Proposing of a Model for Introducing Environmental Psychology Indexes in the Design of Bookless Academic Library in Iran with a Case Study Approach

Abstract

Today, it is necessary to use bookless libraries due to the increasing addition of new scientific articles and documents to previous sources and other related problems. This study aimed to propose a model for introducing the environmental psychology indices of the bookless library for Art and Architecture faculties by studying a case study at the Faculties of Art and Architecture of the Islamic Azad University, Tehran South Branch. This research, based on its nature, subject, and objectives, used the quantitative method. The statistical population of the study was the students studying at above-mentioned faculties. Stratified random sampling method was employed to select the participants. The study was carried out in eight steps. In the first step, library resources such as books and reputable scientific articles were used for collecting the basic data. In the second step, reputable articles were used to find scientific design indices. In the third step, some indices were selected from the obtained indices for the design, and a questionnaire was prepared based on them. In the fourth step, the opinion of the supervisor was used for assessing the validity of the questionnaire, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used for measuring the reliability of the questionnaire. In the fifth step, questionnaires were distributed among the students, and their agreement to each index in the design was questioned. In the sixth step, the data obtained from the questionnaires were divided into three groups of variables: Environmental psychology, internal architecture, and digital equipment and furniture, then the data were analyzed by SPSS. The seventh step dealt with the hypotheses. Kolmogorov–Smirnov Est, one-sample t-test, independent t-test, and one-way variance analysis were used to test the hypotheses. In the final step, the results were obtained to prioritize the indices of internal space design. The results showed that indices with a mean more than 4 were mentioned as core indices, and indices with a score of more than 3.5 were considered as important indices. Finally, it can be concluded that the mentioned indexes will provide a desirable environment for designing a bookless library.