Many university and college libraries are under-going transformation and are going to great lengths on behalf of their users to provide flexible and agile workspace. Creating innovative and inspiring libraries or centres for study, collaboration and socialising is important for both staff and students.
Libraries need to offer the student the ability to work in small groups sharing technology as appropriate as well as offer space for them to work alone. Increasingly, popular is the opportunity to access the library 24 hours and for students to have access to IT outside normal hours.
More and more universities are offering their students the opportunity to borrow a laptop or similar device for short periods of time. Offering this type of service is a great way to enhance the students experience and present a value-added extra to your library service. Whether it’s at 2pm in the afternoon, or 2am in the morning, students are constantly looking for ways to access resources such as laptops/tablets to finish that essay or research for their assignments.
However, manually loaning out the devices is time consuming and often restricts when the devices are available. The LapSafe® Diplomat™LMS self-service device loan lockers makes device loans easy to manage and allows students to borrow devices at any time of day or night, whether staff are present or not; offering 24 x 7 x 365 access.
So, when ‘planning for change’ within your libraries think about how your space will support staff as well as students, the space needs to be engaging and needs to be a means and not an end. Think about how the space should be divided up allowing for different workflows i.e. collaborate/small group spaces, solitary booths and quiet areas. Easy access to IT and power provision is high on the agenda as is contrasting ergonomic furniture.
For more information on the Diplomat™ LMS Self-Service Multi-Bay Locker System visit www.lapsafe.com
You will also find many case studies and videos to assist you transform your library offering.
