After 2 weeks the law library collections re-opened at 8.30am this morning in its new location of The Pool, College Building. If you’ve not found us yet, it’s accessed from the St John St entrance, off to the left just before you reach the spiral staircase.

Our new space

900+ shelves were emptied and transferred between buildings in this time. The Pool posed several challenges for a library collection, mainly on account of the presence of a rather large void underneath the floor. As a listed building the actual swimming pool remains under the flooring (minus the water of course), so shelving could only be accommodated round the edges. Further trickiness included the rather lovely swimming pool changing cubicles which remain on both sides of the room, these encompass bookshelves but are of varying widths making it a precise operation to work out what would fit.

The Collections held within The Pool are split; those on the ground floor and further materials held upstairs on the Gallery. The Gallery is not accessible to students, as there are weight restrictions – there are a lot of hefty materials stored up there. Requests for materials held in the Gallery should be made to the desk.

Remember that there are lots of other study space possibilities in addition to The Pool: the Library, Grays Inn Place library is open to you all, the Law Common Room, Myddleton Building top floor reserved for law students, and for GELLB and GDL students, the Library Graduate Centre. There are also various spaces dotted about the university, including the room on College Building walkway.

RIP Level 4

I hope you enjoy the new law space, you’ll be seeing a number of new faces as the issue desk here will be manned by new starters Francesca and Billie for the majority of the week, with Amy and Chris on Thursdays. I’ll still be very much around though (you’ll find my office behind the spiral staircase in the Pool)!

I was sad to see Level 4 being stripped of its contents, particularly as I have spent almost 12 years of my working life there. Very sombre to say goodbye to my lovely office with its view of the square, but very much looking forward to our eventual new home in the City Innovation Centre, between Gloucester Building and the School of Social Sciences (January 2013).

Our Opening Hours in The Pool will be 8.30-9pm weekdays, with weekend opening hours to be confirmed shortly. The main library will be open 24 hours from 23rd April until Friday 1st June.