| The Learning Commons
Model: Determining Best Practices for Design, Implementation, and Service |
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Information Commons and Learning Commons Site Visits
Overview Brookdale Community College is the County College of Monmouth located in Lincroft, New Jersey. In addition to the Lincroft Campus, they have other branch campuses. They serve approximately 14,000 students with a staff of 27, including seven librarian positions. Librarians are tenured faculty members. The Bankier Library is located at the far end of a 1/4 mile long academic building and was completely renovated as part of the Campus Master Plan in 1998. In preparing for the renovation project, David Murray, developed a program plan that was to incorporate the philosophy of the information commons and visited established information commons learning environments at Maricopa County Community College District in Arizona and at University of Southern California. For more information about Bankier's concept and plan, see http://www.brookdale.cc.nj.us/library/infocommons.php Description of Services and Facilities The library has two floors. Upon entering the library on the first floor, there is an information desk that directs users to library spaces, resources, and services and serves as a circulation point. After passing through the entrance, the user passes into a large open floor with low shelves housing the reference print collection and pods of computer workstations spread throughout their information commons. A large integrated HELP desk is located in the center of the room and is approachable from all sides. The desk is a square configuration with a service point located at each of its four corners. Librarians, 3 paraprofessional Learning Assistants, and Technology Support staff work at this desk. This desk serves as the main work area for the library's 3 learning assistants. The technology support staff from the I.T. department is available from 10-2, Monday - Friday, and Librarians take shifts working at the HELP desk. The Librarian service point is located closest to the front entrance. There is always one librarian on duty, sometimes 2 during busy periods. Each librarian spends 12-14 hours per week working at the help desk. The remainder of their time is spent on special projects, web development, collection development, instruction, and committee work. In the middle of this large square service desk is another smaller work area for less public help desk functions, such as telephone reference and responding to email Ask a Librarian questions. Double monitors on the back of the help desk computers help librarians demonstrate databases to students.
The Information Commons was designed to accommodate four components -- 1. Collections 2. Computers 3. Help Desk, 4. Instruction Rooms for the Information Literacy Program. They have a nice floor plan of this area available at http://www.brookdalecc.edu/library/pdfiles/1stfloor.pdf. Within the computer workstation area of the Information Commons there are several pods housing 200+ computer workstations. Many of the workstation areas are set up as a pod with a three point configuration that typically have 6 computers and room for 12 users. Each workstation area was designed to accommodate two users using one computer to allow space for collaboration.
Opposite the technology support service point of the HELP desk is the print copy center. Printing is card operated -- network service is provided by a company called Go Print and machines are provided by Xerox
Four Library Classrooms are located around the periphery of this large information commons, each computer equipped. As needed, these rooms are open for student use when not being used for library instruction. Because they have plenty of computer classrooms, the library also makes these classrooms available to other classroom instruction. i.e. -- a psychology statistics class may use one of the library classrooms on a regular basis for SPSS training. One Classroom is designated as the Media Authoring Lab. For more information about this lab, please refer to http://www.brookdalecc.edu/library/medialab.php Screen savers on the computers in the Information Commons and in the instruction classrooms are used to advertise upcoming library workshops and announcements. Instruction and information literacy are an important component of Brookdale's Information Commons philosophy.
A Cafe is being proposed on the first floor, near the front entrance and to the side of the Information Commons area. Currently they offer vending machines and seating in this area. Behind the Cafe area is a suite of public service librarian offices with a common reception and meeting area.
The second floor of the library houses the Library's circulating collection, periodical collection, media collection, group study rooms, media viewing, carrels, and table work areas. The main circulation and reserve desk is at the top of the stairs on this floor with library technical services and administration offices located behind it. A floor plan is available at http://www.brookdalecc.edu/library/pdfiles/2ndfloor.pdf
21 Group Study rooms and Media viewing rooms are located on periphery of the second floor. Each room is equipped with power and data ports (though the building is wireless). The rooms accommodate 6 to 12 users - with different table configurations.
Governance and Strategic Fit In 1993 the Campus began planning for a new library with its Campus Master Plan for 1995-2005. They decided to move the library to space vacated by classrooms, when a new classroom building was built in 1998. The library moved from the center of a quarter mile long academic building to the far end of that building. In strategically planning for the Information Commons, the Library developed a Program Statement for the New Brookdale Library. This program statement, available at http://www.brookdalecc.edu/library/program.php, was driven by the College Mission Statement and Academic Master Plan and called for a "dynamic learning environment designed to foster student success." In preparing for Brookdale's Information Commons, Library Director, David Murray, visited the new Information Commons learning environments at Maricopa County College District in Arizona and the University of Southern California. In terms of organizational structure and governance, the library and information technology departments are not merged. Brookdale outsources its I.T. functions from Sun Guard - Collegis. Staff from I.T. are physically present in the library from 10-2 weekdays, and are on call for the rest of the day. Collaboration and Partnerships Librarians partner with faculty in the Teaching Learning Center which is located within the Library. Each librarian "fellow" spends a certain number of hours per week working in the TLC. The TLC has a staff of four people. Technology Support Staff work with library staff at the integrated HELP desk. Staffing and Training The library's planned renovation was the impetus for the Information Commons, but needed to figure out how to orchestrate the functions of the Information Commons. They had many planning meetings and consulted with Philip Tompkins, drawing up lists of concerns and questions to ask. At an early stage they decided to combine support functions at the integrated HELP desk. With the help of a consultant, several planning meetings and workshops about "changing organizations" they were able to achieve staff buy-in for this new type of service and learning environment. With an integrated service desk, the idea is that whoever takes a question will answer it to the best of their ability and then hand it off if more expertise is required. For example, a simple reference question that becomes research intensive may be taken by a learning assistant and then handed off to a librarian. All librarians serve as departmental liaisons, do collection development, teach library instruction classes and work on the HELP desk. They do not have librarians in technical service functions. Impact on Collections As a community college, Brookdale maintains a current collection of approximately 80,000 volumes. The collection is constantly weeded as new titles are added. Reference collections have been weeded to make room for the information commons, but librarians still consider print subject encyclopedias to be an important for student research. The periodical collection has been reduced from 700 to 430 titles, with 60 of the most popular magazines on display for browsing. They have a large video/dvd collection which was just recently moved to open shelves on the second floor. They ensure security by purchasing two copies of high use items and placing one in a securely locked box. If only one copy is purchased, it is placed in a security box. They have found that this system has worked reasonably well. Reference & Instruction Services The major impact on reference services has been the elimination of the traditional reference desk in favor of the integrated service HELP desk and the decision to hire three learning assistants to help staff this desk. Learning assistants answer the bulk of questions received at the help desk, turning research questions over to librarians as necessary. All Librarians spend 12- 14 hours per week staffing the Help desk. One librarian is on duty at all times, sometimes two during peak hours. Information Literacy & Technological Literacy in the Commons Environment Brookdale puts a heavy emphasis on information literacy with all librarians taking part in the instruction program. With four library classrooms, they can offer a wide variety of instruction sessions, including library instruction tailored for specific classes and drop-in workshops on various topics and databases. Virtual Environment Email reference is provided as well as guides from the library web site. Student Success Centers in Branch Campuses have staff to help students with electronic resources. Assessment Brookdale uses focus groups and frequent short surveys to gain constant feedback from their users. One week each semester, they hand out a survey 4 times a day to gather student feedback about collections and services. On this survey they also ask for suggestions for improvements and comments. In June 2002, they conducted a larger review of its services to students and to faculty as part of its self-review process. Data for this review was collected via student surveys and faculty focus groups. Lessons Learned
Observations Informing Best Practices
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