During the month of April, most college campuses will have more students using the library and other study areas for end-of-the-semester assignments as well as to prepare for finals. West Chester University students can appreciate the Harvey Green library more this month as April marks Library Appreciation Month. The library hours have been extended this year, first as a trial and then as a permanent change. The library hours are now: Monday through Wednesday 7:30 a.m. – 2 a.m. Thursday 7:30 a.m. – midnight. Friday 7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday noon – 5 p.m. and Sunday noon – 2 a.m.
The library was originally closed at midnight on Sunday through Wednesday nights.
Extending hours by two additional hours, the library now closes at 2 a.m. During the trial of extending the library hours, there were handfuls of students that stayed until the later closing times of the library. Now that the library is open later permentaly, more students seem to be taking advantage of the library’s late hours as they continue to do their school work.
The library has two floors designated as the quiet floors for students to work without the distraction of outside sounds. Other floors allow talking for students working on group projects, or for students who are at the library doing work with friends. There are rooms available for students who need to discuss a group project, or other assignments, in which they are able to openly talk about their work. On the second floor of the library is a room with several computers. Each computer is hooked up to a television screen that enlarges the computer image so that multiple people can see the work as it is being done. This is one tool offered for group projects.
There are other resources available to students, such as checking out books or laptops at the circulation desk.
On the computers, is a website offered by library resources to be used for research purposes. This allows students to search different topics by using reliable resources.
This could include scholarly journals that contain information on a research topic.
The library and other study areas, such as the third floor of Sykes Student Union, allow students to have a work area to complete their assignments, other than at the desk in their homes. The library can be more than a work zone, it hosts resources for research purposes, and there are computers, copy machines and printers available to students.
The FHG library hours will extend starting April 30 in preparations for finals during this semester. The library’s hours during the end of the semester will be as follows: Friday April 30, 7:30 a.m. – 10 p.m., Saturday May 1, 9 a.m. – 10 p.m., Sunday May 2, noon – 2 a.m. with extended study hours in the Starbucks area at 2 a.m. – 7:30 a.m. as the library will be open Monday May 3 through Thursday May 6 from 7:30 a.m. – 2 a.m. Each of these nights Starbucks will be used for a study area from 2 a.m. – 7:30 a.m. On Friday the library will be open May 7 from 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. The library will be closed on the following Saturday and Sunday. The schedule of the library hours can be found on the website, www.wcupa.edu/library.
Ginger Rae Dunbar is a third-year student majoring in English with a minor in journalism. She can be reached at RD655287@wcupa.edu.