This is the time of year when the shadow of the exam hall casts a pall over even the most carefree student's existence and library facilities in colleges around the country are put to the ultimate test. Yet it is precisely when students need them most that many libraries begin to show signs of strain from overcrowding and under-funding.

A memorable short documentary made by the UCD Film Society in 1994 set out to show just how bad the overcrowding in Belfield's library was. They decided their documentary would open with shots of the queue for the library at 8.30 a.m. The film-makers got more than they bargained for. Far from being greeted by a few nerds in anoraks, the morning scene outside the library a few weeks before exams made for shots worthy of Cecil B. De Mille. Hundreds of students filled the foyer, and the queue extended right down the 20 metres of the tunnel connecting the library to the arts building.

Three years after the film was made, little has changed, according to Liam Dockery, education officer of UCD students' union.

"There's still a massive problem with space. There's a queue outside the library at 8.30 a.m. and if you're not in by 9 a.m., you will spend the day doing laps of the different floors, trying to beaver out some small amount of space where you can do a bit of study for a while." The problem is twofold, Dockery says.

"The library gave away some space in its buildings when there were far fewer students attending UCD. That extra space would solve the overcrowding problem now if they still had it. "But you've also got to look at the percentage of the overall budget that's spent on the library. Last year, the science faculty got an extra £100,000, but the overall amount that went to the library in general fell from 4.5 per cent of the college budget to 4.4 per cent." Less than a decade ago, 7 per cent of the college budget was spent on the library.

The overcrowding problem has been eased a little this year by simple measures like making classrooms available to students for study during the day. This year, the library was also open, for the first time, over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

A survey in UCD released this time last year found - much to students' amazement - that even in April and May, the library was rarely more than 75 per cent occupied. The reason seems to be students who are so paranoid about losing their place in the library that they leave their desk covered in books and clothes, preventing all but the most brave of their colleagues from taking their place while they eat lunch, smoke or just have a chat elsewhere.

According to the students' union in Tallaght IT, there is evidence of an even-more-reprehensible practice in the south Dublin institute - students who hide books to gain a competitive advantage on their colleagues. In any case, with only one seat in the library for every nine people studying at Tallaght IT, many students there have given up on the library already, according to union vice president Josephine O'Donovan.

"People are used to not having any room in the library, so many of them just don't come in. Others end up studying on benches in the corridors, or perched on windowsills. Things are really going to get mad in the week before the exams."

However, the situation is not so gloomy all over the State. Students in Letterkenny IT trip over themselves to tell you how well their new library facility is working - it provides four times more space, they estimate, than the previous building. Creature comforts include Sunday opening and a computer database which enables students to catch up on their lecture notes.

The students' union president there, Damien Crowe, is one of the few in the country who can report that he hears "very little complaint from students" about the library service. The students' union in UL also reports that a library situation which was previously "chaotic" at exam time has "improved dramatically" since the opening of a £15 million new library.

However, students in other colleges must suffer on, at least until their building programmes are complete.

USI's education officer, Malcolm Byrne, says library provision should be a central consideration in the development plans of any college.

"The library has to be at the heart of any serious third-level institution, but unfortunately some college authorities don't seem to see it that way. Quite frankly, I've seen better libraries in primary schools than in some of the colleges I've visited.

"A situation where eight to 10 students are competing for the same seat in some colleges is intolerable. Providing classrooms for the overspill is at least a welcome recognition of the problem, but students are entitled to have easy access to the journals and books they need to use in the run-up to the exams."