Poster with the results of a collaborative ethnographic
study of students' behavior in a university library. The study was conducted within the framework of the anthropology course 650H: Research Design and Ethnographic Methods (Autumn 2010) taught by Dr. Mark Morit

Carmichael, Katie

Clark, Adrianne

Kough, Megan

Lipphardt, Jacqueline

Moritz, Mark

Olson, Kyle

Rayo, Michael

Reilly-Sanders, Erin

Ulmer, Gordon

KnowledgeBank at OSU

METHODOLOGY! !We conducted an ethnographic study of students' use of the new Thompson Library using an iterative-inductive approach moving back and forth between data collection and analysis (O'Reilly 2009). We used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including: participant observation to document student behaviors in different spaces in the library, and in particular potential conflicts between collaborative learning and student habitus; semi-structured interviews to examine informal rules that regulate behavior in the library; grounded theory to discover categories of informal rules in interview transcripts; questionnaires to measure student habitus; and descriptive statistics to describe the patterns in student habitus.! !Over the course of the study we observed hundreds of students in the Thompson Library and interviewed 145 of them. This non-random sample consists of students from every possible major (from Aeronautical Science to Zoology), and is a good representation of the OSU student population in terms of age, rank, gender, race and ethnicity.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CONCLUSION!!•  While students are not familiar with the concept of the learning commons, they recognize that the new Thompson Library is different from a traditional library and use it in many ways as the designers intended.!•  The library achieves its design goal of a learning commons as a dynamic, collaborative environment with mixed success. There are tensions between library practice of quiet, individual studying and social learning activities.!•  While group work is considered an appropriate activity in the library, it is also considered disruptive because of the noise. !•  Students share a traditional library habitus that favors quiet, individual studying and do not approve of disturbances, especially cell phones. Food and Facebook are no problem because they don’t interfere with studying.!•  There is a strong commitment to the traditional library practice.  Students monitor their own behavior and that of others. They correct each other through stares, shushes and direct appeals. !•  What was striking was the almost complete absence of library staff in the different areas of the library and that the quiet study atmosphere of the library was maintained by students themselves.!RESULTS! !What is the student habitus in the Thompson Library? !Quiet, individual learning activities that aligned with traditional library use were considered to be most appropriate and least disruptive: reading, being quiet, studying for class. Activities that were louder, often associated with social interactions, were judged to be less appropriate and most disruptive (e.g., talking on cell phone). The exception is group work, which is both considered appropriate and disruptive. ! !Are there changes in student library habitus? Although the student library habitus is fairly traditional in that it favors quiet, individual studying, we found that there are also changes in what students consider appropriate library behavior; Facebook and food are considered part of studying in the library, with the exception of loud, crunchy foods like chips and carrots.  ! !Keep quiet! Noise is the greatest disruption to !individual learning activities. Cell phones are !considered the worst, but other social interactions !also rank high. Noises made by individual students !working are considered less disruptive (e.g., typing on a computer, coughing).! !How can group work be appropriate and disruptive? While group work is considered a highly appropriate activity in the library, it is also considered highly disruptive by students. The results suggest that students think that collaborative learning activities should be  limited to the group study spaces.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!What are the informal rules? The informal rules that guide the behavior of students are guided by a sense of respect and courtesy for other users. The overarching rule is to be quiet and !not disturb others studying. ! !!How do students cope with violations of informal rules? Many try to ignore it or move to another area. Others clear their throats, send nasty looks, or shush the violators. Some directly confront violators and ask them to consider others and be quiet. Only a few students go to library staff for assistance. ! !Where do students do group work? !The university library was mentioned most often by the students interviewed (56%), followed by dorms (45%), coffee shops (35%), and student lounges (34%). The Thompson Library and the Science and Engineering Library (SEL) were specifically mentioned. The group study spaces in the Thompson Library were favored for group work (77%), while other spaces were mentioned by less than 18% of the students. More than half of the students interviewed had ever done group work in the Thompson Library.! !Is the Thompson Library a learning commons? None of the students we interviewed knew what a learning commons was, but when we explained it, more than 70% agreed that the Thompson Library was a learning commons. !Go Shush Yourself: !Student Habitus at the New Thompson Library!Katie Carmichael, Adrianne Clark, Megan Kough, !Jacqueline Lipphardt, Mark Moritz, Kyle Olson, Michael Rayo, !Erin Reilly-Sanders, Gordon Ulmer!Fieldnotes!Fieldnotes!Transcripts!Participant Observations!Focused Observations!Semi-Structured Interviews!Questionnaires! Quantitative Data!Analysis!Analysis!Grounded Theory!Statistical analysis!Interpretation!Writing Up!You Are Here!1.52!2.01!2.18!2.24!2.64!2.66!2.69!2.93!2.94!3.09!3.09!3.54!3.96!4.13!1.00! 2.00! 3.00! 4.00! 5.00!Tutoring / peer help!Socialize with friends!Group work!Check out books!Study with classmate(s)!Hang out and relax!Leisure reading!Surf the web (for recreation)!Research!Buy a coffee/snacks!Kill time between classes!Check e-mail!Study alone for exams!Work alone on homework!1=Never, 2=Rarely, 3=Often, 4=Frequently, 5=Very Frequently!How often is Thompson Library used for the following activities?!INTRODUCTION! !The Thompson Library has been redesigned in part as a learning commons with the assumption that pedagogical models and student learning are becoming more and more social and collaborative. However, it is unclear whether students' ideas of how libraries should be used have caught up with these developments. Students may still have the habitus of a more traditional university library and may not view and use the library as a learning commons. The goal of the ethnographic study was to understand students' use of the new Thompson Library. !!Our hypothesis was that the new design of the Thompson Library may promote collaborative learning, while students' habitus may prevent collaborative learning in the library.!!!“A Learning Commons!is a dynamic, collaborative!environment on campus, !often physically in the library,!that provides assistance to students with information and research needs. It combines individual and group study space, in-depth reference service, and instruction from a variety of sources, including librarians and information technology staff. Some of its key concerns are learning, writing, technology use, and research. Its main purpose is to make student learning easier and more successful” (York University Libraries 2010).! !!Habitus is a concept from practice theory developed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1980). Practice theory addresses two central questions: 1) how does the system shape individual practice, and 2) how do individual practices shape the system? Habitus can be described as an individual’s system of acquired dispositions that work as a generative scheme of action (but does not determine action). Individuals acquire these dispositions, which are embodied and mostly learned through experience, as they are socialized within families, social groups, and institutions like university libraries. Habitus produces practice, which is best described as what people do in everyday life. Practical sense or logic is often described as ‘‘the feel for the game’’ in which the game can stand for social life but also for other domains, including behavior in university libraries.!!!REFERENCES! !Bourdieu, Pierre. (1980). The logic of practice. Stanford: Stanford !University Press.!O'Reilly, Karen. 2009. Key concepts in ethnography. Thousand Oaks: !Sage.!OSU Libraries Learning Group. 2004. Report of the OSU Libraries !Learning Group (October 2004).!York University Libraries. 2010. What is a learning commons? Available !at http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/Home/preview/infolit/!mmons/learning-commons.en accessed on November 29, 2010.! !!BACKGROUND!!This study was conducted within the framework of the anthropology course 650H: Research Design and Ethnographic Methods (Autumn 2010) taught by Dr. Mark Moritz. Students were trained in different research methods through participation in a collaborative project in which they designed the study, collected and analyzed data, and wrote up the results in this poster. !!For more information about the project contact Dr. Mark Moritz (moritz.42@osu.edu).!"Group learning and learning projects developed collaboratively with fellow students and professors are critically important" (Learning Group Report 2004).!"OSU's new library policy of 'talking is great because the library should be a group space' is horribly annoying. Why can't the library be a place that is quiet where one can actually concentrate? Are there no quiet spaces in this world anymore?" !"You don't mean for it to but it just gets really loud and you find that, oh crap! I'm disturbing the person next to me." !"The factors which are most influential in the formation of the habitus are transmitted without passing through language and consciousness, but through suggestions inscribed in the most apparently insignificant aspects of the things, situations, and practices or everyday life. Thus the modalities of practices, the ways of looking, sitting, standing, keeping silent, or even of speaking ("reproachful looks" or "tones," "disapproving glances" and so on) are full of injunctions that are powerful and hard to resist precisely because they are silent and insidious, insistent and insinuating" (Bourdieu 1991:51). !"I mean, a library is a library." !"You don't really go to a library to socialize with people because everybody's doing their own thing." !1.43!1.86!2.53!2.64!2.71!2.73!2.76!2.88!3.17!3.35!3.37!3.37!3.54!4.03!4.12!4.31!4.86!4.86!4.92!1.00! 2.00! 3.00! 4.00! 5.00!Being loud!Talking on cell phone!Socializing!Games, Videos!Taking off shoes!Using school computers for recreation!Moving furniture!Putting feet up!Sleeping!Facebook!Spreading out your stuff!Sitting next to someone without asking!Eating!Killing time between classes!Group work!Meeting with friends to study!Studying for class!Being quiet!Reading!1=Inappropriate, 2=Somewhat Inappropriate, 3=Neutral, !4=Somewhat Appropriate, 5=Appropriate!How appropriate are the following in the Thompson Library?!1.63!2.07!2.19!2.43!2.49!2.69!2.70!2.88!2.90!3.18!3.24!3.31!3.53!3.82!3.84!3.99!4.19!1.00! 2.00! 3.00! 4.00! 5.00!Coffee and muffin!Typing on a computer!Tuna salad!Coughing or sneezing!Maintenance workers!Cell phone vibrating!Knuckle cracking!Potato chips or carrots!Pen tapping!Tourists or sightseers!Group work!Sounds from headphones!Two people talking!Social conversation!Sounds from computer speakers!Cell phone ringing!Talking on cell phone!1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Neutral, !4=Agree, 5=Strongly Agree!How disruptive are the following activities in Thompson Library!

Go Shush Yourself: Student Habitus at the New Thompson Library

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/1811/47954/8/ANTH_Moritz_poster_12.8.2010.pdf

Go Shush Yourself: Student Habitus at the New Thompson Library

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