VML Diary Study
A diary study of veterinary medicine students that examined their reasons for doing academic work at the Veterinary Medicine Library or elsewhere.
Overview
The William Rand Kenan Jr. Library of Veterinary Medicine (VML) is a branch of the NC State University Libraries that serves the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM), the Centennial Biomedical Campus, and the university's broader need for medical resources and research. In 2022 the VML staff wanted to better understand the priorities and preferences of CVM students about where they choose to do academic work. We formulated the following research questions:
- Where do CVM students choose to study?
- Why do CVM students choose to study at locations other than the VML?
- Is the VML a welcoming, comfortable, and productive place to study?
To gather this information, the VML, in conjunction with the Libraries' User Research Team, conducted a three-week diary study of 10 CVM students. A diary study is a research method that allows researchers to collect qualitative data over a much longer timeframe than the average survey or focus group. It is particularly useful for developing conclusions about participants' habitual behavior and how their preferences and opinions may change over time. A diary study usually involves gathering responses from a limited set of respondents to a limited set of questions. Traditionally, this was done by asking respondents to keep a diary (hence the name of the method), but today responses can be collected in a number of ways and can even involve data gathered automatically; for example, tracking when participants log in or out of an electronic resource, or how often they use an ID badge to enter a particular physical location.
Findings
The diary study revealed that, overall, the VML is a preferred place to do academic work, and when students do choose to do their academic work elsewhere, their decision is influenced by factors outside the VML's control. Overwhelmingly, respondents chose to do their academic work at the VML or at home. Out of 166 daily survey responses, 85 included “VML”, and 80 included “Home” (responses were not limited to one location, and 42 responses included both).
When asked why they decided to study at a particular location, there were three main themes that emerged: Convenience, Productivity, and Pets. All quotations in the following section are unedited responses from study participants.
Convenience
Respondents frequently mentioned that when they had few or no other on-campus commitments, they preferred to study at home: "I primarily did work at home today since I had errands I needed to run before and after class time. It was more convenient to study at home than head back to school."
Frequently, the converse was also true, in that when respondents were already at the CVM, they would take advantage of the proximity of the VML and get work done there: "I opted to work at the VML today because of its accessible location, as I was on campus for in-person lectures today. I find it more conducive to productivity and focused work than other spaces on campus, so it is my go-to workspace when I am at the CVM."
Some respondents, however, were understandably eager to get away from the CVM after a full day of classes: "Nothing that the VML could do would make me stay after 5 on a [M]onday.”
Productivity
Another primary factor in respondents' choice of study location is how a given location affects their productivity. In many cases, respondents noted that the VML was a preferred location for intense, in-depth study, while home or other locations were better for casual review: "[Worked at the VML because] I needed to be productive today, I would have been distracted at home!"
There is also a difference on an individual level, with respondents feeling more productive at home where they have slight distractions to help keep them going, and other respondents doing better in the distraction-free environment of the library. "[At the] Library I can focus more and collaborate with my classmates, at home, I can go chill and relax and take my dog for a walk or watch TV, if I feel too tired. At the library I gotta push through it, which is sometimes needed."
Pets
As might be expected from a group of veterinary students, respondents' pets play a significant role in their lives, including satisfaction with study spaces. This factor combines frequently with the Convenience factor, as pets provide an additional reason to stay at home on days when students' in-person attendance at the CVM is not required. Representative comments included: "I adore the pet-friendly study patio and thought about bringing my dog for a study session today, but the cold weather was a deterrent" and "The library is less easy for me to get distracted, but at home I am much more comfortable and don't have to worry about my dog."
How We Did It
Recruitment of study participants was carried out via emails to CVM student mailing lists and via signs on electronic bulletin boards in the VML and around the CVM. In an effort to ensure a diverse participant pool, potential participants were asked to complete a brief demographic survey. In total, 79 responses were received during the six-day period the survey was open. All responses to the demographic survey were reviewed, and a selection of 10 participants was made. The demographic survey enabled selection of a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds, as partially demonstrated in the table below:
Student Status | 3 First-Years, 3 Second-Years, 1 Third-Year, 1 Fourth-Year, and 1 DVM/PhD student |
|---|---|
Undergraduate | 3 graduated from NC State, 2 from other Triangle-area schools |
Race & Ethnicity | 4 White, 3 Black or African-American, 2 Latinx, 1 South East Asian |
Gender | 7 Women, 2 Men, 1 Genderqueer |
Age | 5 from 18-24 years-old, 4 from 25-34, and 1 from 35-44 |
Other | 3 identify as LGBTQIA+, 5 were born or raised in countries other than the US, 2 are first generation college graduates |
Participants responded daily to five short prompts that asked them about where they did academic work and why they chose those locations. Additionally, participants attended weekly check-in meetings where they were asked two additional questions, with several extra questions in the final check-in meeting.
Participants were given several options regarding how they preferred to receive communications and how they could submit their responses. The options presented for receiving their daily question prompt reminders included email, iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, and others. All participants chose either email (6 participants) or iMessage (4 participants). Participants could submit their responses either via a direct response in their communication platform of choice (i.e., replying to an email or sending an iMessage) or via a web form. The link to the web form was always included in their daily reminder message. Nine participants consistently responded via the web form, and one responded only via email.
The period covered by the diary study stretched from the end of CVM's fall break, when presumably students are not thinking too much about their studies, to the start of finals, which is a very intense period of academic work. Following the data collection period, the responses were imported into a specialized software package for qualitative analysis via response coding. Using a thematic analysis approach allows for summarization and general description of the responses, and it offers the possibility of generating unanticipated insights.
Responses were coded with a multi-faceted set of tags that included locations, attributes, and actions. Location tags were used to identify the place where respondents performed academic work ("VML," "Home," "Other," etc.). Attribute tags included the qualities of the locations where students chose to work ("Comfort," "Space," "Noise Level," "View," "Lighting/Temperature," etc.) as well as other external factors that drove their decision-making ("Pets," "Convenience," "Schedule"). Actions included the general types of academic work that respondents reported performing ("Study," "Read," "Collaborate," etc.). An additional set of tags was added during the coding process to easily identify responses where the respondents reported not doing academic work on that particular day ("No Academic Work Today"), so they could more easily be filtered out.
The initial set of tags was developed prior to coding. After coding began, both minor and major changes were made to the tagging system. Minor changes included adding unanticipated tags within existing sets (e.g., the "View" tag under Attributes and the "Printing" tag under Actions) and major changes included adding the "No Academic Work Today" tag as a filtering mechanism. We also changed tags with inherent value judgements ("Too Loud" or "Enough Space") to more neutral attributes ("Noise Level" or "Space") that can be combined with a "Positive" or "Negative" tag to qualify the comment. All responses were re-coded after the final tagging system was implemented.
Discussion
Based on the totality of the daily responses and interview discussions, it appears that the VML is serving its users at the CVM about as well as can be expected. There were almost no responses indicating that participants avoided the VML because of some aspect inherent to the space. For the vast majority of times when respondents chose to study elsewhere, it was in spite of their general satisfaction with the VML as a place to do academic work. Importantly, while we actively recruited a group of respondents that was more diverse than the overall population of CVM and the veterinary profession as a whole, no respondents indicated feeling excluded or unwelcome at the VML.
One request that could be addressed is the expressed desire for more varied seating options, including comfortable seating. The VML offers a handful of relatively casual seating options and a collection of bean bag chairs, but they represent less than 10% of the seating. Any plans for new or additional furniture should consider this feedback and attempt to include a larger percentage of comfortable seating in a variety of forms (armchairs, lounge chairs, sofas, etc.). Additionally, any desk- or table-based seating should provide more space for students to spread out.
A more challenging issue to address is the general noise level at the VML, and the lack of a silent reading and study area. Given the internal configuration of the VML and its location within the CVM, it is unlikely that it will ever be a whisper-level library, but in order to better serve all of its patrons, the VML and CVM should examine options that would provide for some sort of acoustically enclosed silent reading space. This could involve construction to close off some portion of the general reading room space, or repurposing and acoustically insulating existing spaces.
