Management Facets of University Midnight Libraries in Thailand
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/jiskku.2022.8Keywords:
Library Opening Hours, Midnight Library, Thailand Library, University LibraryAbstract
Purpose: The objectives of this study are threefold: 1) to explore opening hours of the midnight university libraries in the academic years of 2016 and 2018 in order to gain understanding in their task performance 2) to gain awareness in the characteristics of the midnight university libraries and other libraries which open beyond regular office hours and 3) to examine management aspects and concerned problems of all 9 National Research Universities (NRU).
Methodology: This quantitative research is divided into 3 stages: 1) collecting information through websites and telephone calls of all university libraries during their working hours in 2016 2) constructing questionnaires for surveying the 9 NRUs for their late opening hour management and 3) reviewing and rechecking the opening hours of all university libraries in 2018.
Main Findings: The analysis of the data showed that all autonomous university libraries provided longer average opening hours per week than all 5 academic library grous; all 24/7 libraries belonged to autonomous universities; all NRUs provided midnight library services; and food debris in the NRU libraries was the frequently found problem. Furthermore, NRUs had difficulties in persuading their full time staff to work after regular opening hours as they could not cope with their work fatigue; NRUs used both human resources and equipment for managing security issue; and many NRUs experienced budget problems for extending their library service hours.
Applications of the study: This study indicates that even though library resources can be accessed ubiquitously in the electronic era, library physical spaces and services are important; and despite of facing many management problems in extending longer service hours, such benefits as improving learning environment, gaining university reputation, increasing student learning outcomes, and raising administrators’, faculty’s and students’ satisfactions might worth all the troubles.
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