Course:LIBR559A/Zaugg, H. & Rackham, S. (2016)

Citation

Zaugg, H. & Rackham, S. (2016). Identification and development of patron personas for an academic library. Performance measurement and metrics, 17(2). Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/PMM-04-2016-0011

Annotation

The article's purpose was to develop personas for undergraduate students followed by the identification and development of personas for graduate students and faculty.

The development of personas helped librarians to identify the patrons’ needs, create specific services or refine the existing ones, prepare and plan a service delivery. The study identified 10 personas who used the library services:

Explorer: patron who visit the library to discover new things, that are not related to a specific assignment.
Collaborator: motivated by good grades, this patron collaborate with others to study together, using group study rooms and locations to talk.
Focuser: motivated to get an A in every course, these patrons prefers to study by themselves and look areas that are quiet.
Side-kicks: dedicated to studies, this is a mix between a focuser and collaborator. This persona studies with the company of a friend, who is studying a different subject.
Socializer: motivated to meet new people and visit friends. This persona visit the library to relax when they have a break between classes or to meet people.
Islander: persona who has a specific location that attends his or her study needs.
Chillaxer: patrons who blend study and fun, performing activities that varies from watching a video on YouTube to taking a nap during their break from studies.
In-n-Outer: patrons who enter the library for a specific purpose and soon leaves. They spend as little time as possible in the library.
Pirate: this persona uses the library resources for convenience. For example, he/she does not bring their computer to school, only a flash drive to use the computers from the library.
Outsider: patrons who does not feel comfortable using the library, because they feel tension or are intimidated. Or even, a subgroup that uses the online resources of the library.

The study was conducted at the Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL), at Brigham Young University, and it occurred in three phases: identification and development of patron personas, validation of library personas and how personas may be used to facilitate the delivery of services. It involved survey, focus group, interviews, observations and ethnographic methods to create personas.

The author defined persona as a description of an imaginary person, with a picture, background, and information about him or her as if they were a real person.

The novel idea introduced by this articles is the use of personas in the library context. Usually, personas are created in marketing and design to facilitate the development of products for a specific type of user. Libraries and non-profit organizations usually do not create personas, even though it can contribute to the better development of services for the community. So, the main contribution of the article for the LIS area if the creation of personas to develop services adapted to their needs and behaviors, which may increase the value of libraries for communities.

Areas, topics and keywords

User group. UX design. Persona. Academic library

Page author Paula Arasaki