JDH Library – Qualitative Visioning Questions

During a series of concentrated meetings, the library staff considered the following questions in an attempt to get at what we want the library to become. The answers are presented both in text and graphically.

1. What would you like areas to look / feel like?

Warm; inviting; intellectual; purposeful; connected. People want to feel smarter just by proximity to the books.

2. When patrons walk in, what do they see? What makes it enticing?

When people enter the library, we want a space that welcomes them and draws them farther into the library. The gathering space should be welcoming and large enough for people to feel comfortable congregating, but have a focus (fish tanks and fireplaces have been mentioned!). Having a place to wait out of the weather is important, since we clearly can't ignore our climate. As they come in, however, we also want them to see clearly where they are - the Library. We want them to readily be able to locate whatever they came here for, be it to check out a book, meet for group study, use the computers, or socialize. Bringing light and warmth into the building will be a central goal.

3. What is the sequence of the use of technology or services required?

a. Entry/Gathering space will be a busy place where students can work while waiting for group members, grab something to eat, or bask in the sun. A digital information sign will keep them in touch with events on campus, but comfortable furnishings will also encourage them to stay.
b. The functional areas for Reference / ILL/ Reserves/ Circulation Desk need to be central or near the doors, as they constitute the first and last uses of the building by patrons.
c. Study areas, research areas – we need a mixture of both ‘hidden’ and public, social spaces scattered throughout the building. Millenials, as a generation, expect to “see and be seen,” but we need to accommodate multiple learning styles, and some people still need study rooms for the discipline of school work.
d. Students expect to access all technology, all the time, wherever they are, instantly.
We want people to associate the library with technology, not old, dusty books. We need flexibly designed connections to computers (wireless, hard-wired, and whatever comes next) in all areas of the library.

4. Food area – what should this look like and how should it be used?

Millenials also assume creature comforts wherever they go. The Library recognizes that people want to be comfortable, like they are in bookstores. Providing areas for easy consumption of food and drink while studying or otherwise using the library is essential, whether we sell coffee and treats from a cart, provide a pick-up area for fast food delivery, or just have vending machines. If there is a designated gathering area that also accommodates eating and drinking, it also needs noise control. Students are always connected. They will be talking in person with their classmates and their cell phones, while simultaneously working on their laptop.

5. Learning Commons – what is it?

The Learning Commons refers to an area or areas in the Library (often adjacent to the Reference section), where students can get research and IT assistance, as well as access a full range of technological equipment. Individual and multi-person work stations for group work should allow scanning, editing capabilities (music, video and still), and color printing, as well as "software to facilitate analysis and visualization of data".

6. Welcome – how do we want patrons to feel?

The overall feel we want to convey is welcoming and collaborative in an inviting setting that reflects who we are and who we are becoming. We want visitors to the library to feel connected to the campus and to the generations before and after their years here. Because the ways in which this message is conveyed are many-layered, we created a 'feel of the library' diagram and outline, which speak to some of the details in each area.

7. What theme or themes do we want throughout the library?

We want the library to reflect who we are, and why we are "Superior": colors, displays and furnishings should reflect our region and our history - watery blues and forest greens; a busy port and a wide array of cultural influences, including Native American and international contacts. The more adventurous see fish tanks, water walls, and fire places in the library!

8. How would the library be used as a place that will produce knowledge for the future?

Making sure we plan adequately for changes in technology, so that students can use in their work: Audio, Video, wiring. Currently, there is not wireless capability in the basement. In planning for the future, we need to minimize or eliminate dead spots in the wireless network. We would also want the canteen area to be wireless, but have the ability to plug in your laptop too, including wireless access to printers.
(Felix) information commons, study rooms, Information literacy rooms.

9. Does it offer enough flexibility to allow for future change?

Historically, the first request for an addition to the library came within 5 years of the 1967/8 construction of the building. At that time, the campus was told to work on efficiencies and careful selection rather than being granted an addition. Budget constraints in the intervening years kept the collection growth down, but several years ago students graciously voted for a 'differential tuition' increase to support purchasing for the library. At the current rate, we are outgrowing our collection space faster than we can 'weed'; and many items have long-term value. Having internal walls that are NOT concrete block will help us to be more flexible for the future. Extending the current wireless capability, and trying to anticipate the demands of technological growth will enable us to rely on a growing amount of electronic access to resources.  We need to make the space as flexible as possible. And, although technology has slowed the rate of expansion, inadequate space will continue to be an issue for the library, and an addition is likely before long.

10. Who comes to the library and why do they come?

On and off-campus students; non-traditional and international students; potential students and their families; faculty and staff; visitors from other campuses; researchers who visit our special collections; and community members of all ages use the campus library for a a wide variety of purposes.

11. How are changes in classroom practices affecting library space and use?

"Backwards design" is a method for examining what teachers really want students to have learned when they leave a course. When the practice of Backwards Design is applied, often the class becomes 'student-centered' rather than 'teacher centered'. Classes also accommodate a variety of learning styles, not just the drone of a lecture. Key words are 'collaborative', 'interactive' and 'challenging'. This means that the shape and feel of learning spaces changes as well. There is no longer an authority figure lecturing from the front while students take notes. Instead, students collaborate to discover answers and applications under the guidance of a more knowledgeable mentor/teacher. In addition, the rapid change in technology means that students are 'post-literate' -- the world is so fast paced that they rely on multiple means to convey information; words, images, sounds. So the library needs to change to accommodate these. We are no longer a quiet place, but we still need to provide some areas for reflection. We need to be flexible, so that groups can come together and break apart and reform. We need to provide for all the possible technological applications they may want to use.

12. How might the library engage in the in-class experience?

Instruction in Information and Technology Literacy are common practice in the University today. There are multiple pathways to this goal: classes come to the library for assignment-driven library instruction; one-on-one assistance at the reference desk or by appointment with a librarian; via mass communication tools (telephone, chat functions) that raise the noise level in some areas; and librarians visiting the classroom across campus. A newer model is becoming more common as 'backwards design' is implemented. Faculty bring the entire class to the library for focused, in-class research time that reaches beyond a 1-hour session with the librarian. Often, librarians become co-teachers in this method. The implication for the library is that we need to be able to accommodate (potentially multiple) large groups congregating in open spaces for extended periods in noisy consultation. We also need to keep in mind the students who are not in the class, and make sure their experience is not degraded by the insertion of the large group into the same space.

13. Look at staffing differently – will there by new services and /or staff emphasis?

Our library is currently functioning short staffed, and offices for the current unoccupied positions have been accounted for in the building plans. However, we recognize that in the future the renovation will necessitate providing staffing on all floors (at least student workers), which may mean hiring more students. There will also be impact on the regular staff. We cannot currently meet the ideal staffing needs for evenings and weekends. The return of the Area Research Center (ARC – archives) will put additional strain on a split position; these researchers tend to require a great deal of one-on-one assistance. Because our staff already multi-task, it is essential that the offices are not scattered around the building but clustered, so one person may cover for another at various times throughout the day. Having online tutorials to walk users through library functions may help, but students won’t discover the tutorials on their own, nor will they take the steps of completing them unless there is either a 'stick' or a 'carrot' to persuade them. Also, it takes time to put tutorials online and keep them functioning – which quickly becomes an entire position in itself.

14. How does the library fit with the campus mission?

Our library is central to the Mission of the University. Although some departments use the library less than others, most acknowledge that access to information is the heart of all research, for students as well as faculty, while a student and throughout life. The Library participates in the Mission through multiple avenues, including information literacy instruction, writing across the curriculum, our campus emphasis through COPLAC and as the "public liberal arts campus of the UW-System on life-long learning, support of first year seminars and senior capstones, the McNair Scholars program, and distance education. We see ourselves as allies for and collaborators with students in their learning experiences, especially in our support of international students, off-campus students, and other non-traditional students. We would like the new library's ‘feel’ to reflect the same concern for multiple voices that we bring to our collections.