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From Commons to Classroom: the Evolution of Learning Spaces in Academic Libraries

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From Commons to Classroom: the Evolution of Learning Spaces in Academic Libraries Journal of Learning Spaces Volume 5, Number 2. 2016 ISSN 21586195 From Commons to Classroom: The Evolution of Learning Spaces in Academic Libraries Victoria Karasic University of Pennsylvania Over the past two decades, academic library spaces have evolved to meet the changing teaching and learning needs of diverse campus communities. The Information Commons combines the physical and virtual in an informal library space, whereas the recent Active Learning Classroom creates a more formal setting for collaboration. As scholarship has become increasingly digital and interactive, commons and classroom environments in academic libraries promote experimentation with new technology and accommodate millennial learning behaviors. The library, a centrally located and academically neutral campus space, provides an ideal place for classrooms and encourages interdisciplinary scholarship unbounded by specific academic departments. Introduction for this article, involves the academic library’s survival and relevance “because” of digital technologies, not “in spite of them” (2005, pp. 42-43). The research library will survive because of the Scholars and librarians alike have long examined the introduction of ever more and newer digital library’s role in the dissemination, cultivation, and technologies, not in spite of them (Frischer, 2005, pp. 42- preservation of digital information. In 1999, historian 43). Gertrude Himmelfarb’s telling article “Revolution in the Library” tackled the issue of how academic libraries had At a 2002 Council on Library and Information Resources begun to negotiate electronic sources within traditional (CLIR) Sponsors’ Symposium, Bernard Frischer spoke about collections. Most importantly, librarians have grappled with the not-so-distant future—the year 2012. He projected that the question of how to attract students to the library as a instead of sitting in brick-and-mortar classrooms listening to place to not only retrieve digital information, but also to lectures, students would find themselves in theaters, “right discuss and apply it to their classroom and learning in the middle of the subject of their study” (Frischer, 2005, p. experiences. In the early to mid-1990s, what would officially 41), and, more importantly, right in the middle of the library, become known as the Information Commons (“IC”) helped as chemical reactions and archaeological digs would to bridge this gap between physical and virtual spaces. The virtually come to life in front of their eyes. While such a academic library has since evolved as a place to experiment vision may have seemed innovative in 2002, a little more and gain confidence with technologies, obtain information, than a decade later, Frischer’s projections have become and shape learning as an interactive process. realities. Libraries have begun to incorporate virtualization This essay will trace the evolution of collaborative spaces like Frischer’s Cultural Virtual Reality Lab at UCLA, learning spaces in academic libraries, including Information such as Texas Tech University Libraries 3D Animation Lab Commons, Learning Commons, and more recent Active (Sullivan, 2003; Dougherty, 2009). Frischer’s more emphatic Learning Classrooms, especially through the lens of a new point, however, which will be taken as the point of departure Collaborative Classroom at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries (“Penn Libraries”) Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Vickie Karasic is a librarian who focuses on educational technology Center (“Van Pelt Library”). These various spaces in the and digital literacy. As part of the Teaching and Learning team at library work together, as Commons spaces have provided Penn Libraries, Vickie assists faculty, students, and other members libraries the confidence to take on more formal learning of the Penn community in supporting their use of digital tools for spaces like classrooms. Moreover, such spaces emphasize instruction, personal research curation, and emerging technologies. She serves as liaison librarian and co-bibliographer to the French that libraries continue to claim their spot as intellectual and and Francophone Studies department. Vickie also supports cultural hubs on campus by responding to users’ evolving reference instruction, consultation, and outreach activities, and needs and implementing the technologies to do so. manages the Hoesley Digital Literacy Fellows Program. Her Ultimately, academic libraries provide collaborative areas research interests include the use of digital media in language that both students and faculty increasingly view as learning, the digital humanities, flipped classroom and active learning methods, and learning spaces in academic libraries. Vickie convenient, comfortable, flexible, and, most importantly, holds her MLIS from Drexel University, MA in English and productive, in meeting teaching and learning objectives Comparative Literature from Columbia University, and BA in across academic departments. Comparative Literature and French from Cornell University. 53 FROM COMMONS TO CLASSROOM: THE EVOLUTION OF LEARNING SPACES IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES ICs have created alliances with academic units and Evolution of the Information Commons departments, including writing or study skills centers, which promote interdisciplinary work and As libraries have transitioned from housing solely paper- interdepartmental cooperation (Beagle, 1999; University of based collections to offering computing resources and Pennsylvania Libraries, 2011). Such academic partnerships electronic information over the past fifty years, many have have urged faculty to utilize the IC as an optimal space for voiced concern regarding the relevance and survival of interactive teaching. These IC uses have paved the way for academic libraries in the information age. New computing more and diverse learning spaces particularly in the technology has required physical changes to the library as academic library as a central intellectual locale on campus. well as increased staff training in the areas of cataloging, Although many laud the IC’s “continuum of service” circulation, and acquisitions (Molholt, 1985). In the 1980s, model, which includes research guidance, instruction, the term “information support center” described the technology, and flexible physical space (Bailey & Tierney, academic library’s new role in assisting users with finding 2002, p. 277), others have pointed to the challenge of training electronic information (Molholt, 1985, p. 285). Digital staff to meet both technological and research needs that the information has greatly influenced the services that IC demands (MacWhinnie, 2003). IC staff members often academic libraries perform and how libraries assist patrons wear many hats—from troubleshooting technology to in an ever-developing digital society. As intellectual and providing software advice to teaching workshops—all while technological progress has gone hand-in-hand (Himmelfarb, maintaining a strong public service presence. These services 1999), the academic library has been called upon to not only place a drain on IC resources (Bailey & Tierney, accommodate these interconnected needs. 2002), but also can dislodge an IC’s founding ideals from its Although the term “Information Commons” did not everyday practices (for example, focusing on one user group surface until the early 1990s (Steiner & Holley, 2009), the IC to the exclusion of another) (Heitsch & Holley, 2011). To was developed precisely to address the “electronic ameliorate these issues, new Commons models, including revolution” that libraries witnessed in the 1980s and 1990s the Learning Commons and, as will be examined, the Active (Himmelfarb, 1999). Conceived under various labels, Learning Classroom, have shifted the focus onto spaces that including the “Information Arcade,” the “Media Union” and facilitate teaching and learning, as library and academic the “Virtual Village” (Steiner & Holley, 2009), the departments collaborate on student achievement. “Information Commons,” as both a term and a concept, provided academic libraries with a new model for offering Learning-Centric Outcomes in the Commons assistance to users. In its early days, the IC was very much focused on two services—technology, or “conceptual The Commons model often presents a tension between space,” and facility, or “physical space” (Beagle, 1999, pp. 83- developing a facility that promotes both the “library as 85). These spaces merged in the IC to create a distinct area place” ideal (Spencer, 2006, p. 244), and a virtual library, in the library for information referral, expertise, and user where digital services render the physical library collaboration. Conceptual and physical spaces remain two superfluous. A focus on reference service in the mid-2000s essential features of ICs today; moreover, the IC has evolved offered a bridge between the physical and virtual Commons to meet learning needs for a variety of users, not only space. Beagle referred to this shift in terms of the “Internet2” undergraduates, but also graduate students, continuing Commons (2002, pp. 288-289), or a virtual Commons that education students, and community members who use the integrates bibliographic instruction, research, writing library. assistance, and media services through online guides and The Information Commons has received much attention tutorials, while still emphasizing the physical Commons as as academic libraries have been forced to adapt to rapidly a place for obtaining assistance with such resources. By the changing technology
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