Summary of this petition:

• The SPS Library is a community space that is loved by the students who use it and the Librarians who run it and we wish for the University to reconsider its decision or find an alternative solution to moving it to the Seeley.
• Whilst the loss of the community is the most important thing we wish to preserve we also believe there will be a loss of available resources for students.
• We also conceive of Accessibility issues arising from moving the current resources to the Library

In light of the recent announcement that the Social and Political Science Library will be discontinuing its current use the end of this academic year, this petition has been created to show support for alternative arrangements to the one given to move the collection to the Seeley Library. The Library’s building site allegedly has structural issues, which if true, means the space can no longer be used the way it currently is.
 
The SPS Library, located in New Museums Site, is an essential part of the POLIS, Sociology, Social Anthropology and Psychology Departments’ assets, providing a varied collection of books of which several copies exist. Being so centrally located, it is home to a vibrant community of HSPS Undergraduate students and post-graduates from various departments, every day there are familiar faces and the friendliest Library staff, which forms what can genuinely be described as a community. The decorations and displays used to promote relevant causes and actions organised by the SPS Student Body, placed all over the Library, add to its community atmosphere which would be completely lost if its resources were moved to the Seeley Library. The staff also have Blankets for students to use and usually have biscuits and bakes for students to help themselves too. The Seeley Library’s seating arrangement is far more spread out, which reinforces an isolating experience, a condemnation regularly held against this University. It also has various accessibility issues due to it having so many floors to use to reach books, whilst the Librarian Desks are so distant from the work spaces that it is difficult to relate to the space on a human level, making you feel more like you’re in a cold institution opposed to the community space currently at the SPS.
 
The Library is home to a broad supply of physical books of which there are multiple copies, many of which are not available on iDiscover and certainly not in colleges with smaller library facilities. Moving all of the books to the Seeley Library would also see a loss of parts of the collection if there is deemed a surplus of copies of any one book. The SPS also has a similar number of computers as the Seeley, all of which would mean a reduction of the number of computer facilities, which would have an impact on students with financial difficulties and do not have a personal computer to use. The proposed plans would also see the need for too many categorising systems at the Seeley Library, which will become not just an organisational nightmare but would also pose various problems for students with accessibility needs.
 
Moving the SPS Library to the Seeley Library would see the erosion of a core community that enables a continued point of connection for a large portion of the Student Body. It would further alienate people who feel that Seeley is too far from their own colleges or lectures to go to and who find its atmosphere and layout too disparate for them to feel integrated.
 
Above all we believe that it is possible to continue using the SPS Library as it currently is and want to push for this as the outcome of our campaign.

Therefore, we below believe it is in the interest of the department and the University to keep the SPS Library as it is and if this not possible find an alternative solution.