Swinburne Library Blog

By Ben Conyers

As of 30th October, the Hawthorn Library has had 1.34 million visitors through the doors.  At the same time last year there had only been 843,000 visitors.  This represents a 60% increase in usage of the library in just one calendar year!  There have been three months in 2008 with more than 200,000 people through the doors peaking at close to 11,000 people on the busiest days.  This makes Swinburne Library one of the busiest libraries in Australia!

What have we done in response to this growth?

• Extended our Hours
  For most of the semester we have been open from 8:15am to midnight, Monday to Friday and 12:15pm to midnight on Saturday and Sunday.  Since the 13th October we further extended our opening hours until 3am.  We regularly collect statistics on usage and, for example, at 12:30am on Monday 17th November there were 247 people using the library and at 2:30am there were still 127 people in the building.
  
  
• Expanded the Rover Service
  This semester we have expanded the "Rover" service so that it operates later into the evenings and on weekends.  Plus we have significantly added to the number of staff doing this role.  The Rover team has helped over 25,000 people this year to do anything from connecting a laptop to the wireless network to helping fix a printer jam or find a book on the shelves.
  
  
• More staff
  We have 15 new staff working at the Hawthorn Library this semester which has helped us to get books back on to the shelves much quicker, keep queues shorter, and as mentioned above, expand our Rover service.
  
  
• More Computers and Laptops
  The Hawthorn Library has added an extra 40 desktop computers and a further 30 laptops with plans already to further increase the number of laptops next year.  We now have over 300 laptops and 250 desktop computers available for all Swinburne students.
  
  
• More seating
  This semester alone we have added an extra seven tables and twelve carrels all with extra seats and will be further adding to this next year.
  
  
• Cleaning
  Three times this year we have increased the amount of cleaning both on weekdays and on the weekends and we have plans to further increase this again next year.  We do rely however on students carrying some of the responsibility for cleaning by using the bins and cleaning up after themselves.  So if you see someone littering or making a mess, please remind them that it's their library.
  
  
• Power points
  We have added an extra sixty power points throughout the library and have added twenty laptop lockers, all of which are powered which enable people to recharge their laptops while they go to their classes or take a break from study.
  
  
• Planning for 2009
  We already have a number of strategies in place to improve your experience of using the library next year, including purchasing at least an extra fifty Laptops and adding more tables and seats throughout the Library.  The Rover service and the extended opening hours have proven to be very popular so we will keep the expanded hours and continue to offer the Rover service. 

What you can do

The library is always very grateful for your feedback and has made a number of service improvements this year as a direct response to your suggestions.  Examples include adding computers to the quiet study areas, installing the drinking fountain on level one, the laptop lockers also on level one, the expanded opening hours as well as all of the new books, DVDs and other resources that have been purchased as a result of your requests.  In response to further feedback we are currently looking at adding a vending machine so that students studying after hours can still get a snack to eat.

Thank you again to everyone who has provided the library with feedback.  The library is always grateful for this feedback as it helps us to both plan for improvements and to respond directly to your needs.

Regards,

Ben Conyers
Manager, Logistics and Customer Service