Hello,

I received this reply from the Head of Partnerships and Place in Library Services: 

Thanks for letting us know about this comment – it’s always useful to get this kind of feedback. The current situation is that we have a cleaning team from Domestic Services come in every night to do a full clean, allowing the team several hours to cover all areas of the library with minimum disruption to students. Over lunchtime we have another team come in to empty the bins and clean the toilets.

For a library of the size and popularity such as Hartley I would agree with your colleague that the cleanliness doesn’t always meet the standards we would like – I can assure you that we are in constant dialogue with Domestic Services about the cleaning provision, and meet regularly with the manager to try and improve the situation.

I would strongly encourage any students who notice specific issues during the day to speak to a member of library staff so that we can address the situation immediately. And of course if you have any questions yourself, or further comments from students, then you are very welcome to get back to me.

Further to this, using the QR codes that are now on desks and around levels in Hartley Library can be used to mention specific issues of cleanliness if you are unable to speak to a member of staff. This is monitored less out of office hours and therefore you might be slower in getting a reply however the benefit is greater discretion. There will always be someone on hand at the Reception Desk to talk to when the library is open. 

I hope that this is satisfactory and your experience using Hartley Library is improved shortly.

Thank you,

Emily