[Contents] [Newsletter Index]

Newsletter 13, October 1996 Beckett Park Learning Centre

• Beckett Park Learning Centre
• Where is it Now?
• Bookshop at Beckett Park
• Languages Open-Access Centre

The Learning Centre which will greet staff and students new and old is a vast improvement on the facilities we were previously able to offer. It comprises a mixture of all Learning Support facilities in one unit. The original library bookroom has been demolished and two vastly-enlarged reading rooms now fill the space. The surrounding areas now house group study rooms, IT facilities, video-editing suites and teaching rooms. IT facilities have been greatly enhanced. There are now 23 “Web” PCs: 20 in a laboratory on the first floor, and 3 on open access on the ground floor. There is also a total of 30 PCs on open access within the ground- and first-floor areas, some of which will have stand-alone CD-ROM access. At the same time, the number of IT laboratories on the second floor has been increased: there are now 11 PC and 2 Archimedes laboratories, which range in size from 9 to 32 seats. There will be a total of 5 printer rooms on the three floors (20 laser printers in all). The Computing Services Help Desk remains on the second floor, and documentation etc. for IT facilities will be here too since all booked laboratory sessions will be on this floor. Most of this change has been achieved whilst we continued to serve our customers. Books have been moved to the corridors — and back again. IT facilities have been moved from room to room as building work dictated. Staff and customers have had a life of constant change; they have worked with noise, dust, and invasion of pigeons, inconvenience of stock continually being moved, inadequate lighting and heating. We have all become fit as we walked farther and farther to access stock. We have survived floods, leaks, clouds of dust and falling plaster and at last we are nearly there. The end product has been well worth all we and the customers have suffered. Students begin this term with well-lit, airy study space, superb video- and satellite-viewing facilities, and vastly improved IT access. There is still the odd snag — guiding is still being sorted — but now that term proper is here we will be ready and very proud of the facilities we are able to offer within the Learning Centre. The opening hours of this new Learning Centre will be slightly different from the facilities at City Campus. The Beckett Park centre will open at 8:30am to allow time for staff and students to return or borrow items before lectures. The advertised closing time will be 9:15pm, and no access will be allowed after this. The entire facility will be emptied and locked by 9:30pm. We cannot finish this without saying an enormous “thank you” — to all our readers who have been so tolerant throughout the building process, to the builders who have worked so well with us, to Estates without whom we could not have managed, and of course most of all to our own staff who have put up with so much in the last three years. The accompanying maps and list of “where it is now” give some idea of the range of facilities we now offer. Norma Thompson, Josie Driver

Where is it Now?

Note: Click on any link to view the relevant floor plan.

Archimedes Computers		Second floor
Audiovisual Material		Ground floor Study Area
Audiovisual Playback		Ground floor Study Area
Bibliographies		Mezzanine floor
BOOKS	004–339.9	Ground floor Study Area
	340–349.9	First floor Study Area
	350–519.9	Ground floor Study Area
	520–999	First floor Study Area
Bookshop		First floor
Bound Journals		First floor (all subjects)
CD-ROM Stations		Ground and First floor Study Areas
Company Reports		Mezzanine floor
Current Journals		Ground floor: Computing, Information Management, Education Mezzanine floor: Business, Law, Sport and Leisure
Datastream		First floor Study Room
Exam Papers		Mezzanine floor
Group Study Rooms		Ground and first floors
Information Management Room		First floor
IT Laboratories		Second floor (access via ground floor entrance and internal stairs only)
Languages Open-Access Centre		Second floor (access via ground floor entrance and internal stairs only)
Laser Printing		Printer rooms on all three floors
Legal Practice Room		First floor
Lexis		First floor Study Room
Media Services Loans Counter		Ground floor entrance area
Newspaper Reading Area		Mezzanine floor
Open-Access PCs		On all three floors
Photocopiers		Throughout the ground and First floors
Quick Reference		Ground floor entrance area
Satellite TV Viewing		Ground floor Study Area
School Practice Collection		Ground floor
Short Loan Collection		Ground floor entrance area
Statistics		Mezzanine floor
Study Space		Throughout the ground and First floors
Teaching Room 1		First floor: access through the corner door of the first floor Study Area.
Teaching Room 2		Ground floor: access through the corner door of the ground floor Study Area with member of staff only
Toilets		Outside the Centre in the entrance to the James Graham Building
University prospectuses		Mezzanine floor
World-Wide Web workstations		Three in Ground floor entrance area (bookable at the Enquiry Desk); open-access laboratory on first floor.

Bookshop at Beckett Park

Bookselling came to the Beckett Park campus in early September, when a bookshop opened in the James Graham Building. Located on the first floor of the Learning Centre, the shop will hold all recommended course titles, as well as a range of complementary academic texts.

We’ve received many completed reading lists from lecturers already, but if you’ve yet to let us know your course reading, please drop us a line or call in with your requirements. We just need to know the book titles, an approximate number of students, when they’ll need the text, and how essential a purchase it is.

As well as catering to the students, we also aim to play a key role on campus for the university staff. We run a fast, free book-ordering service, for any kind of book, with many customer orders arriving next day. Purchase orders from departments will be fulfilled speedily and efficiently, and 95% of orders are supplied within ten working days.

Initial Bookshop opening times are:

Monday–Thursday	9:00am–7:30pm
Friday	9:00am–4:00pm
Sunday	1:00pm–4:00pm

Please call in to say hello and introduce yourself.

Languages Open-Access Centre

Over the summer, the language learning facilities of the Business School and the Centre for Language Study at Beckett Park have been integrated to form the new Open-Access Centre.

The Open-Access Centre comprises a suite of six rooms, each offering different possibilities in terms of self-access or teaching. Audio and video playback and satellite TV are available in all rooms, with Multimedia and PC access available in JG206 and JG207.

The Language Laboratories, JG202, 203 and 204, can be booked through Gill Porter at the Centre for Language Study.

A range of language learning materials is located in JG205. We have a wide selection of books, cassettes, videos, computer programs and CD-ROMs covering most languages. We are continually adding to the stock, so there should always be something new when you visit. All materials are available for students’ use in the Open-Access Centre.The Centre now forms part of the James Graham Learning Centre. The suites are accessed via the main entrance of the Learning Centre

Opening hours:

Monday–Thursday	8:30am–9:15pm
Friday	8:30am–6:45pm
Saturday	10 am–3:45pm
Sunday	10 am–5:45pm

Mike Mitchell, the new Languages Learning Support Officer, is based in JG205 (extn 4731). He is available for guidance and queries at the following times:

Monday	9am–1pm
Tuesday	9am–1pm & 1:45pm–5pm
Wednesday	9am–1pm & 5pm–9pm
Thursday	9am–1pm & 1:45–9pm
Friday	9am–1pm & 1:45–5pm

We welcome Mike Mitchell to LMU and to this new position within LSS. Mike’s past experience in developing Open-Access environments at other institutions will be invaluable in developing materials and facilities for students and lecturing staff within LMU.