Evaluating Library Spaces and Understanding the Student/User: The rationale and the ethnographic journey

This chapter examines the rationale behind, and background to, an ethnographic investigation into the use of informal (i.e. non-teaching) learning spaces, managed by the Library of the University of Salford, Manchester. It also gives a brief account of the investigation and issues arising, and offers suggestions for next steps and ways forward for the use of ethnographic method in this university library, in order to better understand the student/user experience.