Talk given by Janine Schmidt at Li Ka Shing Library, Singapore Management University on Wednesday, 14 March 2012

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Fitting facilities for today’s
library users
Janine Schmidt,
Singapore Management University March 2012
Director, Mukurta Consulting
janine@mukurta.com and
Trenholme Director of Libraries Emerita,
McGill University

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Singapore Management University March 2012
Overview
• Changing user needs
• Library design traditions
• Design approaches
▫ Planning strategies
▫ Space layout – seating, collections, service points
▫ Ambience
▫ Signage and way finding

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The changing context
• It’s an Amazoogle cloudy, mobile, visual, wireless world - In Google
we trust– 40 languages,2.7 billion searches per day
• Disruptive technology. Smart phones, laptops, netbooks, I-Pads,
tablets, multiple e-readers, androids, apps for everything, large-
scale printers
• Social media, blogs, mash-ups. Dominance of Facebook, Twitter.
Constantly connected, but connecting?
• Real and virtual resources, print, multiple formats, visual media, i-
tunes, e-books outselling real books, e-journals, Googlebooks,
YouTube, FlickR, DOD and POD
• Open access, copyright? Democratization of knowledge. Everyone is
an expert
• E-research/Interdisciplinary/trans-disciplinary/translational
• Accountability/Quality/Performance/Spiralling costs/Shrinking
incomes
• New ways of doing business for libraries e.g. Collection profiles,
licensing issues, bundling

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Library users
• Teaching, research, professional and clerical
staff
• Graduate and undergraduate students
• Alumni, community
• Seek inspiration, solitude, company, solace,
information
• Watch movies, listen to podcasts, read and
review resources, chat with friends, family,
teaching staff and complete strangers
• Plug in, power up, prowl the internet

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Library users
• “Look up” rather than “view in depth” – power
browsers, tapping and swiping
• Collaborate on projects
• Research problems
• Upload/download data, using laptops, desktops,
smart hand-held devices
• Create presentations and projects individually or
with others
• Use specialist software/apps
• Exchange information via SMS, email and social
media like Facebook and Twitter

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User behaviour
• Doing academic work with or around their friends or
classmates
• Making extensive use of technology and digital content
• Focusing on their academic work late at night and into
early morning (could be any time within a 24 hour
period)
• Relating to one another mediated by digital technologies,
social networking media
• Accessing and using information to create new
knowledge and art forms
• Socialising and learning at the same time
• Blending formal and informal learning experiences
Lippincott, Joan K.)” Information Commons: meeting Millennials’ needs”. Journal of Library Administration, 50 (1), January 2010.

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Today’s screenager
• Reads 8 books per year, 2300 web pages, 1281 facebook
profiles
• Completes 49% of materials on reading lists
• Writes 42 pages for class, 500 pages e-mail
• Spends 3.5 hours online, 1.5 hours watching TV, 2.5 hours
listening to music, 2 hours on mobile phone, 2 hours
working, 2 hours eating, 3 hours in class, 3 hours studying
and 7 hours sleeping (26.5 hours - multitasking)
• Facebooks through class
• (A Vision of Students Today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o.
Michael Wesch and his class, Kansas State University)

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User perspectives (McGill)
Graduate student perspective
Undergraduate perspective
Faculty perspective
Singapore Management University

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User perspectives (Özyegin University)
• Talk with friends in the library when they want to
without feeling inhibited
• Socialise in the library
• Eat and drink when they feel like it
• Work in quiet spaces when they want to and need to
• Work in groups in group study rooms
• Store personal belongings
• Use mobile phones anytime and anyplace
• Use the library anytime, i.e. 24 hour access and even
sleep there

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Digital natives
• Digital natives http://youtu.be/7_zzPBbXjWs
• Game players
• Combine work and play
• Collaborators
• Competent technically but experience difficulty
finding information
• Need help and reassurance
• Learn from doing

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Value of libraries for research and
researchers
• Procures research material and facilitates easy access and
discovery of research material
• Offers a physical space – to work in, to access research
material, to access specialists
• Provides induction and training programs to develop research
skills
• Provides specialists who have subject and information
expertise to help with problems
• Provides information and advice (online and face-t-face)
• Provides a named point of contact
• Digitises important research collections
• Libraries are a physical manifestation of the values
of the academy and of scholarship
Research Libraries UK. Value of libraries for research and researchers. http://www.rluk.ac.uk/content/value-libraries-research-
and-researchers and http://www.rluk.ac.uk/files/Value%20of%20Libraries%20TG_0.pdf Viewed 24th January, 2012

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Redefining the academic library
• Users go elsewhere for information
• No need for traditional librarians
• Space for more than just books
• Evolving metrics aligned with value
• Academic libraries will never beat Google
• Users switching faster than librarians
• Library as a social learning space
• Increasing and conflicting demands
• Should libraries do everything, straddling two eras?
University Leadership Council. Redefining the academic library: managing the migration to digital library services. 2011.
http://www.educationadvisoryboard.com/pdf/23634-EAB-Redefining-the-Academic-Library.pdf. Viewed 8th January, 2012

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How do people see the Library?
• Custodian of books and other information resources – a book place -
old stuff, new stuff
• Friendly people providing help in doing assignments, solving
problems, finding work solutions, doing research, staying up to date,,
gaining a skill, learning something new …
• Source of expertise and training in information access and use
• Provider of infotainment
• Pleasant relaxing place, sanctuary and quiet place for reflection,
inspiration, reading, learning …
• Place to meet people, collaborate with others, eat, drink
• Supplier of electronic information
• Website guiding information access and use
• Link to other information suppliers
• Supplier of interlibrary loans
• Irrelevant

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User wants and needs
• Abundant technology, including sophisticated priming
and multimedia facilities, fixed computers, ubiquitous
power and wireless communication, laptop facilities
• Open environment for social engagement
• Functional inspiring space (including traditional
dismays of print event though pint is less used)
• Extended opening hours
• Segregated study areas with individual silent study
spaces and group study collaborative learning spaces
• Large tables and desks
• Comfortable chairs
• Appropriate seating for computers and desks

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User wants and needs
• “Green” and “sustainable”
• Training rooms
• Colour and plenty of light, including natural lighting
• Welcoming entrance
• Attractive and friendly ambience including art works
• Specialized spaces for graduate study with
additional facilities e.g. Coffee, printing, lockable
storage
• Easy wayfinding and clear signage
• Availability of additional student services

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User wants and needs
• Coffee and snacks
• Self-service e.g. Borrowing
• Ongoing maintenance and cleanliness
• More space
• Easily located personal help
• Library is part of the University brand
• Books are part of the Library brand

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In the beginning….
(http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk/news/th
e-7-most-impressive-libraries-from-
throughout-history/)

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Library design traditions
• Collection-centered
• Located near users – branch libraries
• Archives, museum, library combinations
• Public, private, royal
• Owner/donor/funding authority/architect driven
• Form/function/edifice complex/monuments
• Literacy/Scholars/Educational role
• Dominated by product and process
• Spaces and collections based on library generated
rules/formulae
• Learning spaces

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New(er) design approaches
• Learning space/commons
• Knowledge mall/incubator
• Computer clubhouse
• Cyberspace
• Information centre/place, I-place, I-space
• Resource Centre
• Social network
• Community hub
• Learning hub
• People place
• Urban information bar
• Integrated with other services

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Learning space
• We learn
▫ From each other – peer to peer - collaborative
▫ From experts - didactic
▫ Through engagement and involvement – projects
▫ Reflective – reading, writing, feedback
▫ Skills, knowledge – how to and what
• Pedagogy – independent, self-directed, unstructured,
structured, interactive, case studies, problem-based,
group work
• Lifelong learning, distance learning,
• Learning management systems, use of technology
• Competency framework
• Linked to support and advisory services

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Sources of inspiration
• Markets, Villages
• Agora
• Restaurants
• Shopping malls, department stores, specialist stores
(music, videos, bookshops)
• The Apple stores
• Airport lounges
• Entertainment venues
• Parklands, commons, community gathering spaces
• Theatres, galleries, museums
• Other libraries

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The Apple store

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Sources of inspiration

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Sources of inspiration
• Future of the library http://youtu.be/asYUI0l6EtE

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Sources of inspiration
University of Aberdeen
Grand Reading Room, Mansueto
Library, University of Chicago
Macquarie University Library, Sydney

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Planning strategies
• Obtain client views
• Develop concept brief and prototype. Master plan?
• Find the best, replicate, steal ideas shamelessly
• Define functions, ensure form follows function and
fits environment
• Focus on flexibility, the future, sustainability,
maintenance
• Support extended hours, security, occupational
health and safety
• Find the “right” architect, interior designer
• Form an advisory group

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Space layout
• Get the entry visible and in the right place
• Transition – on the way to… and from …
• Learning/study spaces – individual/group
• Self-service cf. supermarkets
▫ Loans, reserve collections, room bookings
• Specialist facilities for differently-abled
• Auditorium/classroom
• Gathering points/open space
• Exhibition/display/gallery
• Café/restaurant
• Storage (chairs etc)
• Meeting rooms/collaborative spaces
• Seating/collections/service points

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Monash University (Melbourne)

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Monash University (Melbourne)

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Seating
• Silent/ quiet/active
• Group study
▫ Separate rooms/pods
▫ Banquettes/booths
▫ E-classrooms
• Specialist accommodation for graduates/Friends etc
• Carrels/tables, separated by low/high dividers in
Perspex/opaque
• Use of ottomans and “perching” space –not
intended for lengthy periods of use
• Casual/comfortable/shaped seating
• Chairs (casters?)/high/low/ergonomic

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Bond University (Gold Coast, Queensland)

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Collections
• Integrated – avoid separation by size, format etc
• Automated retrieval
• Adjacent to seating, desks?
• All material in open access?
• Discard/retire little used collections – all print
low use
• Low shelving in public spaces
• Compact shelving in open access
• Avoid kick stools – fixed stool with long handle

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Bond University (Gold Coast, Queensland)

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Service points
• Near entry but not too near
• Adjacent to collections
• Adjacent to computers
• Integrated single service point? HELP of all
kinds
• Sit down/stand up
• Integrate some elements of self-service?
• Desks/roving staff

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McGill University (Montreal, Canada)

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The technology
• Fixed computers
▫ Standing room only
▫ In rooms/on desks
• Laptops/e-book devices/Ipods/IPads – loan
• Power points everywhere for plug in laptops/charging
• Large screens near entry for
messaging/communication/interactivity
• Power to desks/tables
• Scanners, printers, high end multimedia
• Maximize use of mobile devices
• Wireless
• Servers
• Production facilities

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McGill University (Montreal, Canada)

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Ambience
• Quiet, relaxing… vibrant
• Colour – themed
• Plants – “green”, encourage appropriate client behaviour
• Lighting - on shelves/desks, up-lighting
• Use of fabrics and furniture
• Art works
• Eating? Drinking? Approved cup
• Materials used e.g. timber, glass
• Flooring – carpet tiles, timber, vinyl etc.
• Soundproofing
• Student initiated recycling program
▫ In collaboration with Facilities, University Services and Library
▫ Removed all garbage bins
▫ Train out students on proper recycling approach
• WOW factor

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University of Queensland (Ipswich campus)

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Signage and wayfinding
• Going to …/At…
• Badge and brand
everything
• Use screens
• Language
• Colour coding
• Consistency
• Avoid jargon
• Signage cannot correct
planning errors
• Manners –
please/NO…

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Signage

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Signage

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Library design showcase themes 2011
• Enhanced functionality
• Material matters
• Sustainable construction
• Navigation and colour
• Reclamation and renovation
• Design details
• Outdoor connections
• Community living rooms

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Some trends
• Flexible for an uncertain future
• Fewer and smaller service des, multi-purpose,
mobile
• Self-service
• Minimalist
• Fads and fashions
• Invigorating a community
• Location, location, location...
• Seriously interesting - WOW

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Queensland University of Technology

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More trends
• Renovation – from eyesore to eye catcher
• Community hub matching community
expectations
• Importance of design briefs, planning and
preparation - the generic design brief is the little
black dress of library design
• Branding – consistency of messages
• Opportunity to change service delivery, improve
productivity, provide 24/7

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Queensland University of Technology

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More trends
• Front facing shelving, slat walls, end panels
(messages/decorative)
• Mobile everything, folding tables, wheels on
counters/desks/shelving
• Staff amenities, cafes
• Support efficiency and productivity as well as client-
focused layout
• Large bit and bold professionals signs
• Look afresh at familiar environment, photograph it
• One size does not fit all

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Queensland University of Technology

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Questions and discussion