A presentation given at the EMALINK seminar on 18th February 2009 describing an ethnographic study of an open plan learning space at Loughborough University.
What are students doing in our library? EMALINK 18 February 2009
1. What are students doing in our library? Undergraduates & social learning space at Loughborough Jo Bryant 18 Feb 2009
2. “ libraries throughout history have been extraordinarily successful social spaces” Brian Lang, former director of the British Library
3. Some people define libraries in terms of a physical space ; for some, it is an intellectual space , an experience; and for others, the community space , a place where interaction becomes most important. Each of these aspects has changed and will continue to change in sometimes radical ways.... Barbara Doyle-Wilch, Dean of Library and Information Services, Middlebury College, Vermont, USA
7. Assessment methods for the BSc (Hons) programme in Information & Business Management at Loughborough Changes in Teaching & Learning 14 9 5 24 Total 7 - - 4 3 4 3 2 9 2 3 5 3 11 1 Individual Assignment Group Assignment Presentation Exam/Test Year of Study Assessment Type
18. Some areas more popular than others. People who want to stay a long time gravitate towards the back of the library Threshold spaces near the café and the main entrance less popular – noisier.
31. References Quote by Brian Lang from Lang, B., 2001. Library buildings for the new millennium. In : Bisbrouck, M., ed. Library buildings in a changing environment: proceedings of the eleventh seminar of the IFLA section in library buildings and equipment, Shanghai, China, 14-18 August 1999. Munich: K.G. Saur, 2001, pp.11-17. Quote by Barbara Doyle Welch from What is a library? in Transformations: The liberal arts in the digital age , [accessed 10/02/2009] A journal paper based on this project has just been published: Bryant, J., Matthews, G., and Walton, G., ‘Academic libraries and social and learning space: A case study of Loughborough University Library, UK’. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, ( 41), 7-18. The MSc dissertation is available online via the Loughborough University Institutional Repository .
