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Where Students Want to Spend the Night: A Two-Phase Examination of Overnight Study Spaces

Over the past three years, overnight study hours have shifted between two different library branches and a new student-run facility that was intended to be a learning commons that would be managed by the student body of a southeastern US academic research library. This paper presents a completed two-phase study examining the preferences, needs, and uses by students of two on-campus, overnight study spaces. Multiple university researchers used online student surveys, unobtrusive observations, and sentiment analysis of over 2,000 open text survey comments to provide comprehensive data for administrative decision-making. Each facility has unique elements and services but only one could be funded to remain open overnight. The findings indicated that the most practical solution remained the traditional library setting for its greater number of seats and abundance of existing library features (public computers, group rooms, quiet spaces) that students expect in a study space. Introduction Academic libraries are increasingly transitioning their spaces from shelves with physical books to wide open spaces deemed “learning commons” in which users expect to find all types of technology, furniture, and other resources that support their expectations of study spaces.1 This presentation summarizes the efforts undertaken in two examinations of students’ overnight study space use at a large southeastern US public university, including the more than 5,500 codes associated with the open text comments submitted in the Phase One online survey and the Phase Two analysis of the occupancy and feature-use in each facility during the overnight hours. The findings suggest that students have passionate and concrete ideas of what should be provided in an overnight study space and that study space design requires a nuanced approach to provide the appropriate number of seats and types of features that users always want available, even overnight. Background The university’s libraries have operated overnight study hours since fall 2014. In fall 2015, the hours moved from the humanities and social science (HSS) branch to the newly renovated science library, precipitating an often-passionate discussion between students, university administration, and library leadership, focusing on the question of which location offered the most comprehensive services and resources to meet student needs. Since student government (SG) has been the source of overnight library hours funding, the student voice has always weighed heavily in the decision-making. In response, a survey was conducted in spring 2016 to provide more evidence with which to justify the decision about where to locate the overnight study hours.2 Based on the results, the overnight study hours were moved back to the HSS branch. All of this occurred with the understanding that, in spring 2017, SG would reopen an historic campus building, renovated to provide a modern study space for students. Almost immediately, there was resistance to overnight study hours not being made available at a library. Complaints from students cited insufficient seating and lack of quiet study spaces, among other concerns. But since SG was the source of funding for these hours, the assumption was that this body should make this decision, so they chose to host the hours at the new study hall but appealed to the university provost to support keeping the HSS branch open overnight for the fall 2017 semester. It was agreed that, during this time, the assessment office of student affairs and the libraries’ assessment librarian would conduct a study of the SG study hall and the HSS branch to determine which location would best suit students’ needs. The scope of this study did not provide convincing data, so the study period was extended into the spring 2018 term. To understand the students’ needs, uses, and preferences of study space used overnight, as well as the capacity of each building to meet these concerns, a two-phase study was conducted in the fall 2017 and