By: Dy’Mond Dozier
When using your identification cards you would think you only need them along with your license or when you’re trying to do something important. Here at East Los Angeles College, however, you need your ID card to just use a library book.
Everyone knows that college years can get to be very stressful. Having to remember to grab everything in the morning, along with your student ID, card can be a lot more stressful. This is why I feel that they should just let us use our student numbers and not our school ID cards.
In college, many students that can’t afford books because they cost so much, so they go into the library hoping to get access to a book. But what’s even more stressful is that students can’t get access to any books unless all your classes are paid.
“You need an ID card because it proves that you’re an actual student,” said a librarian about why students must show their IDs.
I then asked if that was because they did not want students to steal books, but he replied that an alarm goes off when someone tries to leave without checking out a book.
I then asked him if he ever wanted the rules to change so that a student was allowed to use their ID numbers instead or even both and his answer was “No. It’s always been like this and it just works better,” the librarian said.
I first asked a student who had been here the past year and a half Samantha Willams, an ELAC student, said there were a few times where she couldn’t check out at a book for a history class because she had forgotten her ID at home. It nearly left her with a failing grade.
“You should be able to use both your card and your ID number because you can easily forget your card but you always remember your ID number,” Williams said.
But student Nick Lopez felt differently.
“I think that it [the ID] works out great. And plus, if anything ever happened to the books, they would know who to blame,” Lopez said.
Full-time student DaJa Tillman said she thinks the IDs are a good idea.
“I feel like it’s a good thing to just use the IDs because they can keep up with everything and it is probably easier for them because there are so many students that come and go.”
