29 May: Fisher Renewal Update
Fisher North Floors now open
We are delighted to announce the opening of the Fisher North Level 3 ICT Access Lab and Level 4 quiet study area a week ahead of schedule, in time for exam preparation and end-of-semester assignments. Levels 1 (Rare Books and Special Collections) and level 2 (computers and training) opened in early May.
We still have some work to do on these floors however, we decided to open as soon as most facilities were in place, and could be safely used.
- Level 1: Rare Books reading rooms will be furnished and ceilings added. Work continues on doors and wall panelling in this area. The microfilm area will have additional shelving and new microfilm reader-printers installed.
- Level 2: Joinery in the film viewing rooms on level 2 is still being finalised. The heritage cases in the former Rare Books area are being refurbished. The copper lights are being restored and rehung. This area will be a mix of meeting rooms and exhibition spaces.
- Level 3: the new information desk will open in 3 weeks. Access to the 2 hour loan collection will be back in place as soon as services start from this desk and self-check stations will be installed. In the meantime 2 hour loan items will continue to be delivered via the desk in the foyer.
- Level 4: The desks on level 4 in the quiet study area will have partitions added to create 'carrel - like' study spaces in about 3 weeks.
- All levels: Printing, copying and wireless will be active by the end of next week in the new spaces. Currently printing and photocopying is available in the foyer and on level 5 South. Air conditioning throughout the building can be quite noisy and a little unpredictable at the moment as we are running both current and future services together. The switch-over of services will take a few weeks. The ‘link’ areas between North and South are currently under construction. The tunnel through to Law will open late in the project.
Fisher South
Construction in Fisher South has started and will continue until October. Many floors are now closed but the temporary study space on level 5 will remain in place for the next few weeks. The collection is tightly compressed onto levels 6 and 8 with overflow into the new Rare Books compactus and Darlington store. 20 000 items have been processed for Rare Books from the general collection and 20 000 items are being transferred to the online catalogue from the print catalogue. Each item has been entered as a brief record and full records will be attached over the next few weeks.
In the renovated building the collections will run from level 4 through to level 9. The Curriculum Resources collection will be on 5, and the East Asian Collection and folios on 9. Quiet reading spaces will be available on every floor, overlooking Victoria Park and individual carrels will be available along every collection floor (similar to the pre-renovation arrangement but on the other side of the floor).
We expect the construction in Fisher South and the building works to be completed by October.
Storage project
The storage relocation project is continuing and delivery services are stabilising. We had some early issues with deliveries from the storage company but solutions are in place and the service is coming up to speed very quickly now. Delayed requests have been filled via the Document Delivery Service.
If you experience unacceptable delays or are having difficulty finding resources please contact your Faculty Liaison Librarian immediately so we can assist you to find what you need quickly. If you have any general comments or suggestions about Library services please contact me directly.
Thank you!
Thank you for your patience and support during this extremely complex project and our apologies for the disruption and inconvenience caused.
The Library has been very busy right through the construction period - from November 2011 through to the end of last week Fisher Library received over 300 000 visitors and there have been 576 932 loans from the collection (including renewals) for this period.