From 2016 to 2020, ten smaller schools in one regional library consortium participated in a user needs assessment project. This article documents the process for implementing a collaborative user needs assessment by utilizing the shared interest and enthusiasm of a team of librarians to create a consortial toolkit. The toolkit supplied direction…

This article explores the library space needs and wants of graduate and undergraduate students at a medium-size state University in Southwest Florida. The researcher conducted a sequential explanatory mixed methods study in which they administered a survey to all currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate students at the university and followed…

The University of Oregon (UO) Libraries recently launched the campus's first ideation room, the Innovation, Design, Education, and Aspire (IDEA) Space. The IDEA Space differentiates from other creative spaces such as makerspaces, digital humanities labs, and media centres by its focus on the intellectual aspects of the design thinking process --…

Researchers in the Graduate and Undergraduate Services (GUS) department at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah designed and created a collaborative service interaction space to alleviate symptoms of library anxiety. This plan led to several iterations of purchase and renovation proposals. After a lengthy design period, the…

A recent focus in academic library design is as a third place: a home from home. Research has yet to interrogate what it means to be "at home,, and if academic libraries are treated like, and feel like home to students. Seamon's model provides a framework for understanding the qualities associated with homeness, across the five dimensions of…

Recent ethnographic research of physical academic library spaces demonstrates that students often utilise these spaces quite differently than the library's staff may have originally intended. Student feedback in library remodelling efforts improves design outcomes and helps to foster a sense of student engagement with the larger academic…

This study examines how students are using academic library spaces and the role these spaces are playing in the campus community. Data were collected on five campuses (two community colleges, two undergraduate universities, and one technical institute) via observational seating sweeps and questionnaires. The study found remarkably similar usage…

This article presents a case of co-designed temporary learning spaces at a Finnish academic library, together with the results of a user-survey. The experimental development of the multifunctional spaces offered an opportunity for the library to collaborate with its parent organisation thus broadening the role of the library. Hence, library can be…

University libraries have had to provide acceptable noise levels for many years and this pressure has not diminished in the twenty-first century. Library space has to be utilized to ensure noise levels are best managed. A study was undertaken across four university libraries in South Florida to determine how universities utilized their limited…

A 1979 Systems and Procedures Exchange Center (SPEC) survey investigated the development, management, and staffing of microform collections in Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions. Survey results indicate that the major types of microform holdings are government publications, large publishers' sets, and back runs of…

This report documents an investigation which was conducted to determine how the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) Library can best use its facilities, space, and equipment to meet the needs of users; provide a safe, comfortable workplace for staff; and house and protect its collections. The task force methodology is described, and…