Tech Library: A Model for Tomorrow
Supporting facts
Tech Lobby Campaign
On February 15, 2006, the Industrial Engineering senior design class ran a campaign held in the lobby of the Technological Institute to raise student awareness and support for the redesign of the Tech Library. The goal of the campaign was to obtain preliminary design feedback, particularly from the engineering student body and faculty members. In order to meet these goals, informative quarter-sheet flyers were handed out to 500 students. The flyers included an email address that students could use in order to give feedback to the class, provide suggestions for improvement over the design mockup at that time, and to address any concerns that they had about the renovation. Students were able to view a display of the new design layout, and many students filled out design feedback questionnaires.
The campaign was very informative. A total of 132 people took the survey, which provided invaluable information in creating our design. The objectivel of this second survey was to assess how the proposed design changes would affect student use of Tech Library (See Appendix I). While the first questionnaire was targeted at gathering information, this second one had more of a marketing focus.
The surveys further supported our observations that more group
work space is needed and the furniture needs to be more aesthetically
pleasing. The students were very responsive to our project and
supportive of what our design was trying to achieve.
Supporting data
The analysis of the second questionnaire helped to determine if the changes proposed would increase stakeholders’ usage and opinion of Tech Library. Out of 132 respondents, an overwhelming 91.67% agreed that the design addressed the current weaknesses of Tech Library. In addition, 86.36% stated that their utilization of the library would increase (See Appendix R). The percent increase in total aggregated hours spent per week in Tech Library would be 87.71% (See Appendix K). In addition, there is a statistically significant increase in the average number of hours/week currently spent in Tech Library and the average projected number of hours/week spent in Tech Library after the proposed renovations (See Appendix AA). This information, in conjunction with the information gathered in the initial survey, was used to forecast future demand should these changes be made. Thus, the proper number of public computers necessary to accommodate the increased demand was calculated to be about 55 computers (See Appendix Z).
Users were able to make suggestions through the survey and through email. The most relevant suggestions were to have additional group study rooms, additional public computers and printers, improved lighting and have some sort of food service. Lots of users were also concerned with the current aesthetics elements of the library such as the furniture style, the carpeting, the wall colors. Another very interesting suggestion that was made was to consider the fact that daylight is a nuisance for computer users because of the glare it causes on the computer screen, but a benefit for regular study carrels, when designing the layout. Moreover, Mr. Besançon, Associate Dean Administration- Finance and Planning, suggested that the library be a place of high data transfers, easily accessible resources and connectedness between people (See Appendix O). All of these suggestions were taken into account during the design process.
Considering all factors about which students were questioned during the campaign in Tech lobby and the survey results that were compiled from the campaign, it can be said with confidence that the usage of the Tech library will greatly increase with the changes proposed for that space.Back to Table of Contents
