  • Library Planning Research,  Space Planning,  work in progress

    Navigate the Master Planning Landscape with an Experienced Guide

    Aaron Cohen Associates, LTD can help you create a master plan so compelling that it will persuade the public to support it. When you consider library improvements through a collaborative program exercise, then you begin to see how the future can be shaped. Unfortunately, collaboration can be complex, and hiring an inexperienced team can have unfortunate consequences.

    According to Harvard Business Review’s “The Collaboration Blind Spot,”cross-group/cross-organization user analysis can go very wrong. There can be politics at play, and territorial behavior. During master planning work, there can be power plays as well as blocking behavior from all staff, including IT and facilities. Sometimes, longtime librarians find that leadership has covert plans to manipulate space boundaries. We understand there are all types of motivations, which is why our methodology of appreciative inquiry helps us create a balanced playing field.

    LIBRARY MASTER PLAN

    We know that library master planning has simple steps that will help you take control of your future. We follow a simple plan:

    1. Data gathering
    2. Testing a Vision
    3. Library Service Planning and Programming
    4. Scenario Planning and Phasing
    5. 10-year Plan/Presentation/Feedback/Update

    Before we start data gathering, we assemble a team and develop a communication plan. First, we cover the big picture issues, communicate the opportunities and need for more information. With answers to the big questions out of the way, we break down the issues to develop a program. This program is used in a variety of ways: space analysis, user behavior, budget planning, digital assets, marketing SEO, staff and operations requirements and collection storage. Following a methodology with an experienced library consultant will help your community gain user input and analyze user behavior.

    GET STARTED ON YOUR LIBRARY MASTER PLAN

    Before you start your next library master plan, review your strategic plan and ask members of your team to join a library planning committee. This committee will tour other institutions and ask lots of questions. They will visit furniture showrooms and demo digital asset management software. The team will learn:

    • Where your library user is today and where they want to go tomorrow
    • That a library is both a physical service and a digital place
    • Best practices and trends, proven space planning options and experience in planning.

    We will create a plan, budget and schedule that helps take the guesswork out of creating a library master plan. Contact Us: we can help you successfully navigate a library master plan.

    BELOW ARE AREAS THAT CAN BE PART OF A MASTER PLAN SYSTEM STUDY OR SINGLE LIBRARY PLAN

     

    Contact Us: we can help you successfully navigate a library master plan.

  • Library Planning Research,  library technology,  Space Planning

    Planning a Redesign? Let Human Behavior be Your Guide

    For an effective library redesign, let human behavior be your guide. In our work, we have found that people engage in five types of behavior: reflective, social, presentation, collaboration and touchpoint (contact with staff). This concept relates to furniture as well: Steelcase’s  Library Transforms to Learning Commons defined private/alone, private/together, and public/together spaces as part of their strategies to integrate new contemporary furniture into the learning environment.

    Want to learn more about how human behavior can guide design? Join us on November 30, 2018 at Steelcase Worklife in New York. During this one-day workshop, we will share the Five Modes of Learning model and how it can inform your design choices. Aaron Cohen, AIA, will review the ways people use the library and share examples of successful design. Through group discussions and tours of the Steelcase showroom, we will help you determine the goals and objectives of your next library improvement project.

    During this workshop, we will share our programming methods. Creating a library program is a way to outline your space planning requirements. The program is simply a spreadsheet with each space and the square footage required. The list is used to develop an architectural plan that can be used to fund a building project or start an improvement project. Model programs also allow your community members, students and faculty to give early feedback on their potential needs in the new environment.

    Ultimately, this workshop will help you modify design concepts and make the best architecture and interior design choices. When users see their needs met in the new building, they will embrace the library as a community center and a space for innovation.


    JOIN US – NOVEMBER 3, 2018 AT STEELCASE NYC ONE DAY WORKSHOP


    JOIN US – NOVEMBER 3, 2018 AT STEELCASE NYC ONE DAY WORKSHOP

  • Library Planning Research,  Space Planning,  work in progress

    Integrating Library and Learning Center? Careful Planning is Vital

    Conventional wisdom says that academic libraries need to provide quiet study space. But our research shows that students benefit from both quiet and collaborative modes of learning. Many academic libraries are now integrating tutoring, writing, math and science centers into their space, making the library both accessible and flexible. The library can also benefit from the activities generated by these functions.

    Integrating these distinct but related service areas requires careful planning. When making decisions,  focusing on unknowns can reduce overconfidence , according to DJ Walters. Carefully considering what is unknown can lead to better decision making. Walters studied areas ranging from military campaigns to medical treatments to corporate investments—when the outcome was poor, the organizations often focused on the known factors, not the unknowns. Over the last five years, we have utilized this strategy while integrating academic libraries and university services. Focusing on unknowns enabled our clients to make strategic choices.

    Our academic library conceptual design experience coupled with our academic programming experience will help your university, college or school explore new concepts in customer service, technical service, and strategic thinking. We are always building on our research; we analyze different learning spaces and explore the unknowns with educators, administrators and academic librarians. Contact our team: academic library consultant.

    LeMoyne Academic Library: Successful Integration of Library and Learning Space

    This learning space includes tutoring, writing, math, science services within the library.
  • Library Planning Research,  work in progress

    Best Libraries in the World

    ACA (www.acohen.com) has spent more than 40 years studying libraries, developing user experiences and library services. We are now seeing a significant shift in space and service planning strategies, from primarily book based institutions to a blend of digital and print services.

    Sometimes its good to get a perspective of other libraries to enhance your building project. Across library world, civic leaders, librarians and educators are helping us design and refine the communities needs.

    Take a tour of some of the best libraries in the world: http://blog.uniplaces.com/en/25-best-university-libraries-in-the-world/

    Below is the next generation library we are developing with ACG in Dubai.

    DL_DayPerspective_20151125

  • Library Planning Research,  library technology,  work in progress

    Makerspace and 3D Printing: the Future is Here

    The newest frontier in library service is the development of a MakerSpace, which can include access to 3D technology. Mick Ebeling at Not Impossible Labs provides an inspiring example of how 3D printers can make a difference in the world.

    Why should the Library offer a MakerSpace environment? According to Mick, its time to start planning for the impossible – the future!

    The library is an ideal place to introduce people to 3D technology. By providing computers and software to work on 3D projects, as well as a place to print these new creations, the library can help people step into a new world. They can be the “go-to” place for their students and patrons by enabling them to send the file(s) they want printed. The library will provide a time/cost estimate and print the items for pickup. See 3D rose example

    As with any transition, libraries and educators need to be prepared before they offer such a service.There are few things more frustrating to patrons than seeing a service offered that then can’t be delivered! To avoid this, look for 3D printers that don’t require a lot of maintenance, and make sure staff have the technical training to manage the equipment, enabling them to share “making” skills with the community. For example, what will you do if you need to “level the build plate” or get help when the machine gets stuck? Investing in the necessary training for staff is essential; in a digital world, the library staff is actually more important than ever.

    The Library MakerSpace will take a lot of work from the community to get started. The library staff will need to develop policies and procedures for MakerSpace services and equipment. For example, if you want to allow people use to hands-on tools you will need to provide space to work and a reasonable length of time to do so. This requires user policies, plans for time limits, and more.

    IMG_4397

    How does the 3D printer work?

    The 3D printer system works like an automated cake maker; cold plastic is loaded into the machine and fed through a tube that is heated. The liquidized plastic is pushed through a tube like a decorator that writes “happy birthday” on a cake. This is a simplistic description that can be expanded to incorporate metal, wood and biodegradable plastic printing.

    Product Ideas

    The costs for entry into 3D library makerspaces is roughly $1,500 to $2,500 depending on the Makerbot Replicator. It comes with software that makes it possible to develop objects. Other manufacturers are Polyprinter and Lulzbot Mini. In addition, Lulzbot and Cura is a good hardware / software combination. Download Cura – free 3D software.

    Software Ideas

    Software is an important part of the 3D printing experience. AutoCAD works very well with the 3D printer. However, there are other open source options – Meshmixer, Tinkercad, Cura and/or AutoDesk 123D. This software needs to be intuitive and easy to work with and designed specifically to produce 3D-printable model files.

    Once your library is also a makerspace, you may be able to connect your library to other MakerSpaces. Go to Skyforge and check out this service; it links all of the 3D printers together.

  • Library Planning Research,  Social Library Issues

    The Library; long lived and adaptable

    As libraries come to understand their need for collections, they must recognize that the book can be in many different formats. In a recent article by the Economist, the transformation of the book is taking off. According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers – book and e-book research, consumer book sales was 15.1 billions dollars in 2009.

    In the past, the majority of book sales were in print. PriceWaterhouseCoopers predict by 2018; 7.9B will be sold in print and 8.7B will be sold in e-book sales/equivalent. The prediction means that we will be living with books and e-books for a long time.

    The book is a really competitive technology – it is portable, hard to break, has high resolution pages and as Russell Grandinetti from Amazon stated; a “long battery life”.

    We believe that books are part of an ecosystem of library spaces. They require strategic space planning to determine how to distribute technology, collections, seating and staff.

    Our studies show that the most successful library environments provide a range of spaces. Spaces can be planned to manage distraction; take a break, etc. Libraries can be flexible with adaptive interiors that can respond easily to dynamic operational and technological requirements.

    What does it take to develop a high quality library that meets or exceeds “best practices” – what are some best practices?

    Below is a recent sketch from Aaron Cohen – ACA’s Seating Best Practices:

    learning-spacesion-standard

  • Library Planning Research,  Social Library Issues,  Space Planning

    Making the Library a Destination

    As part of our workshops and ongoing research process, we perform ethnographic analysis.  This kind of research is invaluable for developing site-specific strategies because it enables participants to share their views of the interior and exterior of a library. Please take our library outcomes survey on our web site.

    During the course of formal (surveys, interviews) and informal (observation) assessment, we look at furnishings, computers, equipment and exterior entrance and flow in/out of the building. Throughout this process we generate quantitative and qualitative data that is used to isolate behavioral patterns that will ultimately enable us to formulate solutions for the library space.

    A few years ago, we did a full day workshop at the University of Manchester for CILIP.  It was a wonderful event to share knowledge with 25 British Librarians, as we talked about library space planning and learned about best practices.  The participants were very interested in new ideas for libraries; they could see the complexity of change and needed some answers. It was a great opportunity to tour the library and learn about the library director’s plans to improve the building. It was obvious the library was a great institution; history seeped out of its pores.  However, it needed new tools to manage the complex world of libraries.  It needed a new plan.

    The Manchester Library recently reopened after an ambitious 50M renovation.  The original building created a pleasing atmosphere, but was not a great place to work or study. Below is a picture of the entryway after the renovation.

    pnw__1395655565_Manchester_Central_Library_1

    The issues that were addressed by the Manchester renovation came to mind again when I read about the Boston Public Library recently in the New York Times.  According to “Breaking out of the Library Mold, Boston and Beyond” the Boston Public Library is going through a transformation that is noteworthy.  The entryway will be re-imagined with an open lounge area, new books and casual seating and retail space.  According to Amy Ryan, the library will make physical changes to reflect the evolving nature of libraries.

    Leaders need to focus on the library as a destination by developing plans for multiple activities and contexts.  They need to understand the characteristics of the library building and services.  They need to work on simple, complicated and complex challenges.  They need to develop new ideas to accelerate improvements.  Our workshops help open up discussions, set up a framework for improvements, stimulate attractors and encourage dissent and diversity of ideas. Our workshops help participants learn about the library, creating opportunities for new ideas to emerge.
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