Newly-elected president of the Students’ Union, Kenneth Browne, has already followed up on one of his major election promises this year. Browne promised in his campaign to extend library opening hours until 1am during exam periods.
This week, it was announced that the library will in fact be open until 2am from Monday-Thursday starting on Monday October 6th and continuing right through the academic year.
Kenneth says that these changes were mostly down to “simple communication” between the SU and the new Library management, which came into effect in March of this year. Browne says that he worked closely with Chris Pressler, Director of Library Services in order to achieve the new opening hours.
“Originally what I wanted was, just for exam weeks, to extend it until 1am but the Library went above and beyond that request”, Kenneth explains. “Chris was really eager to spruce the place up and bring us up to speed because the hours were falling short of what students in DCU needed”.
“I know myself when I’m studying it’s very hard to switch off at 10pm and wrap up and go home. I myself work better at night and I know a lot of other people do as well so 10pm really wasn’t cutting it” he admits.
A number of new facilities are also in place in the Library, including a renovated canteen in the basement and a collaborative work study space on the ground floor, where students can partake in group work and projects.
Kenneth commends the library management for the new changes put in place. “They’re a lot more open to ideas and very progressive. A brand new canteen has been added as well and they spruced the whole place up – they’ve done a lot with it”.
The Maths Learning Centre, which was previously situated in the Henry Grattan building, has also moved to the ground floor of the Library.
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