We love to hear from everyone who makes use of the library to help us find ways to improve. Throughout the year we provide a range of activities that allow you to feedback to us. You may have written us a letter on Valentine’s Day, attended a Shape Our Library event or visited our week long “Write our next chapter” stand in April.

Early next year students will get a chance to feedback to the University in the NSS, PTES and PRES student surveys. That feedback is really important to us and it drives real change, so if you get a chance to feedback through one of those surveys, please make sure you do.

In this last part of a three-part series, we’re looking at the feedback we’ve received about the study environment in the library. Over the summer we made a range of changes; new furniture, improved signage and changes to the zones themselves. Let’s look at the changes we’ve made to ensure you can find the perfect place to study in the library.

If you’ve not done so you can read the previous blogs in this series here:

• We’ve heard you – Improving access to library resources
• We’ve heard you – Improving the support we provide

New Zones

It was clear from your feedback that the quiet zones were difficult to get right, having group study rooms attached to quiet zones made it difficult to maintain a noise level that worked well for everyone. We also wanted to create new spaces to support different needs, including a sensory study room and a bespoke area for postgraduate students. You’ll now find the following zones in the library:

Find out more about the zones on our study spaces webpage.

Postgraduate Study Space (pilot)

We are piloting a Postgraduate Study Space co-located within the third-floor Collaborative zone, in front of the moving shelves. 

Postgraduates are offered priority for the seating and computers in this location and we promote students connecting with their peers whilst studying in the space. The remainder of the third-floor Collaborative zone is for all students to use.

If you make use of the space, please leave us your feedback.

Coming soon – Sensory study room

A sensory study room where you can moderate your sensory experiences is currently being developed on the ground floor of Augustine House. We’ll bring you more details soon.

New furniture

New chairs and sofas

“Work areas need to be more relaxed – work on introducing new couches, sofas and bean bags for people to study where they feel comfortable!” – Write Our Next Chapter April 2024

“Windows are wasted” – Write Our Next Chapter April 2024

Many of you noted some of the furniture was getting a little tired. Whereas others wanted to see more sofas, sofa booths and a wider range of comfy seating to complement the traditional desk and chair study spaces.

We’ve refreshed our study zones with a range of new furniture. We’ve introduced lots of new chairs across all the floors to ensure you can work comfortably and safely at our study desks. For those seeking more comfortable study spaces, we’ve added an additional sofa booth in the first-floor collaborative zone and new sofas across the building. We had feedback from students to make better use of the windows, so some of these sofas have been placed in nooks with a view.

Additional height-adjustable desks

“Workstation ergonomics must be upgraded e.g. standing stations or raised desks” – Shape Our Library – March 2024

We had requests for more height-adjustable desks in the library. We added more over the summer, and you’ll find a new signage on each desk that can be raised to a standing height to make it clear where that is possible.

Access to whiteboards

“More whiteboards for study use.” – Write Our Next Chapter April 2024

You’ll now find a whiteboard collection point in each Collaborative Zone, containing two sizes of whiteboard and stocked with whiteboard markers and erasers. Please help yourself and if you can’t find one please ask at the library point or ring through on one of the help pods.

Improved signage

A little time ago we did some research with students on how easy or difficult it is to find books in the library. One thing we noted was students were using the signage by the lifts to work out which floor a book was on. A walk that was somewhat out of their way. We also wanted to better highlight where commonly asked for facilities were such as toilets and water dispensers.

We have reviewed our signage and made several improvements. You’ll now find the classmark range on the doors to each zone, as well as simple iconography that will tell you what facilities are in each room.

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Thank you for joining us for the final blog in our we’ve heard you series. You can provide us feedback about the library at any time via our feedback form.