I’m a second-year MBA student at the Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship and I know that graduate students here at UO have unique study, teaching, and research needs.

Earlier this year, the UO Libraries hosted a brainstorming session called GRAD Connect in order to learn more about the needs and interests of graduate students. The libraries aim to improve services and targeted messaging for grad students, and this focus group allowed the UO libraries to gather a lot of valuable feedback. Recently, a report was released that summarized the results of the focus group. Here are a few highlights:

• Graduate students identified a few categories for improvement: website, study space, relaxation space, access/hours, and help/orientation
• The UO Libraries have assigned working groups to review suggestions and charged them to identify solutions
• The UO Libraries has already implemented some of the GRAD Connect suggestions and is actively considering others

Here are some improvements that are currently underway as a result of the information gathered during GRAD Connect:

• Another book-eye scanner will be ordered for the Knight Library
•  There is a new microwave in the Science Library, near the entrance, for students to use
•   A few laptop lock boxes have been ordered, which will be attached to tables on the 4th floor of Knight Library
• …And many more!

GRAD Connect was a great success and the suggestions gathered during this process have already started to improve the lives of graduate students using the UO Libraries. Thanks to Nancy Slight-Gibney and everyone else who was involved in this project.