Exploring Visual Representations of the University Library through a Photo Contest

Abstract

Users’ photographs taken in a library building can be symbols illustrating their inner perceptions of the academic library as a place and its services. These photos can also enable the library to elicit users’ insights beyond those offered by other mainstream techniques of data collection. By applying visual content analysis, this paper aims to reflect on how the photos, which were originally submitted to a contest as part of the Thai university library’s marketing campaign to promote its brand, can be valuable representations of the library that the photographers have actually interact with. This kind of visual method has potential for being used to supplement library managers’ efforts to discover real user needs that shape both service design and marketing in the library context.