We are very proud of the service and resources we provide across our libraries, but we are always looking for ways to improve. Your feedback is important in enabling this to happen, and in highlighting areas where changes to our services could make a difference. If you have anything you would like to tell us, whether it is a comment, a compliment or a complaint, please fill in our feedback form.
In addition to our own sources, we also gather feedback from SimON (SUBU's Student Rep feedback gathering tool) and the National Student Survey. Below are a number of examples where we have listened to your comments and made changes as a result:
- "Some students often find it difficult to find a computer in the university library" and “Need more computers at Bournemouth House”. In August 2017, extra PCs were installed in both libraries – 150 in The Sir Michael Cobham Library and 16 in Bournemouth House Library.
- "Library opening hours need to be extended." In Autumn 2015 we increased library opening hours and followed this in Autumn 2016 with a further extension to opening hours, improving access to bookstock, study spaces and PCs, in particular at weekends. Please give us your feedback about whether this has helped you.
- "Provide more e-books so it's easier to work on assignments when you can't necessarily get to the university library." In 2014/15 we increased the number of e-books by 13% to 220,000 and we continue to invest heavily in e-books each year.
- "We have great facilities, just not enough of them. The library and other areas are always overcrowded during the week." Since Summer 2014, we have added 70 study spaces (a mixture of individual and group tables and desks) and 30 extra PCs to The Sir Michael Cobham Library. In January 2016 we extended Bournemouth House Library to create space for an additional 17 silent study places and 4 PCs.
- "Library and learning resources would improve if the required reading list could all be accessed by e-resource, as sometimes it's too difficult to borrow a printed book." We introduced a new service to make it easier for academics to request scanned chapters from print books, which you can then access via your online reading lists
- "Let students renew books more than once, especially one-week loans." We first extended the renewal limits in Autumn 2014, enabling you to renew books up to five times. This proved popular but feedback suggested it was still causing problems for some students, causing them to incur library fines. So in Autumn 2016 we introduced "unlimited renewals", meaning you can now renew items as many times as you need to. This is provided that the books haven't been reserved by someone else and you don't have fines of more than £20, or fines of less than £20 that have been outstanding for more than two weeks.