University of the Arts London consists of five internationally renowned colleges: Camberwell College of Arts, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London College of Communication and London College of Fashion. Drawing upon more than 150 years of experience, they are Europe's largest university for art, design, fashion, communication and the performing arts; comprising more than 24,000 students from over 100 countries.
The University is at the forefront of learning, creativity and practice in their specialist subjects and was recently rated by the Sunday Times University Guide as the UK's 'Best Higher Education College'; having twice been short listed as 'University of the Year'.
The Project Background
The University has a wide number of resources available for use by students as part of their courses. Specifically, the University makes available for use a number of Studios, Studio Equipment and a wide range of other Mobile Equipment. The value of this equipment is high and the demand for them by students is equally high. Added to this, lecturers and technical staff also require access to the equipment.
Control of the use of this equipment had become an extremely laborious and difficult task for the University. Hundreds of users were requiring equipment on a daily basis. The nature of the activity, particularly photo shoots, meant that plans and requirements would change from day to day. Priorities were needed to determine the fair use of equipment amongst students in different phases of their course; and amongst university staff. Added to this was the complication that some equipment was mobile while other equipment was only available if the student had booked a studio where this equipment could be used.
Netmedia’s Solution
The solution provided by NetMedia is a highly functional, internet based, equipment booking system.
Using the internet, bookings can still be made through the existing channels (the University Library) but students and staff can now also book online through a private, password protected website. This provides far greater flexibility for users to see what is available and to book equipment that is available at short notice, or from home, or when it is outside library hours etc. This flexibility was a prerequisite for the project and something which only an internet based solution was able to provide.
The new system also means that the workload of the Library staff has been dramatically reduced. This is further improved by introducing bar code identifiers which automate the ‘passing out’ and ‘retuning’ of equipment. Similarly, by providing a reporting mechanism, reporting on the use of equipment is also automated e.g. equipment currently on hire, equipment overdue for return etc.
By introducing a login area, the system is also able to identify users, ascertain their booking privileges vis-à-vis other students and other staff and prioritise bookings accordingly.
The Booking System delivered to the university is highly functional but still provides them with the ability to administer it by themselves. For example, they have the ability to add new equipment, remove obsolete equipment or equipment in for repair and set new booking privileges for individual groups or individual users. Just as importantly, they are able to update the system’s users every year as new students enrol on their courses.
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