MARGARET THATCHER LIBRARY LOSES ITS ACCOLADE

Recently, Margaret Thatcher library has failed to serve its intended purpose to the students. A survey conducted since the beginning of February shows how students struggle to make reading meaningful while in the library in order to focus their concentration on their studies. The library known to accommodate the capacity of 5,000 readers is now a limited facility that has empty shelves and insufficient chairs.

As the number of students enrolled in the University increases, the facilities available remains constant, now what you find in every corner you go is a long queue. The library was the only hope for students after accommodation facilities failed to serve them. They believed that the library will assist them in their studies by offering quality facilities for comfortable studying but this is not the case. 

The library has poor lighting as most fluorescent tubes stopped functioning and were never replaced. These force students to crowd on one area in order to get enough lighting for their studies. 

As if that is not enough, the ports for charging laptops stopped functioning. This has made students to carry with them extensions to the library in order to power their devices.

Students waste a substantial amount of time whenever they go to the library, “going to the library gives me a hiccup, I spent almost an hour to settle,” Stella, a student from the school of engineering acknowledges. She spends a whole hour looking for a chair or a place to settle since she uses her laptop for studies and finding space for a power source is a challenge.

Most books available in Margaret Thatcher Library have less content as they are not up to date, they are not trendy and terming them as obsolete is the only way to explain their state. Scientific books available lack the recent scientific innovations. The OPAC system is rarely useful as most of the times students use the system they don’t locate the book in the shelves. Books on fields such as journalism and digital transmission are not available.

It has been a tradition for the library to face difficulties in accommodating students during exam period but now it has proofed its in capabilities during early and mid sections of the semester. Students cannot study in their abodes since power availability is not guaranteed. At the same time, reading chairs and tables are scarce and can’t serve all the members in a room. There are chances of the situation worsening when the students shall be preparing for their end of semester examinations.