Aldham Robarts LRC temporary closure

26 January 2009

In planning the refurbishment of the Aldham Robarts LRC, every care has been taken to minimise and manage the impact of the changes.

Please click here to download a document showing the key dates for changes to service delivery and the actions being taken to address the impact.

In particular it should be noted that access to the Aldham Robarts Centre will need to be temporarily suspended from 15 May to 5 October 2009, in order that the contractual building work can be carried out as quickly as possible. During the same period Campus Centre services will occupy temporary accommodation.

Discussions have already taken place with the Vice-Chancellor, with the PVC (Delivery), representatives from the Students Union and with senior staff in the Faculties of Business and Law and Media, Arts and Social Science to identify the risks associated with the programme and to begin the consultation process about how best to support staff and students.

Library support services will be provided from the Avril Robarts and IM Marsh LRCs during the period of closure. Plans are also in place to provide an advice and guidance service from within the vicinity of the Aldham Robarts LRC during this period.

Academic staff whose courses will be affected by the closure of the LRC are advised to contact their subject information officers as soon as possible to make arrangements for the transfer of essential texts at the Avril Robarts LRC. The information officers will also liaise with academic staff on alternative arrangements for student inductions, the provision of additional digitised key texts, extended borrowing rights, inter-library loans for items in storage, advice on wording for course handouts and any other arrangements which will help to provide continuity of learning support.

Should you have any questions regarding access to learning materials and support staff or any further suggestions about how we can provide assistance to you during this period please don't hesitate to contact us. This can be done by contacting Maxine Melling (m.melling@ljmu.ac.uk) or Dr Phil Margham in his capacity as Acting Director of Student Services (j.p.margham@ljmu.ac.uk and on ext: 8190). Enquiries about subject support from LIS or about services from the Campus Centres should be channelled via specialist staff – a list is provided in the accompanying overview document. In addition a web site has been set up to provide general information about the programme as well as up-dates on progress. This can be viewed at: http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/lea/97147.htm and will be regularly updated throughout the duration of the project.

We hope that our actions will minimise the disruption caused to you during this building project and that your understanding and patience will be rewarded with a state of art student centre.

Background

The programme of refurbishment for the LRC allows us to address the outstanding need to update the Centre and to incorporate the social learning support that has been very successful at the Avril Robarts LRC. The Aldham Robarts LRC has been a flagship building since its opening in 1995 and has enjoyed very high usage figures as well as being the first LRC to offer 24 hour opening. Funding to carry out the refurbishment was granted in acknowledgement of the wear and tear resulting from this high use as well as the need to ensure that the Centre continues to offer services that are directly relevant to student and staff needs in the future.

In addition to refurbishing and up-dating the Centre the programme of work will also address one of the key recommendations of the Student Experience Review - to bring all student administrative support within the existing Learning Resource Centres. (Information relating to SERIG, including the recommendations of the report can be seen at http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/serig/index.htm). In brief the programme of works will provide:

• Converged delivery of all student facing services including all those previously delivered separately in the LRC and in the adjacent Campus Centre
• Social learning facilities as previously trialled at the Avril Robarts LRC
• Refurbishment and up-dating of the ground and lower ground floors
• Additional self service support (including total self service for all loans and returns)