By Gil Milanes
With more than 30,000 students at East Los Angeles College, the Helen Miller Bailey Library hours of operation and basic students needs are not being met.
The college library was recently remodeled with state of the art equipment on both of its two floors, but it still lacks in providing flexible hours of operation for the college students.
The library is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on all Sunday except for four towards the end of each semester.
The school is failing to acknowledge that many of the college students attending ELAC are part time students, meaning they have either full or part time jobs, or other personal matters that stops them from being full time students.
Students use the library to complete their homework away from home, since they may not have the space or environment necessary to concentrate at home.
With the amount of students enrolled, the school should have longer hours of operation from Monday through Sunday.
This will allow those students who do not have a set schedule at their jobs to have a place to study before and after work.
ELAC has the largest population in the Los Angeles Community District, therefore it should take the lead to accommodate its students with superior services similar to those higher institutions. It can help ensure better success for students.
Most California State University libraries are open from 8 a.m. to midnight everyday, while university libraries are open all day every day. With new building being built, more students are expected to be enrolled here and the demand for library usage will increase.
As of now it seems that the library’s peak hours are from noon to 4 p.m.
Sometimes it is impossible to find a table to sit and study.
Some students even opt to sit on the floor, or find an empty book shelve and use it as a desk.
It seemed for a moment that the library chaos would stay at the former temporary library in the men’s gym while construction workers remodel the Helen Miller Bailey Library. The chaos still exists.
The library still lacks of private individual and group study rooms.
During peak hours it takes between 10 to 15 minutes to use the express print stations.
The two copy rooms often have copy machines out of order and there is a machine at every corner of the library to add funds.
ELAC has to take a better approach in order to fulfill basic students needs.
Constant maintenance on electronic equipment, to reassure accessibility, is vital and necessary.
The library needs to extend the hours of operation so students can’t be limited on the time they can use the library. If hours are extended then students might choose to come at a later time when the library is not extremely busy.