OCT. 24, 2025, UPDATE: For the remainder of the 2025-2026 Academic Year, UCSB Library will open to the public at 7:00 AM Monday-Friday and remain open to UCSB students, faculty, and staff from 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM on Sunday-Thursday nights for Study Commons. View building hours.
In response to patrons’ evolving study needs and preferences and the significant, permanent budget reductions implemented across the university, UCSB Library will adjust its building hours as follows beginning September 25, 2025:
- Late Night Study will now end at 1:00 AM and the Library will be fully closed from 1:00 AM to 8:00 AM during the entire academic year (Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters and Summer Sessions).
- Exception: During Dead Week and Finals Week, Late Night Study hours will remain 6:00 PM to 8:00 AM, ensuring exclusive 24-hour access for UCSB students, faculty, and staff during the busiest times of the academic year.
- The Library will be closed on all university holidays.
- In 2025-2026, this includes: Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Cesar Chavez Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, and Labor Day.
The changes are designed to enhance the overall user experience by better aligning library operations with actual usage and demand. Overnight and holiday staffing will be reallocated to non-holiday daytime hours when more patrons are present and services are more frequently used. The changes also allow campus custodial teams to clean study spaces more thoroughly overnight and support employee health and wellbeing by giving all Library staff and student workers the opportunity to rest overnight and on holidays.
The decision to reduce building hours was not made lightly. Working closely with campus administration, Library leadership conducted a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of its collections, programs, and services over the past few months to identify strategies for preserving Library resources that are most used by and most useful to the campus community.
Building occupancy data revealed that patron use drops significantly after midnight, and that patron activity is minimal between 1:00 AM and 8:00 AM, except during Dead and Finals Weeks. During Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 (excluding Dead and Finals Weeks), no patrons were in the building for periods of one hour or longer on 75 percent of nights.
The Library remains deeply committed to supporting the academic success of UCSB students, faculty, and staff. By reducing operational expenses through building closures during low-occupancy periods and implementing other cost-saving strategies, the Library is able to continue investing in high-impact services and collections, ensuring that patrons have access to library resources critical to their research, teaching, and learning.
For questions or feedback, please contact us through this Suggestion Box form.
