Student led change

Building on strength

We are delighted to report that a full four years after we first received Customer Service Excellence Standard recognition, our award has been fully reviewed and reaccredited. The Library was once again found to be fully compliant in all areas, bar one point of partial compliance, with several areas being scored as "Compliance Plus",  indicating we exceeded the already high standards expected and demonstrated good practice. The assessor highlighted our particular strengths in empowering staff to “go the extra mile” and in the commitment of the Library's leadership team to embedding improvements to the customer experience across the board.

The assessor had glowing praise for everyone with whom she interacted, concluding that: "Evidence of many unprompted compliments about staff friendliness, helpfulness and speed of response were provided."

 

Delivering what matters

 

Every year, our students have told us that our resources were one of the things they liked most about their courses.  Learning from the experiences of providing meaningful changes to clients during lockdown, when all our clients were working remotely, we streamlined access to our eresources and worked with suppliers to bring more eresources than ever before delivered straight to your desktop in a digital-first approach intended to offer optimal support for blended learning for clients on campus and beyond and ultimately help us create more study spaces in the Library. 

 

Space for all

You told us that you enjoy studying in the library but felt that there was still competition for study space.  We have increased the amount of study space repeatedly and are working to balance providing the books and other printed resources you need with maximising the amount of study space and quality computer network access through a powerful wifi network an expanding number of docking stations that allow you to connect your own device and make use of a large, ergonomic curved screen monitor, full-sized keyboard and mouse.  We were glad that we did so when the lockdown struck because it allowed us to maximise the amount of study space that we were able to offer while maintaining safe social distancing. 

The Individual Silent Study Zone offers an opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle in the rest of the library and work without distractions in one of the naturally quieter areas of the library.  In other areas, we allowed people to participate in online tutorials to ease the pressure of moving between in-person and online teaching in fast succession.   

 

Supporting you wherever you study

We have redeveloped our Subject pages, turning these into a one-stop shop for academic information for your particular subject.  Powerful search tools and single sign-on access to eresources from anywhere using the VPN make finding what you want faster and more reliable.  Our friendly and expert staff are also on hand every day to help show you how to get started or improve your search strategy to find more of what you need more easily.

 

New and intuitive

We comprehensively redesigned our referencing advice pages, streamlining the information and creating a comprehensive guide to referencing each type of resource, complete with a downloadable overview guide.  We redesigned our website to make finding what you need simpler and more intuitive.  We value your time and so introduced tools that take you from any catalogue record for a printed resource to a 3D floor plan showing on which shelf it can be found with a single tap.  We understand you don't always have time to look for books yourself and so we introduced the Click & Collect service, where you can request books shelved in the library and have staff reserve them for you to pick them up from the collection point a few days later.  Loans of books and articles from other libraries, including the British Library, are now unlimited as well, so you have access to not only what we have but everything we can borrow.  

 

Convenience on demand

Not everything is available electronically and not everyone enjoys reading exclusively from a screen.  That's why we introduced automated book loan renewals and postal loans for everyone staying in the UK to ensure equity of access to our printed book stock for everyone.  We strive to provide ebooks for all our distance learning courses and prioritise ebook purchases for essential reading for every course so that you can read or listen to your core materials at home or on the go without delay but with some books only available in print this service development truly levels the playing field for all those who cannot visit the library regularly or easily.

 

 

Art and recreation

We are proud to buy and display our students’ competition-winning art to stimulate and inspire future generations, as well as curating a regularly changing displays representing students' interests, hobbies and projects.  There is nothing like the feeling when we see the burgeoning confidence of students seeing their work exhibited publicly for the first time. 

 

Tell us what you think

The library service has always been client-led, developed in response to feedback from people like you!  We appreciate our students have lived through one of the most challenging times in living memory.  We are tremendously proud of all you have achieved and accomplished.  We have adapted our services rapidly in response to unpredictable changes in operating circumstances and kept many of the service enhancements we put in place in response to the pandemic but while we try hard to respond to those client needs we can anticipate or observe being necessary, there is no substitute for hearing from our clients.  If you can spare the time, your comments on how we can further enhance the library service and facilities to improve your study experience and that of the students who come after you are invaluable to your fellow clients and us.  You can post ideas (we'll supply the postcard!) anonymously into our red suggestions postbox on the ground floor of the Library near the IT Desk, our online suggestion box, or simply in person, at a library pop-up event, by email or when you chat to us online. Don't forget to look out for our occasional themed feedback events throughout the year!  The library service you see now developed as a result of comments, suggestions, ideas and criticisms from previous students and we continue to draw inspiration from students' insights and creativity.