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Kimbel Library used a peer reference model of service beginning in 2009 that was successful for several years but eventually phased out due to shifting priorities and needs. This article aims to describe Kimbel Library's second attempt at creating and using a peer reference program in 2018, how it was different from the original approach, and what ultimately happened.

In this article Reference Services Review Co-editor Sarah Barbara Watstein interviews Allison Faix, Instruction Coordinator and Librarian at Coastal Carolina University, about her experiences with peer reference services.

Because of the marked decline in the number of research-based questions asked at the library's help desk, the library found itself with smart, well-trained peer research assistants who were disappointed that their research assistance was not in greater demand.

This interview looks at two different ways that peer reference was implemented at the same institution starting in 2009.

The authors seek to demonstrate, from a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) perspective, the importance of utilizing High Impact Practices (HIPs) for not only more meaningful student employment initiatives, but to benefit the campus community and prepare Hispanic students for success post-graduation.

Evaluation of current practices in academic libraries aided the design of the new staffing model, location and name. A survey of research desk student assistants was designed and implemented approximately one academic year after changes were executed. Survey data combined with follow-up interviews summarized the qualitative-focused assessment of the research desk's evolution and verified the validity of maintaining HIPs in libraries for Hispanic student success.

The transition of the reference desk to a student-staffed research desk was successful in that librarians were able to dedicate more time to other endeavors, such as campus outreach and collection development. The High Impact Practice (HIP)-focused desk model, along with new, customized onboarding and training materials, fulfilled their goals of giving student assistants meaningful employment on campus while also bridging the gap between the library and the mostly Hispanic, first-generation student population. An assessment from the student assistants' point of view helped them further analyze the new research desk model. They found that student assistants noticed the ease with which their peers approached the desk and how their skills learned on the research desk transferred to their classes and future careers.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restructuring of library personnel the authors were unable to implement library patron surveys to evaluate the new desk model.

Many academic libraries and partners have made the transition to student-staffed help desks or offer peer-to-peer tutoring or mentoring services. HIPs positively impact marginalized student populations scholastically, but no current studies discuss the effect on the Hispanic student population from an HSI perspective. This study illuminates the wholistic influence HIPs have on Hispanic student assistants, not only their work and peers, but the affect on their academic and personal lives.

This paper describes the process of developing training for student employees at a reference desk in which students assist peers and others in the community with research help.

This case study details the process as well as the challenges in developing training that is helpful for student employees in performing day-to-day tasks at a reference desk and incorporates diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) and high-impact practices (HIPs).

Training for student employees that prepares them for library work and incorporates DEIA and HIPs can be developed. These ideas can be incorporated into training for all library employees, not just students.

This article aims to assist others in developing training for front-line student employees that incorporates DEIA and recognizes the importance of HIPs.

DEIA and HIPs are considered throughout the development and implementation of training for student employees. Librarians have been training student employees to assist their peers with research for many years. This approach goes beyond the training that is needed to do a job and takes DEIA and student development through HIPs into account.

This study aims to explore an emerging collection of smart building technologies, known as smart workplace solutions (SWS), in the context of facilities management (FM).

This study is based on semi-structured interviews with facility managers in Finland, Norway and Sweden who have deployed SWSs in their organizations. SWS features, based on empirical data from a previous study, were also used to further analyse the interviews.

It analyses the benefits that SWSs bring from the facility management point of view. It is clear that the impetus for change and for deploying SWS in the context of FM is primarily driven by cost savings related to reductions in office space.

This research has been conducted with a focus on office buildings only. However, other building types can learn from the benefits that facility managers receive in the area of user-centred smart buildings.

SWSs are often seen as employee experience solutions that are only related to “soft” elements such as collaboration, innovation and learning. Understanding the FM business case can help make a more practical case for their deployment.

SWSs are an emerging area, and this study has collected data from facility managers who use them daily.

This paper describes the benefits found in undergraduate students working to provide research assistance to their peers. The discussion includes how soft skills are built, along with how the position has aided in both educational and building towards their future careers. The paper is submitted for the special issue on “The future of peer-led research services.”

The authors provide a viewpoint from both a peer research supervisor and a student currently working as a PRC. The paper covers the requirements and implementations at the beginning of the program along with the changes that have occurred to better streamline the process of hiring and training. The viewpoint of the PRC was a key factor in the process.

Soft skills are a key component of the program. The undergraduate PRCs develop confidence, leadership and communication skills through interactions with their peers. The campus community is responding to the peer model because the PRCs are currently taking the same classes or have recently taken them, and the campus is now asking for the peer mentors that assist librarians in teaching introductory classes.

For libraries considering the development of their own programs, the benefits presented can lend to their proposals on real-world application beyond the college experience, as well as how it benefits the busy schedules of librarians.

The training the PRCs are provided by librarians provides credibility and trust, which encourages their peers to utilize the services. Soft skills are also one of the most requested needs for businesses beyond college. The PRC program is providing these skills, which the peer mentors use both in career readiness and their daily interactions.

This paper views a program only a few years old on how it managed through a pandemic, as well as how the supervisor adjusted training to reflect a renovation that brought about a changing desk model. With a current undergraduate PRC as the co-author, a unique perspective is brought to the writing by showing what they personally are taking away from working in the program.

Prior to 2020, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Library's research services spanned multiple service points. Multiple locations were staffed by Library Student Research Assistants (LSRAs) and each location was supervised independently. While efforts to increase collaboration had been underway, much of the work and services remained siloed and often duplicated training and service hours.

With the onset of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), UCLA Library rapidly transitioned from entirely in-person to entirely online services. With multiple service points pivoting, UCLA was redundant to have multiple online desks providing Zoom appointments and that quickly became apparent. Moreover, transitioning in-person student work to remote work was paramount to providing both normal services to users and allowing LSRAs to keep jobs during a time of uncertainty and insecurity.

While the authors' original consolidation of services and implementation of shared supervision was a result of the pandemic and primarily involved online services, the authors have maintained this shared approach and collaborative vision in returning to in-person services. For the past year, the authors have offered shared in-person (at two library locations) and online services. As subject-specific library locations begin to reopen their desks, the authors continue to identify ways to leverage shared supervision and a robust referral model for those on-site services while negotiating student staffing and the need for both general and subject-specific services.

The authors present a novel approach to peer-to-peer teaching and learning and research services and shared student worker supervision with services coordinated across multiple locations and disciplines within a large academic library serving a large student population.

This article shares an academic library's transition from traditional reference services to a peer support model during a campus reopening post-COVID-19 closure. It examines the conception, implementation and implications of the Peer Mentor program amidst shifts in campus priorities, Library research and reference paradigms and the Library workforce, from the perspectives of library faculty and staff, alongside feedback from student workers.

The article uses a case study approach to detail the Library's Peer Mentor Program by authors involved in various stages of the program's lifespan and discusses the beginnings, implementations and challenges of the program and introduces the unique curriculum used to train student Peer Mentors.

The authors chronicle their own experience after two semesters of the Peer Mentor program alongside qualitative feedback from the first cohort of Peer Mentors. The Peer Mentor feedback points to positive impacts in other academic pursuits and in gaining a greater understanding of the information landscape and the library field.

The case study presented is a valuable example for academic librarians considering beginning peer-to-peer learning models within their own research and reference services units, especially those who may be creating these peer learning networks in the wake of library service disruption or restructure (such as due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

This article conceptualizes essential keys to the future of peer reference in academic libraries as extrapolated through the dual lenses of academic library history in the United States of America and recent experiences of a peer program with prospective and actual out-of-the-building experiences.

A 30,000-foot historical view of the dispositions of space in academic library buildings, collections, spaces, technology and reference provision is integrated with a description of the responses and insights of a peer reference program during the program's prospective and actual out-of-the-building experiences. These components are then analyzed to extrapolate keys to peer reference provision in any learning environment.

Peer reference is a natural extension of the Learning Commons model as developed in many academic libraries. To find optimal success in leveraging the benefits of peer-to-peer learning, program coordinators should keep in mind the social aspects of peer learning and intentionally articulate a framework for service delivery that best matches the modalities of providers, patrons and the information environment. In reviewing training and service practices, coordinators should be particularly on guard for any bias due to traditional reliance on the affordances of a library building and/or physical service point.

This article founds its conclusions in regard to the future of peer reference by contextualizing the evolution and future of such programs in the wider historical context of academic library dispositions of space in support of learning. It proposes a conceptual framework for intentionally matching the modalities of providers, patrons and the information environment.

This paper aims to illustrate the extensive benefits of qualitative data analysis as a rarely undertaken process in post-occupancy evaluation surveys. As a result, there is limited evidence of what occupants say about their buildings, especially for operational parameters, as opposed to how they rate them. While quantitative analyses provide useful information on how workers feel about workplace operational factors, qualitative analyses provide richer information on what aspects of the workplace workers identify as influential to their comfort, well-being and productivity.

The authors analysed 6,938 comments from office buildings worldwide on workers’ perception of workplace operational factors: design, storage, needs, space at desks and storage in their work environments. These factors were analysed based on the buildings’ design intent and use, and the associated comments were coded into positive, negative and balanced comments. The authors used a combination of coding, descriptive analysis, content analysis and word cloud to dissect the comments.

The findings showed that whereas workers rated these operational factors favourably, there were significantly more negative comments about each factor. Also, the Chi-square test showed a significant association (p < 0.01) between the satisfaction scale and the type of comments received for all the operational factors. This means that when a factor is rated high in the satisfaction score (5–7), there were fewer negative and more positive comments and vice versa. The word cloud analysis highlighted vital aspects of the office environment the workers mostly commented on, such as open plan design, natural lighting, space and windows, toilets, facilities, kitchens, meeting room booking systems, storage and furniture.

This study highlights the importance of dissecting building occupants’ comments as integral to building performance monitoring and measurement. These emphasise the richness and value of respondents’ comments and the importance of critically analysing them. A limitation is that only 6,938 comments were viable for analysis because most comments were either incomplete with no meaning or were not provided. This underlines the importance of encouraging respondents to comment and express their feelings in questionnaire surveys. Also, the building use studies questionnaire data set presents extensive opportunities for further analyses of interrelationships between demographics, building characteristics and environmental and operational factors.

The findings from this study can be applied to future projects and facility management to maintain and improve office buildings throughout their life cycle. Also, these findings are essential in predicting the requirements of future workplaces for robust workplace designs and management.

The authors identified specific comments on the performance of workplaces across the globe, showing similarities and differences between sustainable, conventional, commercial and institutional buildings. Specifically, the analysis showed that office workers’ comments do not always corroborate the ratings they give their buildings. There was a significantly higher percentage of negative comments than positive comments despite the high satisfaction scores of the operational factors.