a space for grace

It’s so nice when you’re taking two courses and the topics your concentrating on happen to overlap. Collaboration is so relevant to libraries it was bound to happen.

My other course is a Directed Studies on The Learning Commons in the Academic Library. Learning Commons are great examples of how an academic library can collaborate. A Commons is most often located in the library and can include some non-traditional library resources and services such as production hardware and software (Photoshop, iMovie, etc) for project creation, collaborative study space, peer tutoring, seminars and writing centres. A well planned Commons will be customized to the institution’s students and services will be tailored to meet their needs. Every Commons will be a bit different.  However it is almost guaranteed that every Commons will require the library to partner with other departments – like IT services, academic departments, student employment services to name a few – in order to deliver optimum services.

However this partnering or collaboration is new to many libraries (and probably many other campus departments) who are used to operating in their own silos. For librarians in particular, the collaborative effort of a Learning Commons signals the loss of the traditional library and perhaps even their professional identity.  An article by Susan Beatty (2008)  cites Donald Robert Beagle (2006) as desribing the Learning Commons “as transformative change for the library, where the commons is organized in collaboration with learning initiatives sponsored by other academic units and, in effect, the library disappears.” If you’re not ready for change, this can be a scary thought…