Aston University offers a 40 acre campus based right in the heart of Birmingham, boasting a population of 9,500 students. It offers its students world-class teaching facilities and fantastic graduate employment prospects.
During term time and exam periods, the university offers its students access to the library 24 hours a day, six days a week, and the library has a recognised award for its Customer Service Excellence.
The university library found that outside of staffed hours, they were unable to offer their students use of library laptops. That is when they approached LapSafe® Products to find the right Diplomat™ LMS solution to suit their needs.
Angela Brady, Assistant Director of Library and Information Services stated: “Before purchasing the LapSafe® Diplomat™ LMS, our laptops were only available for students to borrow during staffed hours. The university library wanted to be able to enhance the offering to students during 24 hour opening, by allowing them access to the laptops even if staff were not available.”
This is when the university library decided to purchase a 48 laptop bay Diplomat™ LMS to integrate with their existing library management system Millennium, to manage the laptop loans. As Angela continues: “We were attracted to the product because of its self-service aspect, allowing the library to extend services outside of staffed hours. Our students love the product. The mechanical installation of the unit was also timely and very straight forward.”
Today in the university library, around 200 laptop loans are transacted every single day. Angela said: “I would recommend the LapSafe® Diplomat™ LMS to other universities who want to maximise self service. Once the students have mastered the process of borrowing a laptop, they love the convenience of using the self-service lockers.”