Several MCV Campus students have sent comments regarding the fall hours at Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences.

Jean Shipman, Director of the Tompkins-McCaw Library and Associate University Librarian, responds...

Thank you so much for taking the time to write me about the hours of the Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences. It is very refreshing to know that our students want to be within our library and use our facilities. I really do appreciate knowing that you value the library and I agree with you, it is a terrific resource for students!

We would love to be open 24x7 which would be the optimal scenario for our students, especially with the health sciences schools having different schedules. There are reasons why we can not do this however as much as we would like to. For this academic year, we plan to extend hours after September and with your recent feedback, I'm asking for your help with reviewing what the best hours may be. We will need to consider the budget situation, the needs of our various constituencies, what services are being used, and the counts of how many people are physically in the library.

I need your assistance to determine library needs for the rest of the year and hope that you will consider meeting with me to review them. I need to know what it is you really want to do when you are in the library during the evening hours - what services do you need, what days of the week, which location (the library or Hunton) you prefer, etc. I have scheduled several meeting times to gather this kind of information and hope that you will consider attending one of these sessions. If your schedule doesn't permit such, please do stop by the library and ask for me at the main desk, as I would like to speak with you in person.

The meetings will be held in the 1st Floor Tompkins-McCaw Library Conference Room right behind the Skull & Beans coffee service:
5:30 pm -- Tuesday, Sept. 11th
3:00 pm -- Friday, Sept. 14th
12:15 pm -- Monday, Sept. 17th

Meanwhile during September, the Hunton Student Center Learning Center is open until 10pm and access to electronic library resources are available there.

I look forward to working with you to make our funding meet as many of your needs as is possible. Again, thank you so much for sharing your concerns!

Jean Shipman
Director, Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences
804-828-0634