Library closed over Easter

markk06

Does anyone else think its a joke that the Aungier street library is closed for so long over Easter? For those of you who don't know, its closed from Midday on Thursday next until the following Wednesday. So basically they have a week off. I dont know of anywhere else that closes for so long. I dont mind the friday to monday but tuesday is having a laugh. Especially since this time of year peope are doing exams.

Frankiestylee

That is a joke really. Most places tend to work a skeleton staff with restricted operations for times like that, but to close it down completely, that's gonna cripple a lot of people working on projects etc.

Tricity Bendix

Its not that much of joke when you consider that the library is opening until 9.30 on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The library has no obligation to do so during out-of-term dates.

Oh, and if you think Aungier Street is bad, I suggest you don't go to any of the other DIT libraries.

markk06

They have no "obligation" but come one, I have exams in 2 weeks and for 50% of that time i will have no access to the library. And they arent opening out of the goodness of their hearts. They do work there and get paid like everyone else, so i don't see how they can justify such long easter breaks.

Makaveli

b.ie curious wrote:

Its not that much of joke when you consider that the library is opening until 9.30 on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The library has no obligation to do so during out-of-term dates.

Yes it is a joke. The library closing at 9:30 is a joke in itself. They get paid, it's not like they're working voluntarily.

VroomVroom

9:30pm seems very late when you compare it with the lab opening times. But agree that it is a complete joke. These facilities should be available 24 hours.

===

From DIT School of Computing...

Labs ... will be open and supervised during the
following times over the Easter break.

Before Easter:

Monday 2nd April 2007 10.00am - 6.00pm
Tuesday 3rd April 2007 10.00am - 6.00pm
Wednesday 4th April 2007 10.00am - 6.00pm
Thursday 5th April 2007 10.00am - 12.00 noon.

After Easter:

Wednesday 11th April 2007 10.00am - 4.00pm
Thursday 12th April 2007 10.00am - 4.00pm
Friday 13th April 2007 10.00am - 4.00pm

Please sign in on the lab sign in sheets provided by the Lab Supervisors.

Regards

Dave Carroll
School of Computing

Tricity Bendix

markk06 wrote:

They have no "obligation" but come one, I have exams in 2 weeks and for 50% of that time i will have no access to the library. And they arent opening out of the goodness of their hearts. They do work there and get paid like everyone else, so i don't see how they can justify such long easter breaks.

You're right, we do get paid like everyone else. Thats the problem. We won't work for free.

Makaveli wrote:

Yes it is a joke. The library closing at 9:30 is a joke in itself. They get paid, it's not like they're working voluntarily.

Again, if you want to find a way to pay people to work longer hours, I'm sure the folks in charge of library services will be all ears. 9.30 isn't that bad when you compare it to Trinity, which closes only half an hour later despite being a university.

Oh, and care to take a guess at how many students were using the library come half nine last night? One.

VroomVroom wrote:

9:30pm seems very late when you compare it with the lab opening times. But agree that it is a complete joke. These facilities should be available 24 hours.

Hmm. That would require extra funding for security, technical staff, heating, lighting, as well as library staff. Plus, the cleaners wouldn't be able to do their job (such as it is).

I'm not saying any of you are wrong in wanting extended opening hours. But a lot of negotiation has gone in to providing the opening hours that are available. Aungier St. library is chronically understaffed yet the students' union is constantly looking for more services without stopping to consider the costs.

Makaveli

b.ie curious wrote:

Oh, and care to take a guess at how many students were using the library come half nine last night? One.

That can be viewed from another point of view though. If I knew the library was closing at 9:30 and I'm finishing up a bit of work at say 8, I'm not going to start something new knowing I'm going to have leave soon enough. I may aswell just go home and do it. Also, last night was Friday night, hardly going to be the busiest evening in the library.

Frankiestylee

Longer standard opening hours is a differant kettle of fish to the Easter opening times... because of the time of the year the library should really keep up a service. I don't know how the library staff gets paid etc, but I'm pretty sure they must get paid for the time, so why not provide a service?

markk06

b.ie curious wrote:

You're right, we do get paid like everyone else. Thats the problem. We won't work for free.

I'm not blaming you mate, i'm merely pointing out that there must be the funding to pay staff for threee or four days of the year.

b.ie curious wrote:

Oh, and care to take a guess at how many students were using the library come half nine last night? One.

The reason for this is that the announcements that "services will close in 15 minutes" start at nine, and by 9.15 they are saying it is closed. You never get anything done in the last half hour.

VroomVroom

b.ie curious wrote:

You're right, we do get paid like everyone else. Thats the problem. We won't work for free.

Again, if you want to find a way to pay people to work longer hours, I'm sure the folks in charge of library services will be all ears.

According to the DIT website, a Senior Librarian has a salary of €84,306. That is hardly working for free and on that sort of money, people should be expected to work longer hours at certain times of the year to accommodate assignments and exams.
http://www.dit.ie/DIT/hr/Salary_Scales/ScalesWeb_01_12_2006.htm

b.ie curious wrote:

9.30 isn't that bad when you compare it to Trinity, which closes only half an hour later despite being a university.

Trinity offer a 24 hour library service to Post Grad students.

b.ie curious wrote:

Hmm. That would require extra funding for security, technical staff, heating, lighting, as well as library staff. Plus, the cleaners wouldn't be able to do their job (such as it is).

Security would require extra funding, definitely.

Helpdesk in Auniger Street closes at 5pm every day which is another joke. (http://www.dit.ie/DIT/ict_services/support/)
Heating, in a building of that size, is probably on all the time anyway so would not increase. Lighting would be minimal cost.

Again, on €84,306 per year, library staff should be working to accommodate students at certain times of the year as they are the customers. I'm sure the cleaners would find a way to do their job.

b.ie curious wrote:

...students' union is constantly looking for more services without stopping to consider the costs.

About time they did something.

VroomVroom

In saying all that though, the DIT library online service is brilliant.

Tricity Bendix

Makaveli wrote:

That can be viewed from another point of view though. If I knew the library was closing at 9:30 and I'm finishing up a bit of work at say 8, I'm not going to start something new knowing I'm going to have leave soon enough. I may aswell just go home and do it. Also, last night was Friday night, hardly going to be the busiest evening in the library.

The library would never close if we follow your train of thought.

Frankiestylee wrote:

Longer standard opening hours is a differant kettle of fish to the Easter opening times... because of the time of the year the library should really keep up a service. I don't know how the library staff gets paid etc, but I'm pretty sure they must get paid for the time, so why not provide a service?

Some clarification is needed before I can respond. Are you saying that library staff are getting paid regardless of whether the library is open or not?

markk06 wrote:

I'm not blaming you mate, i'm merely pointing out that there must be the funding to pay staff for threee or four days of the year.

Library Services do fight for an increased slice of the pie - that is why the library was able to extend opening hours over the Christmas period and will be able to afford to open longer next week. Things have gotten better. But the money all has to come from somewhere.

The reason for this is that the announcements that "services will close in 15 minutes" start at nine, and by 9.15 they are saying it is closed. You never get anything done in the last half hour.

Actually, the reason is more likely to be the fact that is was a Friday night and term was finished.

The announcements are a different argument entirely. Some people find them very annoying, but others get angry when they come up to the desk at 9.20 and find everything shut down.

VroomVroom wrote:

According to the DIT website, a Senior Librarian has a salary of €84,306. That is hardly working for free and on that sort of money, people should be expected to work longer hours at certain times of the year to accommodate assignments and exams.

Lol. I love the fact that you pick out the largest figure you can find. The majority of staff that would be working overtime would be earning the minimum salary, 22,776. Part-timers make much less, of course. I can assure you that no one in Aungier St. is drawing a salary even approaching the figure you have posted. I'm not saying that librarians don't make good money for what they do, but the impression your post gives is that they're rolling in dosh. Anyway, what they earn is pretty irrelevent to the whole discussion. Library staff are contracted to work a set amount of hours per week, which happen to be shorter during out-of-term time. When funding is available and all sides are in agreement, these hours can be extended. Its as simple as that.

You are right that the students are the library's customers, and the library goes out of its way to accomodate students wherever possible. But the library operates within a budget constraint. It is not as if there is some conspiracy by a bunch of over-paid public servents to get as much time off as possible.


By the way, the Computer Helpdesk closing is a huge pain in the head for those of us who have to help with computer problems we were never trained to deal with after five. I'm in complete agreementwith you there.

VroomVroom

b.ie curious wrote:

Lol. I love the fact that you pick out the largest figure you can find. The majority of staff that would be working overtime would be earning the minimum salary, 22,776. Part-timers make much less, of course. I can assure you that no one in Aungier St. is drawing a salary even approaching the figure you have posted. I'm not saying that librarians don't make good money for what they do, but the impression your post gives is that they're rolling in dosh.

I'm not having a go at you, I'm just going with the figures quoted on the DIT's website which says that the Senior Librarian can earn up to €84,306 per year. DIT has 6 or 7 libraries, so it follows that DIT must have 6 or 7 Senior Librarians. (It also says that this is under review and I doubt very much that they are reviewing it downwards, so someone is drawing a salary approaching that figure depending on how long they have been in the job.)

What is the difference between a Library Assistant (Salary between 22776 and 36912) and an Assistant Librarian (Salary between 39811 and 48166)?

They are the base figures quoted by DIT so overtime is paid on top of that, probably at standard public service rates of about time+quarter for first 3 hours, time+half for next 5 hours and double time for anything above 8 hours.

b.ie curious wrote:

By the way, the Computer Helpdesk closing is a huge pain in the head for those of us who have to help with computer problems we were never trained to deal with after five. I'm in complete agreementwith you there.

It is a pain in the head for any part time students who usually do not get to college until after five. Maybe that is the kind of thing that su should be following up.

Frankiestylee

oh,I'm not bothered with all the qoutey stuff, but

Originally Posted by Frankiestylee
Longer standard opening hours is a differant kettle of fish to the Easter opening times... because of the time of the year the library should really keep up a service. I don't know how the library staff gets paid etc, but I'm pretty sure they must get paid for the time, so why not provide a service?

By that I was kinda wondering if the library staff get paid regardless of whether they're in or not, a bit like teachers etc. I doubt it counts as part of the staff's holiday leave and I don't really know any job where someone would agree to take a forced week of no pay ... so yeah, I guess I'm wonderng if the staff are getting paid when the library isn't open?

Tricity Bendix

VroomVroom wrote:

What is the difference between a Library Assistant (Salary between 22776 and 36912) and an Assistant Librarian (Salary between 39811 and 48166)?

Assistant Librarian is a professional position for which you need a library and information studies degree.

Library Assistants are the chirpy looking folks you'll see on the front desk or down shelving.

Ciaran500

Anyone know when the Bolton Street Library will be open over Easter?

shoutman

the times are up on the website,

you can find the link through here

http://www.dit.ie/library

Ciaran500

Thanks, always had trouble finding things on their site >_<

Frankiestylee

So does anyone know if staff are getting paid while the libraries are closed?