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Model: Determining Best Practices for Design, Implementation, and Service |
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Information Commons and Learning Commons Site Visits
Overview The University of Southern Maine, made up of three separate campuses -- Portland, Gorham, and Lewiston-Auburn, is the largest and oldest of the seven campuses in the University of Maine System. It offers undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. programs to a combined population of 10,500 students on all three campuses. The library has 23 librarians and a total full-time equivalent staff of 56 working in all three campus libraries. This number also includes instructional technology staff and media services staff. The Library Director is responsible for managing the libraries on the three separate campuses as well as two special collections, instructional technology, and media services. Past experience had taught him the value of having academic support services work together. Aided by a close partnership with the Director of IT User Services and approval from the Provost, USM is taking incremental steps in establishing the Information Commons model on all three its campuses. Without waiting for special fund raising initiatives, they used available existing funds to turn the second floor of the Glickman Library into an Information Commons. This summer they are implementing Phase 2 of their Information Commons Plan at the Gorham Campus by merging the computer lab facilities and the library into one unified Information Commons. The result will be a complete merger of the I.T. and Library staff within the same facility. They have plans to extend this concept to the Lewiston Campus in the future as well. Description of Services and Facilities The library building, originally built in 1911 as a commercial bakery, was purchased by USM in 1993. After being abandoned in the 1980s the structure had fallen into serious disrepair. In the 1990s, USM put on the exterior skin to modernize the building and renovated its first four floors, opening the Glickman Family Library in October 1997. In April 2004 they finished renovating the top three floors, opening up a University Events Room, a Great Reading Room, an Internet Cafe, a Student Computing Lab, a Center for Information Literacy E-classroom and Special Collections. For a complete description of services, collections, and library operations located on each of the seven floors see http://library.usm.maine.edu/about/portland/index.html One enters the building on the ground floor near the Circulation/Reserve Service Desk which is located directly across from the elevators. Stepping out of the elevator on the second floor one enters the Information Commons area. The reference desk has also been moved to a location directly opposite of the elevator. The Desk has higher counters on either end with a large lower level workspace in the middle. The lower level offers an opportunity to provide research consultations at this desk. The reference stacks are placed behind the desk and the information commons stretches out to the side and behind the elevator in a large open and windowed area. In the Commons area, they have used lower reference shelves to keep a more open sight line. There are a variety of computer configurations in the commons area -- a quick look-up kiosk, serpentine configured rows, and counter type tables with computers. Mixed table and carrel seating is plentiful in this area.
A small computer lab is located behind the reference kiosk. This lab has 6 computer workstations and projection capabilities. It is kept open at all times for students to use individually or in small groups. It can also be used as another e-classroom for small seminar style classes or for training purposes. Notice that the computers hang on the back of the monitors, conserving space in this small area.
Two new large offices with space for five Reference/Instruction librarians are located on the outer wall on the other side of the reference desk. The circulation collections are found on the fourth - seventh floors of the library Several other components of the Glickman Library's Information Commons can be found on the fifth floor. On this floor there is an Internet Cafe, four Group Study Rooms, a Media Viewing Room, The Center for Information Literacy e-classroom with 30 computers, a Faculty Development Room, and a Student Computing Area. Comfortable seating along the windows adjacent to the stacks is also found on this floor. The cafe is self-service style and is wired for laptop use.
The sixth floor houses the Library's Special Collections and additional group study rooms. On the seventh floor there is a large room for University Special Events including dinners, lectures, exhibits, receptions, etc. Also on the seventh floor there is a beautiful quiet reading room. Both of these rooms have spectacular views of downtown Portland.
Governance and Strategic Fit Organizationally, the Library and the Information Technology report to opposite sides of the university structure -- the academic and the administrative. The Library Director reports to the Provost and the Director of Information Technology User Services reports to the CIO. However, they have not found this to be a problem when working collaboratively on the Information Commons projects. Although the Information Commons was not part of a larger university wide strategic planning process, the Library Director has worked closely with the provost to align it programmatically with university goals and objectives. Collaboration and Partnerships Throughout the process, the Library Director has worked closely with the Director of Information Technology for User Services. The Director for IT User Services is responsible for the computer help desk, the computer labs on campus and supporting all of the machines in the library. Their partnership/collaboration on the second phase of the Information Commons Project on the Gorham Campus has resulted in a complete merger of the library and computing lab facilities and their staffs. On the Gorham Campus they have invited the Writing Center to move into the Commons area. The Writing Center staff is very enthusiastic about this move since it will give them greater visibility. The Director for Instructional Technology has been a major partner in the Information Literacy conversation and information literacy program planning team member. Staffing and Training They are working to cross-train the staffs at both the Portland and Gorham campuses and alleviate the culture clash that naturally happens when combining staff from library and information technology departments. To date, they have been primarily involved in training library staff about technical issues involving application software, printing, downloading, and blackboard. At the Portland Campus, it was noted that the time line slipped on the Information Commons completion leaving them less time to spend training staff, especially student workers, than they had originally planned. Impact on Collections. In order to accommodate the Info Commons on the second floor they heavily weeded and downsized their government documents collection. The reference collection was also dramatically reduced. Assessment They have not done specific assessment for the Information Commons, but general statistics for the library indicate a marked increase in activity. They have completed LibQual. Lessons Learned
Observations Informing Best Practices
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