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University of Reading

What's going where in URS and Library

Friday, 17 March 2017

Library study space: relocation to URS

We’re getting ready to run Library services and facilities from two buildings from Tuesday 18 April: the URS Building – further away from construction noise – and the Library Building. 

Signage for URS is being prepared and the Library’s webpage will show where everything is from Tuesday 18 April onwards. 

In the meantime, here is a preview of what is going where:   

Services moving to URS Building

URS Study space and IT facilities

We will move modern study furniture (with power sockets) currently in the Library Building into the 2nd and Ground Floors of the URS Building, mainly over the Easter vacation. Some of the 16 large 2nd Floor rooms will be designated as collaborative study space, some quiet study and some silent study space. The silent study rooms will contain some more traditional desks and some individual workbays.

The URS Ground Floor will mostly consist of 145 fixed PCs, with printing facilities nearby.

URS Course Collection and Self-Service Points

The Course Collection (in-demand texts on reading lists) will move to the URS Ground Floor, along with study space and Self-Service Points to borrow and return Course Collection items. Borrowed items from the Library Building can be returned here too. 

URS Services

CaféLibro will transfer to the 2nd Floor of the URS Building.

On the URS Ground Floor, students will be able to get help from:

URS Building Hours

The URS Building will adopt the 24 hour opening during term (except closing 21:00 Saturday to 08:30 Sunday) as is currently the case in the Library.

URS Security

For security reasons, everyone will enter URS by the one main entrance, closest to Whiteknights House, by the pond. We will adopt the same security that we employ now for the Library and transfer this to the URS building.

Library Building

All printed material (other than Course Collection items in URS) can be borrowed from the University Library, open 09:00-22:00 in term. There will be no study desks in the Library Building so users will need to take materials either to the URS Building or find alternative study space on campus (see top right of Library Refurbishment Project page).

We recognise this is less convenient than having printed books in the same building as study space but hope that the Library hours we have been able to achieve will serve the majority of students – our usage statistics show that almost all borrowing activity occurs before 22:00.

Library staff will be on duty to help you during core hours.

Construction work will continue during weekdays in the Library Building whilst we strive to complete the project as soon as possible, so you may experience considerable noise whilst using this building.

Further details

For further information, see the Library Refurbishment Project page at www.reading.ac.uk/library/refurb.

If you have a disability and have any concerns about using either the Library or URS Building facilities, please contact Matthew Holtby, Library Disability Co-ordinator.

If you have any other queries, please email library@reading.ac.uk.