The summer holidays saw a very expensive refurbishment to the UCLan library which was unveiled a fortnight ago.
More than £1million was spent on the improvements, which at first glance seem to have completely reinvented the library. But is the refurbishment just a quick lick of paint on an aging service?
The ground level of the library has gained a new modernised look and the installation of televisions and a cultural exchange area has given students some where comfortable to sit and watch or read the news. Is this all there is to show for the price paid?
The atmosphere as is attractive and colourful, and the café is also a welcome addition to the building. Indeed, this is an impressive looking makeover but behind the scenes I am struggling to see £1 million worth of improvements, the majority of the equipment is the same as before the works took place.
As technology is forever improving there has been some new equipment installed into the library, improved check out facilities and computers to search for books, but books are exactly what a library is about. It seems more money has been spent on improving online reading resources, which is great to access off campus but not so good if you want the actual copy to read through rather than staring at a computer screen.
Wouldn’t money have been better spent on more books? Surely that’s what a library is all about. What’s the point of spending money on study “pods” when there aren’t anywhere near enough copies of books to go round?
Another waste of money is the huge wall of TV screens that has appeared – how much did that cost? Sure it looks nice, but is it really necessary? About as necessary as a shower in a library. What’s that? They’ve built one of those too? This seems bizarre to me, what a complete waste of money. Instead, they could have spent more on books or computers.
Did I mention that it was a unisex shower? Surely that’s a bad idea. This could lead to sexual activities in the library!
Another good question is why has the book return point been updated? I mean, just how much did that cost? How many books or new computers could have been bought with that money? What exactly was wrong with the old system? It worked fine – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Why has the university thrown money at what seem to be something that’s purely aesthetic?
It begs the question of whether the library is actually completed. As a second year student I would expect plenty more new computers or at least all of them to be up and running. I would also like to see self study seating areas on each floor as well as the obvious addition of more books. But it seems that apart from the ground floor things aren’t as exciting as what hits you when you first walk in.
A lot of time and effort has gone into the redevelopment of the library, the new areas give a quality to feel to the surroundings but there just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of substance; certainly not over £1 million worth of improvements.
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:27 am
This stillborn bastard runt-child somewhere between the Big Bother house, Teletubbies and Frank Lloyd-Wright is plastered in lurid, Day-Glo, ‘fun’ colours – irritating and pricking the eye, so in need of rest, with a demented ceaseless busyness.
A refuge of learning and scholastic reflection? No, but bring sunglasses for the retina-frying A-Bomb brightness and possibly earplugs for all the prattling on the ground floor study areas. This ground-floor warehouse of vacuity gives one the immediate impression of some sort of remedial facility or multimedia centre and not one of hushed, eager Oxbridge academic excellence.
Indeed, a creation so twee and ‘down wid da kids’-achingly-trendy it defies belief. Stuffed with the video pollution of many plasma television sets, it is an IT consultant’s wet dream. Not surprising, the brainchild of the new ground zero library would appear, not a Librarian or Archivist (essential clearly), but some type of head of IT services.
One thing that is realised quickly is the abundance of Nylon sofas which concentrated within the TV grants a rather listless air. Yes there are newspaper racks, but where are the large >woodennext< to the newspaper racks. “Time & Motion” as my Grandfather used to say.
Have you ever tried to digest the days papers with a television, sorry, EIGHT televisions on at the same time right next to you? There are few people who possess the laser-like focus to seriously read a newspaper properly, when something else is gibbering away next to them.
Throw in the incessant comings and goings of the ‘bleep-thunk-bleep-bleep’ turnstile entrance along with attendant chattering of arrivals and departures, guards announcing “would you come back please”, and the prattling of students in the TV area and what you have is clearly not an oasis of reflection and quietude – Newspapers and dailies should be in a reading room, not a lounge.
“More computers, less books” a librarian said. And yes, it does appear to be true, for all the apparently one million pounds, (ONE MILLION POUNDS) spent on the library, precious little seems to have materialised upon the shelves:
++Faded or worn out magnetic tape-cassette lecture recordings and readings (some by luminaries such as Richard Burton) not preserved or replaced by CD equivalents.
++More stock for ‘trendy’ media subjects, less replacements for “real subjects such as History”, English Literature and Science?
++When is the last time, History students that you have noticed, to take a random example, Asa Briggs’ seminal works on Victorian Urbanisation and disease updated with newer or revised editions? Similarly, my Law student friends can be especially withering in their opinion of stock and regale me with their complaints.
IF the University executive can afford to have a Human Resources department who subcontracts out it’s work to another HR firm (yes, you read that correctly), thus duplicating a department’s yearly cost…
IF Malcolm MacVicar can afford to help himself to a pay rise yet deny overworked lecturers the same…
Then the University can afford to buy a few more Law Books, more Norton Anthologies of English Literature for the Library to update it’s History, Law and Science stock. Hiring a small army of more frontline Librarian ‘troops’ would be useful too.
One useful ‘feature’ has been retained however, the ‘book theft facility’, or ‘hole in the window’, in other words, is available in the men’s toilets on the first floor for poor students to use if they cannot afford books,* and
“…has been like that for five years”, a library guard said in August this year.
A refit not so much the simple unfussy elegance of the London reading room, but a Piccadilly Circus of noise, debate and quantity. A mutant nursery cum playroom for the 20-second attention span, Google-think idiot generation student to check photos of their friends drunkenly mugging in student bars on Face Book?
“Discuss…”
(*note I am not being serious here)
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:50 am
Note the above is not perfect, I only ran a spell check through it. I hope to replace it with a tweaked sub-edited version in due course!
November 4th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I quite like it actually. It has books, computers, and everything a good student needs.
November 4th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I like it too, but what you won’t notice is there is now LESS books than previously. And it’s hard to see where they spen’t all the dough, not on book stock it seems.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
This is the way university libraries are headed these days; the cafe and fancy plasma screens and ‘study pods’ are more immediately impressive to credulous new students.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Call me old-fashioned, but surely students would (or should?) be more impressed by Updated/restored/preserved magnetic media, a hushed atmosphere, muted non-distracting colours to aid concentration, lots of copies of seminal course textbooks, and one of the most important, ***comprehensive signposting of the Dewey catalogue system?
Dewey being the backbone of library function and efficiency since
its inception by “…Melvil Dewey in 1876 and revised continually since, the most recent in 2004. The system is a method for placing books on library shelves in a specific and repeatable order that makes it easier to find any specific book or to return it to its proper place…” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Decimal_Classification)
See how simple it is:
* 000 – Computer science, information, and general works
* 100 – Philosophy and psychology
* 200 – Religions, Occultism
* 300 – Social sciences
* 400 – Language and Languages
* 500 – Science and Mathematics
* 600 – Technology and applied science
* 700 – Arts and recreation
* 800 – Literature
* 900 – History, Geography, Biography
I don’t think this is displayed ANYWHERE in the building?
Those floor plan notice boards are informationally inert, congratulating itself with merely showing off how modern and ‘gee whizz’ the refit is!
You don’t need to fart about with the computer catalog search if the Dewey codes are right in there in front of you, both on every floor and in the elevators themselves:
1. walk into library with a book/subject in mind…
2. glance at the subject classes
3. Thinks… ‘right, Human Biology thats No. 123-ish (or whatever), where the sciences are, that’s right’…
4. Calls lift, enters lift
5. Gets off AT THE CORRECT FLOOR FIRST TIME EVERY TIME and saves time!
or 6. Goes to CORRECT FLOOR FIRST TIME EVERY TIME…
This refit is rather like Windows Vista in the respect that the Library is toning down or hiding its ‘library-ness’ information to the end user to give the appearance of ease of use and more appealing to the non-library user and more like a ‘multi-media centre’?
Well! A student, or indeed any person who does not like libraries or make use of them is not a person with which I would want to associate myself with!
November 12th, 2008 at 3:29 am
Well, I like PARTS OF IT, but what you won’t notice is there is now LESS books than previously. And it’s hard to see where they spent all the dough, not on book stock it seems.
November 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
It seems the Starbucks culture is permeating every part of academia these days, and while I agree it has its place, surely it’d be better confined to specific sections.
From what I’ve seen of the new library it looks sleek, stylish and somewhat Ikea-inspired, but it’s a look that’s going to age quickly and isn’t really one that screams “knowledge above all”.
I think there needs to be a balance between estoricism and accesibility when it comes to modern university libraries these days – the reality is that people need to meet up and discuss coursework, and the library is an obvious first port of call. But I’m more keen on the idea of having seperate areas for group work and keeping the rest of the library just that – a library, and not, dare I say, a chillout lounge.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Reading the above comments regarding the lack of new books that have been purchased by the library i feel a need to step in and voice my opinion.
Although there has been minimalistic spending on paper books i have noticed a huge increase in the number of titles available to view online. A couple of days ago i had a look around the different e-books that i can now access for my course and found that alongside a heap of usefull titles there was around 75% of the core texts required for my course on there aswell. Im in my 3rd year now and just wish that this had been the case all through my time at university as i could have saved a fortune on key texts.
Lets just do a bit of basic maths here lets say around 10 core texts required over my 3 year course at approx £35 each is £350 now if i can save 75% of that by not buying them an viewing them online i could have saved a massive £260.
So incase you havent worked it out already i think the library has done fantastic with its spending. I do however appreciate that it may just be my course which has fallen lucky on the what to buy list, i also however feel that alot of people will be criticising the lack of paper books in the library withhout first looking at the mass of e-books now available.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
E-books are all very well and very welcome: JSTOR, Athens, Lexis-Nexis (or however it’s spelled) and what have you are useful and I have used them many times myself. Reading books on a screen however is tiring and feels unnatural. What some are irritated at is the wasteful spending on stuff that didn’t need replacing or poorly implemented/half done/not done and lack of (small) spending on things that did need attention:
Poorly implemented/half done:
The five year old book theft facility on the 1st floor men’s toilets that easily defeats library book security has still not been addressed.
Lack of additional copies of key departmental textbooks and replacements/preservation or archival of historic audio magnetic resources.
STILL no University-wide roll-out of green-policy for computers. Computers in the library at least did at one time employ a graduated SLEEP>STANDBY>SHUTDOWN sequence, which contributed no doubt to the building being considerably less overheated
Toilets with seats that work loose and hard to maintain because they are sealed units, not the sensible old-fashioned type that screws on with brass screws and wing-nuts at the back and stays tight.
Dyson Air-Blade Dryers – fast and effective 40,000RPM motors, but how do you dry your face if you want to freshen up? (Fine if your head is cylindrically shaped, then you’ll fit right in!
)
More daylight/floor-ceiling windows like the other side of building needed in cafe area – cafe has tendency to become over warm – vent-able windows would cheaply solve the problem.
Conflict of integration between thermostatic radiator valves ‘fighting’ with the thermo-computer controlled (I assume) ventilation system (the ‘sunburst’ vents in the ceiling).
Energy saving auto-off lighting in low traffic areas – should be extended to all rooms, ante-rooms, corridors.
Energy saving auto-dim X-lighting – auto dim lighting should be on all areas on ground floor and stairwells, particularly the cafe.
Unnecessary:
Televisions – you can watch news broadcasts online via streaming feeds on many news agencies web sites. Oddly there are no headphone sockets there providing DAB Radio feeds. Is this ‘Radio-ist?’
Carpets… the existing one had plenty of life in it – shampooing them would have sufficed, surely?
New Armitage-Shanks unturn-able taps that are broken already in men’s Ground floor. One may think that these plumbing pinnacles of pretentious design (sorry
) would be confined to the Night Club/Crystal Maze ‘Future Zone’-crossed Media Factory toilets, but alas and alack, no.
I gather Bristol University (I think?) spent £100k on rolling out fibre-optic networks in its entire campus by cleverly utilising the drains and or main sewers. Now there’s an idea.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Jonty your critique of the new(ground floor and third floor carpet) library dated 2nd november is achingly funny but oh so true especially the need for a small army of librarians needed(fingers crossed to include me upon graduation and grad training scheme in Oxford) as well as the last paragraph as this sadly appears to be the case from my oberservations of my fellow students.
I also agree about the need for better dewy signage and how easy it is for anyone who can count and/or knows the alphabet.
E books are a great idea but you need to print out any pages you wish to scribble/make notes on (all those 6ps soon add up).
Whilst the refit was needed it is not without its problems and is quite comprable with vista in that it is nice to look at, all singing and dancing but beset with problems.
Laptop Loan = great idea meaning you don’t have to find a computer if you just want to check something without having to get up and find a computer etc so long as you are in the library 9am to 6pm (3.30 on fridays)and can get a laptop
Key Resources Collection = again great idea so long as your library visit is 9-6 mon-fri.
Books on Trolleys = it appears to be taking even longer for books to be reshelved too many books are remaining on trolleys for too long.How many students check the trolleys if their chosen text is not on the shelf?
Interlibrary Loans = whilst as yet i have not needed this service but a 3 week backlog COME ON
I am also informed by a Masters student that she can not access the Special collections for a text that she requires because it is closed until further notice because of a lack of staff.
So Library refurb waste of money? yes and no whilst a refurb of some kind was needed I feel that the money could have been put to better use.
On a positive note (sorry for going on a bit but as an aspiring librarian i feel strongly about this much needed ESSENTIAL resource) I for one very much appriciate that the silent study area has now been partioned and is NOW silent along with the very welcome addition of the Silent computing area which is just right, not like the sauna on the third floor.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
sorry my mistake the key resources collection is now open 24 hours a day
November 19th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
t appears to be taking even longer for books to be reshelved too many books are remaining on trolleys for too long.How many students check the trolleys if their chosen text is not on the shelf?
Indeed this is the case Jodi.
Would be nice if trolleys were labelled and ordered with their respective depts/Dewey classes so you can quickly check, seems many trolleys are randomly stocked.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:13 am
Just become aware of 2 more security holes in the library:
Items can be stolen by handing bags over the glass partition walls at the entrance.
Now this is not exactly a secret, more of an open secret. Of course this could be prevented if the glass walls are 10′ high or something, with a diagonal high vis stripe for visually impaired students of course. This is how I imagine all the staplers disappear, or from the hole in the window in the 1st floor men’s toilets. I suggest chaining the staplers to tables. It is difficult to steal a table from the library.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
UPDATE:
Over the past month or so the building – mainly the ground floor – has sufferered from ostensibly random areas possessing an intensly pungent chemical heavier than air odour that is either Ammonia, Methanol, Ethanol or Aldehyde type smell of chemical, possibly cleaning fluid or coolant leakage into the new venting systems.
It smells more ethanolic than ammoniac, as Ammonia is more acrid. This needs to be eliminated as it could possibly be Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s), some of which are combustable in air, cause bronchial irritation, headaches and/or carcinogenic and/or poisonous.
(Library staff have been told of it via the suggestion box, however, in line with many people’s experience of this method, I suspect nothing will be done.)
A guard suggested it could be a stink bomb, but this was quickly ruled out as stink bombs are sulphur based.
It is known that VOC’s and the outgassing of chemicals from synthetic petrochemical-based products and plastics can contribute to “Sick Building Syndrome”.
As the whole building is something of a sealed box I can see how this could a problem, circulating bad air, together with the attendant HOT/COLD extremes in the building.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Above problem has been solved!
“…In relation to the ammonia type smell, [it was caused by the] sanitary bins in the ladies toilets only being emptied across campus [once-weekly]. They will now be emptied [twice weekly].”
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
After many requests, the bank note change machines may be reinstated. They should not have been removed in the first place, but there you go.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Can I make a request here that I will imagine help all students in the library!
The Lost Property box has dozens (if not scores) of USB memory sticks that people leave behind, so…
Open “Word” or “Wordpad” on your computer, or any word processor program where you can save as a simple ‘text’ file (“sample.txt”), so it can be easily opened.
Type your Name, Student ID Number, department and email/phone number.
Save onto the USB stick as a text file labelled
“READ ME IF LOST”
Your precious work is more likely to get bnack to you then.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
the libary is ace………….
ask yourself, wats wrong? nothing.it got everything you need.
computers, books, journals, newspapers, lift(ok the big one needs fixing),, and you cant beat the freindly staff, who always help everybody out. theres also a safety bus. wat else do you want?
January 27th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
@ library lover:
Sunglasses for the retina frying lighting in the evening? The TV’s sold and the money used for BOOKS?…
September 26th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
As if by magic, improvements of
“Library Refit: Take 2″
have appeared after not just a few of us pointed them out going on for a YEAR ago:
1. Energy efficient lighting and computers.
2. Clearer, yes -but still not right yet- Dewey catalog markings.
3. Better ventilation.
4. Improvements to the loos including fixing the unusable taps and dual flush cisterns.
So much easier to find stock overall. However, there is still persistent areas that are not tackled, including many, many security holes that need plugging:
Openable unsecure windows for cash-strapped students to drop items throughout the building (photos on my blog). This can be remedied with a simple mesh shield or grille over the opening part to prevent items being dropped through.
Students will be gladdened to learn there will be 20,000 new books “arriving in the library” appearing on the expanded shelves. Be quick about it though, as they could DIS-appear again via those notorious security leaks, which I will be pleased to reveal to those who wish to familiarise themselves with them – for informative purposes, of course.