Library staff have been made aware of students expressing concerns regarding the amount of noise in the Stockwell Street library and the use that some students are making out of the academic space in several departmental Student Experience Meetings since the beginning of the academic year.
We have been working hard to make sure that this building serves its real purpose which we believe is a place for academic work, where students have access to the resources and the facilities that they need to develop their academic work. We are aware that some students need to focus more on group work, while other students, mainly third years and postgraduates, are in need of a quiet environment to work on their dissertations and final year projects.
With this in mind we have now a much clearer division of Silent, Quiet areas and zones where group work is not allowed. We have installed a “Noisy Neighbour” icon in all PCs in the Stockwell Street library so people can report noise discreetly. All members of staff have been trained to respond with confidence and professionalism to any situation where the rules need to be enforced. We are now more active in walking around the floors making sure students are aware of the environment where they are working and asking them to respect the Silent and Quiet areas.
We are hoping all this is having an impact in the student experience and all those who are looking for a quiet space to do their work feel comfortable in the library.
In order to know if all these initiatives are working, we would like to run a focus group with students who regularly use Stockwell Street Library to hear directly your opinion of noise and see where we need to go next. If you are interested in taking part in one of our focus groups in the first week of February please email Irene Barranco at i.barranco@gre.ac.uk before Wednesday 28th of January. We will be providing a nice lunch for all students taking part.
