You wake up abruptly on a pile of homework, the once-crowded room is empty and the once-bright fluorescent lights are dim.

It's 12:25 a.m. and you jump up, aimlessly weaving in and out of a labyrinth of study carrels, unable to find a way out of . . . Pattee.

It's not as uncommon as it sounds.

Perhaps once every two weeks, a student gets locked in the library after closing, said Mary Lou Morrison, library security guard.

"It usually happens in the east stacks because the library staff can't possibly check every last inch, and some students don't hear when I yell that the library is closing," Morrison said.

But it doesn't just happen to students.

Sam Umbriac, a former University student who works in the Reserve Reading Room, said he has been locked in about 12 times in the 3 years he has worked there.

"I let the material in my area circulate later than other sections and by the time I finish cleaning up, sometimes the doors have already been locked," Umbriac said.

Unbriac said he is also responsible for clearing students out of his respective area, which security does not check.

Unlike other full-time staff and janitors, Umbriac does not have an access card to let himself in and out once the doors are locked.

Each night, about two security guards breeze through the general areas from 11:45 until midnight, checking for laggers and announcing the library's closing, Morrison said.

Staff members clean and check their respective departments and ask students to leave, she said.

From 12 to 12:15, the security guards wait at the front exit for any late-departers, Morrison said. Once security leaves, the janitorial staff members clean until 7 a.m., but they are not permitted to let students out once the doors are locked, she said.

If a student gets locked in, he or she has access to most areas of the library, but janitors usually notice before they wander too far, Morrison said.

Janitors instruct students to call University Police Services from the front desk phone and security comes to let them out, she said. A sign at the desk provides the phone number in case no one is around.

"Students are usually surprised or embarrassed when they call," said Dwight Smith, a police supervisor. "We usually record their name, address and phone number for a dispatch card."

But Smith said it usually happens to people who are unfamiliar with the library or who fall asleep and are overlooked by the staff.

"They are usually only there 20 minutes to a half an hour. Those who are there an hour or more are those who have fallen asleep," he said.

Officer Donald Reed of University Police Services admits that the situation doesn't happen often but when it does, students are usually embarrassed and sometimes frightened.

"The library can be a pretty dark and scary place after-hours. I can see why it would scare some people (to be locked in)," Reed said.