Three week delay in construction, but it is still anticipated opening the new library building on time at the beginning of September. This was the main message at February’s Library Programme Board (the group which oversees the library transformation project).
It was reported that the building contractor is working hard to recover the time lost, resulting from the bad weather this winter, and at times there have been 120 operators on site. As relationships between the construction company and the University are reported to be good, all are working together to try and catch up the lost time.
Sample items of the proposed furniture for the new building have begun arriving on campus and in the next couple of weeks these will be available for members of the University to inspect and try out.
The Board also heard that there had been recently a number of large donations to the fund raising programme for the library transformation project and the Board expressed its thanks to all those who have made donations.
The project remains on budget.
The interim library service continues to be operating successfully with few major problems reported. On Tuesday March 2 the Director of Information Services will be in Group Study Room One between 10 am and 11 an to hear your views and comments on how the interim library service is running.
Planning is now turning to activities that need to be undertaken once the constructors “hand back” the building before full library services can resume and the service arrangements in the new building. There will be a number of new services and enhancements to existing ones and there is much detailed planning to be done between now and the end of the summer to ensure that these are in place in time.
As part of the Interim Service, the Science Reference material had been made available in Cottrell in the SBES resource centre. The Resource Centre has now moved location and the Science Reference material, including paper copies of Nature and Science have followed to Cottrell 3B160.
Lisa Haddow
Science Librarian
Information Services has released a newsletter on the New Library project which includes an update on the New Library project; information about extended library opening hours and tips to help you get the most from the Interim library service. Click here to view the newsletter
Our Facebook page is regularly updated and includes photos of the Library before and during the early stages of the building work - this will be added to as the project progresses.
To find us on Facebook, search for ‘University of Stirling New Library Project’ or follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/University-of-Stirling-New-Library-Project/52701324641
Information Services
http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/newlibrary/index.php
As last semester, the Library will have extended opening hours for the exam period. They will commence Monday 16th November and continue until the night before the last exam, which on the draft schedule will mean Sunday 20th December.
Both the Interim Library and the Study Zone will open until 2am every morning and they will reopen at 9am.
During the extended hours, the library will be self service only.
David Gardiner
Manager Lending and Enquiry Services
That was the verdict of the October meeting of the Library Programme Board (the group which oversees the library transformation project). The main construction work has started and appears to be broadly on schedule; University staff are reporting that good relationships have been developed with the construction staff. The project is also currently within its allocated budget.
The interim library arrangements appear to be working well so far. One interesting statistic - the number of book issues is about the same as for the comparable period last year. This would seem to indicate that all the main books required by students are in the interim collection.. It was reported that there are three unresolved known issues with the interim library: noise in the study zone; access for mobility impaired students; some difficulties being reported by some history students. Follow up actions are in hand to try and resolve these as soon as possible.
Interim Library fast response service
Information Services has set up a fast response service in conjunction with the Student Union to make sure we can find out how you think we are doing during the Interim year.
You can email us on ISLibraryProblems@stir.ac.uk (direct to Library) or on UnionLibraryProblems@stir.ac.uk if you want your views to be represented by the Students’ Union.
We will also be placing suggestion boxes in the Interim Library (near the entrance) and the Study Zone to allow more informal feedback.
In addition to this, the Director of Information Services, Mark Toole will be available to library users with any specific questions or concerns, in weekly ‘Meet the Director’ sessions in the Study Zone (Group Study Room 1) as follows:
| Tuesday 6th October |
2 -3
|
| Wed 14th October |
1 - 2
|
| Wed 21st October |
1-2
|
| Wed 28th October |
1-2
|
| Thursday 5th November |
1-2
|
| Wed 11th November |
1-2
|
| Wed 18th November |
1-2
|
| Thurs 26th November |
11-12
|
| Tuesday 8th December |
2-3
|
| Thursday 17 December |
12-1
|
Information Services
Located in a temporary building on the grass next to the old Library building, the Study Zone can seat up to 200 students for individual study (upstairs).
Downstairs it has a number of group study rooms which are available on a first come first served basis for the time being. If you would prefer to be able to book them, let us know (email library@stir.ac.uk)
Also downstairs, is the ‘Study Lounge’, a large informally seated room for newspaper reading, studying or using your laptop. The area has wireless access as does the whole building and there are printing/copying facilities.
Some reference materials will be located in the Study Zone. These will have the location ‘Study Zone’ in their library catalogue record. One of the rooms in the group study corridor (right hand side of the building) will be their home in the Study Zone.
Finally for the ground floor, there will be a laptop surgery room in the Group Study Room corridor. This is where you will meet the laptop technician to get help with your CampusNet connections. Make sure you make an appointment at the Information Centre in the Library first though!
Upstairs the entire floor is devoted to quiet study and the old individual study desk furniture from the Library has been relocated. This area also has wireless network.
There are toilets on both floors.
We hope you like the Study Zone - please let us know if there is anything we can do to improve it by emailing us on library@stir.ac.uk
As scheduled, the main Library building on Stirling campus is now closed to users for the duration of building works as part of the New Library Project.
On Monday 29th June, the Library reopened its doors in its temporary location for the next year, following a short closure period to allow us to relocate the services (Information Centre, Lending Services and Document Delivery Service) to the new building.
The Library can now be accessed from the other side of the Atrium, next to the Atrium Fast Food Bar.
A collection of 130,000 core texts has been relocated to the Library, some of which are open access in the Library area, and some of which are held in the basement store and have to be requested through a link in the library catalogue record.
Some photos of the new Library area are available on our New Library Project Facebook page.
To find out more about the Library service over the next year, see the link on the IS home page to ‘Library Services 2009-2010′.
On Monday 1st June, RBR will be closed as the books are moving to their new location in the Interim Library (formerly the Studies Area - s19). If you need to use an RBR book this week, please ask at the Lending Services desk and we will try to retrieve it for you.
This message applies to Stirling Campus
As you will be aware, while building work is in progress in the main Library building, an Interim Library Service will operate from the North Extension studies area. More details of this are at http://www.is.stir.ac.uk/newlibrary/interim.php
This service will begin operation on Monday 29th June. To minimise the inevitable disruption this transfer of services will cause, we plan to close the Library for the preceding three days; Friday 26th June to Sunday 28th June.
Please advise us of any particular concerns you have, and we will do our best to accommodate your requirement.
Sorry for any inconvenience this will cause.
Mark Toole
Director of Information Services