Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design

Library Technology Reports, January 2018 (54:1)

As the world of information access has pivoted from physical goods to digital screens, the ways that libraries measure themselves have changed. For years, measurements such as door counts, circulation tracking, and material tracking have been used to evaluate library building usage. With new advances in sensor technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, computer vision, and more, we are now beginning to be able to monitor spaces in ways that were previously unthinkable.

In Library Technology Reports (vol. 54, no. 1), “Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Itera­tive Design,” Jason Griffey explores these technologies and pro­vides librarians and other interested parties with a look into what’s possible in the current state of technology for smart library buildings. In this report, Jason Griffey

• Covers three case studies that explore how librarians are using technological tools to analyze library spaces
• Shares new ways to think about your space and how you can measure building usage
• Explores the future of technological change and smart library buildings

Looking at three different projects that involved space metrics and analysis in libraries, this report shows how Virginia Tech; Con­cordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and the Measure the Future project are using technologi­cal tools to analyze library spaces to improve their environment for their users. Virginia Tech is research­ing how furniture movement acts as a stand-in for patron activity. Concordia University experimented with a project that monitored noise levels. The Mea­sure the Future project is using computer vision to see how patrons move around in library spaces and derive “attention” measures from those movements while doing so with a strong protection on any sort of identification of patrons. Finally, Griffey takes a look at what the next five to ten years of technological progress will bring and how that might change the possibilities for a smart library.