The more things change...

You know your students are finding more and more scholarly resources online. And if you’ve visited the “bricks and mortar” Scott Library lately, you will also know that it remains a high-use physical space. Even though the academic library’s primary role as a place to house and access books is changing, it remains a hub for student academic activity.

What’s going on? Why is the physical library so important to our students? Former York reference librarian Amanda Wakaruk wanted to find out – so she went straight to the source by observing and conducting in-depth interviews with current library users. The results of her research provide us with both statistical data about how the library is currently being used and student insights about why it is vital to their academic success.

Her observational data indicate a strong personalization of library space, with the majority of students bringing their own study supports to the library (e.g., course kits, laptops). They are also bringing their own food and beverage containers, with the number of students holding the latter outnumbering the number of students with a print library book by four to one. Another way students make the space their own is through the way they use it; for example, at least one out of every five students in areas designed for solitary study were actually engaged in some type of social behaviour instead. While the main library activity remains academic reading, talking is also increasingly acceptable, corroborating student claims that the Scott Library’s role as a venue for social learning is just as important as its longstanding function as a place for solitary study.

Interestingly, interviewees also communicated a strong sense of place attachment which, at times, seems to border on the territorial. For example, some graduate students can be extremely protective of their fourth floor “reading” room, group study rooms are often strategically booked a week in advance while other group study rooms on campus remain vacant, individual “quiet” study carrels are converted into communal dining tables, and floors are reinterpreted as flexible spaces for both individual and group study (not to mention sleeping and socializing).

These very personal, and often social, uses of library space are balanced (sometimes precariously) with the quest for quiet study areas, creating a need for differentiated space that is often resolved by students’ self-regulating behaviour. In fact, peer “shushing” is a common phenomenon that is often perceived as more influential than library staff requests for quiet. Just try to start up a conversation with the person across from you at a third floor study table – you’ll quickly find out what it feels like to be “shushed” by a studious undergraduate student. You might have better luck in the study “lounge” on the second floor – an area formerly known as the Current Periodical Reading Room.

While Amanda’s research is exploratory, it helps us to better understand how the physical Scott Library is understood as a distinct place from our users’ perspective: first and foremost, it is a successful student space. In addition, some interviewees stressed the library’s value as a relatively less commercial and controlled space when compared to other public areas on campus. In short, the academic library is a place for students to continue the learning process, on their own terms, outside the classroom. And it is becoming more important than it ever was – but, perhaps, for a wider range of reasons.

--Amanda Wakaruk, Government Documents Librarian, UofA, amanda.wakaruk@ualberta.ca