Questionnaires, surveys, whiteboards, feedback events and even Valentine’s Day letters…

It might seem that we are asking you for your opinion all the time…

That’s because your voice matters to us.

We listen to all the things you say and bring them together as a plan of improvement.

A plan we call “Our commitment to you”.

You can read our full commitment to you here but for now, here are the highlights…

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We want our libraries to be as welcoming, comfortable and accessible as possible. Everyone is different, so we have setup a range of zones to provide silent, quiet, social and group study area, so you can find a place to study that suits you.

This is what we have planned to improve the study environment this year:

• Continue to provide 24/7 access in AH.
• Make the Augustine House Terrace an outdoor space
  more conducive to learning, reflecting or taking a break.
• Review the layout of study desks to ensure that
  there is enough room for wheelchairs to move around.
• Make, at least one Mac available on a
  height-adjustable desk.

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Helping you make the most of the support, resources and facilities available is what we love the most.

Here are the ways we will improve the support and help we provide:

• Fun, engaging and informative orientation activities during Welcome
  Week.
• Activities during Academic Development Week and Personal Development
  weeks.
• Organise #stressless for the summer to support postgraduate students
  writing their dissertations.
• Familiarise ourselves more with the Braille room (Augustine House) so
  that we can support you more in making the best of the equipment provided with
  the help of the Disability Services colleagues
• Provide more information on how to access our resources remotely to
  support distance learner students (including students on apprenticeship and
  placements).
• Explore the possibility of creating ‘children packs’ to support parents
  visiting the library to study with their children.
• Create guides to show you e-books accessibility features.
• Identify spaces on North Homes Road to deliver your tutorials.
• Investigate opportunities for ‘pop-up’ initiatives on North Homes Road
  to support your learning.
• Introduced a new automated booking system (via BlackBoard) to book 1 to
  1 appointments with your Librarian.
• Work with the BME student and staff network and Student Union to
  investigate and understand the barriers to your attainment so that can work towards
  reducing or removing these.
• Collaborate with academic staff to develop initiatives to support you at
  the beginning of your studies.
• Create opportunities to develop your academic writing in a supportive
  and playful environment (e.g. writing cafés).
• Organise workshops to help you understand and use formative and
  summative feedback.
• Organise workshops to help you with referencing.
• Help you to become proficient in reading and writing about academic
  subjects and be successful in learning and working in a digital society.
• Work with University Peer Mentors to create a more joined-up support
  model.
• Develop the role of a Learning Developer at Medway.
• Support Postgraduate students to enhance their research skills &
  practices.
• Create an online toolkit to help you develop skills for learning and
  employment.
• Create subject-specific resources to enhance your professional
  practice/employability (e.g. signpost professional practice sources for
  assignments, define what each discipline understands as employability, collate
  a searchable list of employability/careers/professional practice books,
  guidance on open access resources to use after graduation).

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We believe that borrowing a book from the library should be simple and stress free.

Here are our plans:

• Design more user-friendly automatic library notices to help you keep
  track of loans, fines, reservations.
• Make some of our i-borrow laptop loanable for 24-hour loan so that you
  can take them home with you.
• Add chip and pin panels at the self-service machine so you can quickly
  pay fines and charges. 

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It doesn’t matter if it’s a book on the shelf or an e-journal accessed through LibrarySearch, we want to make them as easy to access as possible. This is what we have planned this year:

• Integrate Research Space results in LibrarySearch so that you can search
  CCCU research publications as part of your usual searches.
• Explore the possibility of adding a map to LibrarySearch to help you
  find out which floor/area of the library the book you are looking for is.
• Make the Fiction Collection, which is now located in the Silent Zone,
  easier to find by integrating it with the rest of the library stock.
• Explore ways to offer students the opportunity to suggest books for the
  library to buy and stock.
• Involve students in the curation of book displays.
• Find out more about the barriers and issues you face when trying to
  locate books on the shelf.
• Move all the print Journals in one place, on the Second floor.
• Increase the amount of online scholarly research freely available on
  LibrarySearch.
• Continue to work with your lecturers give you access to more relevant
  print and online resources. 

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Creating “Our commitment to you” wouldn’t be possible without your feedback. Here’s how we plan to ensure your opinions are heard:

• Schedule more ‘Shape Our Library‘ events, including at Salomons.
• Offer all students the opportunity to become Library Champions to provide us with a sounding board and contribute to shaping our services for you.
• Work with student reps within each Faculty to identify your learning needs so that we can support you to success in your studies.
• Update this document every year.

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Thank you for taking the time to read our commitment to you.We look forward to hearing your opinions and feedback at our next feedback event. If you can’t attend an event, why not talk to a member of staff or get in touch via email, twitter or online feedback form.