The Facilities Management building will act as an alternative library service during office hours whilst the library building is not open this summer. The number of books students can borrow during that time will be increase and library loans will be extended.
Postgraduate students will be particularly affected by the building work and with several departments having expressed their concerns about the availability of learning material already; Brant Hickman, Facilities Manager at Pilkington Library has said that staff will do their best to keep books and other learning material available to students throughout the summer holidays.
Loughborough Library during the Christmas break. Photo: Loughborough University Library
Pilkington Library is due to close from June 2013 and will not reopen until September 2013. Staff are currently busy planning how the library services will be offered to students over the summer holidays when the library building will be closed.
The transformation of Pilkington Library is well underway, all walls and remaining offices in level four having been torn down over the Christmas holidays and the contractor of the £4.5m project is to be announced very soon.
While all the walls within level four have been removed, further construction work is not scheduled until the Easter holidays in late March.
Graham Walton, Head of Planning and Resources of the Library told this publication:
“Tenders been received and decision to be reached in the next few weeks on who will be awarded contract.”
Hickman also explained that the transformed spaces will include a combination of group and silent study areas but a leisure reading space will also be available on the same level.
Discussions about the final layout and designs are still on-going but once the contractors have been confirmed and designers have provided prototypes, the library is looking to get students involved with testing the potential furniture and listen to their opinions to make sure it is student friendly.
The library has also been working very closely with student support services like the Disability Office to ensure the transformed library is tailored to every student’s needs.
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