I finished my course can I still use the LRC?

I finished my course... and would very much like to use the guest pc to watch news programmes on the internet... could the pc be upgraded with a sound card.

Congratulations on finishing your course. You have access to the LRC and your University network files for 3 months after the completion of your course. I would advise that before those 3 months disappear that you copy all your work from the student network onto a USB or CD so you can continue to have access to those files should you need it.

The guest pc is offered to external users to the University's LRC for study purposes. I do acknowledge that as a Journalism student you may have needed to watch television news and other programmes. Now that your course is complete using the LRC as a television lounge is not appropriate as we only have one guest pc and it is high demand. We may be able to get a sound card for the guest pc in due course but it is not a priority at this time.

After the 3 months has gone by post graduating, you may join the LRC as an External User as an Alumnus, have a look at our web pages to see if your are interested:

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/libinfo/exusers

Reservations Waiting Lists

... I can't even get a book which I have already hold 3 weeks ago...

Thank you for your comment and - if it helps - I share your concern. At this time of year particularly key books get reserved for revision, end of year assignments and dissertations. The University's reservation process should ensure that everyone gets an equal opportunity to use the materials available. Customers are not able to re-new books which have been reserved by other people.

People do - out of desperation - occasionally let books overdue, as they would rather pay a fine than give the book back. They then get shocked when they are issued with a replacement bill for the book that usually bring the book back. This year there has been a slight worsening in availability as some students were stuck on holiday (due to the ash cloud) with their library books. Hopefully that will have settled down by now. If you continue to have problems with availability may I suggest you contact your subject librarian to see if they can help in some way.

http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/contact/alls

Loud Speakers/Tannoy

... Whenever the library is about to close .. staff go to all floors to inform students that the library is closing ... the University should consider installing speakers...

This suggestion has been made before and is a very sensible one. Unfortunately when the project was priced up the costs were prohibitive in the extreme. I am sorry we will have to stick with the personal touch, with staff walking round at closing time to advise customers that the library is about to close.

Dedicated Printing pc

Some students only bring hardware in to print, would it be worth have a pc reserved just for those who wish to do this?

Thank you for this suggestion. Some investigation is being done into how many students only come into the LRC just to print off their assignments. Dedicating one pc as a "print" pc can give rise to confusion but - if the demand is great enough - could help at busy times.

Opening hours etc

Can you make my university library 24hr...
Some University libraries are run by students...
We do not have a silent room for study...

Thank you for your detailed list of suggestions I will try and answer them all for you.

Opening the LRC 24hr x 7 days a week has serious cost implications in terms of security, power and cleaning. The additional £80K required to do this is simply not available to do this at this time. We are however looking into opening for longer at Park Square very soon. Follow our Twitter feed for further details in the next few weeks:
twitter.com/uoblibrary

Student patrol: The LRC is staffed by sympathetic highly skilled people, suggesting that students could do the same job would distract from their studies and offer an inconsistent service to the students that use the library. The LRC is patrolled by security after 10pm at night. We would not like to put students at risk by suggesting that they patrol the library at these times.

The whole of level 3 is a silent area please be sure that you check the full range of Facilities within the LRC. If you are in doubt it might be quicker to talk to staff on the Customer Service desk.

Thank you for your interest

Temperature at Polhill Library 18.2.10

The library is too cold, it is 11 degrees C when it should be 21. It does not help when we are trying to get our work done as we are too cold and its a distraction.

I am sorry that you were uncomfortable yesterday evening in Polhill Library. There is no requirement to have the library at 21 degrees centigrade. The University does however want to maintain a comfortable work environment for all our students. Thursday's drop in temperature and the snow was a challenge for the heating system. The heating will be looked at and hopefully this can be avoided in the future.

Access to the Library Catalogue

Why can't I get onto the library catalogue? I need to renew my books and I can't. The page won't load at all.


The Catalogue is now up and running. Apparently a planned power outage to enable Power Gen Ltd to work on the grid over Christmas was the cause. The library system server had a bit of an issue when power was restored.
Sorry for the inconvenience it has caused.