Rethinking the Logic of the Library: From Book Loaner to Research Companion
Role: UX researcher
Date: February-May 2019
Team: Joe (information literacy librarian, team lead); Yifan (graduate student researcher); Jade (undergraduate student researcher)
Background: library function transition & the rise of student research
University research libraries are in crisis: They are not used. Fondren Library, the main library of Rice University in Houston, Texas, is no exception. In 2019, when I was a PhD student there, I teamed up with the Information Literacy librarian Joe, along with Jade, an undergraduate student in neurosciences, to conduct a UX project on library usage.
I also observed three short courses (respectively, on the use of Zotero (a citation management tool), Introduction to Python, and Introduction to GIS) offered by the library. Only a small fraction of the attendees were undergraduate students (1/14, 1/10, 2/20). It would be proven to be the case during the interviews that these courses didn’t fit into undergraduate students’ inflexible schedules. It also began to make me wonder how to make these courses more appealing to undergraduate students. For example, if one student never knew the importance of managing citations to their research, why would they attend such a course?
At the same time, we conducted three informational interviews with stakeholders: two with librarians and one with a group of 3 administrative staff members at the University’s research support office. A key question emerged from these interviews. They want to know: How can the library facilitate students to turn inquiries into findings?
In-depth interviews
From the interviews, we selected five experienced, teaching-focused professors as key interlocutors for our next stage of research. We especially paid attention to the weight of student-initiated research projects in the class planning and the student reviews of the professors on their teaching engagement. We crafted the interview questions to cover three aspects: their teaching habits, the pedagogical changes they plan to make to foster research skills, and the technical facilitation they need from the university.
Through brainstorming, we prepared a list of 10 potential functions or modules we have in mind as potential online platform content. It was followed by 8 quick interviews with students after class.
From the interviews, I drew four portraits of the users, two professors, and two students.
Making survey-taking part of the learning experience
Based on the in-depth interviews and to gauge the students’ familiarity with the library’s services, we designed a survey for the students taking classes with the interviewees. We especially paid attention to the information literacy skillsets that the professors singled out as lacking among the student body. We treated survey-taking as a mini-learning experience in itself. While we wanted to evaluate whether the students were familiar with certain services, we also wanted the time and effort of taking this survey to be rewarding. In lieu of the “correct answers,” we designed a set of short “Did you know you can… by …?” to encourage students to try out useful library services/tricks.
For example, professor interviewees mentioned that they found their students struggling with locating peer-reviewed resources. We implemented a multiple choice question in the survey in the form of a positive statement, “I can distinguish a peer-reviewed journal article from other articles.” The choices are “Yes,” “No,” and “I’m not sure.” No matter what the survey taker chooses, the next page would pop up a short dialogue asking, “Did you know that you can filter peer-reviewed articles in the library’s OneSearch?” with a screenshot of where the filter locates.
Defining & Ideating: Handling the data with care
Several patterns emerged from the data we collected.
At the beginning of the research, our assumption was that the library was often thought of as a book loaner. We knew it was an outdated perception. But what we didn’t realize was that book loaner was rather a metaphor for all kinds of services provided by the library. Other things—computers for checkout, topical classes offered, online databases, and so on—were all treated as passive objects on the (physical or virtual) shelf, just like a book, waiting to be discovered. We need to find a way to change the logic of the loaner-borrower relation and turn the library into an active research companion.
Just because the library locates at the center of the campus doesn’t mean it is the center of students’ life. People don’t necessarily go through it or use it—they can go around it. We also need to stop assuming that the library is a natural communal space for current students.
The need for an online platform is strong but for different reasons. Professors wanted an online platform to outsource some workload, while students could benefit from something to help them to kickstart a project. The former requires a close design with the coursework, which requires a built-in evaluation system and which may result in a lack of structure (because different professors and classes want different things), while the latter needs to find ways to incentivize the students (such as social media).
We drew storyboards like the following to help visualize how library services can intervene.
One important thing we learned was that the library would not be the first place people turn to when they start researching, and they will not change the habit. We should work towards how the library resource can help people (especially student researchers) sort information, find useful information, and manage information wherever they get it from. That is, the library should be about how to do research rather than limiting the research within the library space.
We thus understand the tone of the new online platform should be more of a manual than a map of the library. Put it differently. With a map, we think about each component of the library as isolated items: books, databases, devices, writing tutors, and classes. The users go to a map to look for where the book, an article, or a class is. But with a manual, instead of telling people where the item is, it explains to the user how each component of the library works, what they mean to a research project, and how to weigh them differently and to make the best use of the sources: when or whether to consult a book, evaluating the databases, locating the people to talk to, and so on.
Wireframing, prototyping, writing
Among the many segments of the online platform that we discussed and prototyped (led by Joe), one especially interesting case was about databases. The use of library databases is often neglected by new researchers because the content within a database won’t show up in general internet searches (or “Googling”). Instead, researchers need to go into the specialized database to find information (that is, they need to know what they are doing). However, databases provide extremely important and unique materials for research. My role was to use research insights to inform the information architecture by asking questions such as: What does it look like to “use” a database?
We had already started to sense the problem with the databases from the survey results. In one of the survey questions, we asked, “Relevant results from a particular database will show up when I search in the whole library catalogue.” Over 80% of students selected “Yes.” The question is followed by another question, “I don’t really know the difference between the catalogue and the database,” to which over 90% of the answers confirmed.
To understand how college students understand and use databases, we invited two undergraduate students to the office and asked them to find a test item in the database. We observed how they navigated themselves through the library website. From this observation, we learned two major hurdles in using the library databases: 1) selecting the right database among all the available ones, and 2) searching inside the database—because each database has its own design logic.
This confusion is further exacerbated by how libraries have labelled database use. An audit of other university research libraries’ language use shows that most university libraries present the database as just another item on the shelf. Even when there is a guideline, it is presented as “use” the library, the collection, and so on.
For example, both the University of Chicago Library and Duke University Library list “database” as an item to be searched. But in reality, searching databases requires a lot more familiarity with the field.
We thus proposed a two-parted manual, respectively, on 1) how to choose a database and 2) how to search in databases.
Joe, our team leader, prototyped the website https://fondrenlearning.blogs.rice.edu/research/
Along with a report, we handed the prototype to the Fondren Library UX Office for further development.
Reflection
Think big, think small
This project was a quick stint during my PhD studies and was the first time I have used my anthropological training in a non-academic project. It was an interesting learning curve for me, especially in that I learned to transition from exploring “everything” and keeping expanding the project (as I would do in my early-stage, multi-year doctoral research project) to working on topical, focused projects, one thing at a time. Working on such a fast-paced, small-scale project allows me to actualize my thinking skills and turn them into problem-solving executions. But this doesn’t mean the bigger-picture conceptual work is not valuable. My librarian colleagues found the capacity to rethink the library functions insightful and unique, and allowed them to plan for future projects with a different understanding of the library’s strategy and scope.
Professor Anna: Teaching entheusiast
👩🏫 Professor Anna is a teaching lecturer in the bioengineering department. She LOVES teaching. Teaching undergraduate students in particular. In her department, there are two kinds of professors. One is research professors, who find teaching a burden on their research schedules. Then there are others like Professor Anna, who find teaching undergraduate students most rewarding. Nothing feels better than picking the young brains and seeing them explode. Professor Anna is among the first cohort of inquiry-based learning grantees. She planned a lot of things, from lab safety training to how to read a journal article. She says she doesn’t mind doing this, but also she feels that a more centralized approach would make her life easier. If something exists, then it’s more likely to be used.
Alli: “library is for dinosaurs”
💁♀️ Alli is a second-year undergraduate student pursuing a double major in bioengineering and computer science. She has never been inside the library. She knows where it is because during the orientation week the campus tour group walked by it. It’s not that she hates the library, she makes it clear; it’s just that she never found herself in need of going to the library. All class reading materials are available electronically. She never needed to check out a book (and “Honestly, I don’t know how.”) She does class projects in the on-campus coffeeshop where she is surrounded by friends, and there’s no limit of how loud they can be, whether talking or laughing. And of course there’s coffee. And scones. To Alli, library feels like an ancient institution.
Our project was the first step in a larger project of reforming library usage at Rice University. Our task was to 1) produce a report outlining the gap between the library’s current practices and the users’ needs for conducting academic research; 2) Prototype an online information hub for future improvements.
I was passionate about this project because I was an avid library user, and it pains me to see people not realize what a fantastic resource the library is beyond its bookshelves. Moreover, I had extensive experience working through the library system. In 2014-2015, at Duke University, I maxed out the hours allowed for international students to work on-campus at the University’s libraries, from the acquisition department and the database management segment all the way to patron services at the circulation desk. All this is to say, I also understand how central and unwieldy the images of 📚📚📚 are to the idea of the library. People equate the library with stacks after stacks of books, and for good reasons. This image needs to change, now.
Today’s libraries, especially research libraries, have so much more to offer than books—even books take different forms now. Libraries and funding agencies increasingly favour electronic collections and databases over physical copies. Correspondingly, conducting research has become so much more about learning how to use the search function than, for example, browsing segments of call numbers. Fondren Library, like many, many research libraries, was trying to figure out how to transition its service from a book loaner to a rounded information centre and research hub.
In the meantime, traditional university teaching has undergone profound changes. Rice University recently started the Inquiry-based Learning teaching initiative. The initiative encourages the instructors to guide students to reach learning objectives by conducting research projects relevant to their own interests. Around the time of our project, the inquiry-based learning program just selected its first cohort of grantees. Instructors who want to prioritize research training in undergraduate education can apply for funding from the initiative; grantees will experiment in one of their own courses, where they design the course in such a way that undergraduate students learn the class materials and reach the learning objectives by conducting individual research projects. Given that these courses would prioritize fostering students’ individual research skills, the library saw it as a good opportunity to learn what kind of service the library can provide to facilitate this pedagogical transition.
Fondren Library’s information librarian, Joe Goetz, the team leader, assembled this project and recruited me, an anthropology doctoral student specialising in qualitative research, and Jade, an interested undergraduate student.
A contextual inquiry of the current library usage
We began the research by conducting field studies in order to observe how people use the library space. I conducted four observation sessions on the library's first floor at different times (morning, noon, afternoon, and evening). My initial impression was that there was a lot of dissonance between the design and its actual usage.
1) the public computer area saw quite heavy traffic (usually more than 5 people stopped by in 20 minutes), but hardly anyone ever used the public computers. People just sat at the partitioned desks and used their own computers. This is because the area was close to the printers and the bathrooms and was a convenient location for a quick stop on the way. "
2) Many people reserve study rooms, and keys borrowing and returning was almost non-stop at the circulation desk.
3) Nobody used the couch in the middle of the lounge space (At least in part because the low-back sofas were uncomfortable and too exposed).
4) Not a single person used either of the two self-checkout machines, which were quite conveniently located near the two exits.
Professor Jones: Above the basics
👨🏫 Professor Jones is a professor of political science who is eloquent in quantitative analysis software. If possible, he would speak in R. He politely hides his contempt when we mention the introductory courses that the library offers. He teaches all of them in class, and if he doesn’t, his students should be able to figure it out themselves. The only place in the library he sends his students to is the writing center. He has a lot of English as second language students; they are great, but their English writing could certainly use some help. He applied to (and got) the inquiry-based learning grant because why not? He lets students analyze election results anyway.
Steve: Library as (Doraemon’s) magic pocket
🧑💻 Steve is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying psychology. He is swamped in his senior thesis project. Only recently, he learned about this thing called Zotero, a citation manager, where you fill in the information of an article in the form, and it will automatically convert the input into a citation in the format of his choice. Before this, he managed all his citations manually and got by just fine. He learned about Zotero from a friend and he figured out the basics by himself. Steve goes to the library mainly to use the study rooms to work on group projects with group members. The big white board is nice, and the bloc of time for booking the room gives him a sense of security and definity. He had also borrowed an emergency computer from the circulation desk once when he accidentally knocked a cup of water over the keyboard of his own. He has artsy friends who have borrowed professional recording equipment from the library too.