Project Information

What They Said: Students at the University of Birmingham will have a brand new place to study in the new academic year, after Carillion handed over their new state-of-the-art library.

The £42m building will provide outstanding facilities for a new generation of students and researchers, as well as a cultural hub for the University and the city, with some services also available to the public.

With 12km of open access shelving, housing 400,000 books and publications, the new library overlooks the green heart of the university and will be an inspirational place of learning, embracing new and emerging technologies. Study and research desks have been located near to the windows in the building to allow users to benefit from natural light and the views across the campus.

The library provides a variety of learning spaces and includes a state-of-the-art audio listening room and four video editing suite booths to enhance the existing facilities already available on campus.

The new library will offer a 50 per cent reduction in energy usage compared to the old library, contributing to helping the university to achieve its 20 per cent CO2 reduction by 2020. It has a BREEAM excellent rating.

Paul Reynolds, Carillion regional director said: “We are delighted to have reached this milestone stage and handed over the library which sits at the very heart of the campus and will provide state-of-the-art facilities for the university and will be a truly inspirational place to work and study.”

Diane Job, director of library services at the University of Birmingham, said: “This new library is transformational. The opening of the building will be the culmination of a lot of hard work behind the scenes to organise our incredible resources in ways which will allow our students and staff to take advantage of new ways of working and access the considerable amount of materials we hold in the most straightforward way.

“The new library will be the most fantastic space for students and researchers to be able to interact with these resources – and we are so excited to see this project come to fruition.”