On Tuesday, May 9th, Head Librarian of the Heidi Sternberg Library Edith Lubetski sent out an email to the YU mailing list announcing that library hours at the Stern would be extended until 4:00 PM on the remaining two Fridays of the Spring 2017 semester, which fall on May 12th and May 19th. In her email to the student body Lubetski labeled the change an “experiment” and said that library usage will be evaluated “for future determination of hours.”
The hours have been extended from the typical 1:00 PM closing time on Fridays. The Mendel Gottesman Library is already scheduled to close at 4:00 PM on Fridays, hence why no extension was announced for the Wilf campus facilities.
While the extension may seem out the blue for most, it is actually comes in response to a single Stern student’s request, made only just last Thursday, May 4th. Maya Saketkhou SCW ‘18
emailed Paul Glassman, Director of University Libraries, to request the change. Maya told The Observer that when she noticed that the the Wilf library stays open until 4:00 PM while the Stern library closes 3 hours earlier, she figured, “I had nothing to lose by emailing them to ask why this was the case and ask if the Stern library could be open for longer hours on Friday to match that of the Wilf campus.”
Glassman responded to Saketkhou the next day promising that he would bring it up with the Lubetski and get back to her soon. Saketkhou said that Lubetski contacted her in less than a week to let her know that the change would be implemented for the rest of reading week as an experiment.
When asked about the extension by The Observer, Lubeskti said that they were able to implement the change after “two staff members graciously agreed to [each] take one of the Fridays” and after “arrangements with security” were made to “make sure the building would be open” until 4:00. On whether or not this would become a long term change Lubeskti responded that “It should be noted that there are very few patrons normally on Friday at the Beren campus. [So] we will evaluate the usage this year and then determine what further action is necessary.” She made sure to not that the library staff is “always open to student suggestions and can act upon those that are reasonable and doable.”
On her experience with the issue Saketkhou said, “What I have learned— and I think many can learn— is that if you ever want something, it can’t hurt to ask for it.”