Study of Student and Faculty Habits (INAP) Reports: Butler

On November 29th, 2016, the Information Needs Assessment Project Team visited Butler University and conducted four of the methods (interviews, photo collage, day mapping, and library mapping) in our toolkit. A fifth method (photo essay) was performed by Amanda Starkel over the following few days. A total of 48 students participated in the study. You can view the report from that visit here:

https://bit.ly/butler-inap

You can view photos from the day here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/palni_libraries/sets/72157672162296163/with/30515920074/

Butler used the INAP report to inform their strategic priorities.

• We got very mixed reports from students about the fountain in the main Irwin library. Several students liked the “white noise” produced by the fountain, but other students thought it was distracting.
• We interviewed 48 students and heard the word “basement” 40 times. These basements are located all across campus, but was the most common place for a student to say they studied.  This is an interesting contrast to the fact that we heard students say the word “window” 31 times when describing a place they’d like to study.
• 23% of the students we surveyed commute to campus, but only a few students described to us how commuting affects their study habits.