A Coworking Project in the Campus Library: Supporting and Modeling Entrepreneurial Activity in the Academic Library

Abstract

Advances in technology, changes in demographics, and the increasingly global nature of the economy indicate that many jobs lost during the recent global recession will not be returning. Regardless of their major field of study, college students would benefit greatly from becoming more entrepreneurial in their thinking, yet opportunities for developing entrepreneurial behaviors on campus, especially for non-business majors, are few. This article describes a coworking project, from creation to follow-up survey, which aimed to create a space within the campus academic library to encourage student, faculty, and entrepreneur collaboration and interaction while demonstrating the economic value of the library.

KEYWORDS:

• collaboration
• library buildings and space
• marketing
• coworking

Acknowledgments

© Risa M. Lumley