Thank you for attending Libraries 2030: Celebrations and Conversations

9 February 2024

We especially enjoyed hearing from Sir Roly Keating, Chief Executive of the British Library, who drew links between the newly extended and refurbished Mile End Library and the British Library at St Pancras. Serena-Amani Al Jabbar, President of Queen Mary Students Union, also explained the critical importance of libraries to students, supporting academic success at the same time as providing a sense of community.

The 4 discussion topics around Learning, Research, Digital and Spaces were well attended with participants engaging and helping to shape what the future of libraries and Library Services is at Queen Mary to improve the experience for all library users.

• A panel of students gave their perspectives on the role of libraries during the themed discussion on learning.
• Official launch of LibKey – A browser extension which gives users fast one-click access to scholarly articles. Download the extension on Chrome.
• Discussion about transforming Library spaces in partnership with the University community.

Everybody at Mile End Library had the opportunity to give their love heart to the Library where many of you gave us amazing feedback that we can take forward to continue doing what we do well and to continue improving our services based on your feedback. Some of your feedback given to us during the event was:

• “Helpful study space, laptop loan service is useful”.
• “I love the desks that change height”.
• “Love the student curated non-academic book selection!”
• “More copies of popular books would be great”
• “Great range of spaces and it’s always easy to find a seat”
• “Everyone is so friendly and helpful”

We are always looking to improve our services by providing feedback at any point by emailing us or by completing the feedback form.

Tours were conducted of the fully opened facilities to help people get a better understanding of what Library Services can do for all library users. The tours highlighted the study spaces and the increase of 30% capacity since the completion of the Third and Fourth floors as well focusing on what is held in each area of the Mile End Library, helping users find the most important thing for them as well as informing them of the whole Library space, should they need to provide support to others.

The new Archives and Special Collections exhibition was opened. Titled “Libraries that are, were and never were: The story so far of Queen Mary’s Libraries,” the exhibition showcases Queen Mary’s archives and rare books and covers library history from Queen Mary’s past and present. The exhibition will be on display for the next 6 months so be sure to look at the displays on the Ground and Second floors of Mile End Library. The Archives and Special Collections Team also put on a drop-in session with archival material, allowing participants to interact with our collections in ways that are not normally available.

A congratulatory reception took place after the event which recognised the important contribution from all of Library Services to ensure that operations were not heavily affected while the Mile End Transformation was taking place. The Frontline Services Team, comprising of Circulations, Environment and Enquiries Teams, received special recognition on the night with an award presented by Kate Price, the University Librarian.  

• Circulation Team – The book reservation service for materials held in construction zones. While users were unable to get materials themselves, collections took place at limited times with members of staff wearing enhanced safety gear to retrieve resources and making the collections were available to users during construction.
• Environment Team – For managing the spaces while the Transformation Project was ongoing and for managing additional space in the Temporary Building when spaces were closed at Mile End Library. They ensured that spaces were closed for the smallest amount of time possible and ensured works that would cause major disruption would not occur during the busiest times of day or academic year.
• Enquiries Team – Over the duration of the Transformation project, the team fielded more enquiries around the ongoing works, study spaces and resources, keeping users up-to-date with potential impacts to the service.

Thank you again to everybody who attended and we look forward to sharing your views on Libraries as part of our ongoing commitment to Library Services.