Grad Commons Rooms

For circulation policy information go to the Circulation Wiki Page for Grad Commons

Management of these rooms means managing all aspects except policy. Policy is determined by Grad Commons. However, Library Admin works with Grad Commons to translate those policies into procedures for library staff. This often means working closely with Grad Commons staff to ensure policies are within the scope of what the library can do.

Grad Commons Research Rooms

• There are 23 research rooms, all on the 6th floor. These rooms belong to the Grad Commons, a division of Graduate Success.

• Research rooms are only available to Graduate students (both Masters and PhD candidates). Graduate students must have their advisor email library.spaces@oregonstate.edu to confirm the student status within their degree program. 

• All rooms are checked out at the same time at the beginning of the term and are due at the end of term.

• Rooms have minimum usage requirements;

  • The Electronic Locks Coordinator can download the audit data.

  • Library Admin is responsible for using these audits to analyze usage data and share with Grad Student Commons.

• Rooms that are vacated before the end of the term will be circulated as study rooms for the remainder of the term and the break following the term. Rooms being circulated as study rooms will follow all the study room policies and be available to the same patron groups as the regular study rooms.

• Students may request a room by emailing library.spaces@oregonstate.edu

Grad Commons Classroom and Consultation Rooms

• These rooms are available only to graduate students or faculty holding an event for graduate students. 

• Reservations are made through LibCal and mediated by the Grad Commons during regular business hours (M-F, 8 am-5pm). 

• The three rooms are: Paddle Tail (6420), Benny's Room (6812), and Bernice's Room (6822).

• Borrowing and Information desk procedures for these rooms are the same as the study rooms.

Schedule of Room Coordinator Duties

• As Needed

  • Review Grad Commons research room inquiries in the Library Spaces inbox.

  • Communicate policy and problem solve with patrons regarding questions and concerns they have over various rooms.

  • Check Grad Commons research rooms for damage or door signage/coverage.

  • Convert vacated research rooms into study rooms.

  • Submit work order requests for rooms as needed.

• Per Term

  • Check out all of the research rooms to patrons who have placed requests.

  • Convert any unrequested rooms to study rooms for the term.

  • Analyze Grad Student Commons research room audit data at the end of the term and send usage report to Grad Commons.

Policy and Circulation

• Check out all the Grad Commons Research rooms to patrons on the waiting list at the beginning of each term.

  • Place the cards on the holds shelf. 

  • Email patrons to remind them they have 7 days to pick up the key cards.

  • Any cards that have not been picked up after 7 days will be forfeited and go to the next person on the waiting list. They will also be given 7 days to pick up the key card. 

  • After the second round, any remaining rooms will be converted to study rooms for the remainder of the term.

• Convert rooms to study rooms as needed during the term.

  • Swap out research room keys for study room keys.

  • Make the rooms available in LibCal.

• Collect returned key cards from LEAD

  • Check Alma to make sure the key card has been checked in.

Process Patron Room Requests

• Review patron requests for Research Rooms by checking library.spaces@oregonstate.edu

• Assign rooms based upon order of requests and room availability at the beginning of each academic term.

Maintenance

Room Maintenance

• LEAD department Follow-Up forms about reported damage to a research room will have a copy emailed to library.maintenance@oregonstate.edu. Coordinate repairs with Building Coordinator and Facilities.

• Enforce room use policy and email patrons if they are violating policies such as covering the window with paper for privacy or using appliances with heating elements. 

• Once per term check rooms for extensive damage.

• Maintain documentation of room specs and furniture configuration.

Signage

• Signage should be refreshed at least once per year. 

• All rooms currently have signage about policy.

Analyzing Room Audit data

Download audit data

Create a new folder in Box>Library Admin>Library Spaces>Grad Commons>Research Room Audits. Name the folder “Current Year-Term”

Download audit data from the locks using Engage’s web app. Only one room’s data can be downloaded at a time.

• Filter by

  • device: desired room

  • date: start and end of the term.

  • audit type: credential audits

• Export all the device files into the new folder you created.

Creating a Pivot Table

Helpful Tip:  Save your work regularly. Occasionally an error will occur that will not allow you to save your work. If you have been working on this for awhile, you will lose all of your work.

Load data into Microsoft Excel

• Open a new Microsoft Excel sheet

• Click on the “Data” tab

• Select “Get Data” then “From File” and “From Folder”. 

• Navigate to the folder you created when downloading audit data, select it and click “OK”.

• Click load on the pop-up window and allow the rows to load. Depending on how big the file is, it may take a few seconds. You can watch the progress on the right side of the screen.

Format Data

• On the tool bar at the top of the screen select the “Query” tab.

• Select Edit on the far left

• Click the downward arrows in the Content column on the far left.

Open

• Excel will analyze the data and suggest a format for combining the files. Click OK.

Open

Now it’s time to clean up the data

• In the Event Data column, click on the down arrow to view the pop-up menu.

• Select only the key card credentials for each room (Research 1 or Research 2) then click OK

• Right click and remove the following columns:

  • Source.Name

  • Device Name

  • Time

• Once you are finished making your edits, click on Close and Load in the upper left hand corner. This will take some time to load so be patient.

• Click the “Table Design” tab. Click any cell on the table and use Ctrl-A to select the entire table. Click "Remove Duplicates".

• In the pop-up window, leave "My data has headers" selected. Click OK. Excel will tell you how many duplicates were removed. Click OK again.

Create a Pivot Table

Go to the Insert tab in the tool bar. You can manually create your pivot table or let Excel recommend one for you. Using the recommended table should be the easy option.

It will automatically load the data into your table. From there you can manipulate the presentation of the data if needed.

This pivot table lacks the dates which you will need to add in.