Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students’ Needs and Expectations of Digital Scholarship Spaces in a Comprehensive University Library: A Survey

3.1 Digital Literacy

The Association of University and Research Libraries (ACRL) pointed out the development of emerging trends such as open access, research data services, and learning analytics in the “2020 Top Trends in Academic Libraries.” It also believes that libraries should “consider using information literacy education as a carrier to introduce the concept of algorithms and their ethical implications” (Benedetti et al. 2020). A widely accepted definition of one example of this, digital literacy, is “the ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide variety of sources when it is presented via computers” (Gilster 1997). Digital literacy is the key to helping users solve complex digital tasks and is a necessary survival skill in the technological age (Cardoso and Oliveira 2015). Therefore, academic libraries need to pay more attention to digital literacy and provide users with the necessary skills training so that they can be in a more favorable competitive position in the digital age (Littlejohn, Beetham, and McGill 2012). One example of this is Harvard University, which conducts digital scholarship foundation activities to improve users’ digital literacy, and is committed to promoting the development of digital scholarship throughout the school (Wang and Guo 2019).

3.2 Digital Scholarship Services

The digital scholarship life cycle includes support services, formulating research ideas, locating research partners, writing proposals, conducting research, and publishing results. Support services run through the entire process of the digital scholarship life cycle (Zhou, Huang, and Zijlstra 2019). User needs for digital scholarship services are divided into several types, such as the most basic needs that must be met, the satisfied needs which are more achieved with the higher improvement in user satisfaction, irrelevant needs and reverse needs lead to dissatisfaction (Li et al. 2020). As an important infrastructure of digital scholarship space, digital scholarship tools are the cornerstone of academic services (Xiang and Zhu 2019). The different ways in which academic tools are used have shaped the different academic research paradigms of scholars, who have established their digital identities through digital tools in a networked and digital world (Cardoso and Oliveira 2015). Through online digital resources, libraries can provide support services such as special collections, data management, and scholarly exchanges, but they also face broader information management challenges (Fowler and Hines 2018). Digital scholarship enables better collaboration and scholarly practice (Ocran and Afful-Arthur 2021), and scholars engage in online social networks to share, reflect, critique, improve, validate, or otherwise develop their scholarship.

3.3 Digital Scholarship Space

Digital scholarship refers to the concept of applying new technologies and data analysis tools to academic research. Currently, different communities have different understandings of digital scholarship (Liu and Tu 2017). The more widely accepted definition of digital scholarship is that “Digital scholarship is the use of digital evidence and method, digital authoring, digital publishing, digital curation and preservation, and digital use and reuse of scholarship” (Rumsey 2011). Some scholars also believe that digital scholarship is a new academic form of knowledge production and knowledge diffusion, which consists of data acquisition, visual analysis, and simulation driven by digital technology (Zeng and Wang 2019). The goal of the digital scholarship space is to provide users with one-stop scientific research, teaching and support, and is committed to cultivating and improving users’ digital scholarship literacy (Li 2021). The development of web 2.0 technology and digital network and communication technology promotes the generation of the digital scholarship environment, affects the practice of the library academic environment (Cardoso and Oliveira 2015), and further promotes the generation of the digital scholarship space. We think of digital scholarship spaces as hybrid academic centers that combine information sharing, collaborative workplaces, social spaces, and digital scholarship services (Zhu 2021), including the physical space set up in the library to provide a one-stop service, as well as the open online service space for digitization, networking, and social participation.

3.4 Environmental Requirements

According to environmental psychology research, an effective learning environment is a combination of different environmental elements (Ata, Deniz, and Akman 2012), with air circulation, lighting, and space allocation schemes being important factors affecting the evaluation of library satisfaction (Wang, Zhang, and Chen 2009). Each element of the learning environment affects the feelings and behaviors of the people in it (Bossaller et al. 2020), and the optimal configuration of the combination of elements is of great significance for improving the user’s experience and satisfaction. These findings can help architects make more informed decisions in library space planning (Cha and Kim 2020).

By determining users’ needs for the digital scholarship space and the services provided by the space, university libraries can continuously improve the allocation of digital scholarship space service resources, optimize the service environment, and help students succeed in learning and scientific research. Although we investigate the digital scholarship needs of users of a university library in China, the research results can be shared across borders, and hopefully can provide insight into the transformation and development of university libraries. Our research explores their preferences for the use of digital scholarship spaces from the perspective of users, which helps to deepen the understanding of the practice of digital scholarship services, and proposes strategies and methods for the planning and redesigning of space in academic libraries. The research will analyze the needs differences between undergraduate and postgraduate students and then put forward suggestions for the construction of digital scholarship space to improve the accuracy of digital scholarship services.

5.1 Demographic

As shown in Table 1, the proportion of undergraduates and postgraduates (including master and doctoral students) among the respondents who participated in the survey was near equal, accounting for 47.5 and 52.5 % respectively. But there is an imbalance in gender, with women accounting for more than 80 % (80.2 %) and men less than 20 % (19.6 %). In terms of the professional distribution of the surveyed users, most come from Science, Engineering, and Medicine (40 %) and Economics, Management, and Law (31.4 %), while some come from Literature, History, and Philosophy (25 %). There are also a small number from other disciplines (3.6 %).

5.2 Service Requirements

In the service demand survey, users scored (out of 10) the services and activities that the digital scholarship space can provide, including research data-related services, GIS analysis support, text mining and data analysis support, research data management, and long-term preservation services. There are services aimed at improving the digital literacy of users, including training on digital scholarship tools (reference management software, data visualization software, statistical software, big data capture tools, image analysis tools, digital publishing tools, etc.), academic salon activities, services for writing research project plans and publishing research results, including research project application lecture, academic paper writing, submission, publication, and dissemination consulting services (publishing policy, academic ethics, open access policy (OA), research reproducibility, dissemination and presentation of research results), and undergraduate writing tutoring. Other services are included, such as MOOC production support, audio and video digital services, digitization of paper documents (archives, texts, manuscripts, etc.), text recognition and full-text processing (pictures, scans, photographs, etc.), Digital Humanities support (digitization, copyright, content management, web publishing, etc.), interdisciplinary integration service, and academic incubator services (public scholarships, research fund support, etc.). As shown in Figure 1, from high to low ranking, there is text recognition and full-text processing (7.00), academic paper writing, submission, publication and dissemination consulting services (6.86), digitization of printed documents (6.72), text mining and data analysis support (6.59), training on digital scholarship tools (6.55), research project application lecture (6.50), research data management and long-term preservation services (6.41), academic incubator services (6.40), Digital Humanities support (6.37), interdisciplinary integration service (6.37), academic salon activities (6.01), audio and video digital services (5.85), undergraduate writing tutoring (5.79), GIS analysis support (5.65), and MOOC production support (5.53). Among the 15 services surveyed, users have a high demand for printed document digitization, thesis writing guidance, and data analysis tool software, while other digital services, such as MOOC production, GIS analysis, audio and video digital services, and further services for faculty and staff, are in lower demand.

Figure 1:

Demand score for digital scholarship service.

We conducted an independent sample t-test on digital scholarship space activities and service demand based on two types of academic identities. As shown in Table 2, when the confidence level is 90 %, there is a significant difference in the demand for digital scholarship services between undergraduates and postgraduates. Postgraduates generally have a significantly higher demand than undergraduates, with the demands for various services six points higher (except for MOOC production support). With the improvement of academic identity, the role of digital scholarship has become more and more significant, and users’ demands for digital scholarship have also increased.

5.3 Space Needs

After investigating the service needs of digital scholarship activities, we asked users to rate the needs of the spaces that provide the above-mentioned services. As shown in Figure 2, the order from high to low is online digital scholarship space (6.57), research project application and exchange space (6.43), text analysis, data analysis, Big Data, and visualization service center (6.27), interdisciplinary cooperation space (6.27), academic publishing and communication consulting center (6.05), seminar room (5.96), 3D modeling and printing studio (5.89), digital scholarship literacy training room (5.69), Digital Humanities lab (5.68), Makerspace (5.66), undergraduate writing tutoring room (5.59), MOOC room (5.38), audio and video digitization and editing processing workshop (5.31), academic salon center (5.30), and GIS labs (4.86). The demand for the digital scholarship space is relatively consistent with the corresponding service demand, but is slightly smaller than the demand for digital scholarship services. But unlike service needs, while graduate students still demand more digital scholarship space than undergraduates, the difference is narrower. In Table 3, there are only significant differences in the undergraduate writing tutoring room, research project application and exchange space, and interdisciplinary cooperation space. There is also a significant difference in the demand for digital scholarship space between men and women. As shown in Table 4, men’s demand for digital scholarship space is higher than that of women. In the academic salon center, MOOC room, audio and video digitization and editing processing workshop, GIS labs, text analysis, data analysis, Big Data and visualization service center, digital scholarship literacy training room, interdisciplinary cooperation space, and online digital scholarship space, the demand for these spaces is significantly higher for men than women. We also performed one-way ANOVA and post hoc multiple comparisons for users across disciplines. In Table 5, the results showed that the space requirements vary among subject categories in the academic salon center, GIS labs, audio and video digitization and editing processing workshop, text analysis, data analysis, Big Data and visualization service center, digital scholarship literacy training room, research project application and exchange space, interdisciplinary cooperation space, Makerspace, and 3D modeling and printing studio. Science, engineering, and Medicine subjects have a significantly higher demand for digital scholarship space than the other two subject categories of users.

Figure 2:

Demand score for digital scholarship space.

On the issue of which floor to place the digital scholarship space on, 31 % of users choose to set it on the second floor and 27 % of users choose to set it on the fourth floor and above, while the choices of other users varied. Since Jinan University, where we distributed the questionnaire, has its library entrance on the second floor, we reasonably speculate that users prefer to locate the digital scholarship space in a more convenient and accessible place, or on a quieter high floor (Figure 3).

Figure 3:

Floor setting.

5.4 Facilities and Equipment

In the scoring of the facilities provided by the digital scholarship space, as shown in Figure 4, from high to low are printing, copying, and scanning all-in-one machine (7.95), tables, chairs, and sofas that can be freely placed (7.72), public lockers (7.58), projector (7.45), computer, tablet (7.4), self-service coffee machines, vending machines, etc. (7.38), mobile display (7.3), whiteboard and pen (7.26), digital scholarship tools and software (7.02), visualization wall (6.84), small (large) 3D printer (6.6), 3D scanner (6.49), and virtual reality device (6.08). The user’s demand for each of the facilities and equipment we listed exceeded six points. Like the demand for space services, the differences in demand caused by identity and subject of study are still evident in the demand for digital scholarship space facilities and equipment. The demand for various facilities and equipment of postgraduate students is significantly higher than that of undergraduates, while there is no obvious difference in the demand for whiteboards, pens, and visualization walls. The results of the one-way analysis of the variance test and post-test based on the demand for facilities and equipment when considering the subject categories show that the demand for various types of facilities and equipment in the subjects of Literature, History, and Philosophy is lower than that of the subject categories of Economics, Management, and Law and Science, Engineering and Medicine. Elsewhere, it is of note to consider the needs of facilities and equipment such as whiteboard and marker, mobile display, small (large) 3D printer, 3D scanner, virtual reality device, visualization wall, digital scholarship tools and software, tables, chairs, sofas that can be freely placed, public lockers. There are significant differences in the demand for facilities and equipment between students of Literature, History, and Philosophy and Economics, Management, and Law and Science, Engineering, and Medicine, but there is no obvious difference in this demand between students of economic management law and science, technology and medicine (Table 6).

Figure 4:

Facility and equipment needs score for digital scholarship spaces.

5.5 Ambient Atmosphere

When talking about the user’s environmental elements for the digital scholarship space, as shown in Figure 5, according to the order from high to low, the users are interested in lighting (8.34), ventilation (8.32), temperature (8.09), label guidelines (7.74), color (7.48), furniture selection (7.27), and green plants (7.20). When talking about the design style of the digital scholarship space, we adopted the form of multiple-choice questions, with users allowed to choose between divide different themed work areas in an open large space, workshops with different themes and tables, and chairs and sofas being freely combined in the open space. Response rates of the three types of space design styles were 35, 32, and 32 % of users, which showed no obvious preference for the design style of the digital scholarship space (Table 7).

Figure 5:

Environmental element requirement scoring for digital scholarship spaces.

5.6 Management and Service

In terms of management and services, we use the Likert scale to allow users to score for online reservations for the digital scholarship space, the degree of demand for digital scholarship librarians, and the degree of demand for a catering service space, from very necessary to very unneeded. The selection results are shown in Figure 6, illustrating that most users (66.79 %) believe it is necessary to open online reservation services to digital scholarship spaces. A small number of users (7.5 %) believe that the digital scholarship space does not require online reservation services; similarly, most users (67.5 %) believe that it is necessary to set up digital scholarship librarians in the digital scholarship space to provide services, while a small number of users (5.71 %) think that digital scholarship librarians are not needed. In terms of the need for a space to eat, 67.86 % of users think it necessary to set up a food service space, while 16.7 % of users think it is not necessary to set up such a space in the library. Figure 7 illustrates that most users (76 %) hope that the library can provide hot and cold drinks such as coffee and tea (with milk), while a small number of users (13 %) believe the library should not provide such services.

Figure 6:

Stacked bar graph of demand for eating space, specialized librarians, and online appointment services.

Figure 7:

Should the library provides cold or hot drinks such as coffee and tea (with milk).

In the use of digital scholarship space facilities and equipment, we also adopted multiple-choice questions, letting users choose from four ways to use learning facilities and equipment (pasting the usage method on the wall, the usage method leaflet, the librarian’s explanation, and the explanation method short). As shown in Table 8, pasting the usage method on the wall received the highest response rate (32 %), followed by the leaflet (29 %) and a short video explaining the method (25 %).

6.1 Students’ Needs

In today’s highly developed digital resources, students’ reading habits have changed greatly (Wang et al. 2016). With the development of information technology, libraries have broken the boundaries of physical space and extended to virtual space. The continued development of Web 2.0 has also revolutionized the way academic libraries communicate with users (Winn, Groenendyk, and Rivosecchi 2015), with the rise of digital culture leading to new modes of learning and knowledge production (Burdick and Willis 2011). Academic libraries are increasingly supporting digital platforms and thus it is imperative to understand the user experience of these platforms (Tracy 2016). Evaluating digital scholarly services in academic libraries is important for both program development and service improvement (Longmeier and Murphy 2021). As the service object of digital scholarship, users are one of the most legitimate evaluation subjects. However, among existing studies, there are few instances of evaluating digital scholarship from the user’s perspective.

6.2 Librarians’ Role

Librarians play an increasingly active role as the link between academic libraries and their users in the dissemination of digital scholarship in the campus community (Green 2014). The quality of librarians will directly affect the quality of digital scholarship services (Yang 2021); librarians can provide training experiences for others, creating learning environments for users to conduct interdisciplinary research and enhance digital literacy (Kallaher and Gamble 2017). At Lafayette College, librarians leverage the library’s role in promoting digital scholarship through design internships that allow users to build digital research projects and make recommendations for sustainable implementation (Morris 2020). At the same time, the application of digital scholarship also enhances the core competitiveness of librarians and makes the innovation and transformation of libraries possible.

9.1 Special Spaces for Different Student Groups

There are identity differences in the information literacy of library user groups (Conway 2011) as well as certain disciplinary differences in information seeking and data integration (Spezi 2016). Elsewhere, there are also differences in information needs and information strategies in the research behaviors of doctoral students in different disciplines (Steinerova and Hrckova 2014). With the improvement of the user’s academic identity, the requirements for space facilities and equipment have also increased accordingly (Zhu and Xie 2023), and setting up different spaces for different identities of user groups should be considered. Graduate and undergraduate students have different information management skills as well as different needs for digital scholarship spaces that should be separated from undergraduate study spaces (Marcus, Covert-Vail, and Mandel 2007). There are some examples of librarians planning different areas for different groups, setting up rooms specifically for graduate students, with NYU Libraries creating dedicated study areas for small groups of graduate students (NYU 2023). The user group needs to be stimulated in a specific environment, and the role of the library is to create a space for the user group that is conducive to academic exchanges and collision of ideas, so as to promote the success of users.

9.2 Provide Digital Scholarship Services that Users Need Most, Rather than Comprehensive

Digital scholarship support is affected by the limited financial resources of universities. Comprehensive digital scholarship services require substantial staffing and infrastructure (Longmeier and Murphy 2021). However, digital scholarship lacks the support of start-up projects, institutional commitment, and long-term investment (Yang 2021). Academic libraries should seriously consider the possibility of expanding the content of digital scholarship services and conduct preliminary research on users’ digital scholarship services. Identifying and understanding user needs is the key to determining what kind of digital scholarship services to provide. There should be a focus on digital technology, data services, and digital publishing and copyright-related services, a digital scholarship service framework suitable for local characteristics should be built, streamlined but professional services should be provided. Limited resources cannot provide comprehensive digital scholarship services, so university libraries should provide the most urgent and valued digital scholarship services for users.

9.3 Digital Scholarship Librarian Specialization

The evolution of library services and new strategies for learning and communication requires librarians to have a strong set of specific skills (Tomescu 2018). Librarians who are cross-trained in project management and technology are key to successful digital initiatives (Miller 2018). The establishment of special positions is conducive to the professionalization and standardization of digital scholarship services, and provides institutional guarantees for digital scholarship (Yang 2021). Our survey reveals that the 67.5 % of users agreed to set up digital scholarship librarians in the digital scholarship space to provide services. However, at present, there is still a certain gap between the skills actually mastered by librarians and the needs of users, and it is not clear how librarians should prepare for digital scholarship (Chen 2019). Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to the selection and training of digital scholarship librarians, and continuously improve the ability of librarians to equip them with specialized skills in digital technology.

9.4 Conduct User Training on Information Literacy

The rapidly changing technological environment has brought many challenges to knowledge-intensive universities (Hallam, Thomas, and Beach 2018). In the information age, building information literacy skills is the focus of library programs, and it is important to understand the information literacy and behavior of users (Saunders et al. 2015). Since the concept of digital scholarship and service activities have not been popularized in China, the relevant literacy of users is not high enough. This study also shows that users from the subjects of Literature, History, and Philosophy have less need for digital scholarship spaces. Thus, it is urgent for Chinese libraries to provide digital scholarship literacy training for users, so that users have digital scholarship competence, and better support teaching, learning, and research (Ocran and Afful-Arthur 2021).