Hayden Library has discontinued its 24-hour weekday access, with Noble Library taking its place as the only library open 24 hours a day on five days a week on the Tempe campus.
ASU Library announced on Oct. 18 Noble would begin its "24/5" schedule on Oct. 23. Noble is now open for 24 hours Sundays through Thursdays and from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays, Noble opens at 10 a.m.
Between the hours of 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., students, faculty and staff must use their Sun Card to access Noble Library Sundays through Thursdays, according to the announcement. Visitor hours remain 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Hayden Library's hours now run from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. on Sundays.
Marilyn Murphy, a communications specialist with ASU Library, attributes the adjustment to how staffing shortages affect the difficulty of managing Hayden Library's multiple entrances and several secluded study spaces, leading to security issues.
READ MORE: Arrest made after Quran found damaged in Hayden Library interfaith room
"This has proved difficult to manage in a secure way during the overnight hours when we need to make the building more secure for fewer users with fewer staff than during normal business hours. Noble Library's configuration is much better suited to maintaining a safe and welcoming space," Murphy said.
"Noble Library has 55 individual rooms for quiet study, 22 group study rooms, and ample space for collaboration," Murphy said.
The collaborative spaces include a reservable Bloomberg Terminal and two reservable videoconferencing suites. Computers equipped with webcams and other various software programs essential for a wide variety of different classes have also been made available at Noble Library.
Although Noble Library has several services that provide easy access to students' academic needs, the quantity of those resources has made some on-campus students question whether the resources are sufficient. Hayden Library, which had $90 million in renovations completed in 2020, is ASU's largest library.
"Although there are a lot of resources in Noble they are more specific to the majors that the library serves as to where the resources that are in Hayden are more general and are able to be used by more people," said Alejandro De La Cerda, an undergraduate student studying film.
Noble Library, located in the heart of the Fulton School of Engineering's Tyler Mall, is notably oriented toward STEM-related majors. Noble is the primary library that houses collections for chemistry, engineering, astronomy, and other STEM-related course topics, with the collections comprising of approximately 450,000 volumes of STEM material.
Erin Kispert, a junior studying biomedical engineering, also believes the change in 24-hour service locations will contribute to lower quality in studying accommodations.
"I think the only concern I might have with Noble is that Noble is a smaller library than Hayden, and I've seen how packed Hayden can even get in the evenings, especially around exam season," Kispert said.
De La Cerda said he was glad the Tempe campus still has access to a 24-hour library.
"I love Hayden but you know, it's kind of become less of a library and more like one huge classroom. It feels a lot less peaceful now than it used to," De La Cerda said.
Edited by Jasmine Kabiri, Greta Forslund and Grace Copperthite.
Reach the reporter at mald1@asu.edu and follow @mason_ald on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
