Info Commons Project Documents

David from the InfoCommons and Beyond blog has posted a link to some interesting documentation from Georgia Tech. The documents seem to be a few years old, but they still provide some good insights:

The good folks at Georgia Tech have posted a very useful set of documents on planning and assessment: focus groups, questionnaires, a case study by Herman Miller, and fascinating essay by freshman Erica Hocking on the the Commons as a "Sacred Space" for learning.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out the InfoCommons and Beyond blog--the sidebar contains lots of links to commons spaces around the world, as well as relevant reading, presentations, and other documents.

Campus Library as Place is Dead?

Earlier this week at the EDUCAUSE conference in a discussion about the future of brick and mortar libraries, the Dean of Libraries from Syracuse was quoted as saying "Let's face it: the library, as place, is dead." As a commons aficionado, this is a rather jarring statement. Our students and faculty are increasingly relying on online collections, but they still need a space to gather and collaborate. As the Director of Libraries at Emory pointed out in the discussion, why did everyone travel to Denver for the conference? Conference content is increasingly available online. But of course, they were there to interact: "to talk, to collaborate, to think, to communicate, to be with one another. Isn’t that what we do in our best libraries?”

That is why I continue to be an avid supporter of the commons concept and the library as place.

Incidentally, a couple of interesting space articles were posted this week:

• This article from Campus Technology discusses the University of Calgary's Taylor Family Digital Library, considered the most technology advanced student library in Canada. The touch table capability in the facility sounds really interesting (Microsoft Surface maybe?). The article also touches on the "do we still need the library" debate, citing other examples of creative library spaces, so it's worth a look.
  
  
• Jim Jorstad has written this article in University Business about key elements for student learning space design and tips for success: remember the 35% rule, get your seat at the "big table," and so forth. He has done much work in learning space design so this is definitely worth a look as well.

Article on the Hubbub

My former colleague in the Hub, Alice Wasielewski, has just written an article about our experiences from Hubbub 2007 and Hubbub 2008, our party in the library during freshman orientation week.

The article has just been published in the July/August 2009 issue of College and Research Libraries News. Way to go, Alice!

New Articles about the Commons

Special thanks to Russ Bailey for pointing out these recent articles on the commons:

“Piloting an information commons at HKUST Library,” Reference Services Review (37/2, 2009) pp. 178—189, by Gabrielle K.W. Wong, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library, Hong Kong, China.

“The Information and Learning Commons: a selective Guide to sources,” Reference Services Review (37/2, 2009) pp. 190—206, by Tim Held, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, California, USA.

“Instruction and ‘The Commons’,” Educator’s Spotlight Digest (4/1, Spring/Summer, 2009), by Abby Kasowitz-Scheer, Syracuse University Library, USA.

It's All About Flexibility

I'm still catching up on my reading so I just now saw this Campus Technology article from the June issue, "It's All About Flexibility," which focuses on the new learning commons/technology center/library at Santa Clara University. The article includes a number of photos--I particularly like the use of whiteboard paint on the walls.

New Blog of Interest to Academic Librarians

I know many of us probably subscribe to about all we can handle right now (how often do you "mark all as read"?) but here's one more blog for the mix:

The SLA Academic blog is the blog of the new SLA Academic Division. While the blog will serve as a newsletter of the division with some posts about division activities, it will also include commentary and links of interest relevant to academic librarians from any subject discipline. With authors from a wide range of libraries around the world, this is one worth adding to your reader.

The Month for Learning Spaces

In addition to this month's EDUCAUSE Review, EDUCAUSE Quarterly also focuses this issue on learning spaces. I have not done more than mark the articles I want to read, but even if you don't have time for that, at least scroll to the bottom of the current EDUCAUSE Quarterly and check out that issue's photo gallery of innovative learning spaces. I am excited that the Hub will be featured in this collection of images; due to a minor technical snafu it is not there yet but should be later today. The images show a variety of collaborative workspace arrangements as well as multiple uses of technology in learning environments.

Killing Cockroaches

Do you ever get stuck in a rut of crossing the easy things off your to-do list but neglecting those larger items? Or focusing on those issues which are the loudest, but not necessarily the most important? I know I do; after all, it is so much easier to take care of those little things first or those things that are in your face. What a sense of accomplishment you have when you've done ten things instead of just barely scratching into one. Of course, that often isn't productive as the larger, more important issues keep looming.

Yesterday Penelope Trunk wrote about Killing Cockroaches, Tony Morgan's book focused on leadership. She was interviewed for the book, particularly regarding time management. What's the killing cockroaches part all about? Basically when Morgan was a city manager, during an important meeting he heard a woman down the hall screaming about a cockroach. He left the meeting to go down that hall to kill the cockroach. As Trunk puts it:

Really, all time management discussion is about this: How to know when to kill cockroaches and when not to. It's about why we spend time doing small, stupid stuff that crawling around in front of us instead of the stuff that makes life meaningful.

Other than working on a few presentations, lately I've been spending much of my time killing the cockroaches. I really need to look at the level of staffing in the commons at our benchmark institutions, but I haven't settled down to start doing the research. I need to do some long-term planning for our video windows; lately I only run about a month or two ahead on exhibits. I have a list of promotional ideas that I've put on the back burner, some since we opened two years ago. It's too easy to keep ignoring these things. Time to get to work.

Learning Spaces

The new issue of EDUCAUSE Review focuses on learning spaces. This should be of particular interest to those of us in a commons environment. I'm looking forward to reading the entire issue--stay tuned for comments.

Bookmark This!

Searching for 29 recent reports on the future of the academic library? Look no further as John Dupuis (Confessions of a Science Librarian) has compiled them. I've read a number of these and commented on several of them on this blog or another, but I'm delighted to see them all together for quick reference:

29 Reports about the Future of the Academic Library


Link via Stephen's Lighthouse

It's Complicated: More on the Library/IT Relationship

The current issue of C&RL News includes an article about how library and IT staff can effectively work together, "Hang Together or Hang Separately: Improved Information Services through Communication and Culture." Those of us in a commons environment are often particularly interested in building better relationships between the library and IT. I know our commons would not be nearly so successful if we did not have such an excellent relationship with campus IT.

One of the things that particularly interested me with this article is that it is written by a library staff member who moved into an IT department and an IT person who moved into a librarian position. As I was an IT librarian for several years, I appreciate those who can work well in both camps. Some of the points are fairly obvious, particularly when it comes to respect and communication among both groups, but it is still worth a read. Read the full article online.

Forthcoming Book on Information Commons

Here's another item I'll be adding to my reading list: A Field Guide to the Information Commons by Charles Forrest. From the description:

Technology has enabled new forms of information-seeking behavior and scholarship, causing a renovation of libraries that revisits the idea of the "commons"--a public place that is free to be used by everyone. A Field Guide to the Information Commons describes the emergence, growth, and adoption of the concept of the information commons in libraries. This book includes a variety of contributed articles, and descriptive, structured entries for various information commons in libraries across the country and around the world.

found via The Ubiquitous Librarian

2009 Horizon Report Now Available

The Horizon Report, a project co-published by the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, is one of those must-read reports that I look forward to each year (view past reports). The report focuses on emerging technologies for teaching and learning and identifies a timeline for mainstream adoption. The report includes specific examples and challenges, as well as key trends.

The 2009 Horizon Report is now available online. I immediately hit File -> Print and am looking forward to reading and discussing this year's findings.

More on the Library/IT Relationship

As a followup to the Tech Therapy podcast on libraries and IT, the Chronicle's Wired Campus blog published this letter to the editor about the library/IT relationship. The authors, the Dean of Libraries and the CIO of Indiana University, describe the essential nature of our partnerships:

As traditional boundaries of the two groups blur and we act jointly to address common needs of our communities, we must also strengthen our relationships with each other and our institutions. The result will be revealed in bigger and greater actions to the benefit of not only the users on our own campuses, but also the academic and scholarly communities worldwide.

It's interesting to note that for the first time, this year ARL has a metric for collaboration. So in addition to measuring collections and budgets and other typical things in our statistics, we are now looking at collaborative relationships as well. How wonderful (and how necessary) that we are recognizing the importance of partnerships in building successful campus services.

The Desk and Beyond

Previously I mentioned The Desk and Beyond: Next Generation Reference Services. Here is your opportunity to listen to the editors and three of the contributors discuss the book and the future of reference services in general in this 30 minute podcast from ACRL.

Most Popular Tech Therapy Episodes of 2008

Continuing in the grand tradition of "best of 2008" lists, the Chronicle has posted a list of the most popular Tech Therapy episodes of 2008. These are well worth a listen over what I hope is a long and relaxing holiday break for you. I mentioned two of the podcasts previously: Libraries vs. IT and The Future of the College Library, among the most popular episodes this year.

Graduate Student and Faculty Spaces and Services

I haven't seen the new ARL Spec Kit on Graduate Student and Faculty Spaces and Services yet, but I am really looking forward to it as we begin thinking about a research commons here focused on faculty and graduate student needs. It looks like the full kit includes a number of documents describing specific services and spaces, as well as marketing and outreach materials. This is definitely a must-read for me.

View the exective summary.

I'm aware that it is a growing trend for university libraries that started with a heavily-trafficked information/ learning commons focused on undergraduate needs to build on that success by looking at a similar collaborative project for graduate student and faculty needs. Last year as we began our research, I compiled a list of institutions with a "research commons" or a "scholarly commons" and I expect that number has increased. I'd be interested in hearing from others who are involved in similar projects.

The Top 10 Everything of 2008

It's that time of year again, with Top 10 lists sprouting up at every turn. To fill your Top 10 list cravings, Time Magazine has collected the Top 10 Everything of 2008. From campaign moments and financial collapses to scandals and fashion faux pas, this list has you covered.

Why should we care in the information commons? Well you have to have a little fun sometimes. And it is interesting to look at consumer technology trends: iPhone apps, gadgets, and video games, for example.

New Pew Report on Future of the Internet

The third in a series of Pew reports on the future of the Internet was just released yesterday. For this report, over 1000 technology leaders/commentators were surveyed regarding the impact networked technologies will have on society by 2010. Key findings from the report:

The mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the internet for most people in the world in 2020.

The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.

Voice recognition and touch user-interfaces with the internet will be more prevalent and accepted by 2020.

Those working to enforce intellectual property law and copyright protection will remain in a continuing arms race, with the crackers who will find ways to copy and share content without payment.

The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.

Next-generation engineering of the network to improve the current internet architecture is more likely than an effort to rebuild the architecture from scratch.

As librarians/information professionals, it is so important for us be familiar with trends and predictions for the future of information access. Even for our own personal needs, how will networked technologies change our own relationships--with families, with work, with future co-workers and students?

View the project page which outlines the methodology and key findings or read the entire report.

2009 Horizon Report

The Horizon Report, a project co-published by the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, is one of those must-read reports that I look forward to each year (view past reports). The report focuses on emerging technologies for teaching and learning and identifies a timeline for mainstream adoption. The report includes specific examples and challenges, as well as key trends. The 2009 report should be released in late January 2009. I've just seen a short preview of the 2009 report and there are no big surprises here:

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
Mobiles
Cloud Computing

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
Geo-Everything
The Personal Web

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
Semantic-Aware Applications
Smart Objects

I'm really looking forward to reading and discussing the full report.