The importance of physical elements and their influences on users’ concentration of academic library

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the user’s perception of importance of physical elements to usage and design at academic library. Besides, the relationship between the user’s perception and their concentration ability was also studied. The questionnaire and visual test were adapted in this research. There are 180 participants from six different Universities in the North of Taiwan. To collect the data, the questionnaire method and Visual test Toulouse- Pieron were employed. The results shows that in the user’s perception, the auditory elements (silence, sound, noise) and air elements (air quality, temperature, smell) were the most important physical elements for the usage and design of the academic library. Visual elements (light quality, visual comfort) also played a key role in usage and design. Finally, the physical elements in the visual groups had more considerable relationship with the concentration index compare to the others physical elements groups.