Co-Design in Libraries

Abstract In order to optimise a needs analysis for digital infrastructure in the Digital Humanities, participatory development concepts are presented and compared with regard to their potential suitability. Since the use of co-design seems to be suitable due to its high degree of participation and its open organisational structure, a checklist for projects in academic libraries was developed, which is presented in addition to a toolkit and a case study. Based on the case study it is shown how a detailed requirements analysis and a design concept for a project-specific working environment for researchers could be created in a one-day interdisciplinary workshop with the help of co-design elements. The activities used, such as customer journey mapping or a stakeholder analysis created with the help of LEGO bricks, led to new perspectives in the collaboration between users and librarians.