Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Iterative Design

As the world of information access has pivoted from physical goods to digital screens, the ways that libraries measure themselves have changed. For years, measurements such as door counts, circulation tracking, and material tracking have been used to evaluate library building usage. With new advances in sensor technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, computer vision, and more, we are now beginning to be able to monitor spaces in ways that were previously unthinkable.

In Library Technology Reports (vol. 54, no. 1), “Library Spaces and Smart Buildings: Technology, Metrics, and Itera­tive Design,” Jason Griffey explores these technologies and pro­vides librarians and other interested parties with a look into what’s possible in the current state of technology for smart library buildings. In this report, Jason Griffey

• Covers three case studies that explore how librarians are using technological tools to analyze library spaces


• Shares new ways to think about your space and how you can measure building usage


• Explores the future of technological change and smart library buildings

Looking at three different projects that involved space metrics and analysis in libraries, this report shows how Virginia Tech; Con­cordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and the Measure the Future project are using technologi­cal tools to analyze library spaces to improve their environment for their users. Virginia Tech is research­ing how furniture movement acts as a stand-in for patron activity. Concordia University experimented with a project that monitored noise levels. The Mea­sure the Future project is using computer vision to see how patrons move around in library spaces and derive “attention” measures from those movements while doing so with a strong protection on any sort of identification of patrons. Finally, Griffey takes a look at what the next five to ten years of technological progress will bring and how that might change the possibilities for a smart library.

Jason Griffey is a librarian, technologist, consultant, writer, and speaker. He is the founder and principal at Evenly Distributed, a technology consulting and creation firm for libraries, museums, educational institutions, and other nonprofits. Griffey is an Affiliate Fellow at the Berk­man Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and was formerly an associate professor and Head of Library Information Technology at the Univer­sity of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Griffey was a winner of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries in 2015 for the Measure the Future project, an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. Griffey is also the creator and director of the LibraryBox Project, an open-source portable digital file distribution system. Griffey has written and spoken internationally on topics such as the future of technology and libraries, personal electronics in the library, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property.