From the current Essex website
"This year we're refurbishing our iconic paternoster lift, with the aim of bringing it back into service for the start of academic year 2020/21. The lift will be fully restored with some added new safety features.
The paternoster has been an important part of our library since it first opened in 1967. It is one of just two lifts like it which are now left in the UK, so we’ve been planning the best way to make sure it can remain open and accessible for visitors to the Albert Sloman Library. It has been out of action since summer 2018, and work has been ongoing behind the scenes to organise resources and expertise to get it working again"