Yale Gets Ready for 1st Info Commons

The Yale Daily News reported last week on the plan to merge two departmental libraries and create the first "info commons" on the New Haven campus.

Highlights gleaned from the article:

• 200,000 volumes from the Social Science Library and the Kline Science Library have been moved to a storage facility in Hamden, CT.
• Kline Science Library will move into the Social Science Library while Kline is remodeled.  
• Following renovation the two libraries and the Social Science Research ITS StatLab will move into the remodeled Kline Library, which will be renamed the Center for Science and Social Science Information.
• The Social Science Library building will be demolished to make room for new residential colleges.

The merger is viewed as an opportunity to combine "lab technology, library volumes, and study and meeting spaces... interspersed throughout the new space to encourage cross-field collaboration." 

Go to UPDATE: January 11, 2012

Nike Honors Joe Paterno with $400K Gift to Support Penn State's Knowledge Commons

UPDATE (March 23, 2011) PSU projects put on hold Centre Daily Times of State College, PA reports that the Knowledge Commons expansion is one of several projects stalled by the budget crisis and the governor's proposed 50% cut to the Penn State subsidy.

Celebrating Joe Paterno's 400th victory as football coach, Nike will donate $400,000 toward the completion of the Tombros/McWhirter Knowledge Commons which has been in the works since 2008 when a Media Commons studio opened in Pattee Library.

According to the press release, "the Knowledge Commons will be a federation of services and repurposed physical spaces that will facilitate information discovery, collaborative learning, and knowledge building with a focus on undergraduates."


 The multifunctional Knowledge Commons will evolve over the next two years. See the floor plan and descriptions of the various services.



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Rolex Learning Center - Lausanne, Switzerland

Next time you are in Europe, try to fit in a trip to Lausanne's Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale where SANAA, a Japanese architectural firm, has designed a unique multi-purpose academic support facility.  


"The Rolex Learning Center...will function as a laboratory for learning, a library with 500,000 volumes and an international cultural hub for EPFL, open to both students and the public. Spread over one single fluid space of 20,000 sq metres, it provides a seamless network of services, libraries, information gathering, social spaces, spaces to study, restaurants, cafes and beautiful outdoor spaces. It is a highly innovative building, with gentle slopes and terraces, undulating around a series of internal ʻpatiosʼ, with almost invisible supports for its complex curving roof, which required completely new methods of construction." http://rolexlearningcenter.epfl.ch/

    
Flickr photostream March, 2010

U. of Calgary - Information Commons to Learning Commons

U. of Calgary's Information Commons was an exemplary innovation when it opened in August, 1999. (The original website is archived at: http://www.ucalgary.ca/IR/infocommons/)

On December 24, the original Information Commons in McKimmie Library will close, to be reborn on January 3, 2011 as the Learning Commons in the new Taylor Family Digital Library, known as TFDL.

Susan Beatty, Information Commons Head at McKimmie, co-wrote a wonderfully descriptive account of the development of the IC in her paper "Collaboration in an Information Commons: key elements for successful support of eliteracy."  The paper also points the way to an expanded, broadly conceived gathering of academic support services that will make up the new Learning Commons in the TFDL.

A fuller description of the TFDL by Tom Hickerson, Calgary's Vice Provost, Libraries and Cultural Resources, and University Librarian, is in the video archive of his presentation at OCLC's Distinguished Seminar Series.  The presentation is entitled "Convergence of Knowledge and Culture: Calgary's Design for the Future."

Seattle U. Opens Learning Commons

Dedicated on September 30, 2010.  Here's the website's description of the new Library/Learning Commons:
"Lemieux Library & McGoldrick Learning Commons combines new construction and renovation to offer a state-of-the-art facility of approximately 125,000 square feet.  

This new facility blends student academic support services, scholarly research, collaborative learning, and social interaction in a technology-rich, light-filled environment.

The Library and its Learning Commons Partners -- Writing Center, Learning Assistance Programs, Math Lab and Research Services -- promote student success through the provision of integrated services, collaborative programs, and effective referrals that draw on a variety of academic professionals in a single facility."

See pictures and video from the library dedication.