Project Shhh! A Library Design Contest for Engineering Students

Lindsay Anderberg; Matthew Frenkel; Mikolaj Wilk

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: Engineering Libraries Division Technical Session 1
Tagged Division: Engineering Libraries
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 14
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--30900
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/30900
Download Count: 607

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Paper Authors

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Lindsay Anderberg New York University

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Lindsay Anderberg is the Interdisciplinary Science & Technology Librarian and Poly Archivist at Bern Dibner Library of Science & Technology in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MSLIS with a concentration in rare books and special collections from Long Island University’s Palmer School of Library and Information Science. She holds a master’s degree in science studies from New York University’s John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Humanities and Social Thought and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Dickinson College.

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Matthew Frenkel New York University orcid.org/0000-0002-6883-1105

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Mikolaj Wilk New York University

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Engineering Reference Associate at Bern Dibner Library

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Abstract

In spring 2016, a LibQual survey revealed that our engineering students’ most common complaint about the library was the noise level. To address this issue, we created Project Shhh!, a contest which challenged students to create design solutions to decrease noise disturbances in the library and more clearly delineate silent and collaborative study spaces. Students were encouraged to join the contest in multidisciplinary teams and to address the problem from various perspectives including: physical acoustics of the space, social use of the space, and the psychological perception of sound in the space. Teams were required to submit four deliverables: a brief initial concept, a written proposal, a final report, and an oral presentation to a panel of judges. The contest was designed to encourage students to engage with library resources by requiring a literature review and providing a Project Shhh! libguide and library workshops on relevant topics.

Participants presented their final design solutions to a panel judges, which included a librarian, a professor, an administrator from the budget office, the manager of the MakerSpace, and an engineering student. The judges scored the teams based on a rubric, which had been provided to the students at the beginning of the competition. The first place team won $500, second place $250, and third place received a library gift bag. In addition, ideas from all three teams will be implemented to some degree in the library space in fall 2017. To further assess our inaugural Project Shhh! contest, we collected written responses from contestants who dropped out of the contest and held a focus group for contestants who stayed in the contest until the final presentation. This feedback helped us to understand how we could adjust the timing of the contest during the school year as well as to partner with university departments and student clubs to encourage greater student participation in the future. The focus group indicated that students who participated in the contest gained a better understanding of how to conduct research and write a literature review using library resources and felt more comfortable asking librarians for help with their research.

Citation
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Anderberg, L., & Frenkel, M., & Wilk, M. (2018, June), Project Shhh! A Library Design Contest for Engineering Students Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30900

TY - CPAPER
AB - In spring 2016, a LibQual survey revealed that our engineering students’ most common complaint about the library was the noise level. To address this issue, we created Project Shhh!, a contest which challenged students to create design solutions to decrease noise disturbances in the library and more clearly delineate silent and collaborative study spaces. Students were encouraged to join the contest in multidisciplinary teams and to address the problem from various perspectives including: physical acoustics of the space, social use of the space, and the psychological perception of sound in the space. Teams were required to submit four deliverables: a brief initial concept, a written proposal, a final report, and an oral presentation to a panel of judges. The contest was designed to encourage students to engage with library resources by requiring a literature review and providing a Project Shhh! libguide and library workshops on relevant topics.

Participants presented their final design solutions to a panel judges, which included a librarian, a professor, an administrator from the budget office, the manager of the MakerSpace, and an engineering student. The judges scored the teams based on a rubric, which had been provided to the students at the beginning of the competition. The first place team won $500, second place $250, and third place received a library gift bag. In addition, ideas from all three teams will be implemented to some degree in the library space in fall 2017. To further assess our inaugural Project Shhh! contest, we collected written responses from contestants who dropped out of the contest and held a focus group for contestants who stayed in the contest until the final presentation. This feedback helped us to understand how we could adjust the timing of the contest during the school year as well as to partner with university departments and student clubs to encourage greater student participation in the future. The focus group indicated that students who participated in the contest gained a better understanding of how to conduct research and write a literature review using library resources and felt more comfortable asking librarians for help with their research.

AU - Lindsay Anderberg
AU - Matthew Frenkel
AU - Mikolaj Wilk
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Project Shhh! A Library Design Contest for Engineering Students
UR - https://peer.asee.org/30900
DO - 10.18260/1-2--30900
ER -