English library faces summer closure
English Faculty Library
The English Faculty Library is to close for over a month this summer for the installation of a new lift, meaning vacation access to essential texts could be compromised. Lack of access to the library will particularly affect second year students working on their extended essays, as well as international and visiting students who remain in Oxford over the vacation. The library will be closed whilst its 42-year-old lift is replaced.
The work will take six weeks in total, with the library closing on the 6th and 7th July, and then for a further four weeks from the 14th August until the 8th September. A member of the English Junior Consultative Committee said they had not been consulted over the planned closure. “While I appreciate the need to provide adequate facilities for disabled students, second year English students writing extended essays may be put at a real disadvantage.
Library staff admitted the closure would affect a considerable number of students. A spokeswoman said, “The library’s quite busy over the summer; there’s a lot of visiting students and summer schools.” However, Sue Usher, the English Librarian, maintained that most students will not be greatly affected. “Most undergraduates will be away from the university during the summer and should not be affected at all.
I hope our other readers will not experience too much inconvenienece, some noise now and then should be about it.” Usher pointed out the age of the lift and its use for disabled students and staff carrying heavy piles of books. Readers in the nearby Law Library will not be affected, according to staff. A spokeswoman said, “As far as we know it’ll be business as usual.”
Readers in the Radcliffe Camera and the Bodleian will also be disrupted. Over the summer, the Rad Cam’s toilets are being refurbished and the Bodleian’s tower lift is being replaced.
27th Apr 2006