Search results

The purpose of this study is to understand how unassigned workspaces translate into an effective workplace. This is achieved by examining employees and their understanding of how unassigned workspaces impact their engagement, satisfaction and desire to stay with their workplace.

Two workplaces designed on the strategy of 100% unassigned workspaces are analyzed as case studies to understand this phenomenon. Mixed methodology, primarily qualitative method with a survey nested within is used for this study. Grounded theory, one of the strategies of qualitative research methodology is applied as a method for analyzing the data. The study is aimed to reveal the participants' perspectives and interpretations of their actions and physical environment on effectiveness in relation to the unassigned work environment.

The information afforded the development of an overarching theoretical scheme for integrating spatial categories and describing the employees' experiences of their work environment from the various perspectives. The research reveals that unassigned and flexible spatial attributes contribute positively to employee satisfaction, engagement and retention. However, some of the goals surrounding the culture of trust and autonomy such as privacy, personalization and lack of control are compromised in these environments.

The insights obtained from this study will provide designers, architects, facility planners and managers a new design tool to aid in making the unassigned workspaces model more effective.

This study bridges the gap while documenting how unassigned workspaces translate into an effective workplace for the employees to be productive, engaged and satisfied.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the strategies schools use to build capacity in English secondary schools where they operate under strong pressures to improve continuously and failure to do so carries severe penalties.

The approach involved in-depth case studies of six schools that utilized multiple sources of evidence. These include policy documents, interviews with multiple actors and observations of key management meetings.

Findings suggest travelling strategies used by schools, but these are implemented with varying intensity, hybridity and creativity. The common travelling strategies re-contextualized in organizational fields are data workmanship, multi-level monitoring, and performance development. For participating schools, successfully replicating these three pillars through identity cloning, an attempt to establish institutional identities identical to that of the “performing schools”, helps lift schools in different contexts.

There has been ample discussion on organizational capacity building, but the evidence on the actual strategies schools use is thin. This paper contributes to knowledge generation and understanding by providing as complete a picture as possible of the strategies schools use while remaining skeptical regarding the long-term consequences of short term “gains”.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for the assessment of library space use and user experience by combining seating studies, surveys and observational data.

Seating usage studies (called seating sweeps), technology-assisted face-to-face surveys and observational data were used to assess library space usage and identify user behaviors.

Results from the study revealed higher library use than expected and provided insight into user behaviors and patterns.

The methods and study described aid in raising awareness of user experience within library spaces and provide valuable data for space redesign efforts.

The study builds upon methods described by Linn (2013) and combines traditional user experience methodologies to gain insight into library space use and user needs.

The purpose of this paper is to share the research processes and results of secondary analysis using GIS to map usage of a university library to contribute to ongoing efforts to help identify how library spaces are used to explain how university libraries can continue to evolve as teaching, learning, and shared communities of scholars. This paper details the use of ArcGIS to visualize where students are in the library in order to explain how this method can used by libraries to visualize the use of their facilities.

This research utilized secondary analysis of data collected during seating sweeps; through secondary analysis, data were analyzed and visualized in ArcGIS. The seating sweeps were conducted three times a day during a sample week, with researchers noting on maps of the library floor plan where students were sitting. Data were entered into an ArcGIS database file and mapped to display usage directly on the library map to improve stakeholders’ understanding of the ways students are using the library as a place.

Even though this project used consistent instruments and procedural instructions and trained observers, a combination of factors resulted in an incomplete data set, including the length of time between research design and data collection and lack of agreement about the use of map worksheets. It was still possible to make maps that depict heavier and lighter areas of use, present data to library stakeholders, and show what can be accomplished when data are collected on copies of the floor plan.

This research is limited by being a conducted in one university library, but the implications far outweigh the limitations. While bar and pie charts are effective at visualizing data, they do not provide a way to visualize where activities occur; maps provide multi-layered visualization, allowing libraries to visualize the same usage data as bar, pie, or other charts in addition to seeing where that usage occurs. The implications for librarianship include better understanding of how library spaces are used and the ability to use visually appealing maps to demonstrate the library’s use, value, and impact.

Mapping library statistics is an area that has been growing in the last decade, but practical examples of using GIS to map facility usage are few. This paper explains in detail how the mapping process works and how libraries of all types can adapt this method for their own usage assessments to more vividly depict the value and impact of the library facility as a place.

When in‐plant and college‐based courses are run for supervisors and managers, it is conventional to use a U‐shaped seating arrangement in the training room to promote participation and discussion. However, at each class session, people will tend to sit with the same companions habitually, which may be more comfortable, but less productive than if they sat with different people each time.

This research provides a new perspective on the long-standing debate of open-plan versus cellular offices. It analyzes the effects of workplace layouts on organizational outputs such as innovation, efficiency and privacy by considering the physical space of an organization alongside its organizational structure. This socio-spatial approach draws on correspondence theory originating from space syntax to understand the potential for unplanned encounters between diverse groups of people.

Three different organizations are studied, two open-plan and one cellular office. Floor and seating plans are analyzed to calculate the degree of correspondence between the spatial and conceptual closeness of people. Demands for each organization are derived from semi-structured interviews and publicly available information.

The three studied organizations present very different degrees of openness toward others in ways that challenge conventional views of cellular and open-plan offices. In each case, the degree of correspondence matches the demands placed on the organization, and hence, providing a relatively good fit between the organization and interior environment.

A larger sample of open-plan and cellular offices would be useful to consider in further research.

Managers can use the concept of correspondence to generate the appropriate degree of unplanned encounters between the right sets of people in order to achieve the best organization-environment fit.

The main innovation of this paper lies in its socio-spatial approach, considering physical space alongside managerial, organizational choices.

In this study, an interdisciplinary research team at a Midwest US University collaborated with a local county to co-envision interior design strategies for five county buildings: three libraries and two government buildings to reduce in-person contact in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors' interdisciplinary team used a community-based participatory design process which focused on creating consensus, while seeking out divergent perspectives among stakeholders to serve the needs of diverse users. The design process involved meetings with stakeholders remotely and analyzing survey results from the target occupants collected by the county.

The county with a population of 550,321 is the second most populous and diverse county in the state. The authors' collaborative efforts resulted in short-and long-term recommendations for the interior space planning to promote health, safety, and well-being for the county's diverse user groups of young children, adults, elderly and vulnerable populations. The short-term recommendations focus on service redesigns that can be implemented as the state shifts out of the stay-at-home order and the community returns to the county's public-facing buildings. The long-term recommendations focus on experiences and design strategies that can be carried forward to future-proof buildings in a post-COVID era and provide models for other counties.

One limitation is the dynamic nature of how rapidly our team responded to a critical need in the community to develop tangible interior design solutions during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic for the county. The solutions we proposed were based on the scientific evidence available earlier on during that phase of the pandemic. The authors hope to conduct further studies in the future and conduct assessments of our rapid design responses.

This paper documents a dynamic experience during a once in a lifetime pandemic and thus contributes to further the body of knowledge about the role of interior design in shaping health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The article presents a timely interdisciplinary response to the COVID-19 pandemic to promote community safety inside public buildings at the county. The interior design solutions reflected intensive literature reviews, critical space planning, innovative use of lighting, and thoughtful furniture/material selections.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selective review of current research and practice on user feedback in academic libraries. By dividing user feedback studies into four categories: Library as Place, Navigation, Satisfaction, and User Experience, it aims to provide a framework for academic libraries embarking on a process of systematic user feedback.

By reviewing the literature on user feedback activities undertaken by several academic libraries, this paper offers insights into how users experience library services, collections, and space.

User feedback activities, particularly concerning noise and seating, are widespread in academic libraries.

The studies reviewed in this paper may be replicated by other libraries and used as a tool for managerial decision making.

The review is valuable for its analysis of the recent contributions to user feedback practice, as well as its description of the different methodologies employed and changes implemented.

Academic libraries have long been central to the campus ecosystem. From one-room collections housed in multi-functional buildings of the colonial college campus to the modern-day cathedrals where collections, patrons, and technologies collide, academic libraries have been a steadfast, yet flexible pillar of the higher education system. Employing a case study approach, this chapter reveals how one institution, the Ohio University Libraries (OUL), has reimagined the use of library space in response to twenty-first-century demands.

A visioning process undertaken by OUL culminated in a master plan intended to serve as a guide to space utilization and renovation strategies for nearly every floor of the seven-story facility. Beyond the master planning process, external demand for space within the library emerged organically. Given these two realities, OUL’s actions over the last decade have been guided by two main approaches to the use and redesign of space: (1) repurposing space for library-oriented initiatives and (2) co-locating complementary student support services within the library. Collectively, the examples highlighted in this chapter reveal how OUL has redesigned library space and continues to be an innovative environment in response to changing demands.

Reviews some of the critical issues to consider when designing an academic law library in the United States from the programming phase to furniture design. Describes how the Judge Kathryn J. DuFour Law Library was conceived as the largest segment of the new Catholic University of American law building. Discusses methods of forecasting space requirements. Focuses on important issues for consideration in modern law libraries such as proper lighting, sufficient power and requirements for electronic data in offices and at reading room carrels. Highlights how law libraries use computer laboratories. Describes key features of the library plan and how good architecture and furniture craftsmanship can marry traditional style with technology. Concludes with student and staff reactions.