While the summer break approaches, we will be bustling away in the library, updating your study spaces and working to improve your study experience come September.

Burgess Hodgson, a local accountancy firm, will be leasing part of the building within Augustine House, which has opened a great opportunity for the library to improve upon our current spaces.

We apologise for any noise disturbance or inconvenience felt during the renovation process, but we assure you that all changes have been centred around your feedback! In the meantime, we still have plenty of study spaces spread across the zones and atrium for you to sink into your studies.

Upcoming Work

As of June, refurbishment is now underway…

• The front sections of the second and third collaborative zones are currently not in use due to maintenance and construction work.
• From Monday, the 8th of June, the front staircase will be closed to facilitate building work, except in the event of a fire evacuation.
• A new wall is being built on the third floor to accommodate a new silent room, and the void between floors will be closed.

• From Monday, the 8th of June, study spaces in the alcoves of the first-floor collaborative zone will be temporarily unavailable as we build newly improved study rooms.
• A new door will be fitted for the Family Study Room on the ground floor, so some drilling is expected.
• A new foyer carpet will also be installed, but we will ensure that this doesn’t impede access to study spaces (or the cafe!)

Alongside collecting continuous feedback through the years, the Library Team has also been running recent sessions to collect your thoughts on furniture, bookable study rooms, new reading collections and more. This is all to make sure the changes truly reflect the needs and experiences of our library users.

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Here are the upcoming improvements as a result of this construction work:

Silent Zone

The Silent Zone is being relocated to the third floor at the front of the library.

Photo taken by library staff of the original Silent Zone on third floor.

New walls are being built to enclose the space and fill the void between floors. This is to address your feedback about noise levels and disturbances due to neighbouring lecture theatres and events.

We are working hard to keep disruptions to a minimum and ultimately offer you a more effective study space… so during construction, a temporary silent zone will be available in AH3.22 from 29th June – 31st July.

Improved Postgraduate Study Space

The library team has been in ongoing conversations with Postgraduate students, acknowledging concerns about the current location, noise, and space layout.

Repeated feedback has highlighted the distraction caused by nearby moving shelves and high foot traffic.

Photo taken by library staff of the original Postgraduate Zone

In response, we are relocating the Postgraduate Zone to the front of the second floor, collaborative zone, as well as introducing some requested resources.

Family Room

Another new introduction to the library will be a Family Study Room, designed to support students with children.

This will be tucked away on the ground floor in a self-contained environment, alongside some extra resources such as children’s books and toys.

Room AHg.49 before it’s transformation into the Family Room

If you are a student with children, we would really appreciate gaining some insight into what an ideal study space for you, as a parent, would entail.

Please fill out the form here or click the button below to learn more about this upcoming project. Your feedback is what vitally shapes these study spaces and will be invaluable in bringing the Family Room to life.

Additional Study Rooms

The Group Study Rooms are a popular space within the library, regularly booked up throughout the day and so students have voiced the desire for more flexible/ bookable rooms.

In response to this feedback, we are introducing a variety of additional study spaces, some ideal for individuals and pairs, some larger groups, and all spanning across the ground and first floors.

The study space in the collaborative zone alcoves

The PCs in the alcoves on first floor will be out of action while the construction of new rooms is underway.

We have also tried to remedy feedback about the interior of bookable study rooms, focusing on your comments about comfier seating and storage space.

New Read and Relax Collection

Excitedly, we have a new collection soon to be amidst our shelves – expect fun fiction reads like popular contemporary novels, fantasy tales and manga. We are also expanding our non-fiction reads beyond the set curriculum reading lists.

In April and May, we set out some ‘grow our collection’ trees and post-its in the foyer, asking for student recommendations and personal favourites.

We received great responses that will be making their way onto our shelves to be enjoyed by others, so we thank you for your input!

‘Grow our Collection’ tree display.

Your non-fiction suggestions were particularly helpful in guiding what books would be most enjoyed and of use, so topics like budgeting, cooking, and wellbeing will all be covered.

This new collection of books will be located in the ground-floor collaborative zone, in a cosy setting for you to relax and read leisurely. Please bear with us as there will be some moving of new furniture in this zone as we create this reading nook.

The Book Swap Bookshelf in the Stressless area, second-floor foyer.

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We thank you immensely for your patience as we implement these changes and for putting up with a few drilling noises here and there!

Libraries are a core pillar in university life, and we hope these changes offer even more support to your academic journey.

Stay tuned as we want the library to continue evolving, so if you find us approaching you for feedback, remember it’s the best way to shape your study experience to your needs.

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*All images used in this blog were taken by library staff.