Academic Library Building Renovation Benchmarks

Academic Library Building Renovation Benchmarks

The report presents detailed data from 65 academic libraries about their completed, current, or planned library renovation projects. The study includes detailed data on capital spending, library redesign budgets, and spending on computer labs & infocommons, in-library classrooms, artwork, library furniture, carpeting and other flooring, and other elements of academic library renovations or new construction. Details construction preferences for architectural features such as atriums, landscaping, better access to restrooms and building entrances/exits, installation or expansion of library cafes, development of group work areas, better use of natural light, better soundproofing and other design features often sought in new academic library construction or renovation. Also explores the use of various renovation and building features designed to save energy. Other areas covered include student satisfaction with the library redesign, its impact on the use of library services, and governance issues over what campus groups guide and control the redesign. Data is broken out by size and type of library, and by libraries that have experienced recent renovation projects vs those that have not.

Academic Library Building Renovation Benchmarks

Meeting the Needs of Student Users in Academic Libraries

Meeting the Needs of Student Users in Academic Libraries surveys and evaluates the current practice of learning commons and research services within the academic library community in order to determine if these learning spaces are functioning as intended. To evaluate their findings, the authors examine the measurement tools that libraries have used to evaluate usage and satisfaction, including contemporary anthropological studies that provide a more detailed view of the student's approach to research. The book takes a candid look at these redesigns and asks if improvements have lived up to expectations of increased service and user satisfaction. Are librarians using these findings to inform the evolution and implementation of new service models, or have they simply put a new shade of lipstick on the pig? - Takes an honest look at learning commons in academic libraries and discusses what is working and what is not - Explores behind the statistics as to why users come to the library; does the librarians' concept of 'the library as place' match user perception? - Looks at the anthropology of the user to gauge satisfaction with the services and space provided by the library via recent survey findings