Research Article
An Analysis of the Effect of Saturday Home Football Games on Physical Use of University Libraries
Kerry Sewell
Research Librarian for the
Health Sciences
Library Associate Professor
William E. Laupus Health Sciences Library
East Carolina University
Greenville, North Carolina,
United States of America
Email: browderk@ecu.edu
Received: 4 Mar. 2021 Accepted: 25 Oct. 2021
2021 Sewell. This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons‐Attribution‐Noncommercial‐Share Alike License 4.0
International (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly attributed, not used for commercial
purposes, and, if transformed, the resulting work is redistributed under the
same or similar license to this one.
Data Availability: Sewell,
K. (2021). Effect of Home Football Games on Library Gate Counts [Datasets,
Public Data Sources, and Data Analysis Code for SPSS]. OSF. https://osf.io/wpzx7/.
Gate Counts_Libraries_FootballSaturdays
[Data visualization] Tableau Public. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/kerry.sewell/viz/GateCounts_Libraries_FootballSaturdays/ALSAverageFootballEffects
DOI: 10.18438/eblip29942
Abstract
Objective – Library science literature lacks
studies on the effect of external events on the physical use of libraries,
leaving a gap in understanding of would-be library patrons’ time use choices
when faced with the option of using the library or attending time-bound,
external events. Within academic libraries in about 900 colleges and
universities in the US, weekend time use may be affected by football games.
This study sought to elucidate the effect of external events on physical use of
libraries by examining the effect of Saturday home football games on the
physical use of the libraries in a large, academic institution.
Methods – This study used a retrospective,
observational study design. Gate count data for all Saturdays during the fall
semesters of 2013-2018 were collected for the two primary libraries at East
Carolina University (main campus’ Academic Library Services [ALS] and Laupus, a health sciences campus library), along with data
on the occurrence of home football games. The relationship between gate counts
and the occurrence of home football games was assessed using an independent
samples t-test.
Results – Saturday home football games
decreased the gate count at both ALS and Laupus. For
ALS, the mean physical use of the library decreased by one third (34.4%) on
Saturdays with a home game. For Laupus, physical use
of the library decreased by almost a quarter (22%) on Saturdays with a home
game.
Conclusion – Saturday home football games alter
the physical use of academic libraries, decreasing the number of patrons
entering the doors. Libraries may be able to adjust staffing based on reduced
use of library facilities during these events.
Introduction
Students,
faculty, and staff in higher education inhabit complex social worlds in which
choices related to time and resource use are made to satisfy a variety of
needs. For students, needs include scholarly work (research and learning),
income-driven work, and social connection. Excepting off-campus employment,
campus buildings and services often provide the physical spaces in which these
needs are fulfilled. Libraries in higher education are one such space,
providing areas for individual and group study, serving both social and
individual scholarly needs.
Demand
for library spaces to support scholarly work spans the entire week and many
large academic libraries meet the demand by providing extensive hours seven
days per week. The widespread demand for expansive operational hours is not met
with even levels of use throughout the week. Shifts in the physical usage rates
of academic libraries are broadly documented, with usage rates noted as
declining on Wednesdays and reaching a nadir on Saturdays (Dotson & Garris, 2008; Ferria et al.,
2017; Scarletto et al., 2013).
Although
general patterns of change in physical use of libraries throughout the typical
week may be widely observed and documented, less is known about the effects of
singular, large community events, many of which occur on weekends, on physical
use of libraries. A broad, multi-database search (ProQuest Search, LISA, LISTA,
ERIC, EconLit) for studies examining the effect of
any major external event (e.g., sports, parades, natural disasters, local
festivals) on the physical use of academic and public libraries revealed a
dearth of literature in this area. The lack of fruitful searches suggests
scholarly inattention to the ways that potential library users alter their
behaviours in response to large-scale external events.
The
reasons for the paucity of information on the effect of external events on
physical use of libraries are unclear. It may be that the effects of such
events are assumed as being known and thus not worthy of scholarly attention.
However, the test of such assumptions is critical to our understanding of
library users and their time use choices, as well as an opportunity to ensure
that assumptions are matched by data. Additionally, if tests of such
assumptions are verified—or disproved—by data, decisions related to staffing
and hours of operation around such external events may be made with more
confidence. Studies of the effects of external circumstances and large-scale
events and circumstances (Friday the 13th, hurricanes, sporting
events) on use of emergency room services and outcomes serve as examples of how
such tests can lead to better decisions about service delivery and staffing (Drobatz et al., 2009; Jena et al., 2017; Jerrard, 2009; Lo et al., 2012; McGreevy et al., 2010; Protty et al., 2016; Schuld et
al., 2011; Shook & Hiestand, 2011; Smith & Graffeo, 2005).
One
such external weekend event within university life at nearly 900 American
colleges and universities (Next College Student Athlete (NCSA), n.d.) is a home
varsity football game. Although football games can occur on other weekdays,
Saturday home games are an especial draw due to lack of time conflicts with
other pursuits. Intramurally, home football games offer various game-related
social and financial opportunities for students and faculty (Chen et al., 2012;
Coates & Depken, 2006; Hardin, 2019; Lyon-Hill et
al., 2015).
Whether
economically or socially driven, time dedicated to game-related pursuits is
time lost on scholarly activities. Libraries, serving as study spaces and
providers of ready access to electronic and print resources, traditionally
occupy the role of central physical space for scholarly pursuits. If football
games alter scholarly behaviours and outcomes, it would be reasonable to expect
a change in the number of individuals entering the library—determined by gate
counts—during Saturdays when a home football game occurs. The interplay of
physical use of the academic library and the draw of varsity sports, however,
has not been studied. The effect of varsity sports on physical use of academic
libraries is examined in this study.
Background
East
Carolina University (ECU) is a large, public, doctoral university serving
roughly 29,000 students (23,081 undergraduate students, 4,739 graduate
students, 537 dental and medical students, and 1,383 unclassified students)
(East Carolina University, n.d.), located in rural North Carolina. ECU offers
174 different degrees, spanning health sciences and academic campuses. The University has two distinct, though
proximate campuses, with operationally independent libraries serving each
campus; Academic Library Services (ALS) and its branch Music Library serve the
Academic Affairs Campus and Laupus Library (Laupus) serves the Health Sciences Campus. Both libraries
serve their respective campuses seven days per week, though the hours offered
each day differ.
ECU
also includes an athletics department that organizes and funds more than 25
different sports. The largest of the sports sponsored by ECU is the football
program, which accounted for 14.5% of ECU Athletics revenue and 19.1% of the
operating expenses in Fiscal Year 2019 (ECU Athletics Fiscal Sustainability
Working Group, 2020). The ECU football program brings in large crowds each
fall, averaging between 30,000-45,000 attendees at home games in the 2019
season (National Collegiate Athletic Association, n.d.-a).
Literature Review
Variations in Physical Use of the Library
Libraries
collect and report a variety of statistics on an annual basis. Some of the
statistics relate to use of online resources and services, while a small set of
statistics relate to the use of libraries’ physical collections and spaces,
namely in-person reference services, circulation of physical items, and gate
counts. Among the statistics documenting physical use of the library, gate
counts, defined as “the total number of persons physically entering the library
in a typical week” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2017, p. 3), are
the sole statistic that provide information on overall building use. Gate
counters are common across academic libraries, collecting hourly tallies of the
number of people entering the library throughout the day with relatively high
reliability (Phillips, 2016). Although some libraries employ card swipe systems
for some or all of their opening hours in order to limit entry to campus
affiliates and to collect select demographic data on the patrons entering their
doors, the statistic reported to outside stakeholders is nonetheless a simple
tally of the number of physical entries. The data are used to communicate the
performance and value of the library as well as trends in student behaviours.
Typically, the data are sent to internal and external stakeholders including
professional organizations, university governing councils, and institutional
research departments, who send the data out for periodic national reports on
higher education.
While
a significant portion of libraries collect gate count data and report it in
aggregate to stakeholders, beyond these annual reporting obligations, the data
are either not widely reported on library websites, not used, or the exact
nature of the data usage is unknown (Driscoll & Mott, 2008; Martell, 2007;
Terrill, 2018). The data may otherwise remain entirely unused or be reserved
for internal operational decisions only, though one study examining the data
used and impetuses for changing operating hours and staff scheduling at
medium-sized college libraries found that a low percentage of libraries used gate
count data to inform their staffing decisions (Brunsting,
2008). Published library studies that have analyzed gate counts and card swipes
did so as part of an assessment of the success of extending hours (Lawrence
& Weber, 2012; Scarletto et al., 2013), changing
service models (Albanese, 2003; Jones, 2011), or in the context of declining
use of print resources and reference services over longer periods of time
(Martell, 2007; Opperman & Jamison, 2008). Beyond these studies, libraries
publish relatively little on variations in physical use of library spaces,
neither as a function of shorter, defined periods of time nor in response to
external events.
As
previously noted, the studies including gate counts and user surveys for normal
(non-exam) weeks in their data collection methods find common patterns. Library
usage is highest at the beginning of the week and then progressively declines
between Wednesday and Saturday (Dotson & Garris,
2008; Ferria et al., 2017; Scarletto
et al., 2013). Similar patterns are observed in the use of library electronic
resources usage throughout the week (Clotfelter, 2011). These observations
complement student time use surveys that find that, as the week progresses and
students begin the “social weekend,” comprising Thursday night through Sunday
morning (Finlay et al., 2012), time use shifts away from scholarly activities
to activities fulfilling psychosocial and financial needs, namely employment
activities or formally or informally organized social activities (Finlay et al.,
2012; Greene & Maggs, 2015; Moulin & Irwin,
2017; Orcutt & Harvey, 1991).
The Effect of Sports Events on Scholarly Behaviours
Among
the formally organized activities available on Saturdays during the fall
semester, at universities with large sports programs, home football games
provide both economic and social opportunities (Chen et al., 2012). For
students employed in service positions, games may lead to more work hours to
meet increased consumer volume and spending on game day (Coates & Depken, 2006; Lyon-Hill et al., 2015). More significantly,
football games provide various levels of social participation in events and
rituals associated with game day (Cohen et al., 2014). This is
particularly true for weekend games, which are less likely to conflict with
academic and work schedules, therefore drawing larger crowds and allowing for
more time-intensive social activities.
Social
rituals and events surrounding the home game include tailgates, pregame
rituals, and parties, along with remote group viewing via televised coverage.
Home game rituals and events consume significant amounts of time. The duration
of football games alone in the 2019-2020 season averaged 3 hours and 18 minutes
(National Collegiate Athletic Association, n.d.-b). Additionally, pregame
events add to the already considerable amount of time dedicated to football
games. Data on the duration of many pregame events are lacking. However,
studies of student drinking behaviours on football game days imply considerable
time dedicated to pregame activities, with data and anecdotal evidence
suggesting that students spend an average of five or more hours drinking on
game days (Glassman et al., 2007) and that drinking begins early in the morning
(Derringer & French, 2015). Data about tailgating duration is also lacking,
though one survey of tailgaters reported most respondents (51%) indicated that
tailgate set-up occurs 3-4 hours prior to kickoff (Tailgating Institute, n.d.).
The duration of the game itself, combined with the time dedicated to pregame
drinking and tailgating suggests that, on Saturdays with home games, most of
the day is consumed by football-related activities.
Participation
in these events represents a significant time-trade for all participants,
producing a diversionary disruption in normal activities for university and
local communities. For faculty and students, the disruption in normal
activities may mean a disruption in academic pursuits. Time dedicated to
watching the home game or to engaging in game-related social rituals is time
lost to engagement in scholarly behaviours promoting learning and research,
representing an opportunity cost among both students and faculty. Literature
from the field of economics provides evidence of the “cost” of
university-sponsored sports events in terms of scholarly outcomes, with most
studies indicating that university sports impact student and faculty scholarly
outcomes.
Most
studies examining the effect of college football on scholarly outcomes have
examined the effect of football games on various student outcomes. Several
economics studies document the effect of winning seasons on the numbers of
college applications in the following year along with GPAs and SAT scores of
applicants (Pope & Pope, 2009, 2014; Toma & Cross, 1998). Since these
studies focus on potential students and do not provide evidence of changed
scholarly behaviours among students already attending a university, they are
not considered here.
Economics
studies examining relationships between university sports and scholarly
outcomes among fully enrolled students have focused on changes in GPA and
graduation rates during football seasons with higher win percentages. The
majority of studies indicate that both GPAs and graduation rates are affected
by a successful football season, though the direction of the effect differs
across studies. Regarding GPAs, one study indicated that GPA declines during
winning football seasons, with a larger decline in male students’ GPAs than
female students’ (Lindo et al., 2012), although another study comparing GPAs
among college athletes and non-athletes found that GPA increased during winning
seasons (Mixon Jr & Trevino, 2005). Literature on the relationship between
football and graduation rates suffers from a similar lack of clear direction of
affect. One study reported that winning seasons lead to declines in graduation
rates (Tucker, 1992) while another study found no evidence of negative impact
of winning seasons on graduation rates (Rishe, 2003).
Faculty
members’ scholarly behaviours also appear to be influenced by successful sports
seasons. One study examining the effect of winning football seasons on the
number of pages published among economics faculty in over 100 different economics
departments (Shughart et al., 1986) found that a
winning season negatively impacted the scholarly output of economics faculty
members. The authors note that “a tradeoff exists
between success on the gridiron and success in the journals…When the local team
is winning, there is more of an incentive for a professor to put off doing
research on another academic article” (Shughart et
al., 1986, pp. 48–50).
Notably,
almost all the studies of the effect of university-sponsored sports events on
scholarship among students and faculty have focused on how football games
change scholarly outcomes, without examining how university sports events
directly alter scholarly behaviours. Only one study captured actual behavioural
changes related to university sports events. Charles Clodfelter’s
(2011) treatise on the effects of “big-time” university-sponsored sports on
various aspects of academic life includes a study of the effect of university
sports-related events on the use of a comprehensive, widely-used digital library
resource called JSTOR. The study examined how an annual, nationally viewed
university sports-related event (“Selection Sunday,” prior to the start of the
NCAA basketball tournament) affected the use of JSTOR materials at many
universities. Clotfelter found that the use of digital materials in JSTOR
decreased by an average of 6.7% during the week following Selection Sunday and
that the majority of that decline occurred during the first two days of the
NCAA tournament following Selection Sunday. As Clotfelter (2011) states:
Unless there existed other, unmeasured factors at work, the record
of JSTOR usage [in the study] implies that the NCAA tournament had a measurable
influence on the pattern of work in research libraries… and it reflects the
power of the demand for the entertainment provided by this form of big-time
college athletics. (p. 64)
Clotfelter’s
study is the only study examining the effect of sports events on the use of
library resources, namely digital resources. No studies have examined the
effect of football on library resource usage, or on the effect of sports events
on physical use of the library.
Aims
This
study seeks to test the effect of external events on physical use of academic
libraries by examining the relationship between home football games and gate
counts on Saturdays. In doing so, it indirectly examines time use choices among
would-be Saturday library users. The study also complements the economics
literature on the effect of big-time sports on scholarship. The null hypothesis
for this study was that home football games have no effect on physical use of
the libraries on Saturdays. The alternative hypothesis was that football games
have an effect on the physical use of libraries on Saturdays.
Methods and Materials
This
study used a retrospective, observational study design. As the dates of
Saturday home games are not prespecified by the libraries and vary each
semester, this is a natural experiment.
This
study used library hourly gate count data for ALS and Laupus
for each Saturday during the fall semesters of the years 2013-2018. The gate
counters in both libraries are mounted above the libraries’ entry doors and run
on Sensource hardware and software
(sensourceinc.com). Other collected data points included data on the university’s
football schedule, namely the occurrence of football games for each Saturday of
the fall semesters for the years of interest as well as the location of games
(home vs. away) for Saturdays when a game was scheduled. Additional data
elements were gathered as well, e.g., total enrollment for each of the years
studied, the start time for the football games, the week of the semester for
each Saturday recorded, and annual academic calendar events coinciding with
football games (e.g., fall break and homecoming). Excepting gate count data,
all data points come from publicly available sources.
The
years studied included dates when major weather events (Hurricanes Matthew and
Florence) severely impacted the area, shutting down the university and its
libraries. Those dates were eliminated from the data set. Additionally, data
points for Saturdays when holiday weekends occurred and one or both libraries
were closed were eliminated from the dataset for the affected library. The full
dataset was separated into two unique datasets for each library and a limited
set of variables retained for the library-specific datasets. The original raw
dataset, the full, cleaned, dataset reflecting the eliminated data points, the
library-specific smaller datasets, and the codebook are all located in an Open
Science Framework (OSF) project space for this study (https://osf.io/wpzx7/).
Following
data cleaning, the .csv files were loaded into SPSS 25.0.0.1 (64-bit version
for Windows 10). Minimal recoding in SPSS was undertaken and data were examined
for general patterns of use throughout a typical semester for each library.
Initial exploratory analysis of the difference in means for Saturdays with a
home game vs. Saturdays with no home game was performed using box plots for
simple visual comparison. Subsequently, an Independent Samples t test
was performed for each dataset. Independent samples t-tests are used to
determine whether a difference between the means for two groups differ
significantly—that is to say that the difference in the means is not due to
chance.
The
SPSS syntax used for recoding, exploratory analysis, and the independent
samples t-tests are all also available on the OSF project space for this
study. Additionally, information about the sources for the publicly available
data points are provided in the wiki for the Data component of the
project space.
Data
visualization was performed in Tableau Public. All visualizations are published
on the Tableau Public site for this project.
Results
For
the years 2013-2018, of the 15 weeks making up the typical fall academic
calendar, most dates were retained. Of the 90 weeks for which data was
initially gathered, 87 weeks were retained for analysis of the effect of home
football games on physical use of ALS on Saturdays; for Laupus
on Saturdays, 85 weeks were retained for analysis of the effect of home
football games on physical use. Although no analysis of the additional
influence of win percentage on the effect of physical use of the libraries on
Saturdays with home games was performed, the years studied included years with
higher win percentages as well as lower win percentages (maximum win percentage
.769 in 2013 and minimum win percentage of .250 in 2016-2018). In this way, the
years studied are representative of years with high and poor football performance.
Regarding
overall trends in physical use of the libraries on Saturdays at ECU, the data
reveal that physical use of the libraries climbs throughout the first half of
the semester (weeks one through six) before falling markedly on the Saturday of
the seventh week, a weekend marking the beginning of fall break. During the
second half of the semester, physical use of the libraries is generally higher
than during the first half, with peaks on the Saturdays of weeks 9, 11, and 15.
The Saturday of the 14th week marks a second nadir in the gate count
data, coinciding with Thanksgiving break. Regarding the peaks in gate counts
during the second half of the semester, it is posited that the looming
deadlines for large-scale assignments and exams drive these late-semester
peaks. Of the late-semester peaks in usage, the highest average gate count
occurs on the Saturday of the fifteenth week, just before the period of final
examinations begins. Notably, the rising gate counts and the amplitude of the
peaks during the 9th and 11th weeks during the 2nd
half of the semester are more pronounced for ALS (Figure 1) than for Laupus (Figure 2).
Football
games played at home drive the gate count at both ALS and Laupus.
Physical use of the libraries decreased on Saturdays with home games. For ALS,
the mean physical use of the library decreased by one third (34.4%) on
Saturdays with a home game (639.28 +/- 182.27 (SD) vs. 976.28 +/- 501.67,
p<.001). For Laupus, physical use of the library
decreased by nearly a quarter (22%) on Saturdays with a home game (154.57 +/-
62.66 (SD) vs. 120.63 +/- 33.13, p=.005). The effect of Saturday home football
games on gate counts is more consistently apparent at ALS (Figure 3) than Laupus (Figure 4), with all weeks showing some evidence of
effect. For Laupus, gate counts during weeks 7, 8,
and 13 appear to be less affected by home football games.
Figure 1
Average Saturday gate counts for ALS, fall semester,
2013-2018.
Figure 2
Average Saturday gate counts for Laupus
Library, fall semester, 2013-2018.
Figure 3
Effect of home football games on average Saturday gate
count by week of fall semester, ALS, 2013-2018.
Figure 4
Effect of home football games on average Saturday gate
count by week of fall semester, Laupus Library,
2013-2018.
Discussion
The
findings of this study indicate that library patrons are not immune to the
events surrounding Saturday home football games. The data indicate that some
aspect of Saturday home football games alters time use even among those who
might otherwise physically access the library. The exact cause of alterations
in time use for regular Saturday users of the library cannot be determined by
this study and warrant further study. However, multiple factors (financial,
social, environmental) may account for changes in weekend use of the library
during home football games.
Financial
needs may alter student use of libraries by increasing employment-related
opportunities and demands. Would-be patrons may be unable to come to the
library due to employer needs for more staff to serve the influx of local and
visiting consumers in service industry positions such as food service and
hospitality. This same factor may not influence employment-related time demands
for students at universities in densely populated metropolitan areas where
sports events have less effect on service industries; the relative geographic isolation
of ECU may have a more pronounced influence on time use related to student
employment (Agha, 2013; Agha & Rascher, 2016; DeSchriver et al., 2021).
The
larger effect size of home football games on physical use of the main academic
campus library (ALS) than for the health sciences campus library (Laupus) suggests that undergraduates are more likely to be
influenced by the events surrounding Saturday home football games.
Undergraduate students represent a more substantial percentage of the student
population enrolled in degree programs for the main academic campus than for
the health sciences campus (83% vs. 60% respectively for years 2016-2019) (East
Carolina University Institutional Assessment, Planning, and Research, 2021).
Additionally, undergraduate students, particularly freshmen, are more likely to
live near the main academic campus and its proximal football stadium and thus
have greater access to the social events surrounding the game. The increased
effect of games on physical use of ALS may also reflect a stronger need for
social connection and university community identity-building for students in
the undergraduate cohort, needs which football games are well-situated to fill.
As Anderson and Stone (1981) note, “sports teams are symbolic representations
of a community and can provide individuals a sense of belonging to that
community” (as cited in Robinson et al., 2005, p. 44).
The
same proximity to games may change library use in an entirely different manner,
through environmental changes affecting decisions to use the libraries. Namely,
games may lead to alterations in municipal environments, such as increased
noise levels in areas near the stadium (Chase & Healey, 1995) and
fraternity or sorority houses, and through changed traffic patterns (Humphreys
& Pyun, 2018; Tempelmeier
et al., 2020). These environmental and traffic changes arising from football
games may alter library user behaviours. For would-be Saturday library users,
traffic congestion and campus noise levels related to games would be more
pronounced for ALS than for Laupus, given differences
in proximity to the stadium (2.7 km driving distance vs. 5.4 km driving
distance respectively).
If
social, rather than environmental and employment factors, drive variations in
use of the libraries on home football game Saturdays, the findings of this
study serve as a subtle (and unverified) caveat to published studies examining
differences between users and non-users of academic and health sciences
libraries (Kramer & Kramer, 1968; LeMaistre et al.,
2018; Soria et al., 2013, 2015, 2017; Sridhar, 1994; Thorpe et al., 2016;
Toner, 2008; Turtle, 2005). These studies do indicate that meaningful
differences between users and non-users of academic and health sciences
libraries exist, from demographic and socioeconomic factors (e.g., age, major,
class level) to other factors such as lack of awareness of resources, lack of
time to use libraries, and use of materials elsewhere (Soria et al., 2015;
Sridhar, 1994; Toner, 2008; Turtle, 2005), with differences in library use
shown to relate to GPA and dropout rates among undergraduates (Kramer &
Kramer, 1968; LeMaistre et al., 2018; Soria et al.,
2013, 2017; Thorpe et al., 2016). While these library
use factors and outcomes hold true, users of academic libraries on Saturdays
may not differ from non-users in one regard—they may be swayed away from
library use by the draw of social events that football games uniquely offer.
The effect of football event participation on student outcomes is indicated in
published economics literature. As this study did not test the reasons for
lower use of the libraries on Saturdays, this cannot be verified by the current
study and is worthy of further examination.
Limitations
ECU’s
libraries do not employ card swipe systems during Saturday operational hours,
hindering the ability to determine which user group (undergraduates, graduate
students, community users, faculty) is less apt to use the library on Saturdays
with home football games. Without more granular data, it is impossible to draw
any conclusions beyond a general understanding of the direction and
significance of the effect of football games on gate counts. Given more
specific data on Saturday library users, a better analysis of the user group
likely to be affected by varsity sports would be feasible.
This
study did not examine the hours during which library usage was most likely to
be affected by a home game. Kickoff times varied considerably, making this
analysis difficult. It is therefore unknown if the occurrence of a home game
affects whole-day physical use of the library or if hours more closely grouped
near the game are most affected. If the effect is time-bound with the game,
libraries might consider reduced hours of operation related to kickoff time.
Conclusion
The
data from this study lead to the rejection of the null hypothesis. The data
make clear that home football games influence would-be library patrons’ choice
to physically access campus libraries. The lower number of patrons on Saturdays
with home football games might justify a reduced or altered level of staffing
on those Saturdays, particularly for libraries in proximity to a university’s
football stadium. Given that the observed reduction in gate counts was still
less than 35% for the libraries examined in this study, library closure on
Saturdays with home football games would not be justified.
For
libraries at universities facing budget cuts in tandem with the ever-present
demand for expansive hours from student populations, such data would allow for
more informed decision-making about staffing and hours in response to
pre-planned, external events within the university as well as justification to
student populations for reduced hours and staffing on those days.
Future
research on this topic area is recommended. Replication of this study at other
universities with large-scale sports programs is recommended to determine the
generalizability of this study. Furthermore, an examination of circulation and
reference statistics for Saturdays with home football games would determine if
circulation and reference interactions decrease in tandem with gate count.
Similarly, assessing changes in use of cross-disciplinary, digital library
resources (e.g., JSTOR or Scopus) would supplement these findings, providing
evidence of overall changed library-related behaviours on Saturdays with home
football games. Additionally, further analysis of gate count data would be
warranted to determine if users alter the days when they use the library as
compensation for time spent in football-related activities on a Saturday,
(e.g., using the libraries more heavily on the Friday or Sunday surrounding a
home game).
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