Mossey Library staff chose to close the building’s north entrance — the door directly across from the lower door to the Grewcock Student Union — because adding another student to monitor the exit would strain library staff. 

After construction on the quad closed the colonnade, Mossey Library staff felt last semester that adding a second entrance to the library would make it easier for students to access the building, according to Head Librarian Maurine McCourry. 

“While libraries generally try to maintain a single entrance in order to maintain control over what and who enters and exits the building, we decided to add a second entrance when the colonnade was closed to make it easier to get into the library from Grewcock,” McCourry said in an email. 

Since the north entrance was obscured from view, McCourry said, library staff stationed a student worker there to monitor the north entrance and left the south entrance — now the only entrance — to be watched by the staff at the circulation desk. 

Once the temporary workspace was put in after construction pushed the library offices out of place, McCourry said it became too difficult to monitor the south door from the circulation desk. This meant that library staff were unable to identify students who set off the alarm. 

“For the last couple of months of the spring semester, and over the summer, we tried to monitor the south door by checking video footage when the alarm went off, but it proved impossible in many cases to identify who set the alarm off and why without being right there to call the person, or persons, back to the desk,” McCourry said. 

This proved to be enough of a problem to require student monitors at both entrances, placing a heavy burden on library staff, according to McCourry. 

 “It might be a little bit annoying and bothersome, but it’s best for the book security, and also for the students,” said senior Katherine Villa, who works at the library. 

McCourry said students have, for the most part, been understanding about the change. Those who choose to disobey the new procedure of only one door, she said, are met with disciplinary action. 

“The monitors at the south door call people back when the gate alarm sounds, and people have been very cooperative, just as they were when workers could see the gates from the desk,” McCourry said. “We occasionally have people keep walking after an alarm, and we follow the same procedure with those situations as with the emergency exit doors, notifying either the deans or security as appropriate.”

Sophomore library employee Alethia Diener said the change has brought about some unexpected results, such as a new worn pathway to the only entrance. 

“It’s really cute how all the students have worn an extra path through the little quad there,” Diener said. “It definitely takes extra time walking to budget for classes, but I think we’ve all adjusted fine. And it’s another opportunity to see Dennis Cook, the gate guy.”