This reports looks at the range of technologies used by academic libraries to track head count and use of services throughout the library. The study pinpoints current and expected spending on such technologies, and shares library experiences with a wide range of options to assess who is doing what in the library and when. The report presents specific data on the use of occupancy-sensing seating, thermal motion sensors, and laser motion sensors for lighting. It also gives data on the use in the sample of specific brands and technologies such as OccuSpace, SenSource, Spaceti and many others. The study also presents satisfaction data for the use of such technologies, and comments on plans in this area. The study is based on data from 51 academic library directors and other high level management officials, predominantly from the USA. Data is broken out by size and type of institution, by tuition level, for public and private institutions and by other variables.
Just a few of the many findings from this 55-page report are:
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23.1% of colleges in the sample with more than 14,000 students are using occupancy sensing seating in their academic libraries.
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Younger librarians (<40) are more likely to be somewhat satisfied with motion detecting technology (66.67%), but older groups report less satisfaction overall.