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We at the library are gearing up for Affiliation week! (Well, more like Affiliation month…)

Twice every year, we walk around with a clipboard and find out how many students from each school is using the library. We do a survey for each day of the week, four times a day.

Maybe you’ve noticed people already walking around with clipboards, counting. That is for our statistics on the popularity of different spaces, like the study rooms or the couches. Affiliation week is different. During Affiliation, another library staff walks around and counts how many dental or TMC staff are using the library space. But we need your help. Our staff may have to ask you for you ID in order to count you and your study group. So, we wanted to give you some tips to get through this Affiliation season!

1. You can leave your ID on your desk beside you, so no one will interrupt you while you’re studying.

2. You can write down your affiliation on a piece of paper beside you.

3. We are leaving sheets in front of study room doors, intended to be filled out for each survey time (11 am, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm)

4. Just tell whoever walks by.

We really appreciate your cooperation. This helps us put together our budgets for different resources. And, if you have any questions, you can always come down to the desk.

 

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Hi there everybody!

Starting on Sunday, October 17th, we will be bringing back the School Affiliation Week. In past years we’ve scattered our days among an entire month, but given the way life is lately we decided it would be best to have it one-and-done, like a disposable face mask at the end of a long day. Here’s how it’s going to work.

From Sunday, October 17th through Saturday, October 23rd, members of the Hirsh Library staff will be walking around 3-4 times a day with a clipboard in hand. We’re going to ask everyone in the library what school/program they’re with (Med, Dental, GSBS, etc). And that’s it. We’ll make a check mark and move on. Afterward – probably sometime in late November (so I have time to analyze and collate), I’ll be posting the data we gather right here on this blog! If you want to see what that looks like, here’s my post from June 2020.

And this is what the survey looks like for us:

If you don’t want people to get too close, or you just don’t want your studying interrupted, you can always leave your ID out, or just write your program down on a piece of paper and leave it next to you. If you’re in a study room, feel free to write down the number of people and their program(s), and tape that to the outside of the study room door (not the window). If you need paper or tape we have them at the desk! Just come ask.

Just please remember to take down any signs you put up, and to remove any IDs or papers you put on the desks by you.

If you have any questions or concerns at all, don’t hesitate to ask us! You can call us at 617-636-6706, e-mail us at hhslcirc@tufts.edu, visit our live chat on the Ask Us page, or even just swing by the desk on the 4th floor and chat to us in person.

Thank you for your assistance with this, and we look forward to a nice smooth Affiliation Week!

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Back in October 2019 and March 2020, HHSL Staff walked around and counted how many people of each program were around the library. You may remember us, with the clipboards, asking that question.

Or…to be more accurate, we walked around throughout October, and half of March. We didn’t actually end up getting all of the dates we had wanted to in March (apparently there’s a global pandemic on), so we ended up with a truncated version of the survey for that month: 4 days of data instead of 7. Still, when it comes to trying to make a better Hirsh Library for everyone, even truncated data is better than none! So here’s some of what I can see.

Fair warning: I’m going to have to extrapolate and make a couple of assumptions here, since we’re missing so much of March’s potential data. I’ve seen enough data over the years to have a good sense of what it would be, but what should and what is are always different, so maybe get a salt grain ready to take with this post. Finally, the Y axis is always going to be Number of People Counted in this post, because I want this to be as easy to read as possible!

Graph of amount of people in the library during affilliation statistics in October 2019

Click to enlarge.

Graph of amount of people in the library during affilliation statistics in March 2020

Click to enlarge.

So, here’s the base data. October 2019 and March 2020. As you can see, we counted…actually not that many more people, all things considered. March 3rd, 5th, and even the 11th were all right in line with what we saw in October, in terms of library population. In fact the difference between the most populated day in October and the one in March is only 34 people. Which is great!

In case you’re wondering what happened on March 13th: that was the last Friday we were open normal hours. Staff, faculty, and students were already voluntarily staying home to work from there to keep themselves safe from the rapidly growing COVID-19 threat. On March 15th, the following Sunday, Tufts made the decision to close the campuses, and Monday the 16th was the last day the library was physically staffed in person (as a note, we are very much here for you online). So what you’re seeing in that data is the effect the virus was already having on the life of the library. March 11th: relatively normal day. March 13th: signs of a new normal.

But we’re not here for discussion of the virus, we are here for discussion of the data!

Direct comparison bar graph of the days of the week we counted in March and October

Click to enlarge.

So, this is the same data as above, but oriented on what days of the week a given date was. Although the by-the-date data has its place, it’s good to know, say, what a week looks like. This is what a week and a half look like! And this is where that missing data makes me sad, because we’ll never know what the other days looked like in March. Traditionally, the weekends are the slowest days of the week, and the busiest tend to be Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday. This is mostly matching, but…what was with that October Friday? My instinct is that it was an aberration, but without seeing in March it’s hard to tell how much of one it was. That a Friday was the busiest day we counted in October tells me that there must have been an event that day (a meeting? exams? a conference, perhaps?), but maybe it just chanced to be close to an exam.

In the end, one surprisingly busy day does not a library make. But it’s still fun to think about. Especially when you compare calendars to the data and realize that Friday, October 25th, happened to also be the second day of our pumpkin painting. Coincidence?

I think not.

Comparison of floor populations between October and March

Click to enlarge

Okay, last two charts! The first is the People by Floor. So this ignores dates, and focuses on the aggregate. One thing I’ve been noticing in the last year or so is that the counts we get on the 7th floor are always roughly twice that of the next closest floor (which alternates). As you can see from October, that sometimes makes for some goofy looking charts. This is one of those rare cases where the missing data actually won’t make any real difference. Barring anomalies, what you see with that chart falls in line with years of existing data. That one is one I always predict with easy clarity. Which brings us to the final, and everyone’s favorite: programs!

A graph comparing the number of people from each program counted during affiliation periods

Click to enlarge

This is sort of wild to look at. So, okay, Dental and Medical are the programs dominating the numbers. That makes perfect sense, and honestly outside of minor variations, that’s what tends to happen. They were close in October, though, so I would have loved to see what those numbers looked like in March. Especially given the sudden notable presences of PA, PHPD, and MBS. Look at that MBS presence in March! That’s so great to see. I love it when I see sudden jumps in the number of people in the library. We’re here for everybody, after all!

That’s it for me today. Thank you for reading along, and I hope to see you all online this summer, where we are all seven days of the week. If you’re unsure the best way to reach out, well, try checking out our Ask Us page. Or hey, you can still Schedule a Consultation. There are lots of options.

And remember: wear your mask.

Leo the skeleton wearing a homemade face mask

Photo credit: Tarlan Sedeghat

Stay safe everyone,
Tom

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Hello hello everyone. It’s about that time again: time for the Affiliation Survey!

Twice a year, the Hirsh Health Sciences Library runs the Affiliation Survey, where we walk around and ask every one of our lovely patrons which program they are with (Dental, Medical, Sackler, etc). This is all we ask. We will not ask for your name or even which year you’re in! The numbers we collect are used in aggregate so we can get a snapshot of what the library usage is like. The graph you see above is the result of last year’s two Affiliation months, for instance.

Here’s how it goes: there are 7 days spread out over the whole month, randomly chosen to try and maximize the usefulness of the numbers (in other words, we’re trying not to get skewed by specific exam blocks too much). On those days, HHSL staff (you’ll probably recognize us!) will walk around 4 times over the course of the day to gather the totals of how many people from each school are in the library. There will be signs and posters up this month, so you’re not caught unaware.

Keep your eyes out for them!

We won’t announce ahead of time which days we’re counting (see our need to randomize, above), so it’s safe to assume that it could just happen any day this month.

Don’t panic!

If you don’t want to be bothered (or to speak out loud), you are welcome to leave your ID next to you while you study. If that is still not good enough, you can write your program down on a piece of paper and leave that next to you. If you’re in a group room, feel free to stick a note to the outside of the door (on the wood – the windows must remain clear!) telling us how many people of what program(s) are in the room. Done and done. We will add that number to our count, and we will move on to the next person!

There are pencils, pens, markers, scrap paper, and tape down at the Service Desk on the 4th floor, so you can even make your sign bright and cheerful! If you have any questions or concerns, let us know either in person at the desk, or through Ask Us on our website. We’re here to help and make this quick and easy.

But otherwise, we look forward to seeing you all this month and finding out just what our beloved HHSL looks like this fine autumn.

Good luck on studying and I look forward to seeing you in the library!
Tom

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Hello hello everyone. It’s about that time again: time for the Affiliation Survey!

Twice a year, the Hirsh Health Sciences Library runs the Affiliation Survey, where we walk around and ask every one of our lovely patrons which program they are with (Dental, Medical, Sackler, etc). This is all we ask. We will not ask for your name or even which year you’re in! The numbers we collect are used in aggregate so we can get a snapshot of what the library usage is like. You can take a look at my post from July to see how the data turns out.

Here’s how it goes: there are 7 days spread out over the whole month, randomly chosen to try and maximize the usefulness of the numbers (in other words, we’re trying not to get skewed by specific exam blocks too much). On those days, HHSL staff (you’ll probably recognize us!) will walk around 4 times over the course of the day to gather the totals of how many people from each school are in the library. There will be signs and posters up this month, so you’re not caught unaware.

Keep your eyes out for them!

We won’t announce ahead of time which days we’re counting (see our need to randomize, above), so it’s safe to assume that it could just happen any day this month.

Don’t panic!

If you don’t want to be bothered (or to speak out loud), you are welcome to leave your ID next to you while you study. If that is still not good enough, you can write your program down on a piece of paper and leave that next to you. If you’re in a group room, feel free to stick a note to the outside of the door (on the wood – the windows must remain clear!) telling us how many people of what program(s) are in the room. Done and done. We will add that number to our count, and we will move on to the next person!

There are pencils, pens, markers, scrap paper, and tape down at the Service Desk on the 4th floor, so you can even make your sign bright and cheerful! If you have any questions or concerns, let us know either in person at the desk, or through Ask Us on our website. We’re here to help and make this quick and easy.

But otherwise, we look forward to seeing you all next month and finding out just what our beloved HHSL looks like this fine spring.

Good luck on studying and I look forward to seeing you in the library!
Tom

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Hello everyone! Next week, the Hirsh Health Sciences Library will be doing its semi-annual Affiliation Week Survey. What this means for you is that 4 times a day, a staff member will come around and ask every person in the library what school they’re affiliated with (Medical, Dental, Sackler, Friedman, etc). We are not asking for any identifying information, just school affiliation. In fact, this is the entire Affiliation Survey that we use:

Affiliation Survey

We do this semi-annually so we can make sure we have the best data about our user base, which lets us allocate resources appropriately to best serve all of the patrons on the Health Sciences campus.

You have a couple options for a response: you can always actually tell us (and we’re always happy to talk to you!). However, if you prefer to not speak, you’re welcome to leave your ID next to you while you study, or you can grab a piece of scrap paper from either the 4th or 5th floor desk, and write it down there. If you choose to do that, please make sure the ID or scrap paper is out in the open next to you. If you’re in a group study room with a group, you can write how many members of what schools are represented in the room, and tape it to the outside of the study room door (example: “5 Medical, 3 Dental, 1 Nutrition”).

Just please remember to take down any signs you put up, and to remove any IDs or papers you put on the desks by you.

If you have any questions or concerns at all, don’t hesitate to ask us! You can call us at 617-636-6706, e-mail us at hhslcirc@tufts.edu, visit our live chat on the Ask Us page, or even just swing by the desk on the 4th floor and chat to us in person.

Thank you for your assistance with this, and we look forward to a nice smooth Affiliation Week!

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Next week, from Sunday, October 19th through Saturday, October 25th, Hirsh Library will be running its semi-annual School Affiliation Survey. The idea behind it is that we want to know where our users are coming from, so that we can better serve their needs through proper allocation of resources. We would also like to know who is being under-served (or at least underrepresented), so we can find new ways to help all of the students, staff, and faculty here on the Boston Campus.

During the week, if you are in the library at 11am, 3pm, 6pm, or 9pm, you may be asked what school or office you are from. This is the only information we collect. We do not look for names or University status, just school. In fact, this is a screenshot of the entire screen our staff see when asking that question:

Affiliation Survey

If you feel uncomfortable saying your school affiliation out loud, or if you don’t want to be bothered while working, that’s perfectly fine! You have a few options: you can either leave your Tufts ID out, or you can swing by either the 4th or 5th floor desks and grab a piece of paper to write your school on. That way, when the person taking this information comes by, they can just look at either the ID or the paper and move on. If you’re in a group study room with a group, you can write how many members of what schools are represented in the room, and tape it to the outside of the study room door (example: “5 Medical, 3 Dental, 1 Nutrition”).

Just please remember to take down any signs you put up, and to remove any IDs or papers you put on the desks by you.

If you have any questions or concerns at all, don’t hesitate to ask us! You can call us at 617-636-6706, e-mail us at hhslcirc@tufts.edu, visit our live chat on the Ask Us page, or even just swing by the desk on the 4th floor and chat to us in person.

Thank you for your assistance with this, and we look forward to a nice smooth Affiliation Week!

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For the first two weeks of April, staff here at the Hirsh Library walked around and asked everyone what school they were from.  Well, we have tallied some of the results of all of that work, and have uncovered some interesting numbers!

Over the course of 13 days and 39 rounds of asking, we talked to 6,884 people. Ultimately, 2,539 of those people were from the Dental school, making that the most populous group we had in the library – a full 37% of the population of Hirsh! Medical came in at a close second of 2,373 people (a difference of a mere 166!), followed by the combined Sackler schools (PA, PHPD, and MBS) at 1,360, with Friedman rounding out at 347. The remainder was made up by staff from the Tufts Medical Center, the HNRCA, Tufts students, staff, and faculty from the other campuses, and even affiliated hospitals and schools in the Boston area. You can see the breakdown here.

School Affiliation

Now, that’s interesting data, but what does it all mean? After all, we were counting 4 times a day, so a question some people may have is “Which time was the busiest, ultimately?” Well, the answer will…probably not surprise you at all. It turns out people are much more into early lunches than they are late nights:

Times

Anyone who spends any time around the students of the different schools knows that everyone has different needs and wants when it comes to studying and getting ready for exams. It reasonably follows to assume that it means that people gravitate toward different environments – some might study better when there’s a bit of background noise, or do better in groups, whereas other people need to be alone with their books, notes, and a coffee. So which school tends to be full of which kind of person?

To begin with, it seems as though the 7th floor is the most popular floor amongst all the schools, as you can see here:

Floors 2

But the only way to get the full story is to keep going and see if you can pick out the personality types. Well, far and away it’s clear that Medical students are fans of quiet. Specifically, the quiet the 7th floor provides. Although, as you can see, it looks like if space is at a premium on that floor, people will start on the 6th and slowly work their way back down again.

Medical

The Dental school, however, appears to encourage people to look for slightly different environments. Unfortunately, we don’t have data linking school affiliation to type of seating they chose (study carrel, study room, group table, etc), but it may be a safe bet to assume that Tufts’ future dentists are by and large fans of small group study, and gravitated toward the study rooms and classrooms.

Dental

But what about Sackler? Well, it would appear that the combined programs of PA, PHPD, and MBS were mainly looking for a (relatively) quiet space to claim as their own, but that wouldn’t be quite the proper story. We unfortunately don’t have a breakdown of those three programs (vs. the “Sackler” umbrella), but it’s worth keeping in mind that the 6th floor has a very convenient classroom, and that the 7th floor has quite a multitude of small group study rooms. Perhaps those in the Sackler school are straddling a line somewhere between the Dental and Medical students.

Sackler 2

Which brings us, last but certainly not least, to Friedman students, who were not content to be quiet and alone up on the 6th and 7th floors. The students from the Friedman School of Nutrition much preferred the hustle and bustle of the 4th and 5th floors to the quiet and solitude of the others, and showed it unequivocally during the two weeks of our survey.

Friedman 2

Ultimately, with the sheer amount of data we collected (and continue to collect in other ways), it’s easy to get the answer to almost any question we may have. But the main question – the most important one that drives all of our programs and future planning at the library – is “What is it our patrons need?” Thanks to everyone’s participation in surveys and questionnaires like this one, we know that study space (and access to plugs in said study space) is absolutely vital, and we know who might be most likely to use what facilities. We’ve been learning other lessons, but today, that one is one that stands above the others.

We will continue to do surveys like this one (although perhaps not during final exams) so that we can fine tune our answers and respond to the changing needs of our community in the future.

So on behalf of the staff here at Hirsh Health Sciences Library, I would like to thank you for bearing with us and helping us learn how to serve you better. Every little bit that we can do helps, and we can’t do it without you.

PS: if you were wondering how checkouts lined up during this time period, well…it’s fairly safe to say that the need for skulls swung that pendulum in a rather specific way.

Circulation

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