Nearly ten years ago, George Mason University opened an undergraduate
student center, which did include a large undergraduate library, but
which also was wired for collaboration and communication, with lots of
tables and desks ready for laptops, first-come, first-served small
meetings rooms, etc, all on top of a mall-like food court. Same
conditions applied as Gavin mentions below - no silence rules, food and
drink permissible everywhere, books freely accessible.
Now it is, for an educator, quite a thrilling place to walk through -
individual students are eating lunch or dinner and studying, groups of
students collaborate around a laptop, others are conducting meetings in
the small rooms, etc. There's real energy there, and visible work
happening, especially as the whole building is now wireless accessible.
But I'm not sure how well it would work without the books and the library
references library and reference desk and media collections. Part of the
dynamism of the building seems to be the fluidity it offers - to move
from lunch to library books to online resources and back and around again.
Lesley
On Thu, 25 Aug 2005, Gavin
Stewart wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I just picked up this story from Grand Text Auto at
> http://grandtextauto.gatech.edu/2005/08/24/last-books-evicted-from-ut-un
> dergrad-library/ & CBS
> http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/23/tech/main791462.shtml and I
> thought it might be of interest to the educators amongst us.
>
> CBS note -" When students wander into the former undergraduate library
> at the University of Texas this fall, gone will be the "Quiet Please"
> signs, the ban on cheeseburgers or sodas, the sight of solemn librarians
> restocking books.
>
> The fact is, there will be no more books to restock. The UT library is
> undergoing a radical change, becoming more of a social gathering place
> more akin to a coffeehouse than a dusty, whisper-filled hall of records.
> And to make that happen, the undergraduate collection of books had to
> go"
>
> It would be easy, I think, to spin this story as a 'death of books'
> tale. Books moved out of the library to make way for computers and bean
> bags etc. However, it is important to note that the books are not being
> burned or used for loo roll as they are being moved elsewhere.
>
> Similarly, it would easy to argue the counter-argument that this move
> does not represent much of a change and it is all business as usual in
> higher ed and the library.
>
> My take on this move is it symbolises the diversification of media and
> modes of discourses being used in higher education (which is a good
> thing by and large). Furthermore, it reflects the realisation that study
> has a social and collaborative quality that was not reflected in the
> design of the old 'shush' style library spaces (which touches on this
> month's discussion topic I think).
>
> Should be embrace this kind of change? Be more cautious about changing
> libraries?
>
> I wonder whether other institutions are following are following a
> similar strategy ...but are not being quite as blatant about it!
>
> I welcome your thoughts!
>
> G
>
> **********
>
> To alter your subscription settings, log on to Subscriber's Corner at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/writing-and-the-digital-life.html
>
> To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with a blank subject line and the following text in the body of the message: SIGNOFF WRITING-AND-THE-DIGITAL-LIFE
>
**********
To alter your subscription settings, log on to Subscriber's Corner at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/writing-and-the-digital-life.html
To unsubscribe, email [log in to unmask] with a blank subject line and the following text in the body of the message: SIGNOFF WRITING-AND-THE-DIGITAL-LIFE
|