A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
Leyland will also propose longer opening hours outside of the academic term, from 8.30am to 2am.
An extension of the late-night minibus service for students studying late in the library has also been suggested.
She said: "I believe that having a 24-hour library would give students the flexibility to access the resources they need and are entitled to."
The motion is a response to a low satisfaction rating in the 2008 Library User Survey for the current access hours.
It will follow other universities in a nationwide movement for 24-hour library opening.
Second year student Harriet Arscott told The Yorker: "I think it will be good if the library was open for longer hours, especially at night. However I don't know if it needs to be open 24/7, or at least the entire library at any rate."
Leyland is keen for the university to provide better resources for an increasingly diverse student population.
She said: "Most students now have a myriad of constraints upon them which may prevent them from working only in the traditional hours, including part-time jobs, increased involvement in valuable extra-curricular activities and childcare issues."
The extension of holiday opening hours would especially benefit students with first week exams or with less typical studying hours, such as those with placements, postgraduates and international students.
The process is likely to be a gradual one. Leyland stressed that it is "something to aspire to and to work with the University towards" as extra provision for security and welfare would need to be implemented.
I can't see that 24 hour access during term time would serve to do anything more than increase the university's energy consumption for the sake of a very small minority of students. I would however support a move to provide opening hours during holidays that match those available during term time...
Having libcat available all the time would be useful too. I'm not quite sure how I manage it, but I always seem to want to access it during it's maintenance period.
I agree wholeheartedly on the libcat availability.
Longer opening hours are definitely needed. The one issue though with 24 hour opening is that it could be seen as encouraging students to make unhealthy choices when it comes to studying and sleep. The last thing we want is students stressing themselves out cramming in the library all night before an exam. But they might just do that at home anyway. And who are we to judge?
At the university library where I work, 24/7 opening is very successful. However, this is due to most of the computers being in the library - people can work on essays etc overnight. With York having college computer rooms which are open all night, I'm not sure that the library would be used for all-nighters.
PS. Despite the 24/7 opening, the library catalogue is down for a certain period of time every night at this uni too. I think that maintenance period is inescapable.
Hold up. Let's give YUSU some credit here for taking the initiative and acting on demands from students. That's right, students demanded changes to the library opening hours when they filled out questionnaires last year.
Stop complaining and start complementing the pro-active stance on this issue.
I agree with post #5 in the way that YUSU have taken something that students see as unsatisfactory, and acted upon it. Well done to them, I hope this trend continues.
However, I would like to see some followup research (if we do end up with 24-hour opening hours) to ensure that we only invest the time, money and resources in extended opening times if it is being used enough to warrent this investment. People may want 24 hour opening for the few times that they want it during the year, but may not use it all the time, or even enough to make the investment worthwhile.
Another option may be to extend opening times over the perods where the library is most in demand; coming up to popular essay deadlines, exam periods, and dissertation due dates. This may however be difficult to plan with the sheer number of courses, hence the preference for straightfoward 24 hour opening.
Anyway, well done YUSU, and I hope that if people do require 24 hour opening for teh library then tehy get what they need.
Why not let's get some cost-benefit analysis into this debate?
How much is opening up the library another 8-9 hours going to cost? Probably a fair bit. In principle, the idea of a '24-hour centre of study' is marvellous; it gives students much more flexibility.
However, there are obviously going to be running costs incurred etc. Could these not be better spent investing in new books over the coming academic year, improving the library's current resources, rather than opening for longer and subjecting students to the same problems of a lack of available books, necessary for that particular course?
When it comes down to it, between say 12 midnight and 7am, the library is only ever going to be used by a select few either cramming for exams/doing last-minute essay works/insomniac boredom-relief. Who's going to come back from Gallery and think "3am, right, let's get an early start on that seminar work"? Moreover, as #4 mentions, the college computer rooms are open 24/7.
Practically, of course the idea looks good. If it doesn't cost a bomb, then it has a reasonable chance of going through at UGM (presumably that's where this would end up, as a YUSU motion?) I think the exact changes and financial rammifications needs a bit more thought/in-depth explanation, as this article only provides something of a vague overview.
It was put through UGM last academic year that the union should be lobbying the University for 'extended' opening hours.
From this it has been found that a 24 hour opening time makes the most sense. To open perhaps a few hours later at night and a few hours earlier in the morning would mean extremely unsociable and expensive working hours for library staff; whereas the placement of overnight security in the library would fit into the shift patterns of the Porters and University Security.
This could easily form a small part of the big ongoing spending to improve the quality of service offered by the library - it would not need to be a case of quantity over quality.
This service is long overdue, and as the league tables show, it is about time that York raised its investment in our degrees to a level comparable with other top universities!
Pepper! I heard you had a sex change when you were 2. Anyway, have a look at the B Henry's story. Your comment about York's lack of investment into students pretty much sums it all up. Have a look at the B Henry's story...
There are projects happening that are benefitting us but there are other schemes that show blatant disregard or hypocracy - I'm thinking of campus bars and bridges as the most cliche, but most resonant examples. If other Universities that are lower in the league than us are giving better opportunities to their students, good, it's bridging a gap. But that doesn't mean that what is happening at this University is fine, WE NEED IMPROVEMENT!
About the league table comment: student spending will rise massively when Hes East starts being built in earnest, surely, pushing us up in the new league tables which heavily favour spending over teaching quality.
On the other hand, it does seem as though cuts are being made on current student facilities, and it doesn't seem like 24 hour library hours - which would benefit a small minority, I would have thought - are the best use of what money's available.
Strange idea, I'm not entirely sure where this clamour for 24/7 library facilities has come from. I've certainly not heard cries of despair from the poor students who've turned up at the library at 4 30 am to find the doors shut.
How many librarians are going to want to work through the night?
How much extra portering will these proposals require?
Other universities may have 24 hour opening but they do not necessarily have 24 hour IT facilities situated around the campus. On the very rare occasion i've been into the library between 2200 and midnight it's been practically deserted. Maybe Ms Leyland has a point regarding extended opening in exam weeks, but every week of the year?
On a list of student welfare problems, post-gallery library access surely ranks fairly low. There are far more serious (albeit more challenging for those in charge to deal with) welfare issues at this university at the moment. First year housing should be top of the list, not this.
Robbie, as far as I know, the library is unstaffed during the later hours of the evening, although extra portering will almost certainly have to be put in place.
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