When I heard students complaining about the changes to the Marriott Library hours, I wanted to find evidence to make it easy to hop onboard and start making the case to change things back to the way they were. However, truth be told, the more I looked at our library and compared it to others, the more I became impressed with what we have.
The Marriott Library was ranked 47th out of the 113 largest university libraries in North America by the Association of Research Libraries, and just completed a comprehensive renovation. After looking around, I found that the hours and accessibility of the library resources are about as good as they get.
Students are understandably going to complain, given that compared to last year, the library was open for 16 more hours during the week. However, taking a look around the state makes those complaints much harder to justify. Out of all the major universities in Utah, the only library that offers comparable hours is Utah State University. Utah Valley University’s library has limited hours during the week compared to ours and is closed on Sundays. BYU has great hours during the week, but on Sundays it is guarded from intruders by the Last Knight of the First Crusade (kidding!).
Compared to Ivy League schools, the Marriott Library not only offers comparable collections8212;the Middle East collection is among the top five in the nation8212;but also has comparable or better hours.
Historically, library administrators have shown that they are willing to adapt and be flexible, particularly when it comes to extending hours during finals, but until then, students should be able to get everything they need during the regular hours.
The library has made significant progress in electronic and digital content. According to its website, the library has increased digital content from 50,000 objects in 2002 to more than 5.7 million in 2006 and e-books from 13,844 to 112,545 in that same time period.
Students have greater access than ever to the Marriott Library, not only in the actual building, but in the availability of library materials online. Library and U administration deserve credit for running one of the most accommodating and accessible university libraries in the country.
