The Koerner Library Research Commons was initially started in 2012 through the joint efforts of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of UBC Library, the Faculty of Graduate Studies (as it was then known), and the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology. My name is Jennifer Abel; I was one of the founding Graduate Academic Assistants in the RC, working there from 2012 to 2015 while I was completing my PhD in Linguistics, and returning in 2017 when I came back as a UBC grad student in the iSchool.

For about as long as I’ve been involved with the Research Commons, there’s been a plan to move it up to the 4th and 5th floors of Koerner Library, to create a welcoming, positive, reseach-focused space for grad students, postdocs, and other researchers. They started moving the books off those floors in June 2017 in order to make this plan a reality. However, in late March 2018, UBC senior admin announced to the Koerner Library admin that they’d like to take 25% of that space – half of the 5th floor space – which had already been allocated for grad students and for digital scholarship, and turn it into new administration offices.

This blog is intended to help protest that proposal, and ensure that all the space that’s been allocated for the Research Commons is kept for it. If you’d like to comment on this, the head of Koerner Library, Anne Olsen, would be happy to hear from you; you can find her contact info here. As well, you can follow the #NoKoernerAdminBuilding hashtag on Twitter.