PANICKED STUDENTS last week begun the fight for study space as the ‘inevitable’ library refurbishments began.
The library redevelopment has caused severe over-crowding: many students have been unable to get a seat or table with the entire second floor blocked off.
The chaos is set to continue through the summer term, meaning that when exams and dissertations are due students may not have adequate space to study.
One second-year Biology student said: “It was ridiculous. I just came in to get a book and it was rammed. It was like a cattle market. What an utter disgrace.”
Students feel that the refurbishment could not have happened at a worse time, as week 1 in Spring Term is one of the busiest weeks in the University calendar.
Stephen Town, Director of the Library & Archives, told Vision: “Unfortunately the first phase of work has a long duration of seven months so it could not be restricted to vacation times. It was also important to begin the work as soon as possible due to necessary maintenance.”
“We are currently working with the University to identify additional, alternative study spaces, which should be available shortly although unfortunately these will not be located in the Library.”
Some students were even seen to sit and lie on the floor in a desperate bid to utilise any available space.
Town stated, however, that the changes had been “carefully planned and organised”.
Most of the first floor has now been taken up with books from the second floor, with individual study rooms opened up to allow more space. This, however, has meant that there are now no areas for group study, with those seeking space urged to look elsewhere.
Many third years are concerned that they would not be around to reap the benefits from the refurbishment, even though they would be the ones badly affected by it.
“Unfortunately the first phase of work has a long duration of seven months so it could not be restricted to vacation times” So they decided that they might as well pick the seven months with the least amount of vacation time in it. Ridiculous planning, if the work was so urgent it must have been known about for a whole and should have been started last summer.
The ‘alternative’ study rooms are small, cramped and uncomfortable and often located in passageways between collections of books, which means there are constantly people walking past people trying to work.
Incompetent planning from the University again.