Purpose – This paper aims to inform design strategies for smart space technology to enhance libraries as environments for coworking and informal social learning. The focus is on understanding user motivations, behaviour, and activities in the library when there is no programmed agenda.Design/methodology/approach – The study analyses gathered data over five months of ethnographic research at The Edge – a “bookless” library space at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, that is explicitly dedicated to coworking, social learning, peer collaboration, and creativity around digital culture and technology.Findings – The results present five personas that embody people's main usage patterns as well as motivations, attitudes, and perceived barriers to social learning. It appears that most users work individually or within pre‐organised groups, but usually do not make new connections with co‐present, unacquainted users. Based on the personas, four hybrid design dimensions are suggested to improve ...

Libraries as coworking spaces: Understanding user motivations and perceived barriers to social learning

Many academic institutions have benefited from new, expanded, renovated, or reconfigured facilities since the mid-1990s. Given current concerns about the future of the physical library and the nature of space needs, it is important to know what improvements have been made in recent facility projects and what impact these improvements have had on use of the physical library. Based on findings from a survey of 354 academic libraries, this article describes the types of projects undertaken and the kinds of improvements provided. A companion article describing the impact of these improvements on usage of the physical facility is in preparation.

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Creating a Better Place: Physical Improvements in Academic Libraries, 1995–2002

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a high‐level investigation of the physical‐conceptual continuum occupied by both digital and physical libraries.Design/methodology/approach – A framework is provided for thinking about the notions of place and library. The issue of materials and the ideas they represent is considered. Places for people are considered, including issues of people's sense of place in physical and digital spaces. The issue of physical and digital spaces as places for work, collaboration, and community‐building is considered.Findings – As more digital libraries are built, and as more physical libraries offer electronic access to parts of their collection, two trends are likely to result: the role of the library as a storage space for materials will become decreasingly important; and the role of the library as a space for users, for individual and collaborative work, and as a space for social activity, will become increasingly important.Research limitations/implications – Digita...

The digital library as place

The dawn of the Internet era has prompted many researchers to investigate changes in the use of academic libraries, but most studies explore student use, rather than faculty use, of library space. In contrast, this study surveys use of the academic library space among faculty and doctoral students and explores the phenomenological differences between using library space and using the library remotely. The authors hypothesized that older scholars (by age and by “scholarly age,” as measured by the year in which the scholar’s last academic degree was earned) would report greater use of the physical library and less use of the library’s electronic resources and would make more positive statements about the physical space than would younger scholars. In three of the four major themes that emerged from the qualitative survey data, this hypothesis is supported. However, in the fourth theme, “conduciveness to scholarship,” the opposite position was supported. Younger scholars were far more likely than older scholars to make statements reflecting the idea that the physical library is a unique place that facilitates the kind of concentration necessary for doing serious scholarly work.

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Conduciveness to Scholarship: The Essence of Academic Library as Place

This paper discusses Google Scholar as an extension of Kilgour’s goal to improve the availability of information. Kilgour was instrumental in the early development of the online library catalog, and he proposed passage retrieval to aid in information seeking. Google Scholar is a direct descendent of these technologies foreseen by Kilgour. Google Scholar holds promise as a means for libraries to expand their reach to new user communities, and to enable libraries to provide quality resources to users during their online search process.

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Google Scholar and 100 Percent Availability of Information

The value of the library as place is examined in this Janet Doe Lecture The lecture, which is intended to focus on the history or philosophy of health sciences librarianship, presents an overview of the library as a place in society from ancient times to the present The impact of information technology and changes in the methods of scholarly publication from print to digital are addressed as well as the role of the library as the repository of the written historical record of cultures Functions and services of libraries are discussed in light of the physical library facility of the future Finally, librarians are asked to remember the enduring values of librarianship in planning libraries of the future

Being there: the library as place.

Information technologies are changing the traditional role of the library from that of a repository of information to that of an aggressive provider of information services utilizing electronic methods. In many cases, the library cannot realistically achieve this transformation independently but must work with the computer center to reach its objectives. Various models of the integration of libraries and computer centers are thus emerging. At the University of Maryland at Baltimore the Health Sciences Library and the Information Resources Management Division have developed a partnership based on functional relationships without changing the organizational structure. Strategic planning for an Integrated Academic Information Management System (IAIMS) acted as a catalyst in the process. The authors present the evolution of the partnership and discuss current projects being developed jointly by the two units.

Part III. Implementation of integrated information services. Library/computer center partnership

The opening of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, in April, 1998, was a highly anticipated event With its unique architecture and stunning interior features, it is a signature building for the university in downtown Baltimore The building is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, but has a warm, inviting atmosphere making it a focal point for the campus community Its highly functional, flexible design will serve the staff and users well into the twenty-first century

The Health Sciences and Human Services Library: "this is one sweet library".

The University of Maryland at Baltimore (UMAB) is in the midst of planning a new health sciences library/information services building! The planning process for a new health sciences library is described, including the components of the process and the planning team. The UMAB planning experience, with thirteen tips for a successful process, are presented.

Frieda O. Weise

Papers

Being there: the library as place.

Part III. Implementation of integrated information services. Library/computer center partnership

The Health Sciences and Human Services Library: "this is one sweet library".

The building-planning process: tips from the UMAB experience. University of Maryland at Baltimore.

Building the library/information center of the future