the Bissett Collaborative Space and the Graduate Study Area in the Mann Library. Constituents were engaged from initial research and design ideas to ongoing post-occupancy evaluation. Mobility and malleability are key ingredients that contribute to students creating “customized learning moments.” http://mannlib.cornell.edu/equipmentandrooms/bissett.cfm For the renovation of the first floor of Florida State University’s Strozier Library, staff applied many of the user-centered assessment techniques championed by the University of Rochester and the University of Minnesota.2 “Our space, services, staffing will all be shaped by what users tell us—not by what we assume or by what we want to give users. In this way, we will never be finished building this space it will be a dynamic, (r)evolutionary space.” The learning spaces in University of Rochester’s Gleason Library are designed for undergraduate collaborative learning. All aspects of the space programming were influenced by student users through various anthropologist- overseen discovery techniques and assessment. http://docushare.lib.rochester.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document- 27280/chapter_four.pdf Classrooms, Workshops, Instruction Increasingly, campus pedagogy is shifting to actively engage students in the learning process. Rows of forward-facing desks in lecture hall arrangement are being replaced by technology and furnishings that allow for a range of configurations to support the particular learning moment. As noted in the companion report to this one published in the ARL Bimonthly Report, no. 261 (December 2008), many libraries are pursuing agendas to develop students’ information fluencies beyond the needs of a single assignment or course. The programming of new and renovated learning spaces frequently features literacy instruction. The University of Chicago’s Zar Reading Room is glassed-in, and with custom shades to reduce glare during presentations. Tables and chairs are easily reconfigurable, screens and whiteboards are added to peripheral walls, and mobile projector carts with flat-panel displays provide multiple viewing options. The room carries several functions: instruction, training, speaker series, and informal group study for students in the evening. The University of Western Ontario Libraries, in collaboration with the Centre for Faculty and Graduate Student Development, have created two teaching support centers on campus that feature exemplary classrooms. RLI 264 13 Learning and Research Spaces in ARL Libraries: Snapshots of Installations and Experiments ( C O N T I N U E D ) JUNE 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC
Previous Page Next Page