Student Engagement and co-creation of learning spaces – Its all about the pizza!

Satish Patel University of Salford Library Development Manager 15 th July 2015

Session Overview

Project scope • Project 1: A done deal?

• Project 2: Learning from our mistakes Next Steps Questions?

Project Scope Project 1: a done deal?

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High Level Objectives:

Refurbishment of the Clifford Whitworth Library to enhance the student experience; • Relocate all book stock from Health Library to Clifford Whitworth Library • Creation of learning cluster in Allerton Library (No books) • • • • • • • • • • •

Deliverables:

Retain an area for exhibition use.

Accommodate the special collections and archives from Adelphi Building.

Creation of a postgraduate and researcher space Increase the number of user seats at Clifford Whitworth from 922 to 1120.

Increase provision of power and Wi-Fi around the building.

Improve accessibility and capacity of the building, including an increase to the number of students able to enter and exit the building at a time Provide staff space for 73.6 FTE library staff at Clifford Whitworth and 5 FTE at Allerton Maintain the number of bookable group study spaces.

Maintain the zoning of the library (ground floor – collaborative study, first floor – collaborative study & second floor – silent study).

Increase wayfinding, visibility and sight lines in the building.

Co-locate reception and student support desk

Timeline:

Architects appointed March 2013 Project team established March 2013 Library restructure and re-organisation of front line teams announced - April 2013 Announcement of closure of Library to student community – April 2013 Preparatory works March - July 2013 Stakeholder engagement May 2013 – July 2013 Work started in CW on 23 rd programme) July 2013 and is due for completion 30 th August 2013 (5.5 week

The backlash and fallout 1

Student petition

“This petition is important as it shows the University that the student body is not happy with their decision to make amendments to Allerton Library and all the available services. As students at the school of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work we completely disagree with decision and feel that the University should listen to us as the student body.

Over 250 signatures Promoted by Students Union Emails to the Vice Chancellor – filling up his mailbox! – Not happy

Senior Management Response

• To start to engage with students regarding the proposals • Backtrack on some of the original thinking • Stop the issue escalating out of control • Be clear and consistent in our messages • Almost back to the drawing board

Stakeholder Engagement 1. Listening Events

To inform and develop plans to improve support for learners from the College of Health and Social Care we will hold Listening Events in May 2013 to help envision what could work in the future and to begin dialogue about what could be

3. Floor walking by student reps asking for feedback

Report produced outlining student feeling to this change

2. On-line survey - 8 questions

Allerton Library currently has 5 floors of learning space (including the extension on Level 2). How would you like to see this space developed and used?

Where do you spend most of your time when studying in the Library?

What should the balance between silent study and collaborative study provision be?

ICT provision - How useful is the fixed IT provision on the 4th floor in terms of current layout? Would you for example prefer the IT provision is distributed across floors?

As the majority of books and journals will be moving to Clifford Whitworth would it be useful for you to have copies of core reading materials located at Allerton as reference only?

Listening Events

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Negotiable elements of this project

Use of the Allerton learning space – we have 5 floors of space and an extension on level 2 – how would you like to use that space?

• Seating configurations and zoning of spaces (possible started questions below) • Do you need more group study?

• What should the balance between silent • study and collaborative study provision be?

ICT provision – large room full of PC’s or IT commissioned around the whole space?

• Core reading materials held on site as reference only (is this useful?) • Laptop loan service • Fetch and Collect service

Non-negotiable elements of the project

• Majority of learning resources moved to Clifford Whitworth • Removal of access control and security • Shared Student Life/Library support desk • Art and Design stock moving to Adelphi • Retain some library academic support at the current Allerton library

On-line survey - Feedback

Survey ran for 3 weeks Promoted by Students Union 160 responses

Comments:

I don't want to see the books being moved. It's ridiculous.

Simple. Don't move them in the first place. The suggestion is preposterous. I rarely have the time to go to the other campus for materials, and as I am not in every day I need to be able to access books the same day. It is a ridiculous suggestion to move stock to Clifford Whitworth, unless someone is offering to reduce my workload so I have the time to go over there.

WE DONT WANT THE BOOKS TO BE MOVED!!! THATS WHAT WE WANT TO CAMPAIGN FOR YES! This is not up for debate. BOOKS ARE THE LIFEBLOOD OF OUR RESEARCH. END OF DISCUSSION.

Yes. Ideally with 30 seconds notice. Or you could just not move the Health & Social Care books away from the Health & Social Care campus in the first place, that would rock.

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Outcome and what went wrong!

Against the backdrop of student dissatisfaction we moved the books anyway This decision was reflected in the NSS scores for the Health College We implemented a Fetch and Collect service which we withdrew 3 months later We ignored student feedback and should have been more upfront about the drivers – cost savings We engaged with stakeholders too late in the process – this was out of our hands Most students were on placement or had already finished for the summer Too much focus on Clifford Whitworth Library and the Allerton Learning Space was almost an afterthought

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Project Scope Project 2: Learning from our mistakes

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High Level Objectives:

Re-modelling of Clifford Whitworth Library to incorporate Arts and Media Library • Develop roadmap for space and service development •

Deliverables:

Options Appraisal following stakeholder consultation • Initial design concept - designs are required to RIBA Stage B/C • Indicative capital budget.

• Operational Action Plan • Business Case.

Approach for stakeholder consultation 1

Started by appointing a Library Guru – Les Watson Appointed a design team – FUSE Studios Les started a tour of the University talking to senior staff, students, academics, library staff and students union about the need for change and investment in library services and spaces (54 meetings in total) The output from all these meetings was an options appraisal which outlined 10 ‘packages’ of work – enabling and development projects FUSE Studios started to take some of the ideas and develop high level concepts – Library in the Park

Approach for stakeholder consultation 2

FUSE Studios offered to run a series of staff and student focus groups talking through the high level design concepts and the thinking behind them We ran 8 focus groups in total and attendance was good – ran them over lunchtime and offered free pizza and chips Elements of the design were tested with both staff and students Most interesting sessions were with Architect students who wanted to be involved in the design and made some recommendations to the design team Series of visits to other recently refurbished libraries with design team and students union

Approach for stakeholder consultation 3

As well as the ongoing consultation we started to think about other forms of engagement • Ethnographic study to inform the Learning Spaces Strategy • Customer Journey Mapping • Evaluation of PC suite usage in library buildings and across campus

Where are we at now?

Rich picture of student and staff requirements that have informed the current design Real buy-in from students – they feel like they have been involved Students Union supporting the need for change Refining final designs to reflect a few last minute changes Design to be costed and university to be approached to sign off funding Enabling works are already happening now Phasing of works to be determined over the next months Start in August 2015 ready to move Adelphi stock in summer 2016 Continued engagement with students and staff

Questions?