Aldham Robarts Project

What the initial evaluation says....

2009-10-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

"It’s nice & modern with a good working area."

"Looks great everything is state of the art."

"Great new layout and overall look of the library is very impressive, a massive improvement."

"Looks really nice and modern - and really spacious and quiet too. Will look forward to using it more this year."

"Looks really well thought out and nicely executed. The addition of a refreshment area is excellent. The area feels 10 times bigger and it willl be a much nicer area to come and work in especially as I am now in a final year studies and will be in here quite a bit!"

"Very spacey & modern."

"Brilliant new layout."

"The improvements on the ground floor make the library look more modern and streamlined which should enable people to study better."

New Aldham Robarts LRC

2009-10-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

Ground Floor Student Support Zone

The Welcome ‘Hub’ dealing with all immediate enquiries and providing a referral and appointments service, and help with IT
The Transaction desk for student enrolments, fee payments, and submission of coursework
Social learning facilities (as piloted at the Avril Robarts LRC), including flexible space, support in the use of mobile technology – including laptop loans, refreshments and a blend of group study areas
Mobile and roving staff support with rooms for one-to-one meetings as needed
New self service vending, printing and RFID self issue facilities
RFID book sorter
Bookable group study rooms
Short loan Collection
24/7 access to computing facilities

Lower Ground Floor
Special Collections and Archives
Book collections
Bookable Seminar rooms
Cybernetic café
Media zone
New self service vending, printing and RFID self issue facilities
Flexible learning spaces

First and Second floors
Book and journal collections
Bookable meeting rooms (for Welfare and Careers appointments)
Group study rooms
Postgraduate zone
Silent study facilities

Completed Refurbishment of the Aldham Robarts LRC

2009-10-06T06:54:00.000-07:00

A huge refurbishment programme has now successfully been completed on the Aldham Robarts Learning Resource Centre (LRC), which is linked to a major change programme to enhance the student experience. Planning for the refurbishment commenced in September 2009, but the majority of the work was carried out between May 2009 and the re-opening of the LRC on October 5th 2009, while the building was effectively closed to University staff and students, so that the building and structural work could be carried out in the quickest time possible. The refurbishment has allowed us to really modernise and update the LRC and provide the opportunity to bring all student facing services into one building.
The programme of change has offered an exciting opportunity to provide student focused and professional services in one single campus location, incorporating flexible social learning facilities in a 24/7 environment. By bringing services offered by the LRCs and the Campus centres into one space we can now provide a seamless and intuitive service, with staff helping people to navigate their way to the specialist support that they require. The new Aldham Robarts LRC now provides flexible, student owned space, services and technologies, which allow students far more choice as to how they make use of Library and Student Support services and facilities.

What we did
In order to bring the library and campus centres together we had to have a robust plan of being able to continually deliver services while we temporarily relocated various services and facilities, in order for parts of our buildings to be systematically closed off and refurbished. In brief, the Mount Pleasant Campus Centre was moved firstly to the John Foster Building and latterly to the Clarence Street Building, so that students were still able to enrol and hand in coursework, until finally being relocated at the Transaction in the new LRC. The Actual LRC was closed between May and September in order that the main staircase could be removed, and the whole ground floor transformed into the Student Support Zone. Work was also done on the Lower Ground floor, in order to maximise the use of space available to students.
Previous work and student spaces were wholly converted, including relocating all Mount Pleasant, Aldham Robarts and Kingsway House staff into the Aquinas Buyilding, therefore removing the need to have permanent staff offices in the Aldham Robarts LRC. This allows us to make the old office spaces in the LRC available for other uses such as meeting rooms, Group study rooms and seminar rooms, as well as new refreshments areas including a cybernetic café area on the lower ground floor.
We have also taken the opportunity to introduce RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) into the new LRC. This technology allows staff and students increased flexibility in self issuing and returning their library books.

Aldham - Temporary relocation of services

2009-05-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

Aldham Robarts Closure from 15 May 2009 - Relocated Services

The refurbishment programme is now being carried out in the Aldham Robarts Learning Resource Centre (LRC) over summer to create a new Student Centre which will bring all student facing services into one building. To enable the building work to be carried out, the LRC and the Campus Centre buildings will close from the 15th May 2009. From this date various services have been relocated or extended to ensure that your needs are met.

IT Provision

PCs and IT support staff are available as normal within the Avril Robarts and I.M. Marsh LRCs throughout the summer.

The School based LJMU Computing Centres (John Foster, Byrom Street and Henry Cotton) will also be open throughout the summer from 9am - 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

Library Provision

Avril Robarts LRC has extended its summer Opening hours and will remain open until 9pm Monday-Thursday inclusive.

Essential items from the Aldham Robarts library collections will be available from Avril Robarts LRC, 2nd Floor from 22nd May for the duration of the closure.

Other items from the main book and journal collections can be requested via the Library Catalogue and picked up at either Avril Robarts or I.M. Marsh LRC.

Specialist Subject Support for the Faculty of Media, Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Business and Law will be available thoughout the summer. Staff can be contacted by email or you can make an appointment at the Avril Robarts LRC Reception Desk (0151) 231 4271.E

Experienced, helpful staff will be available to assist you with any queries during full service hours at both Avril Robarts and I.M. Marsh LRCs.

Alternatively you can email LRC-Managers or ring (0151) 231 3179.

Campus Centres

Mount Pleasant Campus Centre

Services will be available from IT Lab E in John Foster Building (1st Floor).City Campus and I.M. Marsh Campus Centres will be open from 9am - 4.30pm Monday to Friday through the summer vacation.

Developments to Campus Centre Services at Avril and Marsh LRCs

During the summer period, the existing canteen area in the Avril Robarts Learning Resource Centre will be transformed into a high quality coffee shop facility. Once this phase is complete the existing Campus Centre Service will be moved adjacent to the LRC as part of the Library and Student Support Services (L&SS) developments.

At I.M. Marsh building works will take place over the summer to enable Campus Centre services to be delivered within the LRC. The Campus Centre will be temporarily re-located during this initial phase.

All L&SS services will be available throughout these developments.

Update - February 2009

2009-02-27T07:43:00.000-08:00

General developments
Aquinas building is being cleared ready for the contractors to start work on Phase 1 of the redevelopment project. Phase 1 creates the new staff areas to free additional space for students in the Aldham Robarts building.

Aldham Robarts LRC seminar rooms and group study area were in the Aquinas building and are now closed. Unfortunately we have not been able to locate suitable spaces to recreate these facilities near to the LRC. There is a small seminar room and group study spaces in the Social Learning Zone, Avril Robarts LRC.

There are however 20 laptops available for loan and available for use within the Aldham Robarts LRC.

Journalsim, Media and Cultural Stdues journals have all now been moved to the 2nd floor

Staff Moves
Lots of staff from Student Services have now moved out of Aquinas to their temporary office location on Clarence Street. Student Services welfare staff are still meeting students in the Campus Centre reception area. We have arranged for a number of rooms for private meetings to be available in Aldham Robarts LRC and Clarence Street 5th Floor. If you have an appointment in one of these rooms we will make sure you know where it is.

The Campus Centre is not affected by this work and will remain open as normal.

For information the temporary office locations for Student Services staff are:
· The Student Services Admin Team and 3 members of Employability Team - Room 5.01
· Welfare Funds team - Room 5.12
· Welfare Advice team - Room 5.11

Other members of the Employability teams are located in Avril Robarts and I M Marsh
Similarly some of the LIS managers have now moved to Room 5.06 in Clarence Street also.

Building contractors
The main contractors will be setting up with site compound over the weekend of 28th Feb/1st March and work should start on the building on 9th March.

Closure of Aldham Robarts LRC

2009-01-30T05:20:00.000-08:00

Aldham Robarts Learning Resource Centre will be closed from 16th May to 4th October.

We are currently planning alternative services

Access to the Library collections
We hope that LRC staff will be able to access all main the collections and than borrowers can request items which will be sent to Avril Robarts LRC for collection. Please note the Special Collections, Exhibition Catalogues, Slide Collection and some of the Archives collections will not be available during this period.

Essential materials for summer teaching programmes & Referrals Exams
A collection of essential texts will be transferred to Avril Robarts LRC

Help with finding and using subject materials
Staff experienced in supporting your subject will meet you in Avril Robarts LRC. Please make an appointment.

Help using computers
LRC services will be available throughout the opening hours at Avril Robarts LRC and the John Foster IT Suite will be open throughout the period.

Opening Hours for Avril Robarts LRC
We have increased to opening hours at Avril robarts LRC over the summer to;
Monday – Thursday 8.45am – 9pm
Friday 8.45am – 5pm
Saturday 10am – 4pm

2009-01-30T05:18:00.000-08:00

We’ve moved the Art and Architecture books and journals
In preparation for phase 1 of the building project we have moved the library collections with class numbers 700 – 779 to Aldham building 1st floor. The journals are by class numbers 400 and the book sequence starts by the stairs going up from the Computer Desk.

Planning for the New Centre

2008-12-03T00:31:00.000-08:00

Planning for the new centre is moving along to schedule and we have been looking at the equipment needs for each of the areas in the newly refurbished centre. The floors will each have a different feel and have different types of provision resulting in a single centre where all students’ support needs can be met:

The ground floor of the Aldham Robarts building will be based around a Welcome desk and triage area, along with a variety of student study spaces and a transaction counter where students can consult staff and hand in assignments. There will also be dedicated student PCs, as well as areas for laptops and other mobile learning devices to be used. In addition students will be able to make use group study rooms, a seminar room and the LRC short loan collection.

The lower ground floor will contain learning resources and facilities including books and journals, the LRC slide collection, a media viewing area and the special collections and archives reading area. In addition the lower ground floor will offer 3 seminar rooms, group study rooms and a café area as well as plenty of student PCs, study space and casual seating.

The remaining floors of the Aldham Robarts LRC and the first floor of the Aquinas building will contain the majority of the books, journals and PCs, as well as new group study rooms, quiet study areas and consultation areas.

We are using Blackboard to share the detailed information with the staff involved in the project, and we have been busy populating that with various files.

The next part of the project is to collate all the detail so that we are in a position to go out to tender.

Aldham Robarts Project - New Student Centre

2008-10-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

Development of a New Student Centre

A refurbishment programme is being carried out at the Aldham Robarts LRC, which is linked to a major change programme to enhance the student experience. The refurbishment will update the LRC and will also provide the opportunity to bring all student facing services into one building.

This programme of change offers an exciting opportunity to provide student focussed and professional services from one campus location, incorporating flexible social learning facilities in a 24/7 environment. By bringing services offered by the LRCs and the Campus centres into one space we aim to provide a seamless and intuitive service, with staff helping people to navigate their way to the specialist support they may need. The new Centre will provide flexible, student owned space, services and technologies, which will allow students far more choice as to how they make use of our services. In brief the Centre will include:

Ground floor:
A Welcome Team hub dealing with all immediate enquiries and providing a referral and appointments service
Social learning facilities (as piloted at the Avril Robarts LRC) and including flexible space, support in the use of mobile technology – including lap top loans, refreshments and group study areas.
A transaction area to seek help with IT, fee payments, submission of coursework.
Mobile staff support, with rooms for one-to-one meetings as needed.

Other floors:
Private space for welfare and counselling support
Printed books and other learning materials
Equipment to support learning and teaching
Silent study facilities

We would really like to hear about what you think of the proposals for the Aldham Robarts project and would welcome any comments you wish to make.