North Wing 1

You are now in North Wing 1; that is the first floor of North Wing. This is what we call an 'open bookstack' meaning that it is open to readers who can fetched books, browse or work in here. North Wing features 7 floors, ground to floor 6 of bookstacks whereas the South Wing is only open from floors 3 to 6. South and North Front are both open from floors 1 to 6.

iDiscover will direct you to the correct location for the items that you need. Books are arranged by subject so many readers find that they only ever need to visit one or two floors of the building to find what they are looking for.

Locating books on these shelves can be tricky. The first thing to note is that books and hardbound volumes of journals have similar classmarks, but journals have a classmark which begins with the letter 'P'. So our first tip is to make sure that you're in the right section.

Next, we arrange volumes by size to utilise space. In a classmark that is represented by the letter in the middle - either a, b, c or d with 'a' being the largest and 'd' being the smallest books. So you will find all the a's grouped together and the same for b's, c's and d size books.

Once you have found which size you are looking for, you can then locate the correct classmark. If you find that the numbers run out before you have found your book, have a look around to see if there is an overflow. If the case you are in is near a lift or staircase, the sequence will often continue in cases behind these.

There is a telephone in most bookstacks which will automatically connect with the telephone at the helpdesk so if you can't find something, just lift the receiver to summon help.

Books from open stacks can be used anywhere in the library and are borrowable. If you want to reserve it, just fill in a reservation slip, tuck it inside the book and leave the book on a table where you will find it again.

You don't need to worry about reshelving the book once you have finished with it. Just leave it on the table and staff will shelve it.

Walk along North Wing 1 and go through the door at the end.