The study looks closely at academic library plans for fixed workstations in the age of mobile computing. It helps to answer questions such as: are libraries planning to maintain, increase or cut back on the number of fixed workstations? Which suppliers are they planning to use in the future? Which brands? What percentage of their fixed workstations are for personnel and what percentage for patrons? How many are used in Infocommons and other specialized rooms and applications and how many are for general patron or staff use? What kind of features, software or applications are they supplied with?
The report is based on a survey of 84 academic library directors, deans and provosts; data is broken out for college enrollment, public/private status, college tuition level, type or Carnegie class of college and numerous personal characteristics of the survey participants.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
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Research universities in the sample maintained a mean of nearly 48 fixed workstation computers exclusively for use by library staff.
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Junior colleges were most likely to report recently added group workstations and plans to add more collaborative spaces.
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Maximum spending in the past year on library computer workstations by any college in the sample with more than 10,500 enrolled students was $150,000.