This presentation was provided by Joan Lippincott of The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), during Session Eight of the NISO training series "Assessment Practices and Metrics in a 21st Century Pandemic," held on November 6, 2020.
Lippincott "Library Spaces: The Pandemic's Final Frontier"
1. Library Spaces:
The Pandemic’s Final Frontier
Joan Lippincott, Associate Executive Director Emerita
Coalition for Networked Information
2020 Assessment Practices and Metrics
for a 21st Century Pandemic:
A NISO Webinar Training Series
3. Topics
❖ Space and the pandemic
❖ Space assessment basics
❖ Mission-driven assessment
❖Learning
❖Research/Digital scholarship
❖Community, inclusion
❖Wrap-up
4. Closure as assessment
opportunity
“What would you do, as an assessment librarian, if in
one afternoon your entire main library suddenly closed
for more than a year?”
“Demonstrating library value was easy when suddenly
the library was unavailable, but it created heartbreaking
hardship to the university community. The opportunities
for reconfiguring services, collections, and the facility
are unprecedented and must be fully leveraged.”
Paper at LAC2020
6. Space and the pandemic
Library spaces are closed or space use is
greatly limited
Advances of decades of change are
particularly threatened
Collaborative, social spaces
Technology-rich environments
Open stacks
7. Space and the pandemic
Was the library space pivot much less successful than
the digital collections/services pivot?
Some (partial) successes
Reconfiguration of equipment loan
Access to wifi
Reconfiguration of public spaces
Re-purposing of library spaces
What should we document and assess about these
changes?
8. Space and the pandemic
Pandemic has heightened awareness of the
community/social/engagement aspects of
campus life
How do libraries use this awareness as an
opportunity?
How can this assist the library in being
considered high priority for building/renovation
funds when available?
9. Pandemic and space
University of Michigan Library study preliminary results
“What is more difficult?” 66% undergrads named work/study
space
“Expressions of loss, now that the Library’s physical
spaces and collections are not accessible. This was a
consistent theme for undergraduate and graduate students,
who expressed by the hundreds that the Library provides
them with motivating spaces to focus on their individual and
collaborative work. This was also a theme for many faculty
members, who described the importance of being able to
browse the collections to find needed materials for their
work.”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P18R0ihRdmMF6PrdgMbi8Z_8dmU_a_CKhTzT12F0GLQ/edit#
10. Pandemic and space
What should we be thinking about assessing now?
Adaptability of library spaces
Public
Staff
Method
Area by area analysis by selective factors
Moveable furniture
Air circulation
Automatic doors, lighting
11. Pandemic and space
How will you demonstrate the value of
library spaces and promote the
continuing investment in library spaces
as an institutional priority?
What data should we be thinking about
collecting as students and faculty return
to campus? Your thoughts?
12. Library space assessment basics:
Standard data collection
Gate counts
Counting use of seats
Counting use of equipment
Counting use of software
Counting use of group study rooms
13. National initiatives
LibQUAL+
Space becoming more important to users
ACRL Project Outcome
Basic toolkit including some questions on space
acrl.projectoutcome.org › projectoutcomeflyer_2019_v2
ARL Library Impact Pilots – Space
https://www.arl.org/research-library-impact-pilots-2/library-
spaces/
14. Standard methodologies
Whiteboard questions
How would you improve this space?
Is this space meeting your needs?
Sandbox/experimental spaces
Furniture with questionnaire
New equipment with interviews
15. Assessment basics
What do we know about what
students like?
Surveys including LibQual
Focus groups
Diaries/photo studies
Light
Power and wifi
Both solo and collaborative spaces
Lots of writing surfaces
16. Assessment basics
What do we know about how
students work/spend their time
Diaries/photo studies
Focus groups
Some students spend many hours in the library
Individual students have individual behavior patterns
17. How do you use basic space
data?
Trend lines, including during pandemic
Benchmarking
Capacity issues
Assessing continued need for equipment
Your thoughts?
19. Assessment in these areas is
complex
The impact of space alone is difficult to
isolate
The impact of what we think of as “space”
may be a combination of the physical
facility, technology, programs, and
expertise
20. Thinking about what matters
For libraries, “studying” has been the
clearest link to space and learning
outside the classroom
Do we want to broaden and/or deepen
the links to learning?
Support of specific programs
Support of capstone projects or
undergraduate research
Support of creativity through new media
21. How do students perceive their use of
different types of spaces?
Taylor Family Digital Library,
U. Calgary
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/c
gi/viewcontent.cgi?article=21
30&context=iatul
22. Library spaces and learning
What do faculty need in order to
create new types of assignments for
their courses
Class assignments determine what
kind of learning activities students
engage in for much of their time
outside of class
23. What kind of spaces do students need for
particular kinds of work?
Duke University - The Edge
24. Needs Assessment:
Lead Users
“We found that even at the undergraduate level, lead users
are attempting to discover new modes of visualizing and
communicating their work. In this instance, the lead user
was a member of the library’s student advisory board and a
chemical engineering major seeking to visualize chemical
engineering data. There exist many visualization spaces on
campus but they are typically housed in secure
departmental labs, so we designed a suite of spaces and
services available to everyone in order to support digital
scholarship, whether through visualization, high
performance computing, or even retro-technologies.”
Ameet Doshi and Elliot Felix. Lead Users: A Predictive Framework for Designing Library Services and Spaces
LAC 2016
25. Thinking about institutional context
• Looking at spaces at the
institutional level
– Ex: Can students easily find
collaborative spaces in
which to work?
• Looking at specialized
facilities at the institutional
level
– Ex: Is the Engineering
makerspace open to all?
• Analyzing new programs
offered by colleges or
departments
– Ex: Are more departments
incorporating use of GIS in
student assignments?
26. Thinking about institutional interest
in assessment
• What is important to your institution?
– Student success
– Persistence at the institution
– Establishing a sense of community
– New learning goals
– Undergraduate research
27. Thinking about institutional interest
in assessment
• National Survey of Student Engagement
(NSSE)
• AAC&U Liberal Education and America’s
Promise (LEAP)
• National Institute for Learning Outcomes
Assessment (NILOA)
28. Partners in assessment
Campus
– Office of Undergraduate Education
– Center for Teaching & Learning
– Office of Institutional Research
– Faculty in departments with “methods”
classes
– Campus initiatives
– Office of Undergraduate Research
– Student Success Center
– ESL Office
30. Library Stories: NC State
• “The Visualization
Studio makes possible a
rich presentation of
knowledge and a more
interactive environment
for its communication,”
McManus says. “I was
immediately struck by
the creative potential it
offered students in my
ethnographic research
methods course.”
lib.ncsu.edu/stories
32. Needs assessment for digital
scholarship
Background reading
Faculty interviews and survey
Library staff interviews
Peer institution interviews
Brenner, Aaron. Audit of ULS Support for Digital Scholarship. University of Pittsburgh, 2014.
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/25034/
33. Focus on digital scholarship
https://www.cni.org/events/cni-workshops/digital-scholarship-planning-2020-webinar-series/assessment-needs-and-ongoing
34. Ongoing assessment of digital
scholarship program
Data gathered
Event attendance
Space headcounts
Room reservations
Describes how they use data
Ongoing assessment of
program in relation to
strategic priorities
https://www.cni.org/events/cni-workshops/digital-scholarship-planning-2020-webinar-series/assessment-needs-and-ongoing
35. Digital scholarship
How important are physical spaces?
An opportunity to assess
What to measure?
Access to equipment
Access to expertise
Access to programs
Building community
Your thoughts?
36. Digital scholarship
What data is being collected and
disseminated?
What data is included with overall reference,
consultation, instruction transactions?
Which staff are included?
What else should be documented?
Number of projects (how defined?)
Grant funds received
37. Digital scholarship
University of Calgary study
Mellon-funded
Faculty completed assessment
What did the library contribute to their project, e.g.
collections, space?
What did library staff contribute to their project?
https://www.cni.org/topics/assessment/redesigning-the-researcher-library-
experience-case-studies-key-questions
39. Libraries and community
The library as a safe gathering place
The library’s role in welcoming
underserved groups
Do we know what matters and how to
assess whether our spaces provide a
sense of community?
40. Community, inclusion
A sense of belonging
Correlation with persistence and improved grades
Under-studies topic in libraries
“Mapping the Sense of Belonging in Library Spaces”
Ted Chocock, College of Southern Nevada
Studied community college & research university
Qualitative methods
Paper at LAC 2020
41. Does this space provide a sense of
community for undergrad commuting students?
Odegaard Library – University of Washington
42. Which sub-
populations should
you study?
What kinds of spaces
would encourage
students to spend more
time learning outside of
class?
Family Study Space, Robarts Library, U. Toronto
https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/family-study-space-robarts
43. Space assessment - 1st
generation students
Qualitative study
3 progressive interviews with students
Photos and diary
Questionnaire/demographics
“Students perceive the library as a place of enduring
academic knowledge that is signaled through the historic
architecture and the grandeur of design, and supports their
academic success.”
The library fosters a social and academic community
beneficial to her work.
“…a lot of students who use the library know that the true
learning that they get for their degree comes from here, from
their research and the time they spend studying.”
Karen Neurohr and Lucy Bailey, “First-Generation Undergraduate Students and Library Spaces.” Assessing
Library Space for Learning. Ed. By Susan Montgomery. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
44. How one library promoted a
sense of community
Architectural
elements
Artwork
Gathering places
Social events
https://www.cni.org/events/cni-workshops/digital-scholarship-planning-2020-webinar-series/diversity-equity-and-inclusion
45. Bringing the community into
the library
School and summer
programs
Introducing under-
served students to
technology
What is the impact?
On the students
On the university
https://www.cni.org/events/cni-workshops/digital-scholarship-planning-2020-webinar-series/initiatives-in-teaching-learning
46. Wrap-up
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to
gather data
Consider what is important to your
institution
Think about what data (quantitative and
qualitative) you’ll need to tell the library’s
story as we emerge from the pandemic
47. Discussion
Are there other space-related topics you’d like
me to discuss?
Do you have some good practice in library
space assessment to share?