Library: study space now located in URS Building

Tuesday, 18 April 2017

Much of the study furniture from the Library has relocated to the URS Building.

The URS Building now provides students with a contemporary and versatile space to work and study – it includes around 800 spaces (including 145 computers), work areas for collaborative, quiet and silent study, and several key facilities from the Library Building. 

Including URS, students can now access over 1,700 study spaces across our Whiteknights and London Road campuses.  

URS Building key features

In URS you will now find:

• Library Information Desk: For general and registration enquiries, located on the Ground Floor.
• Study space: A variety of study areas - group, quiet and silent – are available on the Ground and 2nd Floors.
• Study Advice and Maths Support: Get help with study skills and maths on the Ground Floor.
• Course Collection: Find key texts for your modules in the Course Collection on the Ground Floor.  Holds are also available to collect here.
• IT Service Desk and facilities: PCs and printing facilities are available on the Ground Floor.  If you need help, just ask at the IT Service Desk there.
• Café Libro: The Library's popular café is located on the 2nd Floor of the URS Building.
• Opening 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.

Take a look at the map and floor directory to see what’s been moved where.   

Preparation of the space 

The relocation was carried out over the Easter vacation – during this time, several new improvements were made to the URS building in order to make its study environment as welcoming as possible:

• Rooms have been configured to meet a wide range of study needs – you’ll find individual study booths, group areas, quiet study spaces and more.  
• We have improved several of the building’s existing features in order to make it a better place to study – new lights have been fitted to make studying easier, and south-facing windows on the Second Floor have been tinted to deflect heat. 
• We have balanced creating a maximum number of spaces with ensuring that students can study in comfort and safety. Health & Safety guidelines recommend that URS holds a maximum capacity of 800 students. 
• Our job as a University is to provide students with comfortable spaces to study, and we believe that URS will prove to be a popular home to Library study space until summer 2018, when facilities will move back into the Library Building. 

Why has the space moved?

Relocating study space and facilities from one to building to another posed several benefits. 

Moving study space from the Library into URS will provide a quieter environment for study while still being close enough to borrow and use materials. It also means we can carry out more work inside the Library than previously planned, and so will complete the refurbishment around six months earlier.

With URS in such close proximity to the Library, you won’t have far to take the materials you’ve just borrowed from the original Library building for studying. 

Library Building key features

The Library remains open for use – inside you will still find:

• Printed materials: All printed material (other than Course Collection) will remain inside the library for borrowing or reference. 
• Library staff: Although Library staff are now based in URS, they will still offer a Help Point by the Library entrance and Information Desks on the 2nd and 4th Floors.
• Opening Hours: The Library Building will open 09:00-22:00 seven days per week during term time. URS will be open 24/6+ during term time (closed Saturday nights).

Construction work will continue 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.

Alternative study space across campus 

Including URS, there are approximately 1,700 spaces to study on campus (subject to teaching timetabling and departmental use).

• The list of alternative space highlights available spaces across our Whiteknights and London Road campuses. 
• RUSU’s The Study and The Study@TOB2 offer additional study spaces to all campus card holders. 
• The Free Room Finder enables students to find rooms available for immediate use.  
• If desired, students can book rooms to study in via the University’s Central Room Booking service. 

Keep in touch

While we have taken great care to ensure that URS meets your needs, we appreciate that there may be more to improve over the coming weeks.

Please pass on any feedback or comments to library@reading.ac.uk. 

Further information 

A dedicated URS Building guide page has been created to help clarify exactly what has moved from the Library. It will be kept updated by our Library team, who will also share regular news and updates via the Library blog. The Library opening hours page lists opening times for both the Library and URS buildings. 

Further details of the Library’s major £40 million refurbishment can be found on our Library Refurbishment Project webpage: www.reading.ac.uk/library/refurb.