Capital City College Group (CCCG) is London’s largest further education and training provider with over 30,000 students and almost 2,000 staff who educate students every day. CCCG comprises three of London’s largest and most popular colleges – City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College, and the College of Haringey, Enfield, and Northeast London. The Group also includes a bespoke training provider, Capital City College Training (CCCT) which provides workforce development support and around 100 apprenticeship programmes to organisations located in London. 

During the COVID-19 lockdown, the colleges came up against some challenges in how they loaned out their books to students and enabled staff to work from home. Like many educational institutions, their service delivery was affected by the closing of on-campus services and libraries. To make library materials more accessible, the colleges began to widen their online resources, with City and Islington College moving to an entirely online service. The move to an entirely online service was a difficult process, and after the lockdown lifted the colleges adapted to a blended delivery of teaching.  

The challenge for D-Tech was to supply a personalised and tailored solution that allowed the college libraries to reflect that of the blended delivery of teaching and elevate the college’s click-and-collect system.    

All colleges have a mixture of D-Tech’s serveIT models and processIT staff stations to ensure smooth programming of stock and eliminate any false reads of library materials when monitoring stock.   

Dominic McCabe, Senior Assistant at The College of Haringey, Enfield and North London (CONEL) said;   

“We didn’t experience any problems during the installation. It was done with minimal disruption at both sites. The installers were polite and professional, and we were very happy with the service.   

“There hasn’t been any negative feedback from staff or students and library staff has found the system simple and intuitive to use. Students have had no issues and have found the new self-issue machines easy to use. We would recommend D-Tech due to their fast, professional installation and ease of use.”   

Mohamed Abdulkarim, Lead Learning Centre Facilitator of Westminster Kingsway College said;   

“At first, we had a problem related to zip2, institution, and site location. This problem was from our side, but despite that, we found unlimited cooperation from D-Tech in solving the problem and this was done in a short period of time.   

“D-Tech contacted our LMS provider on behalf of our site and the problem was resolved immediately. D-Tech provides a seamless service, from their fast user-face interface to their customer service skills, any issues are resolved swiftly. All help provided is useful and informative, and we would definitely recommend their product and service.  

Returning and borrowing books is so much easier and simpler with the use of D-Tech’s products. The touch screen menu options are very simple and easy to follow and make the process of borrowing/returning books hassle-free.” 

To improve student experience during blended teaching, D-Tech supplied a mixture of self-service units and processing staff stations for all three college libraries. Students are now able to borrow and return books by simply placing library materials on the unit’s checkout area. The serveIT units offer an enhanced user experience, complete with a large touch screen, easy-to-follow instructions, and multi-payment functionalities.   

Students attending college at CCCG now have improved accessibility to physical library materials, due to the fast and efficient checkout process granted by D-Tech’s self-service units.