What Students Really Want: Library as Place at Andrews University

Although there is abundant information available remotely, higher education students and teachers still seek the campus library to meet many of their teaching, research, and learning needs. The usefulness of the spaces provided is directly dependent on the match between these spaces and the learning and teaching styles students and teachers engage in today. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify what types of spaces students really want in order to better accomplish their academic requirements and learning needs. The data will be collected through several ethnographic techniques, such as focus groups, design charrettes, and image analogy. Information from students reading, studying, or using their laptops and computers in other places in the university will also be gathered with the main objective of identifying the reasons they prefer or choose to be there and not in the library. This methodology will be supplemented by an actual field survey so the participants can identify special priorities. The results of this study will be used in the renovation process of James White Library, at Andrews University.