Students utilize the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library for many purposes.
Upon returning to school, some students have noticed librarians counting the amount of people in the library. As a renewed “headcounting” practice, the librarians are analyzing the quantity of people in a study space at a given time.
Mojmir Horváth ’26 noticed librarians walking around the library to count the number of people. Horváth detailed how librarians motion their hands, in a way that resembles how librarians confiscate students’ phones, when looking at students individually. However, Horváth explained the merit of headcounting in the library.
“Collecting data is a good tool to address the need for bigger rooms or more chairs. Being without the data means that there’s no way to figure it out” said Horváth.
According to Camille Torres Hoven, director of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library (OWHL), the headcounts are used as data for how study spaces are used. She explained that at the midpoint of each period (including conferences and protected time), library staff members take a count of students in each library space.
The practice is common amongst libraries, and the data will be used for various improvements such as utilizing library spaces more effectively. Torres Hoven noted that during busy times, librarians have counted upward of 400 students in the library at once.
“During finals [in the past] we doubled Garver’s space. Some kids loved that, some kids hated it. So I would love to get more accurate numbers. I wouldn’t do it this winter, but maybe next year we would have special hours where we expand,” said Torres Hoven.
She added, “There are things we could do but we’ve only been taking this data for three weeks so it’s really too early to tell. We did take headcounts in the makerspace last year, which had limited hours. We were severely understaffed but we now have two full time people down there, and that was really influential in being able to expand the makerspace hours. So it makes a huge difference.”
Emily Goss, associate director of the OWHL, is one librarian who frequently conducts the headcounts, often multiple times per day. She detailed her experience in gathering data and the rhythm that she’s adopted.
“[I use] the clicker which I’m sure lots of students have noticed. I just want to have a flow. I go a different path so I come through Garver, and then go upstairs and then try being a bit more efficient. It’s good to try to get a flow to make it easier and then you kind of just do a loop around each floor,” said Goss. “It’s kind of just a snapshot in time of how many people are in the building.”
She continued, “[It takes] just a couple minutes. Again if it’s busier like last Thursday during department meeting time…There were over a hundred people on this floor alone, so that’s gonna take longer. But if it’s a quieter time, I’ve never actually timed it but it feels like 5 minutes.”
