New Night Life at Brooklyn College Library

Are libraries still necessary in the Google age?

Brooklyn College students think they are-so much so that they asked for the college library to extend its hours. Early in the fall semester, they took their request to President Gould and the chief librarian. Both couldn't agree more. And so, by using a little innovation to reconfigure floor space and a dedicated staff to ensure desk coverage, the library is now staying open an additional 13 hours every week.

Extending library hours is anything but the norm these days. Budget cuts are one factor, and many institutions feel that the prevalence of Internet searches cuts in to the need for library services. The Brooklyn College Library, however, is not just a source for books and information. It is a technologically rich resource with a wealth of multimedia capabilities. The library contains classrooms and study, meeting and media-viewing rooms-and more computers than anywhere else on campus. And the librarians themselves offer a wide range of services and are on call to address matters as far ranging as troubleshooting software glitches to tracking down source material on early 16th-century medical practices.

In general, the library-renovated in 2003 and almost continuously modified as demand and needs change-is possibly the most comfortable and certainly the most beautiful building simply to sit in. Students come to the library to just relax, to meet friends and to enjoy the serene atmosphere. All of this helps explain why, on the first night extended hours were made available, 142 students stayed until closing. Since then, there's been an average of 200 students in the library each night. To walk through the library now at 10:30 on a weekday night is to discover students around every corner, all with their heads in a book (or four) or busy scrutinizing a computer screen. The staff rarely seem to pause in their duties.

The entire first floor is available during the extended hours. If material is needed from an upper floor, a librarian will fetch it and bring it down. Other than that restriction, students are free to use all the resources, seven days a week: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

"The library draws people in," says Chief Librarian Stephanie Walker, noting the many services and workshops held there. But there was another factor supporting the good response to the extended hours-and perhaps for why the students' initially made their request.

"We have a culture of support for scholarly research and strong encouragement from the faculty and administrators for information literacy," Walker points out. "It’s terrific to see the response, and it's terrific we've been able to meet the students' needs."