There is a comment by a library services user titled “Opening hours for SSH are ridiculous …” posted on the libraries site here dated Monday 10 May 2010. I could not see how to further comment on that post, so I am submitting this post to second that sentiment. The SSH Library at St Lucia was closed on Wednesday 15 August 2012 (People’s Day Show Holiday – i.e. for the ‘EKKA’) and will only be open on Monday 1 October 2012 (newly affixed Queen’s Birthday public holiday) from 1:00pm to 5:00pm.I am so disappointed by this that I was motivated enough to make this post.

Public holidays represent a rare opportunity for students like myself to catch up, maintain and otherwise manage their workloads. A ‘student like myself’ is working full-time and struggling to complete their degree in large part due to UQ’s wholesale adoption of a narrowly focused model for the delivery of curriculum in a rigid, inflexible and uncreative fashion that does not reflect the realities of student life.

I would place QUT’s approach to the provision of resources to its students in direct contrast to UQ’s – a simple example being the availability of a large bank of computers in ‘24/7’ computer labs, and other facilities that are unmanned and available for students to access at their convenience (I am mindful the absence of, or greatly reduced, opening hours on public holidays may reflect industrial agreements and/or employment conditions for library staff, or other mitigating factors unique to UQ). I am studying Humanities (a particularly ‘wordy’ course – books, books, books, journals, journals, journals), so when resources are unavailable (locked behind closed doors) this represents a lost opportunity of considerable impact on me as a student.

I would strongly urge UQ to consider expanding the operating hours of its libraries, with SSH being the prime target.