It’s approaching midnight, and this 24-hour venue is full of unsupervised teens

The car park is overflowing with P-plates and there is a strict security system at the door. Some teens have been holding their spot for hours. It’s 10.30pm on a Saturday and there’s no hotter place for 17 and 18-year-olds to be than Forestville Library.

Forestville, operated by Northern Beaches Council, is one of just two 24-hour libraries in Sydney. The other is at Manly, which is also trialling all-hours access after the popularity of Forestville among high school students.

Unsupervised teenagers in an adultless public building after hours – what could go wrong?

Surprisingly little, according to the council’s library services executive manager, Maeva Masterson. There is nothing like peer pressure and a healthy dose of trust to keep teens in line.

“The people using these services are very appreciative. They self monitor. They tell us immediately if anyone is behaving inappropriately. They shoosh each other,” she said.

The library also employs a strict security system. All visitors must register with the library and complete an induction before being provided access. But Masterson finds there is rarely trouble.

“They all really value and appreciate the service and their treatment of the space is representative of that. They look after the space,” she said.

“They tell us it has a real impact on their study results, but it also means they don’t have to travel to a university to study. For some, it means a safe space away from challenges at home.

“They want to study, but they don’t want to do it alone. It’s being alone together.”

On a Saturday night, year 12 students cram into the small space, hunched over notes and laptops. On one table, a tower of energy drink cans acts as a makeshift partition, blocking one student from another. ChatGPT is open on many screens.

Most of the students are local but some have travelled from 40 minutes away.

Best friends Kate Naylor and Abi Travierso, from Stella Maris College in Manly, were worried they wouldn’t find a spot, after hearing the library was more packed than usual.

They found a vacant love seat. Desks are a prized commodity at Forestville. But it’s worth being here, desk or no desk, they say.

“When you are stressed about studying, and then you come to the library and see everyone studying, you’re, like, ‘OK’,” said Kate.

Abi says the library is useful “when you can’t lock in at home”.

“You get distracted; you come here at whatever time and do what you need to do,” she said.

Lila Lawrence, 17, is sitting with her girlfriends, rugged up in warm hoodies and Ugg boots. There’s even a stuffed animal floating around. They could be at a sleepover, if it weren’t for the hyper-focus on their work.

While the HSC is “really difficult”, and everyone is in a “heightened state of anxiety”, here, everyone’s in together, Lila says. She is proud of her peers.

“Being in this space and seeing everyone push through is really amazing,” she said.

Consuela Zhang is sitting in a quiet corner alone. She normally studies at the State Library or Chatswood but she has been coming to Forestville because she “needed the extra hours”.

“I come here during hours when other libraries wouldn’t be open. I like putting myself in a quiet spot. It’s a good environment to concentrate,” she said.

Mates Charles Fay, Jayden Kirby, Archie Powell and Oliver Sansom, from different schools, met through the library.

“Most people don’t have a study space,” said Charles, from St Augustine’s. Archie, a student at Oxford Falls Grammar, agreed.

There’s also the social aspect, said Jayden: “You and your friends motivate each other. We lift each other up. Everyone is here for the same reason. We all want to do well at the end of the day in our HSC.”

While students may be nervous for their exams, UNSW professor of educational psychology Andrew Martin said libraries offered two of the secret ingredients for effective study: a space for socialisation and a space for isolation.

“The social aspect can make dull tasks a little more interesting,” said Martin. It could also be “mutually supportive”, he said.

But he said there were also times when it was important to “find that quiet spot to really put all your 100 per cent of your concentration and attention into it”.

“The balanced student makes the most of the social when that’s what’s needed and makes the most of that quiet time, almost solo quiet time when that’s needed,” he said.

But at the (actual) end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you are: “Some study is better than no study at all,” Martin said.

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