The National University of Ireland Maynooth opened its doors to a new library building on December 3rd 2012. This building increased library space on campus by 250% and increased seating capacity by 216% to almost 1500. Furthermore, it became the building with the largest concentration of PCs on campus. 

In tandem with the excellent opportunities we have in this new building we also face challenges regarding our current desk service model and the information services now on offer.  Our desk service has been redesigned in that our library assistants now work with dedicated computer assistants, we provide much more self-service, e.g, self-service issuing and returning of books and self-service laptops.

As we move towards a more self-service direction as well as a cashless desk and a decreasing of our reserve collection, we are in the fortunate position of being able to develop our desk services in terms of, for example, the use of new technology like ipads, new information and reference desk models and a changing desk service with a lot of potential for further development.

We would be interested in hearing from anyone who has implemented anything similar to this?  All feedback would be very welcome and much appreciated, I am happy to share findings with an overview of the responses I receive.  

Many thanks,
Laura Connaughton
Assistant Librarian Library Information Services
NUI, Maynooth - Ireland