Status: Complete
Get the library to open longer hours all year round
During exam season, the library is open 24/7, which many people find useful as we all have different ways of learning. This occurs for a significant proportion of the year so it is hard to see really why the university cannot provide this for the entire academic year, as most other universities do. Not only would this improve the ability to cater for exams and assessments faced by multiple subjects all year round but it also makes the library facilities more accessible to those on placement who start and finish during the library's opening hours and therefore are unable to use eg early in the morning unless it is exam season.
This is also unfair to students whose course runs through the normal university holidays as they still have exams and work to do as normal but their term times don't necessarily correlate with the rest of the university. By limiting the access to the library, this minimises work spaces during the holidays on an already fairly shut down campus, when some people don't have the ability to operate a typical "9-5" in the library
Please consider changing the library times to be more inclusive to these students as they also pay tuition fees and it's not particularly fair that they don't get the same access during the whole of their term times that others do.Thank you.
Responses
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Friday 21st Apr 2023 9:01am
Closed
Friday 21st Apr 2023 9:00am
Hello,
I have received this reply from the Head of Customer Experience in the Library Services team...
Thank you for your feedback on Hartley Library’s opening hours. We’re sorry to hear that you feel our current opening hours are not inclusive for all students. We do recognise that there will be some students who will be on courses that run slightly different to the standard academic year and would still like to access Hartley Library and its services.
Please be assured that we are very committed to providing a consistent high quality experience for all students regardless of what day or time they would like to access our services. As a result, we have extended our opening hours in all four libraries over the past 18 months to make our services more accessible for all:
Term Time
Outside of Term Time
Hartley Library
24 hours
Monday – Sunday 8am-midnight
Health Services Library
Monday – Sunday 8am-8pm
National Oceanographic Library
Monday – Sunday 8am-8pm
Monday – Friday 8am-8pm
Winchester School of Art Library
Monday – Friday 8am-8pm
Saturday – 10am-4pm
Monday – Friday 8am-8pm
We also intend to extend our opening hours during the Bank Holidays too in the lead up to the Summer Exams which will mean that all four of our libraries will be open. In addition to this, we are working closely with teams across the University to extend services out of hours. As a result, Building 100 will be open as a pilot on Sundays and Mondays throughout May. Please see our library webpages for more details: https://library.soton.ac.uk/opening
We are always reviewing the number of users coming into our libraries to ensure that we have the right opening hours that fit with the needs of our users. Out of term time, we do see a significant reduction in users that come into Hartley Library, particularly overnight. Therefore, we still remain open 7 days a week but close at midnight instead. This should still provide students with the opportunity to access our services during quieter times of the year. This should still provide students with the opportunity to access our services across large parts of the day during quieter times of the year. If you would like to discuss this in more detail, we would be very happy to meet with you in person.
Kind regards
Billi-Anne Waterfall
As a follow-up, the Library team will be reviewing all of their services as part of the Hartley Refurbishment project, which is a 5 year project, and features Sabbatical Officer representation at board level. Therefore, even if feedback from students cannot be implemented in the short-term, it will be taken into consideration as part of a wider project on improving Library access for all University of Southampton students.
You can always email me to learn more about this, or meet with the Library team.
Emily
Friday 21st Apr 2023 9:00am
Thank you for submitting your You Make Change.
I have forwarded on your thoughts to the Library team in charge of User Experience, and I am awaiting their reply.
Thanks,
Emily
Tuesday 18th Apr 2023 11:51am
Actions
- Forwarded to Vice President Education and Democracy
Friday 31st Mar 2023 9:36am
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