Week Five: Assessment


Hannah Hiles | 19 February 2016 | Durham NC


This week saw the kick-off for a tremendous project with both AUX and the DUL system. Rubenstein Library, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Duke's library system, recently underwent substantial renovations and remodeling. The "final phase of the Perkins project", the renovation started in 2012 and ended late last year.

One of the duties of AUX has been to take in that new renovation and see how it has affected students. Are they having a hard time navigating the space? Do they know that study spaces in that library exist? Are librarians at service desks in other libraries being bombarded with questions about Rubenstein?

This week, myself and the other field study student spent considerable time wandering around Rubenstein Library. We were asked to consider what stood out to us – what didn't work? What did we like? What seemed confusing, or really efficient? Were there things that staff maybe were just taking for granted?

We created a massive document of observations and recommendations, and then sent them off to our boss. A few days later, a new document had been created – much shinier and more polished. And this one had comments and further information, straight from the head of the Rubenstein building (not library – it gets confusing around here), as well as the Executive Group.

I will admit that I'm still processing that last part.

We're still in the midst of creating the Usability Tests and Observational Studies that we'll be running in Rubenstein. It's not a fast process, but AUX likes to grab something and run with it – not sit around and shuffle papers while waiting for things to happen. There's a lot of initiative here, which is amazing.

Being a part of a project like this is remarkable, though – to be handed a task, to complete first steps in that task, and then to see it start to grow and unfold and change? I feel like a full-fledged member of the library community, and I'm only, technically, a volunteer. How cool is that?