The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

152 The University of California Libraries
has been used by the State for space planning in the past. Actual FTE
figures are multiplied by 1.25, and the result is then multiplied by
135 assignable square feet (asf) to arrive at the space allotment.
Simplified, this results in 168.75 asf per actual FTE staff. It
should be noted that this allowance is intended to cover not only the
actual work stations of the staff, but all space for library materials
being processed, work rooms, storage of supplies, equipment,
public service desks, and indeed any assignable areas not covered by
provisions for users and library materials.
The actual FTE staff and the assignable square feet that would
be required for staff according to this formula, from 1977/78 to
1987/88, are shown in Table 22. The third column indicates the space
requirements if the staff grows according to the same pattern as
research libraries in the past (as discussed in Chapter IX), and the
fifth column indicates the space required for staff as projected by
this plan.
Space for Library Users. For users, the alternatives are fairly
simple, and are based on decisions as to what proportion of the potential
number of users to provide seating for. Most formulas used by
libraries and state planning agencies for this purpose are expressed
simply as a percentage of the student body, ignoring faculty, university
staff, and members of the public as users. The square footage
allotted per user will of course depend on the type of seating provided,
and may range from 25 asf for seating at tables, to 75 or 100
asf for faculty studies, if the latter are provided for separately.
In practice, libraries vary in the percentage of the student
body for whom seats are actually provided, ranging from 10 percent in
the case of some commuter colleges to 40 percent or more in the case
of some residential universities. Planning guides used by the University
and the State in the past have been based on 25 percent of
the student body, and this is the figure most often recommended by
professional library building consultants. The calculations in the
plan therefore assume that seating will be provided for 25 percent
of the three-term average head count enrollment, and that 25 asf will