7 comments

  1. Having Gospel work most of the 1am – 8am shifts was wonderful!! Thank you, Gospel!

  2. Whatever will we do without you next semester, Gospel!!??

    I also want to thank Maura, Steve and Kellam for their efforts to ensure a smooth 24/7 at Main! Thanks to all!

  4. From Gospel:
    Thoughts from 24/7:

    -We had lots of good feedback from folks. They liked that we were open, and while a certain percentage of folks used the opportunity to sleep, I heard a lot of appreciation coming from everyone.

    -On one evening we had a large stuffed dog on the circ desk, with a sign saying “Free hugs.” Lots of people stopped by to give him a squish, and several people said “This is just what I needed!”

    -I asked a few people about having the library open until four – mostly they didn’t feel good about the idea, especially walking back to dorms at that time of night.

    -Most common thing I had to turn people down for overnight was headphones. If there was some way we could distribute free/cheap headphones like you get at the airport, that could be useful.

    -As usual, door counts are a little off on account of facilities use from about 4 to about 6.

    -Snacks were great! I never felt underfed!

    -It was nice to have crossover time with both Maura and Steve. Keep that.

    That’s about all I can think of! Do you have any questions? Comments? Too bad. I don’t work here anymore, as of, like, an hour and a half from now.

  5. From Maura:
    think all went well

    bathrooms were much cleaner this time around. still could use a boost late afternoon but were definitely better

    the highest head count was 165 at any one given time which I think was lower than fall exam times which were lower than last spring’s exam time

    weekend head counts were pitifully low

    came in every morning to things being caught up which was great

    never heard a peep from any student about being open 24/7. When I asked some students , many didn’t even notice

    thanks gospel…!!

  6. From Steve:

    –the usual trends mostly held: counts fell off consistently on Friday and Saturday nights, and counts tended to fall off on most nights by 4am.

    –overall numbers, long view: after a high-point of activity during Spring 2007, overall numbers for Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 have been slowly but definitely declining. The Spring 2008 numbers are the lowest ever since starting 24/7 in Spring 2005. However, they are only ~150 lower than the previously lowest numbers (which were in Spring 2005). At the moment I wouldn’t advise seriously questioning 24/7 service, but if next year’s numbers continue to drop, I believe it would be cause for concern.

    –one new thing not seen in previous semesters: a serious spike at the very end of 24/7, during the last two overnights. Numbers on those days for Spring 2008 were approximately 60% higher than previous semesters.

    –very easy for me to feel confident leaving Circ at 1 with our old hands Gospel at Circ and Rod at Info. Both did a great job with the overnights.

    –students on weekend overnights proved less than ideal this time around. In lieu of one dedicated Circ student whom we can trust to staff all four Friday and Saturday overnights (e.g. Ted in Fall 2007), I’d like to see one dedicated Circ Sub taking these shifts. Another idea would be to simply take two dedicated Circ Subs and divide all overnight shifts between them (e.g. Sub 1 does Su-Tu overnights with Sub 2 doing W-Sa overnights).

    –agree with Maura: Facilities did an excellent job of keeping the place from becoming one big overflowing trash bin

    –would encourage Public Safety (or our hired Security staff) taking a more active role in making sure town residents do not spend the overnights in the building

    –smart idea to have inner front doors always unlocked, with outer front doors locking. I would encourage consideration of a consistent 9pm locking of the outer front doors during 24/7.

  7. Revisit Fri and Sat night coverage by students?
    Need for student workers to access to libcirc and mmcirc passwords/logins
    Re-imaging of computers at 5 am?
    Last Sat of exams – no snacks/food anywhere on campus in the evening – was this due to 51 Main? Many unhappy students!
    Increase in use of facility after hours by community users; problem with local teens camping out overnight
    Consider not issuing passwords after a determined time in the evening to discourage guest use of facility?
    Great snacks!
    Gospel was the night hero!

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