Cynthia Schwarz is the Senior Systems & Technology Librarian at the Health Sciences Library. She recently moved into this position after 6 years on the Main Campus. In both these jobs, Cynthia has used her technical expertise to address questions about how students use technology and how we can optimize our offerings to support their work. She sat down with Nancy Turner, Assessment Librarian, to talk about her “investigations”.
NT: So what were the questions that you had?
CS: Here at the Health Sciences Library we have several public Mac computers that are located in the open stairway area – this is a pretty high traffic area and yet they didn’t seem to be getting a lot of use. As we make decisions about investing in new computer workstations, I wanted to have more data about how frequently the different computers in the Library were being used, what types were preferred, who was using them, and what software was being used.
NT: So how did you go about gathering this information?
CS: The timing was good, because we now have access to an analytics tool called LabStats. The TECH Center has been using this tool for a while to learn about what’s going on there. We combine data from LabStats with data from our student database, Banner, so that we can get the department and status of the patrons that use our computers.
I have a map of where each workstation is located in the Library and each computer has a unique name. I can see how many times that workstation was logged into, how many unique users, what time and days. I collected the use data for the Spring semester. There is a separate report for what type of software is used but that’s a little more difficult to manage. It takes time to run the reports and it’s not as accurate, or it would take more time to analyze it. It’s based on the name of the application.
NT: What did you learn?
CS: Well, the data showed that these Mac computers do indeed get used. I was also surprised by the relatively high use of our computers by students in schools outside of the health sciences. And there were a relatively high number of alumni are using the computers.
NT: Why do you think that is?
CS: My theory is that the Library is quiet and it’s a pleasant place to work. We don’t limit who uses the library space to only health science students. So students who live nearby, or who are taking a class outside their major, or maybe students with jobs nearby can come and use our library.
NT: Any next steps?
CS: My goal is to monitor computer use through next year. We want to understand if there are preferences for MACs over PC’s. And using the Millennium reporting capabilities, we can run reports on the use of other types of technology: laptops, iPads, remote controls and keys to the group study rooms. For instance, we’ve got 65 laptops available for borrowing. I’d like to explore how frequently these get used. This information will help us to make decisions about future investments in technology here at the Library.