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No space for study

Many students have expressed concern over the crowded state of the Library, especially of Study Hall and the Periodicals Room. However, the situation now appears to be slightly better than it was at the start of the year. Where the students have disappeared to as exams approach is anyone's guess.

The crowding is a far cry from the situation of a few when the Library was little used until the third term and only then overcrowded.

The Librarian, Mr Sage, & says that use of the facilities is definitely increasing, with a big jump 1972-73 and a similar increase is expected this year. He feels this was due both to internal assessment spreading the work throughout the year and to a trend away front textbooks with more emphasis on different sources. As these continue, more, books are placed on closed reserve and three day issue, straining the space available in Study Hall — 20 seats were lost to new shelves at the beginning of the year.

Seats have also been lost in the Periodicals Room, where there was a pressing need for more administration space Paradoxically, the extension to the fifth floor has not added a great amount of seating, being offset in construction on floors 1, 2 and 3 (Where the Staff Club also expanded during the holidays)

Prospects for solutions are not particularly bright. Relict for periodical readers will hopefully come early next year, when new classrooms in Cotton Stage One will allow the library to expand into the claustrophobic RB 100 classrooms. This will require considerable rebuilding, but will give far more room for periodicals.

The Study Hall situation is far less optimistic — there is no comparative expansion area. In the long term, a Study Hall-Reference section is planned for the third floor but this is obviously dependent on the removal of the Staff Club, now envisaged if and when Von Zedlitz is completed, the Library is looking now at alternative ways of developing Study. Hall and its services When extra areas do become available, but constraints of tune and above all space make these plans, a little unrealistic.

One thing students can certainly be thankful for in this whole sorry situation is that the roll fell by the amount it did at the beginning of this year. Extra students would have further confounded the position to the point possibly where something had to be done?