It may be quieter as far as students are concerned but there is a lot going on behind the scenes at the moment. There are routine tasks, administrative and planning for next semester. There are also more complex tasks - changes to the learning environment and the introduction of new 'things'.
The list includes:
New Group Study areas - we are changing the layout and configuration of the main floor of the library to create more fit for purpose group study areas. There is a demand from students for us to provide more group study and collaboration facilities so that is what we are doing. The existing group study table room is being refurbished and extended and some new furniture is being installed.
New Library Service Desk - hopefully we are getting a new library service desk. This will be situated in a more useful space in the library with sight of the entrance and the doors to the stairs. It will also be nearer to the self service machines so that most of the book circulation can be directed there leaving the library staff to deal with more complicated issues and enquiries. We will probably have to move to a temporary location for a few weeks so we are planning this too.
Printing - we have recently moved from push printing to pull printing / print release on our MFDs. This is going well and we will be concentrating on making sure that staff are trained to help new students and that the posters / communications are good regarding the change.
Telephony - the telephone switchboard is part of customer services and we are changing the physical location of the equipment although the service will continue uninterrupted.
Weeding and stock relegation - the customer services team are helping out the resources team by doing some weeding of old or unused books and journals.
Staff and service manuals - we are updating these with additions and changes to processes and procedures. We've produced quite a few help sheets for the common issues to the IT Helpdesk including setting up phones and laptops, email on mobile devices etc.
Staff training - I've been organising staff training for all the customer services team. There are going to be a number of sessions, some delivered within the team and some from other staff within Information Services such as Subject Librarians. We're going to cover enquiries, searching, databases, the VLE, SharePoint, google forms, wifi/ eduroam, printers etc. The sessions will be available for daytime and evening/weekend/semester only staff.
Individual Study rooms - we have about 21 individual study rooms which are in high demand but currently are booked on a first come first served basis on a morning and can be kept for the day. We have had some comments from students that they think this is a bit inconvenient sometimes especially as students tend to 'baggsy' them and leave stuff there and disappear to lectures. So we are considering a different, fairer booking system.
Other items on the list include:
Reviewing fines policy
Statistics - collecting and collating and presenting in a useful format
Social Media Development Group
Service Improvement Group
Messaging noise alert facility
Text enquiry service
