Remodelling library space:

1. Remodelling library space: RLUK members’ meeting 30th March 2012 Chris Banks University Librarian and Director, Library, Special Collections and Museums

2. University Profile

3. An ancient university looking to its future • Founded 1495 • UK’s fifth oldest university • Broad-based research-driven institution • 89% research of international quality (RAE2008) • 55% research internationally-excellent or world-leading (RAE2008) • Competitively-won research income trebled over last decade • 16,000 Students

4. Library Collections • Over 1,200,000 books of which 200,000 are rare, including over 230 incunabula • Was a legal deposit library from 1710 to 1836 • 4,000 archive and manuscript collections • 18,000 online journals • Over 500,000 e-books

5. Investment across the board

6. Investment in physical space • Over £57m in: • New University Library • Special Collections Centre • Conservation Centre • Museum

7. Investment in collections • Substantial evidence-driven investment in online resources • E-book collections • Journal backfile collections • Over 80% Collection Development budget spent on electronic resources

8. Targeted acquisition of backfiles Summer 2008 backfile purchases

9. Automated processes • Open access stock RFIDd • Modern fast self issue machines installed • Automatic book returns and sorting system installed (including a 24 hour book return facility) • Shelf-ready books • Patron-driven acquisition

10. Investment in resource discovery tools

11. Cross searching all collections, including museum and archives (with single-sign-on)

12. The catalogue still matters! E-book catalogue records added to our catalogue Elsevier e-books become available

13. Investment in training

14. Training

15. Space still matters

16. Workplaces • Supermarkets • Conferences • Cinemas

17. Key Elements of the new University Library • Emphasis on study space and activity • Varied study spaces • Flexibility • Public space • Sustainable • A building of architectural merit

19. Process reviews as an integral part of the design refinement

20. Review most activities • LEAN/KaiZen review of processes to ensure they are efficient and that staff activity adds value • Re-think workflows and locations to ensure efficiency • For print: resulted in a different approach to acquisition, a faster turnaround time, and happier customers and staff • Create spaces for opportunity

21. Visits to other institutions inform: • Current thinking about the variety of study spaces to support 21st century study • Furnishing options • Lessons learned • Service opportunities • Ways of controlling study environments

22. Working with the building’s characteristics rather than against them

23. Typical floor: naturally noisier areas Print/Copy/Scan/ Selfcheck Public lifts Area between lifts / copy and the atrium opening

24. Typical floor: naturally quiet areas Quiet Study Quiet Study Silent Study Silent Study

25. Aiming for consistency in layout of space

26. Change Control • Some of the thinking has required some minor modifications to the building • In proposing modifications we have been sensitive to: • Likely cost • Symmetry • Workflow and logic

27. Stock and staff layout has been informed by: • Usage measures: loan records to 1999 plus 3 years for onsite use • Feedback: that the layout in QML was not logical (3 sequences for some subjects….) • Lowest use materials placed in the quietest part of the building = top • Minimising “book miles” by placing staff activity nearest the collections they are managing

28. Using likely noise levels to inform stock layout • Likely to be noisier on lower floors and quieter on upper floors • Naturally “noisy” and “quiet” areas on each floor • Higher used collections will generate more footfall, so: • Higher used collections on lower floors • Individual floor layouts should make strategic use of shelving to baffle noise

29. Broad distribution of collection & activity • Lower ground floor (tower): • Special Collections Reading Room • Education/Seminar rooms • Lower ground floor (north wing) • Closed storage • Conservation Centre • Ground floor: • Café, Exhibition, Book return, (copy)shop, welcome desk • Floor 1: Heavy Demand collection & assistance • Floor 2: Separate periodical collection & teaching and seminar activities • Floors 3-7: books by subject (highest use on lower floors)

30. Ground floor Welcome Desk and entrance gates Print Shop Book Returns / Book Sorter Entrance Exhibition gallery Café Vending machines Short stay PCs

31. Responding to customer feedback

32. Power • Power and data on most desks

33. Computers • Four times as many computers

34. Eliminating complexity • Bringing together split sequences

35. Using print journals • We’ve brought all the journals together on one floor

37. Early usage data: modern collections

38. 70% average increase in gate entries

39. 105% average peak occupancy

40. Self issue up from 36% to 86%

41. Early usage data: Special Collections

42. Wolfson Reading Room Reader visits • Opened on 5 December • Up 75% on comparable 2010 figures • Undergraduate visits up by 178% • PG visits up by 562%

43. Gallery Exhibition: Rebels with a Cause • The Gallery opened on 23 November • 10,500 visitors to early March • Encouragingly positive feedback

44. Early feedback

45. Academic feedback A library should be the heart of any academic institution and we now have a heart that is beating healthily

46. If Apple designed libraries they’d be like this, white and shiny and intuitive

47. Spaces: physical and virtual • Know your audience(s) • Eliminate barriers to discovery (and therefore maximise investment in the asset  - i.e. the space or the stuff) • Quality of Experience • Maximise efficiency

48. Inspire to enquire