UCMK - opening hours

Request for longer library opening hours at Milton Keynes please. It would help immensely

UCMK is open for the maximum number of hours available and appropriate to the teaching on Campus.  We are currently open until Mon-Thurs 8.30am-8pm; and Fri 08.30am – 7.30pm in response to Tell Us comments last year. We are unable to open later without incurring significant costs as the whole building shuts at this time. As the Campus develops the opening hours will be reviewed as a part of that development.

I would encourage you to use Luton LRC or Bedford Library outside UCMK opening hours as they are open 24/7 x 365

Oxford House - computer room

Students should be quiet in the computer room.
Library staff tell them to be quiet but when they have gone the noise goes up


Thank you for taking the time to write to us. We appreciate the opportunity to clarify what the position is. Oxford House LRC has a quiet study area at the top of the library and consideration will be given to putting some PCs there. PCs do create noise so that move may well be counter productive. Everywhere else is open access and available for students to study in the way they think fit. Group work is a recognised part of the University's curriculum so students "chatting" is a very legitimate practice.

The staff are all too aware of conflicting student needs and try to maintain a reasonable noise level through out the library. They can’t station themselves in the computer room all the time. They do walk through regularly and monitor the noise and if necessary the students are asked to be quieter.

It is down to the students to monitor and behave appropriately.

Please remember that what one person thinks is quiet another person will find unacceptably noisy. It also has to be remembered that often this week’s worker is last week’s (or next) talker.

I am sorry for any frustration you may have experienced. May I suggest that you study oin the quiet room in future? 

Putteridge Bury Education Collection

as I am sure you are aware of the fact that we (Applied Education Studies) have limited library access at our Putteridge Bury Campus. It seems that none of us were given any formal warning of this or real reasons why. Only a piece of paper stated that the university can not man the library. While it may seem simple for us to collect books from another location I can assure you it is not. I work fulltime and have a family which adds extra demands on my time. I do not have any spare time which allows me to travel to another campus. I chose to study at this campus due to it being convenient to my home, work and children and pay a lot of money for a service that I will now not be benefiting from fully. It seems at the moment we can still borrow books from the library I suspect these will get fewer and fewer as time goes by. How is a library service incorporated into university fees? Surely we are entitled to a fully functional library. This is our final year at university and could really do without the added pressure of having a very limited library. If I need to contact somebody else regarding this matter please let me know, alternatively forward the email on to the correct person. I look forward to hearing your response.


I understand your frustration - please understand this decision has not been taken lightly and we are trying to put some restorative measures in place. Please be clear the Education Collection is available on a self service honour basis Monday - Friday 9am - 6pm. It will remain open while we solve the staffing issues. When new staff are in place the facility to collect reservations will be restored. In the meantime should you need to collect a reservation the nearest location is Butterfield (just across the dual carriage way from Putteridge) or, the most convenient location is Luton which is open 24/7 x 365

External Customer - Guest WiFi

 I was not able to use the Guest Wifi on 22/9/14 due to issues with the network. As a paying member this was both an inconvenience and not acceptable as I needed to use it. This has also been an issue before

Thank you for letting me know your concerns
May I point out that you do not pay specifically for WiFi access it is a bonus of LRC membership. Nonetheless I agree that it should be working.If you experience problems again please talk to the staff on duty so they can check your authentication process and the location of your work station
http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libraryservices/availableservices/wifi

Putteridge Bury - Reservations service

 I am sure you are aware of the fact that we (Applied Education Studies) have limited library access at our Putteridge Bury Campus. It seems that none of us were given any formal warning of this or real reasons why. Only a piece of paper stated that the university can not man the library. While it may seem simple for us to collect books from another location I can assure you it is not. I work fulltime and have a family which adds extra demands on my time. I do not have any spare time which allows me to travel to another campus. I chose to study at this campus due to it being convenient to my home, work and children and pay a lot of money for a service that I will now not be benefiting from fully. It seems at the moment we can still borrow books from the library I suspect these will get fewer and fewer as time goes by. How is a library service incorporated into university fees? Surely we are entitled to a fully functional library. This is our final year at university and could really do without the added pressure of having a very limited library. If I need to contact somebody else regarding this matter please let me know, alternatively forward the email on to the correct person. I look forward to hearing your response. 

Due to circumstances beyond our control we can no longer staff Putteridge Bury library. This means that Putteridge Bury stock cannot be reserved and Putteridge Bury is no longer a reservation collection point. When you reserve other materials from the library catalogue please select the next most convenient campus to collect your books from ie Butterfield LRC, Luton LRC, Bedford Library, Aylesbury LRC or UCMK

Access to the print stock is offered for a limited time and the University would ask you to issue and return your items without staff help. If you get stuck please ring 01582 743895 for assistance

You are advised to take advantage of Luton LRC or Bedford Library as they are open 24/7 x 365

We are trying to work on an interim solution so we can re-introduce the reservations service so in the meanwhile please select the next most convenient campus to collect your books from ie Butterfield LRC, Luton LRC, Bedford Library, Aylesbury LRC or UCMK

Putteridge Bury - reservations service

I am feeding back that me and the students on my Applied Education course at Putteridge Bury are no longer able to reserve books from Polhill Library to be collected at Putteridge Bury Library. Whilst many books are available as ebooks there are many I have needed for my research proposal that are only available at Polhill. I think it is unreasonable to expect students to travel to another campus when we are part time students, most of us working and many whom live a long way away. Currently I am lucky enough to have been able to visit Polhill but many of my fellow students cannot make this journey and I do feel this is not giving them an equal opportunity to access reading materials. I would appreciate this matter being reviewed with some urgency.

Due to circumstances beyond our control we can no longer staff Putteridge Bury library. This means that Putteridge Bury stock cannot be reserved and Putteridge Bury is no longer a reservation collection point. When you reserve other materials from the library catalogue please select the next most convenient campus to collect your books from ie Butterfield LRC, Luton LRC, Bedford Library, Aylesbury LRC or UCMK

Access to the print stock is offered for a limited time and the University would ask you to issue and return your items without staff help. If you get stuck please ring 01582 743895 for assistance

You are advised to take advantage of Luton LRC or Bedford Library as they are open 24/7 x 365

We are trying to work on an interim solution so we can re-introduce the reservations service so in the meanwhile please select the next most convenient campus to collect your books from ie Butterfield LRC, Luton LRC, Bedford Library, Aylesbury LRC or UCMK

Putteridge Bury - Reservations service

I am writing to express my concern and disappointment to recently discover that, as part time evening students at Putteridge Bury campus, we are no longer able to reserve and collect books from our library here at Putteridge Bury.
As we are beginning our final year at university, I am sure that you can appreciate how crucial our access to resources is in order to support us in achieving our best. Although we have been offered the option of reserving books to Luton campus, for those of us that do not live in the area this option is unfortunately of little help. As I am sure you recognise, time is very precious in order for us to complete all of our studies on time. Therefore, being able to collect books from our campus while we are attending our evening lectures is very helpful towards enabling us to spend our study time at home reading and researching literature, rather than making an additional journey to collect it.
Therefore, I am appealing on behalf of my fellow students that you might reconsider the recent change and return to offering us the option to reserve and collect books to our Putteridge Bury campus library.
I thank you for your time and look forward to hearing from you.

Due to circumstances beyond our control we can no longer staff Putteridge Bury library. This means that Putteridge Bury stock cannot be reserved and Putteridge Bury is no longer a reservation collection point. When you reserve other materials from the library catalogue please select the next most convenient campus to collect your books from ie Butterfield LRC, Luton LRC, Bedford Library, Aylesbury LRC or UCMK

Access to the print stock is offered for a limited time and the University would ask you to issue and return your items without staff help. If you get stuck please ring 01582 743895 for assistance

You are advised to take advantage of Luton LRC or Bedford Library as they are open 24/7 x 365

We are trying to work on an interim solution so we can re-introduce the reservations service so in the meanwhile please select the next most convenient campus to collect your books from ie Butterfield LRC, Luton LRC, Bedford Library, Aylesbury LRC or UCMK