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Mark Kerr is one of the new generation of information professionals who straddles the dual services of library provision and Internet cafe. This article represents some of his views on the future of library provision in the light of the Internet cafe. He describes the current state of public Internet access, charts the rise of the cybercafe and compares public libraries and Internet cafes as a source of access to electronic public information.

As current university students may access information for their study anytime, anywhere with ubiquitous mobile technologies, this research re-examines the roles of study space in students' learning and campus life.

A survey was conducted to collect students' opinions and habits regarding the usage of different study spaces. Results in three different academic majors (science and engineering, arts and business) of a comprehensive international university were compared.

The authors’ findings showed a more diversified space usage among students, with the library café increasingly important in students' learning and life while learning commons remain important. However, there were only minor differences among these three study majors towards the learning and entertaining spaces, as these students generally apply inquiry-based learning.

While some researches have investigated students' usage of university and library learning spaces, few studies have focused on the study space issue in Hong Kong or other metropolises in the East under the current mobile learning environment. This study's insights could help libraries and universities improve the management of their physical spaces to meet student needs.

University libraries are creating new opportunities by establishing a variety of partnerships, extending the library’s services and programs through alliances, relationships, and ventures. Libraries must work closely, creatively, and consistently with campus constituencies to achieve their goals and objectives successfully, and to remain a key campus resource. Partnerships with campus bookstores, architects, fund‐raisers, and others results in such endeavours as cultural performances in the library, campus author celebrations, cyber cafés, and collaborations with parents groups, athletics, musicians, artists, and writers. Partnerships improve the learning environment, enrich the cultural life of the campus, stimulate intellectual discourse, and help the library to stay visible as an indispensable component of the campus community.

The purpose of this article is to present a research project on public libraries in urban development focusing on how libraries contribute to culture‐led urban regeneration as icons, placemakers and community vitalization.

The research project is based on case studies of new “cutting‐edge” public libraries in Europe and North America. These case studies have been conducted through analysis of documents, observation and qualitative interviews with key informants.

The article finds that new public libraries have re‐conceptualized their design, brand and functions as an answer to strategies of culture‐led urban regeneration, and at the same time they have actively contributed to urban development by changing the image and identity of urban places, contributing to urban diversity and addressing social and economic problems.

The article provides a framework for development of strategies and legitimization for public libraries and a point of departure for the discussion of the library's contribution to urban development.

This is the first public presentation of the findings of the results of the research project Public Libraries in Urban Development – Creativity, Innovation and Experience outside the Nordic countries.

With the development of new public libraries such as the Idea Stores in Tower Hamlets and Discovery Centres in Hampshire, it has been debated whether the inclusion of non‐book materials and activities illustrates the death of public libraries by the marginalisation of books. This paper aims to investigate these assumptions by examining the use of space in public library buildings for book and non‐book purposes over time.

The methodology involves a survey of secondary data on library buildings and the comparison of floor plans, observations and stock statistics of libraries in the two authorities over time.

This study concludes that the inclusion of non‐book space is not a new trend in library buildings and that books still have a significant role in terms of floor space and stock in new libraries even with the increased addition of non‐book space, illustrating less dramatic changes than suggested by some commentators. These trends in fact indicate a diversification of public libraries and their buildings not their imminent death.

Although this research was only able to study a few examples of libraries, this alternative method of investigating space could be repeated in future research.

The study of use of space in libraries is important as it has implications for the library profession and the design of future library buildings. This methodology provides a different way of studying the issues of space.

This paper aims to explore at Loughborough University (UK) how informal learning spaces (ILS) are used by students in the Library and elsewhere on campus. Focus includes learning activities undertaken by students, reasons why the ILS is chosen, suggestions on how they can be improved and how technologies are used. Comparison will be drawn between how students use Library ILS and other ILS.

Case study based at Loughborough University and its Library. Semi-structured interviews were held with 265 students in various ILS spaces across campus.

Similarities and differences are present in the way students use Library ILS compared with other ILS campus spaces. These include impact of campus geography and individual academic levels of students.

This is a single case study and the results can only relate to Loughborough University. There may be some lessons and themes that are relevant to other universities. The number of interviewees is relatively small.

Highlights the need for cooperation between various university stakeholders to strategically and operationally manage different ILS on campus.

This is one of the very few studies that investigate together the range of ILS including the Library in a comparative approach.

FIGHTING has indeed ceased in Europe and our gratitude, especially in London and its adjacencies, is profound. It is shared by all, of course. War is by no means over and that and the drearier contentions of politics for a month or two, or it may be for years, are likely to act as a brake on many schemes. It is true a substantial Education Act has been achieved during the war but such peace as we have achieved finds none of the great social schemes, other than this, anywhere but in the realm of talk. Older men may well be cynical and more may be sceptical; so, it becomes those who believe a better world is possible to be aware. Hardly a town or county is without a scheme of development of sorts, ranging from entirely new, and always enlarged, central libraries to extended branch schemes. The cold fact is that only in a few cases, if in any, will any building of libraries be permitted yet. That does not mean that scheming is a vain occupation. Librarians realize as other men do that housing needs will overwhelm building resources for a few years and that schools, which are disastrously inadequate to permit the full implementing of the Act of 1944, and hospitals, will be preferred to us. Librarians, however, must be opportunists, too ; they will lose nothing by readiness to seize chances. Let us take what we can get; if, in the many newly‐planned residential centres, satellite towns, or other communities, no elaborate library accommodation is possible, let us reflect that what really matters are a book service and a centre of information, which do not require elaborate buildings, only good librarianship. Then, when the needs of the area are known, an appropriate building may be provided. And, as Mr. Berwick Sayers has suggested, much more temporary buildings than have been erected in late years should be used ; we have too many “good buildings” which are obsolescent—to say the least. It can be assumed now that readers do not need so much inducement to use public libraries as they did formerly, although some do and it is well to insist that temporary buildings are not necessarily unattractive inside or outside.

Academic libraries do not operate in a vacuum; they must co-exist with change and competition on all levels. In order to succeed, they must know their internal strengths in order to take advantage of opportunities, whilst avoiding threats and addressing weaknesses. A SWOT analysis of Jamaican academic libraries can yield strategic insights for academic library praxis in Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the globe. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Survey and discussion group were engaged for the five local academic libraries in higher education in Jamaica.

Human resources and support are the most recurrent themes in the reported strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

This paper focused on local academic libraries in higher education (university level) in Jamaica. A survey of academic libraries at all levels, and using more detailed strategic analytical tools, would be a useful follow up.

This paper provides academic library managers and the national/regional library associations with a situational analysis of Jamaican academic librarianship, which can be used to inform future planning and management of library and information services. Additionally, the findings can inform the Latin America and Caribbean section of international library documents on trends, issues and future position of academic libraries globally.

This paper is of value as it is the first published scholarly documentation on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in academic librarianship in Jamaica. In this regard, it makes a useful contribution to the dearth of literature on SWOT analyses of academic libraries per country. It may also represent a starting point for looking at solutions and emerging challenges in a Caribbean academic library environment and should help to focus on the need for continuing innovation.

In order to develop a common framework for strategic planning and evaluation, the Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) of Oxford undertook a process for defining digital audiences, undertaking user research to inform a new audience framework, which, in turn, is feeding a new approach and the application of the research across the Libraries’ web redevelopment. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

GLAM used qualitative and quantitative techniques to understand how visitors engaged with GLAM digitally: visitor shadowing, exit interviews, diary studies, remote interviews, social media and data evaluation. From these, GLAM focussed on motivational archetypes that apply to visitors across the institutions as well as pen portraits to support those archetypes, and a template for creating new portraits.

The framework helped GLAM develop digital priorities and outline how digital output met the needs of all audiences from a bottom-up user perspective, rather than only through top-down institutional decision making. Most relevant here, learning from the user research hugely informed the Bodleian Libraries’ website redevelopment. The Bodleian Libraries’ work within that framework shows that such a body of research is not solely high level; it can be applied on an institutional and project level to great effect.

Focussing on motivations rather than demographics is a less common way to approach digital audiences. Developing such a cohesive framework for digital audiences before undertaking strategic planning and specific development projects proved a valuable piece of work from which other institutions can learn.

The purpose of this paper is to define coworking in juxtaposition to open, collaborative workspaces that have already long existed at companies and universities and to establish that this model of coworking has taken off in the business world, but has not taken off at education institutions.

The literature and existing resources on flexible work arrangement in academic settings are reviewed to explore the possible applications of a coworking model to higher education. Because of minimal empirical research on the topic, the paper opens up a much-needed discussion on coworking in a scholarly context and its potential benefits for institutions of higher education.

Establishing scholarly coworking units on a broader scale could enhance the development of a cross-regional dimension in education by encouraging mobility of both students and scholars and promote cooperation among educational institutions. The implementation of coworking spaces for universities has occurred at a much lower rate than business-oriented coworking spaces, and several potential reasons for this asymmetry are considered.

While establishing an on- or off-campus coworking environment for graduate and postgraduate pupils is explored to some extent, the possibility and beneficial role of a scholarly coworking space model are poorly understood and under-studied. This conceptual paper provides a framework for applying the coworking model to scholarly settings, with the potential to facilitate more open and inclusive scientific collaboration, research and education, addressing one of the central problems of geographic and institutional barriers to scholarship.