Ellis Library extends hours for finals week

If students don't utilize the extension, the program will be terminated.

By Megan Pearl

Published April 13, 2010

Ellis Library plans to extend its hours for students during finals week and commencement weekend this semester. The Missouri Students Association Student Affairs Committee formally pitched the idea to the Director of Libraries James Cogswell earlier this semester.

Student Affairs Committee Chairwoman Michelle Horan said she got the idea from a friend who was concerned about not having a place to study for fall finals last semester.

"During finals week, the entire school is staying up late, getting up early and pulling all-nighters," Horan said. "I think it is a great facility for studying and something we need open longer during that week."

MU Libraries spokeswoman Shannon Cary will work with the Student Affairs Committee on publicity for the extended hours.

"We'll announce it on the Web site, have posters in Ellis Library and announce it on MU Info e-mail," Cary said. "I'm working with MSA, and we haven't completely decided everything. We also have Facebook and Twitter accounts, so we will get information out that way as well."

Cary said the estimated cost of extending the hours would be $1,657. The library has agreed to absorb all the costs. The estimated costs account for security and estimated gate repair but do not include energy costs. Although there would be increased energy usage, it would be minimal.

"We will pay for it from proceeds from the Bookmark Cafe," Cogswell said. "We get a portion of their gross sales." This change has opened discussion about extending hours during other periods of the year.

"If it turns out that we will do this during other times of the academic year, we will have to fund it some other way," Cogswell said.

Dining Services Assistant Manager Lana Merrick said Bookmark Cafe is operated by Campus Dining Services and is undecided whether it will also extend hours during finals week.

The extension will begin on stop day, and regularly scheduled hours will resume May 17.

Cogswell said they will be keeping track of the activity in the library during this week through head-counts and turn-style counts to measure whether the extended hours are needed.

Turn-style counts are based off who is walking in and out of the library. The security guards who patrol the library do head counts.

The library recently pushed back its hours to 2 a.m. from midnight after meeting with the MSA president two years ago and has been able to justify the extension with the amount of activity recorded.

"We would not open the library for 24 hours without a good reason to do it," Cogswell said. "We don't expect that we'll be kicking hundreds of people out at 4 a.m. We don't want to have 20 people in Ellis because that's expensive."

Cogswell said they aim to provide as many services as possible for the people there but do not want to hit the point of diminishing return. There has been discussion of opening an all-night study room in either Ellis Library or somewhere nearby.

"If a lot of students are using the facilities at the extended time, then they will keep doing it, and if not, it will be terminated," Horan said. "It's a trial run."