Author: Rachel McCarthy-Moya
For those of you who don’t already know, the library is now open 24 hours Sunday through Thursday. That is awesome and not because you can get your work done at any hour of the day without distraction, but rather because who hasn’t wondered what is going on in there at 3 a.m.? Wonder no more. So, what happens at 3 a.m. you ask? Absolutely nothing. Nothing. Okay, maybe you’ll see four red-eyed students staring blankly at the computer screens dreading the sunrise and their 8:30 a.m. sociology class, but that’s about it. Fascinating, I know.
Honestly, it really is great that we have access to the library 24 hours a day because it allows us to use printers, computers and books, plus gives us space free from the loud, drunken first-years playing beer pong down the hall. Access to these services is especially helpful for people who live off-campus when the Internet is down in their apartments or their printer is out of ink and they don’t have the benefit of a computer lab in the dorm. Most of us have endured the crisis of finally finishing a paper in the wee hours of the morning and not being able to print it out or even send it to e-mail because your Internet is down. Now we can all just sojourn down to the library. How about all those times when you realize that you just need one more article or book to finish up your paper but the library is closed? No need to stress any longer.
The library’s new hours were put in place around the same time the Cooler started to spruce itself up in an effort to be more of a student hangout. The school’s desire to make the campus more student friendly can only mean good things for us. I do think the library staff needs to get together with the Cooler and arrange some sort of coffee cart for all those haggard looking people who actually spend 24 hours in the library. I’m sure that’s just wishful thinking on my part, but it would also be genius.
One bone I have to pick with the library is this new policy of showing your ID when you walk past the front desk. Before they had a little sign but no one ever showed their ID and the person at the desk didn’t care. Now, they practically blow a blood vessel if you don’t show it and then they take one precursory glance from about 6 feet away and nod their heads. If you don’t have your ID, you have to sign your name on this log sheet. I suspected they were finally enforcing this policy because of the recent thefts on campus, but I’m not sure because when I asked the person at the front desk why they are asking for my ID, they shrugged their shoulders and said, “new policy.”
First of all, can you really see my ID from that far away? Second, if I don’t have my ID I have to sign my name? I could sign anyone’s name and if I were going to the library to steal people’s laptops, I would definitely sign someone else’s name. It seems that the policy is aimed at keeping non-Oxy people out of the library, but they’re not really accomplishing this by making one sign a name. It’s a total waste of my time to dig through my bag when I’ve been going to this school for three years and the person at the desk can’t even see the picture on my ID. It’s half-assed enforcement and if we’re going to enforce it like that, why enforce it at all? It’s not doing any good, it’s just wasting my time and the time of the person at the front desk who probably wants to get back to instant messaging his or her friends. Although the new library hours are a leap in the right direction for students, the ID enforcement policy is just a waste of time.
Rachel is a junior CTSJ major. She can be reached at rmccarthy@oxy.edu
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