Johnnidis said that the petition asks for hours “roughly in line with current Hilles and Lamont hours”—i.e., remaining open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Hilles’ hours for next year were determined by examining current patterns of use at the library, said Brainard.
Starting next year, according to HCL’s current plans, Hilles would be closed on Saturdays. The library’s new hours would be from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Wednesday and 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. On Sunday, Hilles would still be open from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.
Johnnidis called these proposed hours “problematic.”
“We’re asking the libraries to be open so that students can actually use them,” he said.
Brainard said she understands that closing Saturday might be inconvenient, but that “we can explore better days for the library to be closed.”
Next year, HCL will collect data and track student use to determine what should ultimately be done about the hours.
In response to the potential reduction of available reserves at Hilles, the petition asks the library to provide a full reserve system for Core as well as non-Core courses.
The proposed reserves collection would maintain all reserves for courses in the Core Curriculum, but according to Johnnidis, there would be no funding for new materials and coursepacks.
Brainard said that details regarding the new reserves system for Hilles and other libraries have yet to be determined. HCL is currently revising the entire reserves system, with the new system taking effect in June.
In another cutback, the current staff of about a dozen will be replaced with an “evening supervisor” and two student workers called “reference prefects.”
In response to the plan for reference prefects, the petition pushes for at least a part-time librarian, or an option in which students are allowed to sign up for hours to meet with one.
But Brainard said the new reference prefects will be well trained to help students. In addition, Quad students will be able to schedule on-site consultation with a librarian and special presentations on the use of library resources will be periodically held for students.
As an alternative solution, she said that with expanded shuttle services and Lamont being open 24 hours a day and five days a week, “we hope that Quad students will take advantage of that.”
However, Monahan said, “any kind of negative change in the services that are provided to the Quad is still a negative change; it’s still going to affect the view of people in the Quad that we’re getting shafted.”
—Staff writer Jessica C. Chiu can be reached at jcchiu@fas.harvard.edu.