Homes have become childcare centers, offices and learning places in the span of six months.
While going through these changes, many students aren’t able to get quiet time at home to attend class, do homework or visit office hours.
The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) should follow the lead of many college and university campus libraries that have allowed students to visit by appointment only.
This would help students do work in a mostly distraction free environment.
Appointments would control the amount of students that are inside and allow for time to sanitize and rotate dedicated study areas.
Time slots could also be limited to a maximum of two hours at a time. Special cases with consistent internet problems could have an extended period of time and the eight study rooms would accommodate that need.
Students would have access to a stable internet connection, a safe place to work and research materials, which could be left in bins and collected to be sanitized after they left.
Just as maintenance staff have remained in charge of keeping classrooms sanitary, they could also be tasked with sanitizing materials used in the library.
Stanford University’s Green Library has a reduced capacity and limits appointments to professors, graduate students, post-docs, fellows and visiting scholars.
Stanford requires students book appointments using their student portal with a current student ID.
Green Library also requires visitors to follow entry requirements like wearing a mask at all times while inside, using a specific entrance, queueing, staying six-feet apart and limiting study rooms to individual students.
The district could bring student workers who were furloughed or let go in the spring when campus closed to help maintain sanitary spaces for students and professors, checking people in and out of the library.
Overall, opening the library would benefit students and professors who don’t have access to a quiet learning environment, access to materials and reliable internet connection.
The library’s 58,929 square feet is ample space to be able to implement these changes safely.