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This case study demonstrates the positive changes that evolved from a series of assessment activities. It shows that even smaller libraries can conduct assessment, with the support of colleagues and the library administration. Librarians can take a proactive role rather than waiting for a mandate from college administration. Two years of LibQUAL+® survey results (2005 and 2008) were analyzed in depth using statistical correlation analyses. Following this, respondents’ comments were categorized by dimension and analyzed to detect correlations. The information collected was then used to track trends and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the library through the eyes of its users. A comparison of the survey results showed an increase in perceived service in all dimensions. However, user expectations rose even faster, especially with regard to e-resources, equipment, and study space. Positive results about staff expertise and service attitudes demonstrated that users valued the personal attention and capabilities of the library staff. The study shows that a user survey is only the first step in an assessment process. Assessment can be effective only if follow-up actions are taken to address negative feedback and the actions then communicated to all stakeholders. While assessment has become a necessity for many libraries, small- and medium-sized libraries often shy away from it, due to limited resources. The Richard Stockton College Library undertook assessment in areas in which it could expect achievable results. Another outcome came in the form of additional resources, which narrowed the gap between library services and users needs.

In 1985 the Colorado State Legislature mandated, in Article 13 of HB 1187, that institutions of higher education become “accountable for demonstrable improvements in student knowledge, capacities and skills between entrance and graduation” (Colorado Revised Statutes, 1988). As a result, the University of Northern Colorado Libraries became involved in the assessment process. In 1988 the UNC Libraries formed the University Libraries Assessment Committee, comprised of library faculty, classified staff and an administrator in an ex officio position. The Assessment Committee conducted the first survey to assess user satisfaction in the fall of 1988. Since that time, the committee has conducted an assessment program on an annual basis. Today, the UNC Libraries are evaluated in three areas: collections, services, and instruction. Over time, the assessment tools and survey methodologies have evolved, and a variety of program changes have resulted. In this article, we will summarize the history of the assessment program at the UNC Libraries, track selected questions through the years, and describe the resulting changes in the UNC Libraries programs.

This chapter looks at the principal use of a library as a place of quiet contemplation in contrast to the recent push for interactive environments and makerspaces, with particular focus on the centrality of library users’ needs in designing services and spaces.

This chapter draws on the results of primary survey data, and considers user needs as more important to successful educational support rather than contemporary trends that might lean toward other directions.

It is found that students at Stockton University desire more space for quiet study and, when library quiet spaces are expanded, they have flocked to these zones. The students are sending out their own SOS – they are “Seeking Out Silence” within the walls of the library.

This chapter provides a look at user-centered design as applied to the fundamental needs of library patrons. It reminds library professionals to stay focused on user needs regardless of entrenched tradition. It also provides insight into student behaviors and the nature of library as place.

This study used confirmatory factor analysis to analyze the secondary data resulting from a service quality survey conducted by a large public library. The library outsourced the development of this survey, which was founded on the well-recognized SERVQUAL and LibQUAL+ service quality models. Applying structural equation modeling and recognized fit indexes to the secondary data, this study determined that the library model did not fit the data and that the data itself were neither reliable nor valid. This study developed a nine-step process for implementing the SERVQUAL model that enables the data derived from SERVQUAL-type implementations to provide superior information for decision making.

Purpose – The integration of librarians and technologists to deliver information services represents a new and costly organizational challenge for many library administrators. To understand how to control the costs of integration, this study uses structural contingency theory to study the coordination of librarians and technologists within the information commons.

Design/methodology/approach – This study tests the structural contingency theory expectation that an organization will achieve higher levels of performance when there is a positive relationship between the degree of workflow interdependence and the complexity of coordinative structures necessary to integrate these workflows. This expectation was tested by (a) identifying and collecting a sample of information common; (b) developing and validating survey instruments to test the proposition; and (c) quantitatively analyzing the data to test the proposed contingency theory relationship.

Findings – The contingency theory expectations were confirmed by finding both a positive relationship between coordination and interdependence and a positive relationship between perceptions of performance and degree of congruency between interdependence and coordination.

Limitations – The findings of this study are limited to both the context of an information common and the structures tested. Future research should seek to both broaden the context in which these findings are applicable, and test additional structural relationships as proposed by contingency theory

Practical implications – This study contributes to the library profession in a number of ways. First, it suggests that managers can improve IC performance by matching coordination structures to the degree of interdependence. For instance, when librarians and technologists are strictly co-located, managers should coordinate workflows using less resource-intensive policies rather than meetings. Second, the instruments developed in this study will improve the library manager's ability to measure and report unit interdependence and coordination in a valid and reliable manner. Lastly, it also contributes to the study of structural contingency theory by presenting one of the first empirical confirmations of a positive relationship between interdependence and coordination.

Originality/value – This study represents one of the first empirical confirmations of the structural contingency theory expectations of both a positive relationship between workflow interdependence and coordination, and a positive relationship between performance and coordination's fit to workflow interdependence. These findings are of value to both organizational theorists and to administrators of information commons.

The author of this chapter will explain how libraries define safe space through policies, procedures, and professional codes of ethics. The chapter will generate a history of the concept of libraries as safe space, will explain how libraries attempt to create safe spaces in physical and online environments, and will show how library practices both help and harm patrons in need of safe space.

This chapter provides a review of the literature that illustrates how libraries provide safe space – or not – for their patrons. The author will deconstruct the ALA Code of Ethics and Bill of Rights to demonstrate how libraries remain heteronormative institutions that do not recognize the existence of diverse patrons or employees, and how this phenomenon manifests in libraries.

Libraries, either through their physical construction or through policies and procedures, have become spaces for illegal activities and discrimination. Populations who would be most likely to use libraries often report barriers to access.

Libraries should revisit their policies and procedures, as well as assess their physical and online spaces, to determine whether or not they truly provide safe space for their patrons. While libraries can become safer spaces, they should clearly communicate what types of safety they actually provide.

This chapter offers a critique of libraries as safe spaces, which will challenge popular opinions of libraries, and compel the profession to improve.

Libraries can be seen as the collective identity of its employees engaged in providing a myriad of services to a community of patrons. Libraries can also exist in virtual settings, defined with descriptive parameters, described by a wider user group external to the library environment. The diverse nature of what constitutes libraries is illustrated by researchers, such as Marino and Lapintie (2015), who use the term “meta-meeting place” when describing its environs. Whatever model is used to describe contemporary libraries, the library environment usually has numerous needs and demands coming from a variety of stakeholders, from administrators to patrons. This chapter examines how we, as librarians, with users, co-construct library as both space and place.

We used a theoretical framework (social constructionism) to show how library identity is established by its users in the space planning process to address their needs and expectations and provided a case study of the main library at the University of South Florida.

We found that libraries are reflective of the vision and values of a diverse community and the social-political milieu in which they are housed. Librarians used a number of innovative methods and frames to create best/evidence-based practice approaches in space planning, re-envisioning library functions, and conducting outcomes/programmatic assessment. For librarians to create that sense of place and space for our users requires effective and open conversations and examination of our own inherent (and often unacknowledged) contradictions as to what libraries are or should be as enduring structures with evolving uses and changing users. For example, only a few of the studies focused on the spatial use and feel of libraries using new technologies or methodologies, such as social network analysis, discourse analysis, or GPS, to map the use of physical and virtual space.

First, new ways of working and engaging require reexamination of assessment and evaluation procedures and processes. To accomplish this, we must develop a more effective culture of assessment and to use innovative evaluation measures to determine use, user paths, and formal and informal groupings. Changes that affect patron and staff perceptions of library as place/third space may be difficult to assess using quantitative surveys, such as LibQual, that may not provide an opportunity for respondents to provide specifics of what “place” means to them. Second, it is important to have effective communication among all members of the library (patrons, library staff, and university administration) so that we design spaces/places that enhance the relationships among users, technology, pedagogy, and learning spaces, not just the latest “thing” in the literature.

This value of this review is to provide a social constructionist perspective (frame) on how we plan library space. This approach provides opportunities to truly engage our patrons and administration in the co-construction of what “our library” should be since it provides insight to group, place, and social dynamics.

Purpose — This article is inspired by sociology and institutional theory. It investigates how and why the adoption of Evidence-Based Library and Information Practice (EBLIP) by public and academic libraries in Europe reveals a remarkable variety and complexity. Primarily, it is observed differences in adoption and use of EBLIP — principles in different European countries that are in focus of the article.

Design/methodology/approach — The purpose of this article is to take a closer look upon these differences. The theoretical framework applied is inspired by a sociological approach, especially the notions developed within the framework of Scandinavian institutional theory. This approach invites to deal with the topic in a nuanced way by delivering fruitful concepts such as drivers for adopting new ideas, the importance of identity and organisational fields, concept migration, adoption processes and travel routes of ideas including the importance of imitation and translation of concepts. Furthermore, in this article, we will also consider the significance of topics such as organisational and information culture and leadership of adoption processes. The methodology can be classified as desktop research and some of the findings are based on a government-supported study in Denmark.

Findings — What was found in the course of the work? This will refer to analysis, discussion or results. The findings relate to the purposes and they are formulated in relation to six research questions. Findings are that several factors influence the adoption and use of EBLIP. The factors are among others national culture, cultural traits embedded in the value system of different types of library work and also related to information culture. The concept of organisational recipes appears to be a rather strong concept in relation to, for example, which forms of EBLIP a library adopt.

Research limitations/implications (if applicable) — The research clearly demonstrates that the diversified theoretical approach taken in this article would be fruitful as a starting point for further research.

Practical implications (if applicable) — A practical implication is that the library and information sector could benefit from the establishment of institutions that produce systematic reviews and also that the sector ought to be aware of the different forms of evidence-based practices classified as either soft or hard.

Originality/value — The article is one of the few in the field that introduces several new theoretical approaches together with an emphasis on cultures at different forms and levels.

At the beginning of 2010, new higher education legislation was enacted in Finland which caused several university mergers. In addition to that, a self-directed type of organizational restructuring had been going on in Finnish academic libraries. This chapter describes the merger and the restructuring processes of the libraries in three universities, namely Helsinki University, University of Eastern Finland, and the University of Turku. Using a case study approach, the chapter describes different approaches used in the merger process, particularly how to manage service integration, resource reallocation and planning, and implementing new types of services. Performance measures and indicators are among the tools used to assess the successes, particularly in direct services to library users. Although this is based on Finnish experiences, it is helpful for other libraries considering, or engaging in, similar mergers, because of the given examples and tools for the actions needed for new structures and services. Also described are the challenges that three libraries met in the strategic work of reshaping of their organizational structures. While this chapter addresses library mergers only in universities, the methods and tools used will provide models for other types of libraries and nonprofit organizations.