The Information or the Learning Commons: Which Will We Have?

Journal of Academic Librarianship

Volumn 34, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 183-185

  Bennett, Scott ^a  

^a Senior Advisor   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 43249094378     PISSN: 00991333     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.acalib.2008.03.001     Document Type: Editorial

References (14)

1. Forrest C., and Hinchliffe L.J. Beyond Classroom Construction and Design: Formulating a Vision for Learning Spaces in Libraries. Reference and User Services Quarterly, 44 4 (2005) 296 Summer
2. Information from responses to a survey conducted by the author of libraries identified as having information commons; for more information see Scott Bennett, "Designing for Uncertainty: Three Approaches," Journal of Academic Librarianship, 33:1 (Jan 2007): 165-179.
3. Beagle D.R., Russell D., and Tierney B.B. The Information Commons Handbook (2006), Neal Schuman, New York xviii
4. Narum J. Building Communities: Asking the Right Questions. Project Kaleidoscope (2002). http://www.pkal.org/documents/BuildingCommunitiesAskingTheRightQuestions.cfm emphasis added. Available: http://www.pkal.org/documents/BuildingCommunitiesAskingTheRightQuestions.cfm (25 September 2007)
5. Narum provides an excellent general review of sources on the design of learning spaces in "Transforming the Physical Environment for Learning," Change, 36:5 (Sept/Oct 2004): 62-66.
6. This issue of Change includes several other articles discussing aspects of current teaching and learning practices and their intersection with technology.
7. All the data reported in this paragraph are from "Designing for Uncertainty," pp. 167-168.
8. Ibid. I focus here only on librarians and information technology staff, although student tutoring and AV/media staff and other student services and faculty development staff also work in information commons in a varying but sometimes significant number of cases.
9. For an account of these survey data, see Scott Bennett, "Campus Cultures Fostering Information Literacy, " portal: Libraries and the Academy, 7:2 (Apr 2007): 147-167.
10. These data were gathered before the workshops. The same two questions about collaboration were asked in a follow-up survey about a year after each workshop. At that time, the same responding library directors characterized their campuses as encouraging collaboration much less frequently (68 percent, down from 93 percent), while the frequency of collaboration among faculty, librarians, etc. remained unchanged at 59 percent. One might speculate that the dramatically lower figure for campus-wide collaboration reported a year after the workshops reflects the way the workshops sensitized participants to this issue and set a high standard for collaborative achievement.
11. See, for instance, the excellent collection of essays edited by Dick Raspa and Dane Ward, The Collaborative Imperative: Librarians and Faculty Working Together in the Information Universe (Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000). These authors' initial essay, "Listening for Collaboration: Faculty and Librarians Working Together," pp. 1-18, is especially worth reading. The professional literature on information literacy is voluminous; an excellent point of entry is the Web site maintained by the Association of College and Research Libraries, "ACRL Information Literacy." Available: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/informationliteracy.htm (25 September 2007).
12. As was the case, for instance, with both the Learning Commons in the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Academic Commons at Oberlin College. The former is described as "implementing a new service model," while at the latter, a new central service desk is "a focal point for all services provided by the Commons" where "better coordinated information, research, technology, and learning support" will be available. See the Fall 2006 issue of Friendscript, the newsletter of the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign; and the Spring 2007 issue of Library Perspectives, A Newsletter of the Oberlin College Library.
13. See for instance the widely cited article by Robert B. Barr and John Tagg, "From Teaching to Learning-A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Education," Change, 27:6 (Nov/Dec 1995): 12-25.
14. Betsky A. Dark Clouds of Knowledge [A Description of the New University of Utrecht Library]. Architecture 94 4 (2005, Apr.) 52