Harrison Refresh: PC Lab now open

One of the key areas for library space improvement this summer has been the 3rd floor IT Suite in Harrison Library. This space had not been changed or updated (other than PC upgrades) in over 12 years, and it was beginning to show its age. A student recently told us that using the IT Suite felt "like travelling back in time"

The IT Suite, once home to over 120 student PCs, was one of the busiest study areas in the library. However, it often felt cluttered and overcrowded, despite having plenty of available spaces. The area also had ample power sockets, but these were unfortunately all within the floor and not very accessible for students to plug in their own devices, which we felt was an important issue to address

Other considerations for this space included providing more variety in the types of study spaces available, rather than just rows of PC desks side by side, which inevitably led to some students having their backs to the main walkways. A few years ago, we acquired some large sofa booths which proved popular in the IT suite, so we wanted to add more furniture to provide additional comfort and privacy for students using laptops.

Refreshed 'PC Lab'

Having closed the IT Suite for student access in July, we are delighted to reopen the refreshed Harrison PC Lab with the following improvements:

• Redecorated the entire space
• Installed new carpets throughout
• Recycled and replaced all the old PC desking
• Added accessible power sockets (including USB-C) on every desk
• Repositioned desks to avoid students having their backs to the main walkways (where possible)
• Installed two new sofa booths (four in total)
• Added 10 new high-spec PCs for Science, Engineering and Arts students to make the best use of their software packages
• Upgraded lighting throughout

We hope that this refresh will provide a flexible, collaborative and more accessible learning space for our library users and we look forward to hearing your feedback.