Library Services Recovery: April Update

We posted an article on the 1^st of March providing details of the various library services that were either available or unavailable (you can view this here). A little over a month on, we thought now was a good time to provide an update.

We are pleased to say that the vast majority of Library systems are back to regular service. Below are some updates about the services we know you have been asking about:

Online resources

Everyone can access online resources again. This was one of our highest priorities, and a lot of work went on behind the scenes to migrate authentication over to an alternative system so we could bring access back to you. Whilst many of our resources were back available within a short space of time there remained a small number of resources that took further work. As of today, the final piece of the puzzle was put back in place and all online resources are now once again available from both on campus and remotely.

Reading Lists

There were a few delays in getting Canvas reading list access back. There was a period of partial access, depending if you were on campus or off campus, but we are pleased to say all these issues should now be resolved and reading list access through Canvas should be back to normal (students who joined the university at the time of the IT issues may have been impacted in a slightly different way but these issues should also have been ironed out).

Opening Hours

Keeping the libraries open and safe is what we do, and we were able to maintain our regular opening hours after the initial week that was impacted. Telford Extended Opening, unfortunately, was delayed due to some of the dependent security systems needed to support this service but this has recently been restored and students can again request access to make use of the longer access to study spaces at Telford (more information can be found here).

Student PCs

Our IT colleagues worked extremely hard to restore student PCs across our libraries as soon as this was feasible. Thank you all for your patience as access was gradually restored across the various library study areas.

Student Laptop loans

Laptop Loans took longer to restore, and it was important that any devices out on loan were returned to us so that they could receive essential security updates. We know many students make regular use of the laptop loan services and we are very grateful for your patience whilst laptops remained unavailable. Long loan (30-day) laptop requests are now once again available through LibrarySearch and short loan (6 hours) can be self-issued once again from all campus libraries via the LapSafe lockers.

SCONUL Access

For those of you who have been waiting patiently to register for the SCONUL Access scheme, all the associated systems needed to process these requests have now been fully restored, we have worked through the backlog of requests and are ready to process new incoming requests. More information about the SCONUL Access scheme can be found here.

Printing

If you plan on doing any printing or copying in the libraries, and you have credit on your print accounts, this will all work as normal. However, if you need to top-up your credit, you will need to follow the temporary workaround detailed here.

Looking forward

With the system problems behind us, let’s look forward. All of our teams in the Library, including Skills for Learning are here ready to assist you, especially through this important assessment period. Be sure to view our post from before Easter about all of the support available for you here, stop by our Exam and Assessment support pages for guidance and advice and keep an eye out for announcements of our upcoming 24/7 opening period at Harrison Library by following us on Instagram, Facebook or ‘X’.

If you have any questions about library services and the support available head over to Library Assist where you can search our FAQs and support articles and chat with us 24/7.

If you want to see the latest information relating to the university’s recovery following the IT services disruption, please visit https://www.wlv.ac.uk/current-students/it-services-disruption-and-recovery-faqs/