Maynooth University library is dedicated to listening to our library users – for years we have gathered feedback on what works or doesn’t work for our students and library users. In 2016, we started asking them for their ideas. They, after all, are the ones using the spaces! Based on the Eureka! project from University of Manchester library and as part of a broader suite of UX (User Experience) projects, we ran a competition called “If students did libraries….”. The question was put to the library users – if you ran the library what would you do? what would make your experience in the library better? what ideas have you got that would make your life easier in the library?
It was a Dragons’ Den-style competition where students were asked to submit their ideas and then the shortlisted finalists pitched their idea to a panel of judges with implementation of the idea and €1000 as the winning prize.
The desired outcome of this competition was to develop the library spaces we have, add value to them and make it a space for everyone. We wanted to make the library an inclusive space for all by asking our users for ideas, listening to them and implementing them. This talk will document the process, the success, what we learned along the way and how it has impacted life in the library.