Every weekday morning, the Pierce College library is the last in the district to open its doors. Six of the nine college libraries even operate on Saturday. Can’t Pierce open the library an hour earlier? Students are waiting for earlier opening.The main reason for not being able to extend hours is a lack of additional funding and less staff, according to Florence Robin, library department chair. If the library opens earlier, it at least needs to have librarians and a few staff. The Pierce library doesn’t have enough money to hire extra staff to open earlier.The Associated Students Organization used to provide some money to open it on Saturdays, but now they just help money to operate it for a weekday during final. It costs $7,000 to manage it for a week. They had cut $30,000 from last fall to this spring, so they don’t have extra money to open earlier, according to ASO President Tessa Moss.Some of the students in the library are researching and others are studying. Students who want the library to open earlier want to study there before classes begin at 8 a.m., to prepare for their tests or quizzes. We have some places we can study, like the cafeteria or Freudian Sip; however, it’s difficult to concentrate on studying because of chatting or noise.Pierce is planning to build a new library, which should have an independent study hall that could be made available to students earlier than the rest of the library.If we can have a study hall in the new library, it is highly possible to open it earlier and close it later. The study hall could open at 7:30 a.m. and the rest of the library could open at 8:30 a.m.The study hall would need to have:? One student worker to stay in the room. If ASO or volunteer faculty can help, that would be best.? Wi-Fi. Many students have laptop computers. ? A few computers and a printer for students who want to finish and print out their assignments.? An intercom to the sheriff’s station for safety reasons. Pierce is first in student population, so it shouldn’t stand to be the last to open its doors to students.
