Presentation for the UXiLibs 2016 “Speak, friend, and enter” – Labyrinths, symbolic spaces, and gated communities in university libraries “‘What does it mean by speak, friend, and enter?’ asked Merry. ‘That is plain enough’, said Gimli. ‘If you are a friend speak the password, and the doors will open, and you can enter.’” Library spaces can work as gated communities, labyrinths, and access deniers: They hinder users in navigating through the information architecture built of rooms, shelves and books. If a user hasn’t enough library experience, he/she will get lost within the library building. But for those who succeed, library spaces often are symbolic spaces. They appropriate the spaces: they understand and modify the social and material environment by for instance choosing a favourite (work)place and (re-)arranging the furniture. They develop a feeling of belonging and ownership over ‘their spaces’. Using a mix of methods of user experience research and ethnography like participant observation, interviews, and mental maps, I conducted a comparative case study among university libraries in Europe. My presentation will illustrate some of the results and trace the used methods along examples from the data material. The aim is to give an insight in possibilities to investigate and improve library spaces.

1. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Speak, friend, and
Labyrinths, symbolic spaces, and
gated communities in university libraries
Dr. Eva-Christina Edinger
Center for University Teaching and Learning
Picture: Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum, Berlin, 2014

2. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Library research – from a sociologist’s view
23.06.2016 Speak, friend, and enter. Eva-Christina Edinger 2/20
• ca. 150 h participant observation
• 9 expert interviews
• 13 user interviews
• 40 mental maps from users
• 2 group discussions with users
• 1 focus group
• extra material like pictures, floor
plans, maps …
Picture: University Library Göttingen, 2011

3. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Gated communities, labyrinths, symbolic spaces
23.06.2016 Speak, friend, and enter. Eva-Christina Edinger 3/20
I. Knowledge of the existence of the library
II. Access to the library
III. Orientation and navigation within the library
IV. Symbolic spaces – place identity

4. Center for University Teaching and Learning
I. Knowledge of the existence of the library
23.06.2016 Speak, friend, and enter. Eva-Christina Edinger 4/20
„[...] if you know there is this kind of
hidden (whispering)... library with this
very this very obscure subject “ (OX6,
line 63f)
“[...] they have the Voltaire-Room, [...]
it is really hidden away and it is very
difficult to find [...] hardly anyone
knows about it [...] It’s a really beautiful
room but it is kind of secret [...] I got
shown it by friends” (OX2, line 31 ff)
mental map OX2, 2010

5. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Is this a library?
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Pictures: temporary stack of the University Library Constance (includes working spaces), 2010

6. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Is this a library?
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Pictures: Public Library Stuttgart, 2011

7. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Is this a library?
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Pictures: St. Edmund Hall College Library, Oxford, 2010

8. Center for University Teaching and Learning
II. Access to the library
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Picture: University Library Zürich, 2011

9. Center for University Teaching and Learning
II. Access to the library – a gated community
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“And you feel that it’s a privilege to be
allowed to be there because the access is
controlled not everybody can walk in and
that you have a privilege place being not
just a visitor (accentuated) […]” (OX1, line
655ff)
Picture: Radcliffe Camera, Oxford 2010

10. Center for University Teaching and Learning
II. Access to the library – a gated community
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Pictures: Public Library Stuttgart, 2011 (left); University Library Zürich, 2015 (center, right)

11. Center for University Teaching and Learning
III. Orientation and navigation within the library
23.06.2016 Speak, friend, and enter. Eva-Christina Edinger 11/20
„For me it is just confusing with all the
different floors and then there is this G and
S and J and others and then you can leave
only from the very floor and enter only on
one floor and that was extremely confusing
at the beginning.“ (KN2, line 26ff)
floor plan University Library Constance

12. Center for University Teaching and Learning
III. Orientation and navigation within the library
23.06.2016 Speak, friend, and enter. Eva-Christina Edinger 12/20
mental map fresher 1, Constance, 2010
University Library Constance (red)

13. Center for University Teaching and Learning
III. Orientation and navigation within the library
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mental map student 2, Constance, 2010

14. Center for University Teaching and Learning
How can we improve orientation and navigation?
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Orientation material, University Library Constance, 2015

15. Center for University Teaching and Learning
How can we improve orientation and navigation?
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Zurich University of the Arts, http://zhdk.mapongo.de/viewer, 2016

16. Center for University Teaching and Learning
How can we improve orientation and navigation?
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FHNW Library Brugg, 2013 University Library Constance, 2010

17. Center for University Teaching and Learning
IV. Symbolic spaces – place identity
“[…] then I always had my permanent place that I defended if
necessary and mmmm (like searching for a term) that then it is
an outstanding place” (KN5, line 25ff)
„[...] and you feel you can put your stuff on the desk and just be
parked there for a period of hours [...] so you can kind of make a
little miniature office and feel some sense of ownership over
your space.” (OX1, line 84ff)
„[…] you are surrounded by really old beautiful books so you feel
that sort of being part of that tradition“ (OX2, line 86ff)
“[...] you feel a sense of participation in a long lineage of other
scholars.“ (OX1, line 653)
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18. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Take Home Messages
• Make libraries visible & built libraries that
look like libraries.
• Place the entrance where it can be seen
and be identified as such.
• Provide good tools for indoor orientation and
navigation (mobile first!).
• Provide good visible shelfmarks.
• Know your users! (e.g. create personas)
• Use the language of the target groups,
especially for signs and guideposts.
• Create Human Centred Spaces: Make the
users feel welcome, safe and comfy!
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19. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Questions?
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Design Thinking Workshop, ETH Zürich, 2016

20. Center for University Teaching and Learning
References
Alexander, Christopher, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein.
1977: A Pattern Language. Towns – Buildings –
Constructions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cresswell, Tim. 2004. Place. A short Introduction. Oxford:
Blackwell.
Korpela, Kalevi Mikael. 1989. Place-Identity as a Product of
Environmental Self-Regulation. Journal of Environmental
Psychology 9: 241-56.
UNESCO (1994): UNESCO/IFLA Public Library Manifesto. URL:
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001030/103075Mb.p
df (19.06.2016).
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21. Center for University Teaching and Learning
Additional topics: appropriating space
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University Library Constance, 2010

22. Center for University Teaching and Learning
„Enlightenment“
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Taylor Institution Library, 2010

23. Center for University Teaching and Learning
„Enlightenment“
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University Library Göttingen, 2011

24. Center for University Teaching and Learning
„Enlightenment“
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University Library Constance, 2010