2019 LibTech Conference

Space is at a premium at all colleges and universities, yet students continue to clamor for more space to study--quiet spaces, group study rooms, rooms with windows, computer labs, coffee shops, power outlets and more. We set out to solve our space scarcity problem creatively with no coders, no money, and no time. Our project’s goal was to use students’ devices and smartphones to connect them with convenient hidden study spaces to meet their needs, thus maximizing space usage on campus. The solution we came up with brought together campus mapping experts, classroom management, libraries and campus IT with a low cost mapping tool (ArcGIS) to create a light-weight, student-friendly Study Space Finder (studyspace.umn.edu). The website has no been turned into an app available for iOS and Android. In this session, learn about how you too can help connect students with study space via low cost tools.