The question of extended hours is one that comes up regularly but is in fact not a library issue but rather a buildings issue. I am conveying therefore the response from Roger Essex Head of Property and Maintenance at SBS:
We have in the past been asked to consider remaining open 24/7, and have considered this. In order to establish demand we have periodically tried extending the hours beyond midnight (although not to a full 24 hours) and have found that post-midnight very few people have remained, and the library has typically been empty before 1am. The exception to this has been the period immediately before exams. We have found that the right compromise seems to be to open until 1 or 2am on the 2 weeks immediately prior to exams.
To add to Roger’s point above –with our duty-of-care hat on, I think there is much to be said for not-encouraging students to neglect their overall well-being by adopting crazy study hours, but Roger is prepared to monitor uptake when we extend during the 2 weeks to see if further extension is a good idea.