Library Spaces for Urban, Diverse Commuter Students: A Participatory Action Research Project

Margaret S. Brown-Sica is Associate Director for Technology Strategy and Learning Spaces and Assistant Professor in Auraria Library at University of Colorado Denver; e-mail: Margaret.brown-sica@ucdenver. edu. © 2012 Margaret S. Brown-Sica, Attribution-NonCommercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-sa/3.0/) CC BY-NC A data-gathering project using elements of Participatory Action Research was conducted at the Auraria Library, which serves the University of Colorado Denver, the Metropolitan State College of Denver and the Community College of Denver. The project was administered in order to shape a plan to develop a Learning Commons environment at the library. The researcher thought that the needs on a campus with many non-traditional, commuter students might differ from the needs of a more traditional college campus. Information was gathered using surveys, spontaneous focus groups, flipcharts and observation. Results were used and interpreted by students in an architecture class.