Community Feedback is the Foundation of the Library Plan

The library cannot be redesigned by architects alone. Nor can it be redesigned by leadership without understanding the preferences of a single administrative group. When we develop a library plan, it earns its authority when it gives the community real power: listening sessions. Indeed, the power to describe how the library works, where it fails, what it supports, and what it prevents provides real feedback to leadership. That is the value of feedback; the gift of power in the conversation and planning for the future.

This is part of our work. It is part public relations as well as providing stakeholders input into decision making. Library Planning Workshops provide feedback – this is one of the principal instruments of library planning. It turns a capital project into an institutional realignment. It converts assumptions into evidence based practice.

The 2022 edition of Redesigning the Academic Library Building from Primary Research Group surveyed 59 academic libraries. Its findings show that libraries need to modernize. Libraries are reducing space for stacks and print collections. They are increasing group workspace, user seating, electronic access, information commons functions, and special collections space. When they engage in feedback workshops and sessions, they are giving the gift of stakeholder power. They are providing valuable input into local infrastructure problems: HVAC systems, power access, accessibility, and deferred maintenance issues.

Library planning is no longer a question of adding space or subtracting space. It is a question of allocating purpose.

Library Space Decisions Are Value Decisions

The survey from Redesigning the Academic Library Building found that nearly 56% of libraries expected to reduce space allocated to book collections.

About 61% expected to reduce serials space.
Close to 56% expected to reduce stack space. T
These percentages represent a significant rebalancing of the academic library building.

At the same time, more than 54% of the libraries surveyed planned to increase group workspace for patrons.

Nearly 37% planned to increase overall seating.
About 30.5% planned to increase space for electronic workstations.
Roughly one quarter planned to increase special collections space.

Library space released from one function does not become “free space.” It becomes contested space without a library consultant. Our workshops help define what may become group study space, quiet individual study space, a student success center, an information commons, a digital scholarship lab, a classroom, a café, an exhibit area, a special collections reading room, or space assigned to another department.

Plan a library workshop and we will facilitate community feedback. We will help leadership make decisions about mission, use, and service.

Library Workshops Help Explain Need

Basically, the pandemic reduced physical library visits sharply, which provided an opportunity to reflect on services. In the Redesigning the Academic Library Building survey, mean visits fell from 357,366 in 2019–20 to 123,817 in 2020–21, a decline of more than 65%. Libraries rebounded in 2021–22 which shows the resilience of the library as a place and space for learning.

Only about 17% of respondents expected post-pandemic student and faculty traffic to decrease because of distance learning and remote work and they were right. Today, even where online learning expanded, we note that students still needed a quiet place to work, attend online classes, use technology, and study outside the home or dormitory. This distinction backs up our workshops as an opportunity to support change. Indeed, gate counts measure entry, but they do not measure unmet need. They do not distinguish between a student who needs a reservable room for an online course, a commuter student who needs reliable Wi-Fi, a graduate student who needs sustained quiet, or a group that needs technology-enabled collaboration space.

Decisions to update the library must ask what change means. It must not confuse book use with lower dependence on electronic resources.

Students Know the Building Differently

Library staff know the access services systems. Library staff know workflow, collections, service points, and daily friction. However, students know where power is missing, where noise travels, where furniture fails, and where they feel permitted to stay. Faculty know how assignments, course formats, and research expectations shape library use. Administrators know institutional priorities and capital constraints.

Give the Gift of Power; engage in Library Workshops, gathers input and build knowledge. Engage with a library consultant and give each user a place at the decision-making table.

According to Redesigning the Academic Library Building, survey responses identified recurring design needs: more study rooms, more collaboration spaces, better power access, improved accessibility, better access to print collections, and basic maintenance. These preferences and operational signals help define what’s needed in the future. They point to failures in service alignment, adjacency, capacity, flexibility, wayfinding, furniture, infrastructure, and governance.

Feedback makes library service challenges visible.

Upgrades and Downgrades in Strategic Planning

Give the Gift of Power – Library Workshops provide a platform for planning conversations. It helps develop a library planning vocabulary. During our workshops we develop a strategic language and we develop an action plan that increases clarity, ownership, and participation.

Upgrades

Use upgrades when planning the library:

“Show us where the building prevents the work.”
“What space do you avoid, and why?”
“What activity has no proper home?”
“What must remain quiet?”
“What must be visible?”
“Where does service break down?”
“Which collections require proximity, security, or environmental control?”
“What should the library stop storing in prime public space?”
“What decision would make the building easier to use?”

These questions give respondents authority.

Downgrades

Notice the downgrades that enter planning conversations:

“Users just want more seating.”
“Print is dead.”
“Students only come for the café.”
“Staff can work anywhere.”
“Special collections can go wherever there is leftover space.”
“Remote learning means we need less library space.”
“The architect will solve that.”
“Facilities will handle HVAC later.”

Each downgrade hides a decision.

The issue is not politeness. The issue is accuracy. A strategic plan that downgrades community input produces a less accurate building program.

Steps Toward a Feedback-Based Library Plan

Give the Gift of Power – Library Workshops help build structure. Feedback must be gathered, interpreted, and tied to decisions.

1. Begin with the planning question

Do not begin with square footage. Begin with purpose.

Ask what the institution needs the library to do over the next three to ten years. Then test every space category against that purpose: stacks, seating, group rooms, classrooms, staff workspace, technology centers, information commons areas, special collections, storage, café space, outdoor space, and roof access where relevant.

2. Separate collection space from collection value

Reducing stack space is not the same as reducing the value of collections. The survey shows broad interest in reducing book, serials, and stack space, while some institutions continue to need better access to print collections. A plan must distinguish active collections, low-use materials, special collections, archives, and materials suitable for outside storage.

Special collections require their own planning logic. They require controlled access, security, appropriate environmental conditions, processing space, reader space, and staff workflow. They cannot be planned as ordinary storage.

3. Map activities to spaces

Ask the community what they do in the building, not only what rooms they want. Online classes, group projects, quiet reading, tutoring, digital media production, consultation, printing, browsing, exhibits, and archival research place different demands on space.

This activity map becomes the basis for adjacency planning. Noisy collaborative work should not compromise quiet study. Public service points must be legible. Restricted collections require a clear boundary between public access and secure stewardship.

4. Treat infrastructure as part of service

Power, Wi-Fi, lighting, acoustics, HVAC, accessibility, and furniture are not secondary issues. They determine whether the planned use can occur.

The survey found that 28.81% of respondents described their HVAC systems as problematic, while another 18.64% reported occasional problems. The mean expected time until air conditioning replacement or major overhaul was 7.76 years. Many librarians noted that HVAC decisions were outside their control.

A library plan that excludes infrastructure is incomplete. Environmental comfort, air handling, and power access shape the user experience as directly as seating counts.

5. Record trade-offs openly

Every library plan reallocates advantage. More group rooms may mean fewer stacks. More seating may mean less staff space. More student success space may mean less library-controlled space. More special collections space may require tighter collection management elsewhere.

The community can accept trade-offs that are visible. It resists trade-offs disguised as inevitabilities.

Give the Gift of Power – Library Workshops Help Build An Agreement

The Primary Research Group findings show that academic libraries are not retreating from the physical building. They are changing the work assigned to it. The building is becoming less of a passive container for materials and more of an active framework for study, collaboration, technology, service, collections stewardship, and academic support.

That transition requires discipline. It requires evidence. It requires listening with consequence.

Feedback gives the community more than a voice. It gives the community a share in the future condition of the library. That is the gift of power. A library plan built on that gift will make better decisions, defend them more clearly, and produce a building that serves the institution rather than merely housing it.