Students and Libraries May Benefit from Late Night Hours

Abstract

the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License 4.0 International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncsa/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the same or similar license to this one. AbstractObjective -To assess late night library usage, including a demographic profile of students benefitting from late night hours, with an analysis of the services and resources they used, and whether the use of late hours is connected to student success.Design -A mixed-methods approach including quantitative demographic information alongside qualitative user feedback collected using a web-based survey.Setting -A large, public research university library in the United States of America using late night operating hours (11 P.M. to 7:30 A.M.) to create 24-hour library availability 5 days per week.

“Open for 24 Hours”: Lessons Learnt from the North-West University Library Services

“…Furthermore, a 24-hour library service would provide access to resources to which students may otherwise not have access. Hayman (2015) established that students used the 24-hour library service for the university's wireless internet access, library printers, computers, and online databases and electronic resources. In a developing country such as South Africa, for many students who live off-campus, internet access remains a challenge, in particular for students from low socio-economic groups (Czerniewicz and Brown 2013;Rambe and Nel 2015).…”