Raamatukogu koostöö TÜ majandusteaduskonnaga

Abstract

UT Library’s Cooperation with the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tartu

For three years, the UT Library has cooperated with the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tartu to study the behaviour of users in the library. For all three years, the collaboration took place within the framework of a subject that introduces research and analysis methods in the economic and social sciences. In the first year (2020), it was an undergraduate subject, and in 2022 and 2023, it was already a Master’s subject.

The aim of the cooperation is to offer students of the Faculty of Economics the opportunity to experiment with business anthropology, which helps to identify the natural behaviour of library users through observation accompanied by interviews. As part of the course, students form research groups and concentrate on specific research topics, i.e. the area in the library, where they have to find the answer to a specific question: what are the library visitors’ patterns of consumer behaviour?

The 2020 survey took place in the spring semester when the COVID-19 crisis began in Estonia; the library was, therefore, first closed for a few weeks and then only partially open to visitors. Due to the crisis, it was not possible to conduct observations, and the students solved the task with interviews. That year, 304 library users were interviewed individually or in focus groups. The overall results for 2020 showed that relatively little was known about library services and facilities. Suggestions for improvement were made for services that already exist in the library. Following the suggestions for improvement outlined in the 2020 study, the library introduced several changes.

Another study took place in 2022, this time carried out by Master’s students. Overall, 700 people were observed, and three participatory observations and two introspections were also carried out. Master’s students conducted 160 interviews. The library implemented some smaller and quickly achievable changes during the year after the research.

The research projects for 2023 were carried out in eight groups, each of which had eight members. The topics covered included the visiting habits, the help-seeking experiences, guiding signs and pointers, the White Hall, places most preferred by the visitors, reading rooms, ways of conducting information search, and the lobby environment. The project submission deadline was the end of December 2023, and the results were presented in the library in early January 2024. The library has received valuable feedback on its services and its environment from a large number of users while, hopefully, the students have gained an exciting experience for the future and thus also found their way to the university library.