This 92-page study presents highly detailed data on just how comfortable faculty library patrons are in the academic library. It helps its readers to answer questions such as: what do faculty think of the library’s current COVID control efforts? How about the noise level in the library? Is the air conditioning insufficient or excessive, or just about right? How clean is the library? Is it warm enough in the library building in winter? How about library bathrooms? What would make the library more comfortable? And, overall, just how comfortable is your academic library?
The study helps its readers to get at the nitty gritty issues that often impact library use but about which little systematic information is available. This unique study fills the gap.
Just a few of the many findings from this report are:
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79.4% of respondents felt that the temperature in the academic library in winter was about right.
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About 7% of female respondents felt that it was too cold in the library when the air conditioning was on.
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African-American and Hispanic faculty were more likely than their Caucasian or Asian-origin peers to feel that the library’s current COVID policies were deficient.
Data in the study is based on data from a survey of 806 higher education faculty randomly chosen from nearly 500 colleges and universities in the USA. Data is broken out by personal variables such as work title, gender, personal income level, academic discipline, age and other variables, as well as institutional indicators such as college or university type or Carnegie class, enrollment size, public or private status and others.