Library Services Recovery Update

Whilst the Libraries have remained open throughout, we know that the limited access to resources and some services have made things that much more challenging and we are very grateful for your patience. 

We are pleased to say that progress has been made in restoring library systems over the last week so we would like to bring you up to speed on the current situation and how the library can continue to support you.

Our Libraries are open, and whilst we had to initially reduce our opening hours slightly, we have returned Harrison Library (City Campus) and Walsall Campus Library back to their previous opening hours (including extended weekends, 10 am – 10 pm). Hutchison Library at Telford remains open 9 am – 5 pm, Mon – Fri, although we hope to be able to offer Telford Extended Access again soon. 

Wi-Fi has now returned for staff and students to use in the Library. We were very grateful to be provided with temporary Wi-Fi in the libraries over the past week but it is a great feeling to have Eduroam available throughout all library spaces once again. 

Our Skills for Learning Team has continued to provide all of their regular support through drop-ins, although it has been challenging without internet access! With the Wi-Fi now returned, the skills team are back to their full level of support. You can check when the next drop-in times are here (…and don’t forget to check the latest skills workshops – we are moving to a new booking system so please bear with us and do let us know if you have any questions about booking a workshop or have a question about any other skills support).

One of the biggest impacts you have been telling us about has been the lack of access to e-resources. Thank you for for all of your comments and feedback, this has really helped to highlight how much the online resources are used and valued by the student community. After a lot of work behind the scenes by Digital Services and Library colleagues, we were delighted to re-open access to the majority of online resources on Tuesday 27th and have been improving access to more resources on a daily basis since. We produced this support article that talks you through what you need to know about accessing e-resources, including workarounds for finding items on your reading list, so please take a look if you are unsure about anything. 

For our academics, we have now returned direct access to Leganto so you can log-in, view and edit your reading lists as normal.

The library Room Booking System is now back up and running, as are ILL requests.

There continue to be a few key systems and services that are impacted

As previously mentioned, you currently cannot access your reading list through Canvas.  This is a priority for us and Digital Services are working hard to get this back in place, so please check the previously linked support article to make sure you know how to work around this and access resources directly from the LibrarySearch catalogue.

All student devices, including PCs and laptops, remain unavailable until further notice. Any students with an active 30-day laptop loan will need to return these to the library at the end of the current loan period. We know many of you value the availability of the laptops so as soon as we have an update on these services, we will let you know. Please bear with us.

As well as student PCs, the MFDs (Print/Copy/Scan) remain offline so unfortunately you still can’t print in the library, however, Digital Print Services can still support you with your print needs and you can send documents to print to dpsstudentprinting@wlv.ac.uk.

Item requests also remain unavailable, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t borrow items! If we have items available (check LibrarySearch), you are welcome to visit the library and collect the books you need, issuing them on our self-service machines. However, it is important to note that these are running in ‘offline mode’ so changes won’t be reflected on your library account until these are back online. 

Automatic renewals on print books are still in place so you shouldn’t need to worry about your books going overdue, but if you have any concerns, please get in touch and we can take a look at your account for you and find a way to assist.

We know this is a lot of information, and thankfully, Digital Services are making great progress every day, so much of this may be out of date this time next week. We have our Current Status of Library Services FAQ that we update every day which is a quick way to check at a glance, what services are available.

As always, you can use Library Assist to speak with us on 24/7 Library Chat and browse our FAQs, or pop into one of the libraries if you have any questions. 

Thanks again for your patience and we hope to be back to normal very soon. 

University Library