From Cubicles to Community: Reducing Library Anxiety Through Critically Reimagined Social Spaces

Abstract

Researchers in the Graduate and Undergraduate Services (GUS) department at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah designed and created a collaborative service interaction space to alleviate symptoms of library anxiety. This plan led to several iterations of purchase and renovation proposals. After a lengthy design period, the space underwent a dramatic change, including new paint, decor, furniture, technology, and stated purpose. The researchers adapted Brookfield’s Critical Incident Questionnaire to perform qualitative and quantitative analysis. The researchers discovered that their embedded roles elicited a higher student response rate to the survey. Results of the questionnaire were highly encouraging, and GUS librarians are actively reaching out to bring students into a redesigned space that enhances and nurtures the research process. The researchers found that the notion of library-as-place is most effective when supplemented by analysis of space in conjunction with services, spaces, and the communities we serve.

Keywords:

• Collaboration
• community building
• embedded roles
• information literacy
• library anxiety
• social learning space