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PurposeThis paper aims to describe how the Florida State University Libraries used assessment data with other campus partners to gain funding and resources for new initiatives. When general funding sources were threatened, alternative funding sources from these campus partners were used to jump‐start new initiatives designed to enhance student success.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a case study of how assessment data fueled the creation of a new late‐night peer‐tutoring program at the Florida State University Libraries. The three main data conduits that inspired a new tutoring program were: an ethnographic study of undergraduate students, undergraduate courses with high failure/high enrolment/high drop rates, and an environmental scan of existing campus tutoring.FindingsSharing assessment data with key partners can leverage funding and resources for new initiatives.Social implicationsIn hard budgetary times, opportunities for funding and resources may arise when shared values between campus constituencies are met with assessment data. Libraries need to take a leadership role in gathering and sharing those data with other campus constituents in order to place libraries in a strategic position to receive alternative funding for shared initiatives.Originality/valueOther libraries may use this case as a model, sharing their assessment results with the campus community, especially with those campus constituencies where there is a relationship already in place, to garner further support for piloting innovative services.

This article discusses the preferences, habits, and needs of graduate students as they relate to spaces for research and study. The findings are based on a large-scale ethnographic study of graduate students at Florida State University conducted between 2010 and 2013. Using a variety of ethnographic methods, researchers found that graduate students have diverse needs and unequal access to appropriate spaces and resources to meet those needs. Libraries can help fill the gaps left by home and academic departments by providing a range of spaces offering different noise levels, resources, and other amenities.etween 2010 and 2013, Florida State University Libraries (FSUL) conducted a study to broaden its understanding of graduate students' academic work behaviors and needs. Recognizing that graduate students have different roles and responsibilities from undergraduate students, FSUL librarians wanted to ensure that they were providing the spaces, services, and resources that graduate students need to be successful. Using ethnographic methods allowed the librarians to gain a more complete understanding of graduate students' lives, allowing them to see better all the factors that can contribute to or impede graduate student success. This analysis explores the implications of graduate students' preferences, behaviors, and needs for spaces to research and study, because space-related issues were frequently discussed in the study and are a topic of key importance for libraries. In 2006, FSUL reorganized its Public Services division to focus on serving the needs of different user populations. The Scholars Commons became a department with services and spaces designed to cater to the needs of graduate students and faculty. The lower floor of the seven-floor main library was renovated in 2008 to include some dedicated quiet study spaces, group spaces, conference rooms, and a computer lab for these scholars so that they would not have to compete with the large undergraduate population for library space. Background 2In 2010, library administration charged a newly formed assessment department with conducting an ethnographic study of the graduate student population. Earlier assessment efforts included limited interviews with graduate students and data from LibQUAL+ and internal surveys, but this study would be more comprehensive in scope. Librarians sought to determine whether the services, resources, and spaces the libraries provided to graduate students effectively aligned with and supported their academic preferences, needs, and behaviors. Review of Selected LiteratureWhile large ethnographic studies have been conducted in libraries since the landmark Rochester study, 3 few of these studies have adopted a holistic, multimethod approach to studying graduate student populations. 4 Most studies of graduate students have focused on specific themes, such as their research needs, how they use the library, how to design a better library website, or how to build a more attractive institutional repository. 5It is difficult to summarize...

Purpose – The purpose of this article was to describe a university library instruction and research model that represents a collaborative effort between faculty, libraries, and the campus reading writing center. It uses rigorous research methods to measure whether the classroom intervention impacts student perceptions and success outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – Longitudinal, mixed-methods approach that attempts to measure the outcome of an experimental class that uses precision (exact) matching to control for extraneous variables that impact student success and a survey to measure student perceptions. Findings – Librarians can benefit by collaborating with faculty to learn more rigorous research methods. Precision (exact) matching a control group with an experimental group is time-intensive, but easily replicated. Preliminary results are very promising for both the precision matching and the survey data. It appears that students are able to learn critical thinking, research and writing skills from the collaboration between discipline-specific faculty, librarians and reading writing center tutors. Research limitations/implications – Precision (exact) matching a control group with an experimental group is time-intensive. Thus, the results need to be viewed cautiously due to the small sample size. Practical implications – Combining efforts to conduct collaborative research and instruction between libraries and faculty can provide resources for applications of the model with other disciplines. Originality/value – The library-intensive freshman writing seminar is a unique approach to student learning and an easy way for the library to be actively integrated in other disciplines. The precision matching technique is a methodologically rigorous research design that easy to replicate in other locations and with other disciplines.