Remarkable Spaces

Reopening

In response to the changing Government guidance we reopened our physical libraries in July 2020. We aimed to provide the same world-leading services we did before lockdown, although the safety of our Library staff and visitors was our primary consideration. Utilising an incremental approach and in full consultation with our frontline Customer Services Team we initially opened 30 spaces in the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons on 27 July 2020. We used data to respond to demand and to proactively anticipate numbers of students returning to campus to open additional spaces and by November 2020 we had increased the number of study sessions available to over 2,500.

Due to social distancing requirements, the Library couldn’t accommodate the same number of students pre-pandemic, so with the support of our colleagues in the University’s Directorate of Estates we opened additional sites. During Semester 2 we were able to:

• open three additional sites
• offer the same in-person services we did pre-pandemic
• offer the same opening hours as we did pre-pandemic

And we offered over 4,000 bookable sessions each day.

To ensure equitable access to our physical study spaces the Library’s Digital Development Team designed a booking system which students accessed via the Library website. To reflect the different demands of teaching and assessment we took the decision to place no limit on the number of bookable sessions each student could make and visitors to the Library who only required access to Library collections or other services did not need to book. This helped us to maintain maximum occupancy levels and provided a rich data picture that enabled us to proactively plan the reopening of Library buildings.

Between our first carefully managed pilot reopening on the 27 July 2020 to the end of Semester 2 2021 we were able to safely offer over 500,000 bookable sessions to almost 17,000 students.