6th Annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship
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Poster #42 Sociability of the Winona Public Library John Haldeman*, Chelsea Hawkridge, Tom Lepke, and Jenny Schuler Faculty Mentor: B. Aybar Damali Many factors can influence people in their decisions to use a public place, a service, or a facility. Literature suggests that (Public Places, 2012), there are at least four criteria (i.e. activity, accessibility, comfort, and sociability) that help people judge whether a place is “good” or “bad”. This study was conducted to explore “sociability” quality of a public place: public library. The major research question was: Can a public library be a place where people would meet with friends? Specifically, we focused on frequency and duration of usage, type of media used, activities users participated in, and examined how responses were related to respondents’ age, gender, marital status, and physical location of residence. One hundred and sixty five usable evaluations were received from people who have utilized programs and resources of city park and recreation department within the last two years. The data was collected via online survey instrument. This survey was a section of a comprehensive survey focusing on various public places in the same city. Surveying ran from January 2012 until February 2012. The majority of the respondents were female (n=162, 80.3%) and married (70%). The results showed that checking out materials for use at another location was the major reason for visiting the library (reported by 91%). In addition, when the respondents were provided five different types of activities they could do at the library and asked to indicate what activities they participated in, “quiet/alone time” and “children’s programs” were found to be the dominant responses (61%, 45%). Activity specific analysis is beyond the scope of this evaluation, but the findings help start conversations regarding sociability qualities of public libraries, and current program offerings at the library. |
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