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Buildings
With so many sites to manage there is always some building or refurbishment activity happening in Library Services. This year we were pleased to be involved in planning substantial work in the UCL Main Library funded by a CURL-Wolfson grant. The plans for work to start in the summer of 2007 will provide new reading rooms for Art and Art History and Economics and Philosophy. These disparate collections housed in the fine Donaldson Reading Room will give way to a new reading room for Law. Funding will be needed to bring the Donaldson Reading Room up to the standards required for our students. It is hoped that the move into the new reading rooms will happen early in 2008. Laws collections meanwhile will be housed in an area contiguous to the Library until the work is finished. We hope that the patience of our users (and some displaced staff) will be rewarded by splendid new accommodation.
A second round of bids for CURL-Wolfson funding resulted in a successful allocation of funds to start some much-needed refurbishment of the ground floor of the Science Library. Planning is underway for this to be achieved during 2008-9. Part of the planning includes our first installation of Self-issue equipment with Radio-Frequency (RFID) tagging.
Elsewhere, work began on a basement extension and refurbishment for the Library at the Royal Free Hospital. The Human Communication Science Library moved into temporary accommodation while its usual abode was refurbished. It is hoped that the new accommodation will be ready in 2008. Meanwhile the stunning new SSEES Library, whose opening was reported previously proved its worth by doubling its footfall in the summer of 2007.
On the strategic front the Director launched an ambitious Masterplanning exercise for the Library estate with the help of BDP Architects and with academic membership of the group. The report of this wide-ranging study is expected to be presented to UCL early in 2008.
