From Show weekend onwards the Hawkins Construction team plan to start removing windows and frames from the north side of levels 2-4 of the James HIght Building. This will mean that at some time over December/January some areas of Levesl 2, 3 and 4 will not be fully available to staff and students. The reason the north side windows are being replaced first is that stage 2 of the undercroft will continue and the University is planning for Stage 2 to be completed by the start of the academic year 2012. UC would prefer that there was no scaffolding on the north side of the building come the start of semester 1 2012.

From February 2012 the Hawkins teams will start work on Level 11 and work their way down the building over the year. Level 7 will be cleared first and fitted out with shelving. Bookstock will then be moved from level 11 and placed on the shelves on level 7. The floor will then be cleared and all work completed before the shelving and books go back. The type of work planned is – new windows and frames, new carpet, walls painted, replacement of heavy ceiling tiles, probably changes to the heating system and maybe changes to the lights. Final decisions on the amount of work on each level has not been made. The building should look fantastic when all of the work is completed sometime in 2013. In the meantime though we do have to work through a period of noise and disruption. All book movements will be handled by the Hawkins contract staff rather than the library staff. Any questions get in touch. Joan Simpson

Please do not forward this information to the wider UC community at this time. Once the Library has a timeline for the work and we have made the final decisions regarding access – a message will go out to all. All stock will be accessible throughout the next year. However, at some times the access may be restricted to staff only or by appointment. Thanks Joan