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Access to quality learning resources and information technology is an essential part of your university experience and at the Luton campus this is given a high priority.
Built in 1997, our £8m Learning Resources Centre (LRC) offers a modern learning environment with over 300 networked PCs within a traditional university library service. Expanding over four floors, the Centre's glass facade looks out over the beautiful medieval church of St Mary's - where our graduations ceremonies are held.
The LRC has recently invested into a new social learning space that will enable students to study in a relaxed environment. The new space offers booths that are equipped with interactive whiteboards, which are ideal for group work and brain storming.
In addition, the social space offers wireless internet connection, areas of low relaxed seating, and adjustable furniture to suit students' needs. These new state-of-the-art facilities cater for a variety for different learning styles.
Help-desk support is provided on two floors, where friendly staff are available to guide you in using the Centre. For more specialised enquiries about library searches students may make an appointment to speak to one of our academic liaison librarians.
We also offer training workshops in basic and more advanced IT, for those of you who want to brush up on your IT skills.
We work with our users to provide places for silent individual study in the Centre, together with areas where students can feel comfortable working in groups.
Our collection of printed books and journals is a new and developing one, with more than 200,000 books in the University collections and 9,000 journal titles. The majority of our journals are also available in electronic versions, so that if a recent copy of a journal is unavailable on the library shelves, you may be able to find it available at one of our networked computers.
Every computer in the Centre gives you access to an extensive range of applications. Microsoft Office is universal, with inexpensive, high-speed networked printing. Every student is given an individual email account with file store.
The network offers access to more than 100 digital information sources, providing subject indexes and abstracts to scholarly publications and the full-text versions of some national newspapers, academic journals and government reports. Internet access is provided widely throughout the Centre, and network access is available throughout all our hours of opening, which are for seven days a week through the teaching year and past midnight to 2.00am Monday to Thursday.
Elsewhere on the Luton campuses there are extensive audio-visual and media resources, including television and audio studios, photographic darkrooms, and a loan service for photographic equipment and video cameras.
The University manages a second Learning Resources Centre at Putteridge Bury.
This contains the same mix of traditional library resources with networked computers. As the Centre provides for a much smaller range of subjects than Park Square it is considerably smaller, but still has 40 networked computers and 15,000 books.
Finally there is the impressive learning resources provision made for health studies.
On four hospital sites in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, the University maintains an extensive collection of books, more than 24,000, together with a wide range of journals and digital library sources.
The University has invested in video-conferencing facilities that link these distant sites. These facilities are also being used in the University to give our students the opportunity to talk to students in North America, South Africa and elsewhere in the world.
The Learning Resources Centre
T: +44 (0)1582 743488 General Enquiries
T: +44 (0)1582 743262 To renew borrowed items - automated service
Renew books online here
F: +44 (0)1582 489325
W: lrweb.beds.ac.uk
Or Log an enquiry via SiD Online
Student Information Desk
0300 300 0042
