Learning and Research Spaces in ARL Libraries: Snapshots of Installations and Experiments Crit Stuart L earning commons and other spaces to support individual and group productivity have emerged in the majority of ARL libraries in the past decade. Respondents to a survey conducted by ARL during the late winter and early spring of 2008 described their work to provide learning and research spaces for their constituents. The survey invited all ARL libraries to describe innovative and noteworthy experiments in three areas: instructional programs, virtual resource development, and space initiatives. Of the 123 member libraries, 77 participated in the survey, for a response rate of 63%. Responses to the first two elements of the survey (instructional programs and virtual resource development) were summarized in an earlier article with accompanying database.1 Innovations and noteworthy experiments were defined in the survey as either “a new service for the library” or “unique in academic librarianship.” Respondents briefly described the initiatives, provided supporting documents and URLs, and offered assessment data where it existed. What is new or innovative for one library may be a standard and long-practiced approach to space development and programming at another institution. Whatever one’s perspective, considerable transformation of physical spaces has occurred, with interest remaining high for ongoing renovations of existing spaces, and for expanding support to constituents not served in the first iterations. Libraries demonstrate a strong interest in supplying well-articulated spaces and services for undergraduate endeavors, and for faculty and graduate research enterprises. The preponderance of innovative learning spaces in ARL libraries are for undergraduate students. This may be due to the influence of the first learning RLI 264 7 JUNE 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC
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