Students will be forced to study in a section of the library relevant to their field of study during the exam period, pending the implementation of new rules at next week’s meeting of University Council, The University Times has learned.
Speaking to The University Times, Trinity’s Chief Library Officer, Hilary Shelton, said that the rules were proposed to reduce “significant congestion in the library, and in particular the Ussher tower”. “This move is part of a series of reforms that begun with the extension of the 24-hour library earlier this year”, she said.
The move would mean that third, fourth and fifth-year medicine students would be forced to study in the James Stearne Medical Library in St James’s Hospital, and that no science students will be allowed to use the Berkeley–Lecky–Ussher complex. The regulations will be implemented on a floor-by-floor basis, meaning that only theology and religion students will be allowed study on the fifth floor of the Ussher, whilst only philosophy, ancient history and classics students will be allowed study on the fourth floor.
Shelton went on: “The primary problem stems from the tendentious overuse of library spaces by certain studious cohorts of the college population, such as medicine students.”
As part of the 24-hour library extension over the summer, student card scanning points and automatic entry doors were introduced at various locations around the library complex. Attendant staff, however, will enforce the rule in the Hamilton building, pending success of the automatic doors in the other complexes. The Hamilton building will have double the number of attendants during periods known as “heightened study times”.
In a memo provided to University Council by Shelton and Darren Johnston, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, it is stated that the scheme will be provisionally in operation from April 18th to 22nd, with full enforcement from April 23rd.
In the memo, Johnston says: “If this system doesn’t work during the busiest library period, then it’s never going to work.”
Speaking to The University Times, Molly Kenny, the Education Officer of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union, said that she fully supported the proposal, stating that she had assisted Shelton and Johnston in the development of the proposal at a meeting of the College Chief Library Strategy Organisation. “As an engineering student myself, I can understand why the Ussher library might be a more attractive space to gain your knowledge. However, it is unfair to the many students who wish to study in peace.”
Editor’s Note: April 2nd, 2016
This piece, published on April 1st, 2016, is an April Fool’s Day joke. The library has no plans to implement such rules.
