Learning Commons, 11/13/2014 Meeting Minutes

Present: Jennifer Gunter King (chair), Karina Rosenstein, Asha Kinney, Bob Crowley, Carla Costa, Jeff Wallen, Marjorie Hutter, Laura Wenk, Jason Tor, Anne Downes, Alana Kumbier (notes), Ira Fay (telephone)

Welcome and Framing LLC’s 2 Projects

1. Officer’s Grant from the Mellon Foundation – Concrete, achievable goals

• Site visits
• CNI Designing Libraries
• Joan Lippincott’s visit
• Brightspot – Developing a service model
• Space planning

 

2. Academic Affairs A6

• Eva Rueschmann is overseeing Acad Affairs projects, Jennifer G. King is managing this (LLC) project
• Project specifications sheet is due for review by Dec. 3 – How will we sequence activities, who are the project’s advisors

Report-back and Information Sharing

CNI Designing Libraries for the 21st Century Conference
Attendees: Jennifer, Jeff, Bob, Alana, Asha, Carla, Eva
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127908679@N04/sets/72157648522313138/

Conference was held at the University of Calgary, we toured the Taylor Family Digital Library
Extensive conference notes from Emily Rodgers:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s35/sh/0a2487b4-5f6a-47be-847c-c0c9b4918ea3/e17a9c08f4319532682e4bbe8635d4b1

Notable things we saw/learned:

• Visual displays of library use data on screens at the circ desk
• Dual-monitor work stations (get students acclimated to future workplace environments)
• Tiered service – Peer roamers provide service at the library entrance, 1st point of contact from the front door, students also circulate on all floors to answer questions/troubleshoot as necessary
• Budgeting issue: Remember that tech needs to be replaced after a few years – not just a one-time purchase
• Library – highly-visible, central hub of info for things happening on campus. Promote campus activities/programs in library spaces using screens
• Real-time info about available computer stations
• Lots of different options for kinds of seating, work stations
• Career, academic advising, academic support services offered in the library
• Whiteboard-walled classrooms, can be used as open work spaces in the evening
• Presentation practice room equipped with camera.
• As we move forward, it will be important to collect data & assess what we’re piloting and implementing in relation to the academic program & goals of the institution
• GIS Lab
• Game development area, playing area with old Nintendo consoles
• Visualization studio – allows for amazing displays of information, but also very expensive & requires a separate room for cooling projectors behind screens
  

UCLA Powell visit update from Jeff

• We saw Kelly Miller speak at Designing Libraries, Jeff followed up with a visit when he was in LA
• Renovation around services & research consultations with students >> Inquiry Space
• Designed for several simultaneous one-on-one sessions
• Group collab learning spaces
• Monitors on rolling tripods so you could plug a laptop into a bigger monitor
• Librarians are integrated in space – much more into the open
• Some study spaces closed off that could handle 6-8 people
• Mix of comfy, lounge chairs with office chairs
• Prioritized: movable, flexible furniture and design
• $400,000 budget – most of the changes were low-tech; design without many consultants, not much overhead
• Makerspace – not tech heavy: making zines and manipulating paper materials, built into the open space, 3D printers and other fab tech available at other places on campus
• Gave all librarians in the space new ergo furniture. Work in public but with locked filing cabinets that can double as seating for office consults
• Increased ref consults 3x – moved from transactional to enaging model of interactions with students
• Strong social media outreach – super-important to engage first-years: get them into the library early & they’ll keep coming
• Student staff meeting people as they come into the library, students wear smocks for visual identification
• High success in drawing students into these spaces
• Emphasis on services – how students come into the library for interactions with different kinds of support, lots of peer-to-peer support, increasing the amount of time people are spending in the library
• Removed trad ref books from reading room & brought in curated collections – zines, graphic novels, books on urban sustainability

Working Items

Prototyping of Learning Commons – Carla, Bob, Thom Long, Jennifer, Hampshire Student Union, Rehamping, Facilities

Phase 1 – Rapid Prototype:

• create a blank slate in Airport Lounge – removing fixed things, creating flexible space
• get feedback & assess what happens in Phase 1
• Drilling down into specifics of space types/uses – flexible spaces for teaching and learning
• Looking at models we looked at last year, students are contributing ideas
• Zones – connecting HSU office space with APL space to extend and create a semi-permeable flow between open and contained spaces
• Looking at materials from the past — including past Rehamping work, which examined the APL
• Students developing some symbols to help with wayfinding

Phase 2 – Move forward based on Phase 1 discoveries

• How to engage multiple groups of students with the process?
• Right now, students with design experience are at the center – asking them to help get feedback from current APL users
• Will reach out for broader student group feedback
   

Scheduling

• Be on the lookout for a new Doodle poll & respond ASAP
• We’ll be moving to meeting every other week