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Family Rooms: Managing use of a family room

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As with any shared space, managing and maintaining a family room can present its own challenges as the space may be used in new and unexpected ways. Regular monitoring of ongoing usage helps ensure the room continues to meet the needs of its users effectively.

Managing use

Establish frequent checks

A great first step for managing the use of the family room is to establish what key tasks are necessary for it to operate as normal. These tasks can then be allocated, and how often they need repeating determined. These might involve checks to ensure equipment is in good order or furniture has not been rearranged, through to making sure the booking form is operable and behaving as intended.

Monitor use

During an initial period, it might be a good idea to arrange for colleagues to check on the space (both when booked and not) to see if and how the space is being used.

Looking through door

Regulations

One of the first tasks is to establish clear regulations for the use of the family room. Try to keep these to a minimum and emphasise that they are largely to ensure the safety of all users.

These should be displayed within the room itself, and somewhere during the booking process. Typical regulations might concern things like the maximum number of adults and children using the space, insisting that anyone using the room book it online, and any actions prohibited from taking place in the room.

Procedure for misuse

There needs to be a procedure if a user is seen as violating the regulations or making an otherwise improper use of the space.

Suggestions for this might range from non-academic misconduct, through to a ban or temporary ban from using the area, through to a verbal warning.

 

Promotion and marketing

Family rooms often serve a subset of users, that it can be difficult to target using conventional means. Raising the profile of the family room, as well as maximising its visibility, is needed to make sure that those who would benefit most from it know of its existence.

One such way this can be achieved is to maximise notable events such as world book day (pictured event at the University of Bradford). However, there is no guaranteed way to do this, so you may need to experiment with different options (or a combination thereof) to find what is most effective for your users. We have outlined some ideas below and have broadly categorised these as digital and non-digital options.

Non-digital promotion

Posters

A poster in a high traffic area in specific areas can be highly effective. Consider areas like the student’s union, café spaces, and any baby changing rooms. A QR code to the booking page and an image of the room are ideal inclusions.

Raising to staff

While they may not be likely to use it themselves, raising the family room to staff at events like induction, faculty meetings and similar updates can be helpful. Similar to an online presence, this is useful if a student queries the family room or bring their children to campus with their tutor. It also means they can raise it with any students they feel would benefit from it.

Word of mouth

Students often have their own networks, both formal and informal. If the space is useful, it will get recommended through word of mouth. A recommendation from a friend or other parent will often be more convincing than from central communications.

staff meeting

Digital promotion

Online presence

The most important way to promote your family room is to ensure it has a good online presence – this means is discoverable on any student portals and a reasonable Google search. Students may well see or hear about the space and then try to find the details at a later date, so making sure they can find further details is important. An easily findable link or button on the library webpage is also highly beneficial, particularly if the room needs booking.

Socials

If your library has a Facebook or TikTok page try to feature the family room on it – this can be a great format for showing the space and the features available! It is also highly shareable, meaning students can send it to one another or may even tag people they think might want to use it. This is dependent on what social channels you have access to, as central marketing may not want to feature something so specific, but a library specific account is a good fit. This is also a good opportunity to collaborate with social teams, who may be looking for new ideas for content.

Newsletters

If you have access to them, newsletters are a great way to get the family room in front of students. Again, access to specific lists may vary from institution so you may need to reach out to different areas to get this distributed. Targeting specific faculties or another subset of students, such as postgraduate researchers, may be even more beneficial. Students are often bombarded with information through email, however, so take care not to repeat this too often.

Files

Here we have included a sample of documents used to manage a family room from multiple institutions. These include registration forms to collect essential information and checklists that are undertaken in the space.