Reduced enrollment and anticipated reductions in state funding for The University of New Hampshire (UNH) inspired plans for a $17.5 million cut in spending by the university. This fall, the library system cut their budget by $750,000. As a result, the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) Dimond, Kingsbury, and Physics libraries have had their hours shortened, saving $50,000 annually. With this change comes rising academic and employment concerns from students and library staff.
Dimond Library, the main library on campus, used to be open from 7:30 a.m. to 12 a.m. Monday through Thursday, but now closes at 10 p.m. On the weekends, Dimond is now open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closing one to two hours earlier than in previous years, which has altered some students’ studying plans.
“I think throughout the week [closing at] 10 p.m. is okay, but I think sometimes on the weekends when it closes at 6 p.m., that’s a little bit harder, I would like to have it open later,” first year student Keira Smecker said.
Dimond is located in the heart of the UNH campus and within proximity to most residence halls. The building’s designated quiet rooms provide students with a controlled environment to study in. Its other resources, such as printers and the Conners Writing Center, are inaccessible to students after close.
“You have to move to another place when it closes, maybe back to your dorm, which is annoying because it’s smaller and you can’t focus as well,” second year student Reese Laube said. “I can find ways to adjust, but I feel like people who maybe don’t have other resources that they can go towards, it might be a bigger deal for those students.”
Though other spaces can be found, the transition can interfere with concentration and motivation.
“There are other places to study on campus, but I do think it would be nice to have the libraries open for longer,” Smecker said.
For those who prefer using the library earlier in the day, Dimond’s new hours are not as much of a concern.
“It’s not a big deal for me,” student Jake Cobak said. “I usually get [to the library] kind of earlier in the morning and then usually leave around like 6 o’clock [in the evening].
Dimond’s cuts are not limited to patrons, but have further affected its student employees.
“I’ve gotten less hours because of it, which means less money,” said one library assistant who chose to remain anonymous.
The library assistant acknowledged students’ concerns about the new hours, but said the changes are overall nothing new.
“I definitely have noticed a few students complain about it or ask about the new hours, but I feel like the hours change every semester, so it happens frequently,” the library assistant said.
Even with frequently changing hours, these shortenings being made because of budget cuts add a new layer to the conversation.
“The library is very useful to everyone, and it probably doesn’t take that much of their budget to keep it open, but that’s just my opinion,” the library assistant said.
Last spring, as the university anticipated reductions in enrollment and state funding, deans and other UNH campus leaders were tasked with deciding which areas of their budgets to cut.
“In the first round, we were asked to create scenarios of 3%, 5% and 7% reductions,” said the Dean of UNH Library Kimberly Burke Sweetman. “The expertise that Library personnel provide to the campus is unique, and with 43 employees, we are streamlined, so one of my guiding principles was not to lay off any library employees.”
“If we didn’t reduce library hours, we’d have to make deeper cuts to personnel or collections,” Burke Sweetman said. “By examining the data we regularly collect on library use we found that late nights and Saturdays were some of the slowest times at Dimond and branch libraries, and that the Physics Library had very little in person use. So, we proposed hours reductions for low use times to minimize the negative impact across campus.”
Though the libraries are closed earlier, over two thirds of the library’s collection is available online, so students and faculty are able to do most research remotely. However, collection costs, the largest part of the budget, led to some of the lesser-used items being cancelled.
“We also looked to lower cost alternatives. A good example of this is our cancellation of a little used product called First Search in favor of WorldCat.org with Web Visibility, saving thousands of dollars,” Burke Sweetman said. “We also cancelled our Web of Science subscription in favor of Scopus [scientific database], which has the same content and saved us tens of thousands of dollars,”
Burke Sweetman emphasized the library’s programs and services students should utilize in wake of these budget-related changes.
“Although reduced collections spending means reduced access, the UNH community is still able to obtain books and articles we no longer have access to by ordering them on interlibrary loan. Articles and other non-returnable items usually arrive the same day, and books and anything else that needs to be returned usually arrive within 3-5 days. We recognize this can be a frustrating additional step for users,” said Burke Sweetman.
Dimond's previous hours (Fall 2024-Spring 2025):
Monday through Thursday: 7:30 a.m. to 12 a.m.
Friday: 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Dimond's updated hours:
Monday through Thursday: 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday: 7:30 a.m to 5 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Kingsbury's previous hours (Fall 2024-Spring 2025):
Monday through Thursday: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m
Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday: closed
Sunday: 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Kingsbury's updated hours:
Monday through Thursday: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Friday: 8 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday: closed
Sunday: 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Physics library's previous hours (Fall 2024-Spring 2025):
Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday: closed
Physics library's updated hours:
By appointment only
