Check how busy library spaces are before you decide where to study 

We know how difficult it can be sometimes to find the right space to study. We provide a variety of different spaces to suit your study preferences and needs, but we’re aware that some of them are very popular. 

To help you decide where to study, we’re running a short occupancy monitoring trial for the next couple of months in 4 of our library spaces: St Mary’s College Library, the King James Library, JF Allen Library and Walter Bower House Library. Sensors have been installed in each of these locations to provide real-time information about how many people are in the space. 

To give it a try, head to the Library spaces page, decide which library you want to check, then click on ‘how busy will it be?’

You can view this real-time information, as well as a forecast of how busy it’s likely to be during upcoming hours (based on data from previous dates), by following the links in our Library spaces pages. We’ve also got information in each of these spaces to show you where to look this up online. 

We hope to collect information during the trial to see whether this is helpful to you as you make decisions about where to study, as well as to give us a better idea on how well used each of these spaces is. Do let us know what you think via our feedback form. The trial ends on 31 October. 

Occupancy information on the Main Library continues to be available from the Library home page.