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Library responds to your feedback
19 April 2024
We want to update you on how we are responding to your feedback.
Last month, we asked you what you love and don’t love about Library Services for a Valentine’s-themed feedback campaign.
There was a lot of love for our staff, spaces and collections. Our new library site at UCL East was singled out for praise. One respondent complimented its contemporary interior:
“If the Danes are the masters of hygge, then the UCL East Library has truly taken it up a notch. Those tall windows and quirky animal paintings give off such a cozy yet stylish vibe. It's the perfect space to study and relax.”
Library and security staff were also singled out for feedback, which we have shared with the individuals and teams. One highlight was this comment: “Staff are so kind. The team are super helpful. You guys are amazing. Your hard work makes UCL library such a special place.”
Thank you for these kind comments. We really appreciate the time you take to share your feedback.
We received nearly 400 pieces of feedback from across all our library sites. 61% of the feedback we received was positive, while 39% helped let us know that something was not as it should be, or offered a suggestion on how we can improve our services. This type of feedback is important for us as it helps us build a library around your needs. We have shared feedback with library teams.
You said you wanted more books
UCL offers access to 2 million print books, 1.9 million eBooks and 200,000 ejournals, but we realise that there will still be books that you need for your study or research projects. The ongoing technology outage at the British Library has further complicated the situation.
There are lots of ways you can access or request books:
- If you need a specific book or resource that we don’t already have access to, you can suggest that we purchase them.
- You can also access several libraries in London.
- For items that we are not able to purchase or access in nearby libraries, we can use our Interlending and Document Supply Service to request these from other libraries.
- Our Subject Liaison Librarians are available to support any students embarking on their research project with finding and accessing appropriate resources.
You said the UCL East Library should have a book collection
UCL East brings together eight UCL faculties to deliver over 50 new postgraduate and undergraduate degree programmes. It would not be easy to find space to hold the number of books needed for this number of courses. We have ensured that the books required for courses are available digitally or through the Click & Collect service.
You said you’d like more guidance on finding library resources
With millions of print books and e-books, it can be tricky to find what you’re looking for on Explore, our online catalogue, but our online guide to Explore: finding books, journals and more can help. Our subject guides will help you find books, journals, articles, databases and other specialist resources for your subject area. We also recommend LibrarySkills@UCL to help you to develop information literacy skills and make the best use of library resources through online guides and live training sessions. Information literacy is an important and valuable skill for professional and personal life (and will increasingly be so with the emergence of more powerful AI tools).
You said you prefer print books
Although we understand that some users have a preference for print books, we have (in line with most university libraries) a policy of buying digital copies of books and journals where possible. While we try to balance the requirements of different library users, we do not have the resource to duplicate all titles in print. Generally speaking, e-books allow more library users to access our collections and can be used wherever and whenever they are required. However, we tend to buy print books instead of e-books where the digital costs are unreasonably high, where digital licensing conditions are too restrictive or where the digital copy is incomplete or is otherwise an inadequate substitute for print. We also have lots of support in place for users with accessibility needs for whom e-books are unsuitable.
You said the condition of some books is quite poor
We encourage library users to think about other people using our library collections. This includes respecting print books. If you notice damage to any books in the library, please let our teams know.
You said our collections should be more representative
The Library Liberating the Collections Group is working on a number of projects to ensure that our collections are more fully representative. For example, we have been asking the UCL community for book recommendations to celebrate important awareness dates and buying any that we don’t already hold. This activity has been running alongside other projects led by the group to increase visibility of, and access to, works by authors who have previously been marginalised, and whose voices have been less heard, because of factors such as race, sexuality, gender and disability. We are looking at ways to alert our users to material within our collections which contains offensive content and reviewing how they are described and where it is best to keep such material. We are actively reviewing the terminology used within our library and archive catalogues. We will be shortly publishing some web pages exploring these issues more fully and transparently and hope this will help in terms of engaging with our library users. We welcome recommendations or feedback on specific issues.
You said you wanted more seats and longer opening times
We regularly review usage of library spaces and carefully make decisions on opening times, weighing up demand and costs.
We understand that some library sites can get very busy, especially the Student Centre and Main Library. You can view the number of available study spaces across all library sites online. Even during the busy periods, there are often many available study spaces in other UCL library sites across Bloomsbury. Use the Find your Favourite Library tool to find the library space best suited to your requirements.
We also opened temporary study spaces in 1-19 Torrington Place and extended opening hours in the Science and Main Libraries during the exams period with support from colleagues in the UCL Estates and Security teams.
You said there should be a greater range of different types of spaces in our libraries
We use a 60% quiet, 40% social study space model in any new development, such as the Student Centre and UCL East Library. Within these libraries we provide a range of spaces so you can choose the type of space you wish to study in. As libraries are redeveloped or new spaces created, we will use this model.
You said you wanted more study pods
The UCL East library contains two study pods for individual use only. They can be used for general study, but may be particularly useful for people who need to have a private online meeting or join an online seminar
There is also a group study room that is suitable for in person or hybrid meetings:
We have allocated spaces in several library sites for this purpose, including:
Cruciform Hub
Student Centre
All spaces are bookable.
You said you wanted more plug sockets and USB chargers in our libraries
USB sockets have been installed in the Dutch section in the Main Library. We are working with the UCL Estates team to introduce more charging points where practical.
You said you wanted more PCs and docking station monitors installed
Docking stations have been installed at Science, Pharmacy, IOE, GOSICH and Queen Square libraries. We are working with ISD to install more at other library sites.
If you are based at UCL East, you can use the computers in room 313 in One Pool Street when teaching isn’t going on.
You said you should be allowed to eat food in the libraries
Different libraries have different rules in place. Food can be disruptive to other library users. It can also lead to unwelcome visitors such as mice. Library managers review the situation on an ongoing basis.
Unfortunately, we cannot provide free tea and cakes (as one person suggested!) but we understand that you need to re-energise. While it is not possible to include a café in every library, there is a range of cafes and spaces to eat in across campus. Use the Find your Favourite Library to find libraries close to food outlets.
You said there should be hot water points and microwaves
Microwaves and hot water points are available in the Student Centre and Graduate Hub. The Students’ Union have created a map of microwaves on the Bloomsbury campus.
You said there should be water fountains across the libraries
UCL is committed to making free drinking water accessible for students and staff. A number of our libraries have water fountains either within the space itself or just by the entrance.
You said there were issues with facilities in library spaces
We work with colleagues in UCL Estates to make sure the toilets are clean and tidy, and the temperature in the study spaces is kept at a comfortable level.
Sometimes facilities like lifts or water fountains are out of order due to factors out of our control, but we work closely with UCL Estates to ensure these issues are resolved as quickly as possible.
Please tell us if you spot a problem in our library spaces or use MyCampus.
You said that other people in the libraries were talking
We want to ensure working in our library sites is a positive experience for all our users. We ask everyone to be considerate of each other. If you notice someone is speaking in a silent study area, politely remind them or let library staff know. If they keep speaking, we will ask them to move to a group space or to leave.
You said the lighting could be improved
UCL Estates has a rolling programme of changing all lights across campus to LED. So far, the IOE, Science, SSEES, and UCL East Libraries, and the Student Centre are on modern LED systems. Other library sites will be changed as the project works its way through the campus.
As part of this project, lights are put on motion sensors to help reduce the environmental impact of having lights on when the space is not occupied. The level of lighting can be adjusted centrally by the Estates team. If any area is badly lit, please let us know and we will investigate with Estates.
As we redevelop library spaces, we aim to fit individual desk lights to allow library users to control their own environment. Allowing users to control room lighting is difficult as they are shared rooms and what one person may want is not necessarily what everyone wants.
We recognise people have different sensory needs. We plan to develop areas for neurodivergent students with controllable lights to better enable everyone to study in their preferred way.
You said we should allow access to electronic library resources for UCL alumni
UCL alumni can sign up for access to JSTOR (over 2,000 journals), Project Muse (500 journals) and SAGE (over 750 journals) on the alumni free e-journal access webpage. These resources can be accessed even when alumni are not on the UCL campus.
UCL alumni can also access the majority of UCL’s e-resource collection within our libraries using our Explore Access Points through our free reference library membership.
We are not able to provide access to the full range of UCL e-resources off-campus due to the conditions of our license agreements with suppliers.
You said you wanted lockers
Lockers are available at Cruciform Hub, the Research Grid (in the Science Library) and the Student Centre. 90 lockers have been installed at our new UCL East Library site.
We are also installing new lockers in the basement of the Science Library that will be available to all students.
You said you want our library workshops to include more topics
We are glad so many of you find our library skills workshops useful. Our programme covers popular library-related topics for which there is sufficient demand for workshops, but we are always interested to hear what other topics you would like covered and we develop and adapt our programme accordingly. If you need support with an area not covered by our programme, please get in touch with your subject specialist librarian(s) or our specialist research support teams.