We received the question:
I would like to know if the Library will ever require students to show an ID to study here. Yesterday the noise was excessively loud & most of the students were not UMD students. I know Wayne State requires an ID to enter the library; I think a similar policy would help make the library a better experience for UMD students. Thank you
Thank you for your recent question. Excessive noise is a problem that we experience from time to time. From our perspective, the core issue is not who makes the noise but that excessive noise occurs. Sometimes this noise is created by non-UM-D students, sometimes it is UM-D students who create the noise. We have clear policies, publicly displayed, that discourage excessive noise. We also have procedures for warning -- and removing from the building if necessary -- anyone who makes excessive noise. The essential first step in this process is to alert us to the problem. If you experience another instance of this kind of behavior, I urge you to go to the Circulation Desk and make a complaint. Our staff will confront the person(s); if that does not have the desired effect, our staff will call the University's Public Safety Officers to handle the problem.
We very much appreciate your observation that requiring people to present an ID to enter the building "would help make the library a better experience for UM-D students." Making the library a welcoming place that maintains an environment that is conducive to learning is very important to us.
While we are reluctant to say "never" or "ever," we are not at all certain that requiring students to show IDs to enter the building would create a more welcoming environment to students -- it could have the opposite effect. Indeed, some of us have worked at libraries that employed this practice and we can say without qualification that the practice creates its own problems and has its limitations. One challenge to implementing such a practice involves our reciprocal agreements, which allow UM-D students to check books out from the libraries at other colleges and universities in the region and for their students to use the resources of this library. If all the academic libraries in the area started restricting students, there would be an adverse impact on UM-D students. WSU libraries are open to UM-D students during the day.
Before we decide to take the step of requiring the presentation of a valid student ID to enter the library, we would want to be very thorough in understanding how big the noise problem is, what the source of the problem is, and what options are available to resolve the problem short of requiring presentation of a valid student ID card to enter the library. Incidentally, we do require student IDs for those who wish to enter the library after 10 p.m., when we have 24-hour study during Final Exam time.
