No.

No.

Yes.Security is not as secure late at night, so it is possible to remove library items. But we don’t seem to have an abnormally high loss rate.The benefit is that there is far less reason to horde or mutilate items. Also there is far less pressure to provide staffing at unproductive hours.

No.

No.

[Revised 2/28/2007: Columbia now provides limited 24/7 access for periods surrounding exams. It starts about 3 weeks before the exams do and continues to the end of the exam period, for a total of 5 weeks at the end of each of the two semesters. At the same time we limit access to law users, During the rest of the year any Columbia affiliate can use the law library.]

Nope – at least not yet.

No, not at this time. But after our renovation and “smart card” implementation this Summer, yes.I see huge possible problems with theft, possibly assault of some kind, and trash. The benefits are primarily that I would no longer be constantly bothered to stay open later or open earlier than we do now. Of course we are open 8AM to Midnight M-F, and for 12 hours on both Saturday and Sunday. It never seems to be enough for a hardcore few.

No.

We do not provide 24-hour access to law students. Our university library does so and they are within two blocks of the law school.

[Revised 2/20/2007: Our law journal and moot court society students have 24 hour access to both the law school and library; other students do not.]

No.

No.

Yes, we’ve had 24-7 access since academic year 1997-98. No real problems, but some of less significance: 1) There are no campus or other security personnel stationed at the College of Law complex and that lack sometimes causes some concern but to date has caused no problems. 2) When the Law Library closes to users from outside the law school community, such persons are sometimes slow or reluctant to vacate the premises. On a relatively few occasions we have had to call campus police to have them evict the trespasser. 3) We do lock off the circulation/reserve areas when we close to the public. 4) We seem not to have suffered noticeable theft of library materials. So far we’ve been fortunate and it has allowed us to reduce staffing costs because we are able to close at an earlier hour than was once the case. Here is our schedule during term time. Sundays: 1 PM to 10 PM Mondays-Thursdays: 7:30 AM to 11 PM Fridays: 7:30 AM to 6 PM Saturdays: 10 AM to 5 PM

Good God, no!

[Revised 2/20/07: We've gone back and forth on this issue. We are now open from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. most days. During reading periods and exams, we give law students key card overnight access to the ground floor of the library and to the student union.]

24/7 key privileges to the library are accorded to members of the moot court teams as long as needed for competition work, but not to others.

No.The University Library has a study room with computers, snack vending machines and an ATM that is open 24 hours and the law students can use it although I don’t think many do. The room is locked and students use their University ID cards for access.

U. of Houston is not in the list.  We have 24/7 access for journal/review students and faculty, controlled by ID card authorization. Faculty use is minimal.  Journal students use extensively, with few problems.

My library does not due to lack of staffing and building security issues.

No.

No.Faculty have it because they have keys.Faculty can arrange for after-hours access for groups of students such as moot court teams by contacting [the director]. The sponsoring faculty member is required to remain in the library with the students, so this NEVER occurs. But basically, students are not permitted to be in the library after hours.

Mercer law library provides 24 hour access. Benefits: lots of good willvis a vis our students, and less staff time just keeping the library open when real service is not required. We do not have a theft problem (at least not one we’ve noticed! The good stuff is behind a locked gate.) Problems: students are not as vigilant as we’d like, and from time to time they permit “outsiders” to accompany them as they enter (through a card access system).During exam periods, there is evidence of food, but overall, no serious problems.

No.

[Revised 2/20/07: Faculty members who have offices in the Law Library which are most of the faculty have 24/7 access. Students do not have access to the Law Library 24/7. The law reviews have offices in the Law Library and each law review has an access card. I believe that the access card is for 24/7.]

The University of Minnesota Law Library has had 24-hour-access for law students for many years. It is now done via key cards.

Yes. Benefits-students really appreciate it. Problems-not many. Had to reconsider what was on reserve (not available after services cease), how we manage the computer lab, etc. In other words, we had to figure out how to make 24-hr access meaningful for our students–more than just a study hall.We have not noticed any increase in thefts, etc. And fortunately have had no security problems either to date.

No; only to faculty.

We did at New Mexico where students were allowed to stay in the library at closing. We would often find the doors propped open in the morning or the remains of a pizza party etc.

No.

We do not provide 24 hour access. It has been discussed more times than I can count but security is always an issue.

No.

[Revised 2/20/2007: The University of North Carolina Law Library allows journal students under certain circumstances, to gain access after hours. Also, law school faculty have access after hours with keys to an elevator that connects the library with the faculty office floor. The law school (and library) building itself is key card accessible at all hours to law faculty, staff and students.]

No.

Our library provides 24/7 access to our students and faculty and staff.This is done via their school i.d./smart card.We have video surveillance and each time a student swipes their card it is logged on a computer as to exactly who entered and when.This is a huge selling point especially for our part time evening division students.It also allowed us to cut back on the staffed hours we had on the weekends and evenings, since our students had access regardless of whether we had someone on the circulation or reference desk. Drawbacks, potential security problems, so you have to be sure to drum it into the heads of the students not to let anyone into the library.If the person does not have their student i.d. then they have to go home to get it in order to enter after hours. Also we have had some (but very few) complaints from alumni and local attorneys wanting to have 24/7 access as well. To date we have refused all such requests. Surprisingly we have had little to no theft with this system in place for over two years now.

Yes.Benefits:

A. Never any demand to extend hours B. Research needs can largely be met no matter when the student desires them. C. Undocumented belief that open access inculcates a sense of professional empowerment and loyalty among our students D. Remote concern that if our space was vandalized or a student was assaulted we might, in retrospect, be deemed negligent. E. Incremental increased energy expenses (lights have not been turned out for 17 years). F. Unauthorized removal of books from the collection (a potential concern of some) has proved negligible. I would note that the environment of our campus (isolated from the town) and our community (small, cohesive and generally law abiding) supports this policy. Other environments might not be so supportive.

No, not yet. We have investigated a “card access” system and probably eventually will. We do have gates that close off 1st and 3rd floors and circulation so we have on occasions, allowed students to sign in – restricted to that floor.Students, of course, will love it. I know some schools do and like the goodwill, etc. We extend hours during exams and less than 1% take advantage of it.We do give access to students on all curricular related organizations, i.e law review, journal, atla, moot court, etc. We give keys to the individual members with list to our public safety group. Has its ups and downs – sometimes they leave doors open, etc.

We provide 24/7 access for students, faculty and staff to the law school buildings through a card entry system.  Students, faculty and staff have 24/7 access to selected study areas, within the law libraries,which are never locked.  After hours access to the law library collections is provided to faculty through a keyed entry or combination locking mechanism. Law school computer labs are accessible to students 24/7.

We’re considering the 24-hour access model here.

If you want to add our current policy, Pepperdine has overnight access for moot court participants, law review members, and faculty research assistants. The student must be in the building at closing (students don’t have any authorized keys—-although there are some unauthorized keys rumored to exist) and have obtained a permission slip in advance. We give the list of overnight students to the Public Safety Office, which distributes the list to any officers who might be walking through the building during the night. We’ve had some problems with this fairly tight policy—-qualified students giving unqualified students overnight access, blocking doors open, etc., but we have never considered ending it.

No.

At Richmond, we do 24 hr access during the exam periods.  We are not staffed after midnight, but have two security guards in the library. 

No.

No.Students have not raised this issue in years, and for security reasons, I do not see us doing it even if they do!

[Revised 2/20/2007: No 24/7 access here. We do stay open until 1 am during exam period.]

During reading/final exam periods we are open on a 24 hr. basis; otherwise we are open every day from 7:00am to midnight. Although we haven’t had any problems related to these extended hours I am always very uncomfortable in that we do not have full-time in-house security. The campus security patrols the campus but will not allocate a separate security guard for our building. Additionally, we do not have a keycard or some other type system by which we could restrict access.

Yes, via swipe cards when the library is not staffed.No known problems; one less thing for students to grumble about.

NO! I will be interested in seeing how many urban schools do this. It’s the security issue, as well as comfort levels about students wandering around the building when no staff are around.

No.

No.

No.

No.

No, we don’t allow 24 hour access. We used to allow it to the law review students, but they abused the privilege and now we stay open until 1 am instead.

[Updated 07/10/2007] The University of Washington has just given 24/7 access to all faculty through programmed keycards. No students have 24/7 access at this point.

We still provide 24 hour access to students and faculty. The down side is that the building is open and we don’t have anyone on duty after 11.We are considering installing card access readers. With 24 or more doors to the building and no way to secure the library, we will have to think about all those doors. Of course, only in rural America could anyone contemplate having this kind of open access to everyone, every day, all day.

No.

No.

We provide 24 access to students, faculty and staff through a cardlocksystem. Our computer labs are in the library and all students are assigned carrels.As a result, the library is heavily used and the 24 hour feature is appreciated.

Yes.No problems (except for the occasional propping open of doors). The obvious benefits. Studs. andfac. can use the library any time they want, and we don’t need to keep the circ. desk open.

[Revised 2/20/2007: At William & Mary, Law School students, faculty, and staff have 24/7 access to the law school building and to the law library using their W&M ID cards. Providing 24/7 access lets us close the circulation desk earlier than was done before. We have noticed no increase in missing books.]

No.

[Revised 3/1/2007: We provide 24/7 access to members of the Yale Law School community during the five week reading and exam periods at the end of each semester. During the rest of the academic year we are open from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.]

No.