All computer workstations at the front of L3 will be temporarily unavailable for the three days that the works are taking place.
You can find alternative workstations at the front of Levels 2, 4 & 5. PCs in the Library L1 Training Room will also be available for use.
Library closure:
We have to close the whole Library building for two hours, between 6 am and 8 am on Thursday 5 January 2017. This is to enable us to carry out essential maintenance to the Library power supply.
Furthermore, Level 4 and 5 of the Library will be closed due to electrical work on both Thursday 5 and Friday 6 January 2017. Study space and services will still be accessible on Levels 1-3, whilst alternative space can be found elsewhere on campus. For example the Learning Commons (6E2.8 and 6WS), as well as the Graduate Commons (10W) and Graduate Centre (4W) for postgraduates.
Lift maintenance:
From 16:00 on Wednesday 4 January until Saturday 7 January 2017, staff and student lifts will not be serving Levels 4 or 5 of the Library due to essential maintenance work.
We apologise for any inconvenience due to these essential works.
For your information, items successfully renewed or borrowed from Monday 12 December will be loaned to borrowers until Wednesday 11 January 2017. While items may still be recalled by other library users during the vacation period, the earliest date you will be expected to return items is Wednesday 11 January. Unless your book is recalled it will be automatically renewed from 11 January as normal. Please watch your University email account for notifications about requests on your borrowed books in the New Year.
In order to avoid overdue charges, please verify the due dates of all your loans, returning recalled items as necessary before leaving the campus during the vacation period.
Our Christmas Vacation service hours and closed periods are shown on the Library Opening Times page.
You can contact the Issue Desk staff for advice about your borrower account via:
Please note that all messages will be answered from Tuesday 3 January when staffed services re-open.
Chris Roberts
Reader Services Librarian
Join us for a lunchtime talk on building an open information age with Dr Rufus Pollock, hosted by the University of Bath Library in association with the Institute for Policy Research (IPR).
How can we build an open information age? And why should we do it? Find out with Dr Rufus Pollock, a leading global expert on digital policy, openness and innovation. The session will be framed around the following questions:
Open information is the biggest policy opportunity of the 21st Century, with answers for all of these questions. Openness is central not only to creating a more innovative and transparent society, but to creating one which is fair, free, healthy and wealthy.
The presentation will be one hour long, with a second hour free to ask questions and discuss the issues raised. The event is free, but registration requested at: https://openinfo.eventbrite.co.uk.
About Dr Rufus Pollock
Dr Rufus Pollock is an adviser on digital policy and openness to governments and organisations around the world. He has worked extensively as a researcher, entrepreneur and technologist on how we can build the best possible digital age – one that is inclusive, innovative and open.
He is the President and Founder of Open Knowledge, an international non-profit organisation using advocacy and technology to empower people with access to information and the capacity to use it. A pioneer in the rapidly developing area of digital policy, he has made Open Knowledge into one of the leading “think/do tanks” of the 21st Century.
In addition to Open Knowledge, he has been involved in many other organisations such as Creative Commons, FFII and the Open Rights Group. He was previously the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge, where he remains an Associate of the Centre for Information and Intellectual Property Law. In 2010 he was appointed to a $1m three-year Shuttleworth Foundation Fellowship, and in 2012 he was elected an Ashoka Fellow.
A breath of fresh air?
You’ve asked for air freshener sprays in the toilets and we will be speaking to the Porters about this soon. We will also be reviewing toilet ventilation in general with Estates.
Jingle all the way
You’ll be pleased to see that our Christmas tree is up on Level 2 again. Those of you who commented on a lack of festive decoration as early as November (!) can now rest easy.
The Goldilocks Porridge conundrum…
We have had several comments about the building being either too hot, too cold, or just right. Everyone has a different preference so it’s hard to get it right. We don’t have a great deal of control over the central heating system, which is definitely on. It can be a bit chilly on the North staircase. Can you give us a bit more information on which rooms/areas in the building are uncomfortable and we’ll see what we can do.
Love in an elevator!
Sadly our student lift (that’s British for elevator!) isn’t fast enough for some of you. We’re stuck with our existing lift system which would be hugely expensive and problematic to change. Journey time and delays are largely a question of volume of footfall rather than speed of lift. It should be noted that the doors are set to open and close slowly to ensure accessibility i.e. to make it easier for anyone in a wheelchair to get in and out unobstructed.
Ideally we’d have more than one student lift but where would we put it?! If you are able to make use of one of our three staircases that would help ease congestion and keep you warm if you’re chilly (see above).
Not our bag, man!
We’ve had more requests for bean bags and tables. We’re working on a rolling programme of improvements and these include some diner furniture and tables at the back of Level 2. We’ll be refurbishing some other group rooms too. We can’t provide bean bags though. We’ve done so in the past but they were slashed open in short order. Those beans get everywhere and are a nightmare to clean up.
Once upon a time in the web…
We’re reporting comments on slow internet and wi-fi in the Library to Computing Services but it would be very helpful to know exactly where in the building you experienced the problem please.
‘Lift too small for mobility scooter’
This is very regrettable but once again we are restricted by the building’s limitations. Ideally we’d have another (or at least a larger) student lift. It may be more feasible to relocate our Assistive Technology room to Level 2 to make that more accessible. We are looking at options here and for other ways to recalibrate our building. In the short term our library staff can help you in lots of ways, not least with accessing materials from other floors. For more information see: http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/services/disabilityadvice.html
I had a dream… Printers on every floor
We have centralised our Copy & Print service on Level 2 as it is easier to maintain consumables in the machines here and also concentrate our support staff and maintain an excellent service this way. We will have a new contract for our Managed Print Service (MPS) and some new machines which should help with demand and reliability. The MPS is campus wide so there is already a lot of flexibility in terms of where you can print and we anticipate this will increase in the future.
Warm regards,
The Library
The Library has recently updated our access to a range of Major Reference Works published by Wiley, providing a wealth of up to date information at your fingertips.
Titles include:
Access the titles via the links above, the Library Catalogue or your Department’s Subject Resources pages. Please let your Subject Librarian know if you have any feedback on these resources.
Thank you for using our new graffiti board for your feedback. We’ve already received lots of comments on a wide variety of issues and we’ve responded to these in turn, by theme below:
Toilets
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas concerning the current provision of toilets within the Library. We are really pleased that the toilets on Levels 2 and 3 have been completely redesigned and refurbished to a much higher standard over the last summer. The toilet blocks are part of the original building and while we couldn’t make the available space any bigger, we were really pleased that the new design added more cubicles. The plumbing infrastructure has also been improved throughout the building which should mean fewer blockages and leaks.
Two recently refurbished gender neutral toilets are available on Level 3 of the Library next to Room 3.16. The toilets on Levels 4 and 5 will be refurbished next summer and will also be designed as gender neutral toilet provision, with floor to ceiling cubicle walls and doors to ensure privacy. This will provide a choice of single or neutral gender for Library users.
We know that the hand driers are not as effective as Dyson hand driers – but nor are they anywhere near as noisy! When we replaced them we were very aware of the noise and disturbance that very powerful driers create within a study environment. We were also aware from other University Libraries that toilet hand drier replacements had led to their students complaining of being disturbed by the noise they generated. It’s a tricky balance – the quieter machines are not so powerful – but we will carry forward any lessons learnt into the replacement of the hand driers on Levels 4 and 5 next summer.
The water fountains installed as part of the toilet refurbishment programme were not what we intended and they will be upgraded so that water bottles can be filled properly. The replacements are already on order.
Space
We have had a lot of comments highlighting lack of space in the Library and difficulties finding somewhere to sit. We know. We are working with the Students’ Union to increase the capacity and the quality of our existing space, supported by a rolling programme of investment from the University. Our ‘While You Were Away’, campaign highlights some of the improvements we have been able to make in the last year, including new seats, study spaces, sockets and carpets. We hope you like the new diner-style soft furniture that will be installed in the Library over Christmas at the back of Level 2.
Last year you told us you would like more space like the Library’s Level 2 Learning Commons but “with coffee”. This year the University has opened new Learning Commons: spaces around campus for informal ‘bring your own device’ study space where you can also eat and drink if you like, You can find out more about these Learning Commons online. 6WS and 6E2.8 are already available for use.
You suggested removing office space to create more study space. We had the same idea and have converted some staff offices into reading and group workrooms. We’ve been careful to do this with offices where the staff aren’t there to work with the students, though, as we know what good use you make of our subject teams. On Level 3 we now have a new Engineering & Design themed group workroom (L3.16) on the East of the floor and just last week we opened up another staff office on Level 3 near the North staircase as a temporary reading room. We will be re-developing this more substantially next year and would welcome your ideas on what you’d like us to do with it.
We know the Library is very busy at peak times during the Academic Year. Please ask a Librarian if you are having trouble finding somewhere to study. You may find the following information about space in the Library and on campus helpful: https://unibathlibrary.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/get-a-room-group-and-quiet-study-in-and-beyond-the-library/
We read your requests for beds or dedicated napping/sleeping areas in the Library with interest and we have seen examples of this elsewhere. Our priority though has to be to support those using our facilities to study, be that individually or in groups.
Once comment asked us to ‘Stop using L1 as a training room’. This room is designed to be used for training and for study, so when we’re not using it to teach Library users how to use Library resources you’re very welcome to use it to study in. There is a timetable on the door that shows when the room is booked for training and when it is free.
Furniture
‘We need sofas and massage chairs’ – while we can’t provide the latter, we do have sofas and comfy seating in the more informal areas in the Library and are soon to have some comfy diner-style seating on Level 2.
Food and drink
There have been lots of requests for food and drink in the Library, particularly pizza and coffee. Our policy is for bottled water only. We have experimented with limited food and drink in the Library in the past and were overwhelmed with the volume of waste (2000 student visitors in the day at peak times were found to produce over 100 black bin bags of waste) and we ended up with stains and damage to the carpets, IT equipment that proved costly to replace and sticky tables covered in rubbish. This rapidly degraded the environment that we work so hard to keep suitable for study. We also had a lot of complaints from students about the noise of people eating and the cleanliness of the space. In the Library we have a snack area in the entrance to your right as you enter the building, before passing through the gates. You are welcome to eat and drink in this area. There are many outlets for food and drink and ‘heat and eat’ stations close to the Library on the Parade. You can also eat in the new Learning Commons if you would like to.
We have plans in place to improve our water fountains and we have refurbished our snack area in the past year, with new snack options available from upgraded vending machines and more seats added in to the space.
Infrastructure
‘Plugs in Group areas on the 4th Floor’. Now that our electrical capacity has been improved, we can begin to add more power sockets. Watch this space! We would like to hear your views on how to improve the group study rooms on Level 4 over the coming year. Is there anything else you would like to see in the group study areas?
Smoking
The Library is bound by the smoke free on Campus policy and as such cannot provide any smoking provision within or close to the Library building. This includes our balcony. However, ‘smoking is allowed on parts of the campus that are more than 4 metres away from buildings, in a designated area behind the Parade Bar and a small area on the terrace behind 1 East outside the SU nightclub after 6pm.’
Requesting books
We received several requests for more books on specific topics e.g. politics, art, physics, etc. Our Subject Librarians will happily consider ordering specific items that you recommend for stock. Please contact your Subject Librarian or use our Ask a Librarian web form to submit a request. If there is an item we do not have in stock that is only of interest to you and your individual research, please use our Inter-Library Loans service and we will endeavour to get a copy delivered from another institution for you to borrow.
Fines and loan reminder emails
You asked for warning emails and reminders a day before you will receive a fine. There is a system for this in place already:
When a book you have borrowed is reserved you will receive an email with a new due date. This gives you 7 Semester days within which to return the book before you can be fined for returning it late. You will also receive an automated email the day before it is due. Make sure to regularly check your University email account to ensure you see these messages in good time.
For more information on fines and our overdue reminders, please see: http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/services/issue/fines.html
Don’t forget that we only charge fines on books that are needed by someone else.
Miscellaneous!
You asked for:
‘Silent disco’ – a fun idea and something we have explored before. Our research tell us that they are never silent though (everyone still wants to be heard over the music in their headphones, or to sing along – often badly!). Perhaps you went to the silent disco at one of the popular city centre venues last Friday night?The Library offers a range of resources to assist researchers and academic staff with developing their publishing strategy and presenting the strengths of their publishing track record.
All available from http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/services/research-analytics.html
Contact Katie Evans, Research Analytics Librarian (K.T.Evans@bath.ac.uk, tel ext 4488).
New and forthcoming: Learning Commons
Extra quiet study spaces on campus
Bookable group study & workstations on campus
In the Library
Bookable group workrooms in the Library
The following rooms can be booked by students for up to two hours per week for group study using a sign up sheet on the door:
Other areas for group work in the Library:
Groups can also work in the Level 2 Learning Commons, and there is a newly refurbished non-bookable group room with space for three groups of six in the North West corner of Level 2. This has new furniture and glass boards for notes and display.
On Level 3 there is a new group workroom (L3.16) on 
the East side of the floor. This was refurbished this Summer and has built in plasma screens and glass boards. The images outside were selected from a photography competition in the department of Architecture & Civil engineering.
On Level 4 there is a larger, general group work area at the front of the floor.
Additional study areas in the Library
Most of the Library is designated quiet study, with silent study on Level 1 and Level 5. Level 2 is our Learning Commons, with space for refreshments in the Library foyer area
We have a postgraduate workroom on Level 5 with twelve individual PCs and swipe-card access.
In the last week or so we have also converted an old staff office into a reading room. It is room L3.12 and is adjacent to the North staircase at the back of Level 3.
We also have an Assistive Technologies room on Level 3 for students who have registered with the Disability Service. There are four PCs in this room with specialist software, furniture and equipment. For more information see Computing Service’s Assistive Technologies page.
What do you think of our study spaces?
Comment on this post to let us know which study spaces you prefer and which you would like to see more (or less!) of. If you would like to learn more about our study rooms, Computing Services support and how to book extra equipment see our Study areas web page.
Finally, remember we are more than just a physical space; you can also make the most of our online presence, explore our Library website and e-resources.
The Library provides additional training events as part of the Student Union’s Skills Training Programme. Our postponed ‘Look beyond your reading list’ session on has been rescheduled to run on Thursday 27 October. There is no need to sign up to attend this training, simply go to the Library’s Level 5 Training Room for the start time of 12:15. The session runs for 50 minutes, finishing at 13:05.
This 
session is aimed primarily at undergraduate and taught postgraduate students.
We will help you learn how to search for information for your topics using the Library catalogue and Library databases.
We will show you how to find books and journal articles for your assignments and will introduce you to some of our key databases.
University of Bath: Library News 