Around £1.7 million has now been made available to refurbish
the area. The architects had the difficult task of balancing
three major requirements: the need to improve physical access
and services to readers; the need to retain older journals
on the central sites; and the need to improve computing provision
for students. The drawing overleaf shows how access will be
improved by increasing the size of the entrance hall and the
space at the Issue Desk, and by demolishing the mezzanine
floor. Substantial revisions to the original plans have been
made as a result of
the consultation process with staff and students, so that
75% of the journals published between 1970 and 1990 will continue
to be available on the central sites. Current parts of journals
will be moved up to reading rooms where they will be shelved
alongside journals published after 1990. Reader seats have
been created near the journals, with a designated photocopying
area and an expanded enquiry desk.
Where
Library Services subscribe to electronic versions of journals,
the paper copies will be housed in store in Wickford. Readers
can request delivery of the journals from Wickford, to arrive
within 24 hours, and the Library is setting up a pilot project
to provide scanned copies of articles direct from Wickford.
To
improve student computing, a new cluster area will be established
on the ground floor and on a newly-created part-mezzanine,
bringing together machines currently located elsewhere in
the building plus a further 80 machines. Cluster users will
be able to take advantage of the Science Library's long
opening hours.
There
is bound to be some disruption over the summer, though the
Library will do everything it can to minimise the effects
of the building works. The Science Library itself will be
open as usual. During the summer term the paper versions
of journals held electronically will move from the reading
rooms to Wickford, making space to move the current parts
of journals to the upper floors.
In
preparation for building work to begin on 11 June, the entire
ground floor needs to be completely cleared. Photocopiers
will be moved to the third floor. All the journals from
the ground floor will move temporarily to Wickford, and
the Science Issue Desk will move to the second floor cluster
room area. The fourth floor cluster room will remain in
use until the Autumn. The Issue Desk will be completed in
time for the beginning of the Autumn term; work on the rest
of the ground floor is scheduled to be finished in early
November. The 1970-1990 journals selected to remain on site
will return as soon as the space to receive them is ready.
Content
by Janet
Percival
