A good number of lockers should be available some where in the library, so if students wanted to keep books in the library overnight (and possibly longer) they would be able to do so.

Thank you for sharing your suggestion about offering lockers in the library. There are academic libraries that offer lockers to students, and there certainly is some utility in offering students the ability to store books or personal items while in the library. Short of saying “We tried this before and it didn’t work”, perhaps the best response to your request is that we’ll look into possible options for offering lockers. A few things to share:

1) Did you know that Paley Library had lockers when it first opened? You can actually still find some of these (no longer operational) lockers on the south side of the 2nd and 3rd floors. Many others were removed long ago. Why were they removed? That’s the “it didn’t work part”. Students would routinely store books without checking them out, so many books were thought to be missing. Additional staff time was then needed just for locker checks – not an efficient use of staff. And students would also store perishable food in their lockers leading to oders and insect problems. But perhaps a better system can be devised.

2) Is this a wise investment of University funds? You have probably heard by now that the Temple University Campus 20/20 plan calls for a new library building. While that is not yet finalized, if we were to build something new that would become operational in three or four years, does it make sense to spend a considerable sum on lockers that would be in use for just a few, short years?

3) We would want to avoid allowing long-term lockers; at best day-only lockers might work. One concern is the loss of valuables that students might store – such as a laptop or cellphone. This became a problem with the original Paley Library lockers.

We can certainly explore the options and costs, see what other university libraries are doing and then make recommendations to the University’s facilities management group. It’s not clear if adding lockers is necessary – we don’t get many requests for them. But we will look into it. Thanks for your suggestion.