Reallocating Paper Space to People Space ACRL/NY Symposium December 2, 2005

1. Reallocating Paper Space to People SpaceACRL/NY SymposiumDecember 2, 2005 James Benson Vice Provost Dean of Information Resources & Libraries

2. Structure of the Presentation • The thesis • The basic consequences of the thesis • More detailed arguments

3. The Thesis • The use of physical space in libraries has changed.   • Virtual library space is rapidly becoming the primary location for individual information seeking by library users • in many fields of study, but not all  • In consequence, many physical libraries in higher education are under used.

4. Physical Libraries Need to be Redesigned • The result of the change is the potential for a profound transformation in the use of information in physical libraries. • The use of physical space in libraries is changing to collaborative information use. We must, therefore, • transform storage space for paper-based library materials to collaboration enabling space for people. • bring users of paper-based resources closer to the paper that they use

5. Then! • In the past, many library users visited the library to identify, locate, and retrieve information for study or research. • Most worked alone, occasionally seeking assistance. • Most users wanted to get their stuff and leave, unless it wasn’t permitted outside of the library. • Study groups often use textbooks and class notes rather than library materials. • Commuters also read and studied in the library because it was available space, away from home, before, between, and after class.

6. Now! • These uses have not disappeared, • but the anytime, anywhere access to digital library materials have decreased substantially the frequency of these uses in the physical library. • Individual information seeking can be a lonely business whether in the physical library or the digital library, • but it seems a particularly lonely enterprise in the virtual space of a digital library.

7. Virtual Space Preferred for Individual Information Seeking • The availability of information in virtual space, whether • “free” content on the internet and/or • information paid for by the library • has eliminated the need for the physical library as a preferred space • for individual information seeking.

8. Any Time, Any Where Access is Expected • Where ever you are, when ever you are, • if you have a computer and an internet connection you can probably access the information • that you need or • that has been assigned for class. • If you can’t, you will probably pass on retrieving it

9. Ubiquitous Computing • The student with a wireless laptop has the world’s libraries at his or her beck and call. • As a result, some university libraries are emptying out. There are many fewer people using their physical space.

10. Not Just Libraries • Virtual space is not only transforming libraries. • More and more of our • work, • study, and • play • has become virtual.

11. Privacy? • For many of us, • virtual space can be a much desired form of privacy, • even when we and our computer are in a crowded room. • we can often ignore everyone else.

12. The Loneliness of the Long Distance Computer • For others virtual space is a lonely cave.

13. Seeking Contact • Whether we respond positively or negatively to virtual space, for many of us, • Face-to-face human contact becomes more precious as we spend more of our time in virtual space. • When not there, we may expect and need human contact. • But we may not cope well with face-to-face contact

14. Collaborative Information Use • As the problems experienced in the world of work have become more complex • [requiring effective team work in order to solve those problems] and • as work, study, and play have become more and more virtual • [providing less direct human contact], • employers have begun to prize workers able to work together effectively.

15. Collaboration Required • Universities are advised by their alumni and employers • to teach students how to collaborate. • In response, • Universities have begun to emphasize assignments that require collaboration.

16. Collaborative Work • These assignments often require that students collectively • evaluate, • analyze, and • present information.

17. Seeking Faces • These tasks too can be accomplished virtually, • But since face-to-face contact can be precious • these assignments can become a reason to • meet and • work together. • But more than work happens!

18. Seamlessness • Play, • work, and • study become • seamless, • undifferentiated.

19. Why the library? • Library space for such collaboration is sought frequently by students. • The technology is there. • The space is there. • Assistance with information problems is there.

20. Why not the library? • Some libraries provide environments that encourage work and social interaction. • Remember, for the virtual generation, • work, • study, and • play • are seamless.

21. Balancing the needs of the group and the individual seeking more contemplative space is difficult • Some libraries make group work unwelcome. • [with its noise, its mixture of social and work elements, its pre-emption of quiet study space] • Many libraries overbalance to one approach or the other. • Those University Libraries that overbalance to the individual are today • often essentially empty for large portions of the semester.

22. The Ideal • Ideally, we serve both • the individual seeking a space for quiet study, and • the group seeking space to use information collaboratively.

23. Competing Needs • Any library built before 1995 [and some built after] probably does not have people space balanced between these needs. • Most libraries dedicate most of their square footage to the storage of paper-based information resources. • In order to rebalance their people space more effectively, libraries need to create more people space. • That people space needs to accommodate the competing needs of the individual and the group.

24. Change the Balance • That typically means a radical change in the balance of use of people space. • We need lots of group space and less individual study space, and • The individual study space needed must be of better quality than that provided by a large reading room with dingy tables, chairs, walls, and lighting.

25. People Space in Libraries • The group space must accommodate differing sizes of groups, differing collective purposes, and some of it must be outright social. • We must signal to students a changed orientation. • Spaces that notably signal the approval of social interaction in the library are essential • To signal that the seamless pattern of work, study, and play is understood, • Spaces like cafes send such a signal.

26. Leveling the Information Use Playing Field for Users of Paper-based Information Resources • While university libraries are in the midst of a transformation, the change is not complete. • Many fields of study still need to use paper-based information resources. • These faculty and students are at a distinct disadvantage to their brethren in more digitally oriented fields. • Their access to information is constrained by distance and time. • They must go to the library. • They are limited by library hours.

27. Accomodations are needed • The virtual user of digital information can access their library resources any time, any where. • To level the playing field for users who mostly use paper-based and micro-film based information resources, • university libraries may need to make special accommodations for these users. • we must begin integrating these users’ work homes into the library.

28. What do users of paper need • Such a move is more than simply bringing faculty offices into the library. • It means • placing their most used materials adjacent to their work homes. • planning for many of these resources to be become virtual • providing information assistance adjacent to their work homes. • creating collaborative spaces that facilitate the shared use of paper-based materials.

29. How! • We can replace paper space with people space, • Tactics include: • Moving underutilized materials to remote storage • Using compact shelving • Weeding. • We need the people space! It is essential for our future.