Picture the Music: Performing Arts Library Planning with Photo Elicitation

Abstract

Photo elicitation, a form of ethnographic journaling, provided insights into university music and dance student needs in library and campus spaces and services. In this case study, subjects took a photo for each of twenty prompts related to their daily lives as students and performing artists, then discussed their own photos in a one-hour individual interview. Researchers qualitatively analyzed the gathered data. This article reports findings related to: discovering and obtaining music and dance works, study spaces and sound levels, forces of habit and the implications for student library use, and library-related findings regarding practice rooms and classrooms.