t able to use the library to fulfill their needs after school because it closes at 4:30. The library should stay open longer because students need to stay after school for sports and for access to tools in the library that they don’t have at home.
During the times when sports start later in the day, students cannot go home because there is not enought time to go home or come back. Others live too far away from home and cannot get a ride back. The students have no choice but to stay at school. If the library were open for a longer period of time, the students would be able to spend their time being productive instead of wandering around, waiting for their sport to start.
The library also provides useful tools that a student may not have at home. If the library closes too early, the student will not be able to finish his work. For example, technology, such as camera, is crucial for recording school projects. A student has a limited time to work on his project in between the time school ends and 4:30, forcing all students to return checked out times. Useful tools that the library has that students may not possess include Microsoft Office. Tools such as Excel and Word are crucial for any student doing school work. The quality and speed of finishing the assignment would improve if students were able to use these essential tools. However, computers checked out from the library need to be returned after one hour. It would be absurd to expect a student to finish a whole lab or write a whole essay in the limited time given. It would be unfair for the student to fail an assignment simply because he or she didn’t have the correct tools to work with at home. Opponents say that extending hours would not serve any academic purpose, and that not enough people stay after school in the library to require it to open for an extended period. However, librarians say that of the aproximately 100 people who regularly stay in the library after school, 25 percent need to be kicked out at closing time, almost all of which are doing school work. Furthermore, if the 25 percent of people are kicked out while doing schoolwork, this also means that they were not able to finish their assignment.
The school library closes at 4:30 when the librarian’s work day is over. However, this can be easily remedied. In order to fix this problem, the school could hire more librarians in order to extend the hours for students. Hiring new librarians for the school is a small sacrifice for the academic benefits that students will be able to gain. Paying extra librarians for two hours will dramatically improve academic results by allowing students to spend extra time using helpful tools at the library that they don’t have at home.
