Located on the edge of the harbour in an outer suburb of Wellington, this library is in a three year old building which also houses a cafe, student learning services, quality development and online learning services. It will soon have a large computer area and student lounge area to be called the Student Centre. This will be run by the polytechnic's IT services. The library is only responsible for providing library services. Unfortunately, or fortunately, you have to walk through a cafe to get to the rest of services, and be very tempted by the aroma of good coffee...yum.
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Hi Jillian,
ReplyDeleteThis one looks really nice.
This came from Dallas last week:
The Directorate (CEO + 4 Directors) has been seeking sources of funding and is keen to move the facilitation of Learning Commons forward. As a result, a consultant will be visiting the 11 Learning Centres to see how best to use available space etc to embed the philosophy in practice. For most this will mean little because you already have the primary infrastructure in place. Once a document has been drafted I will come to you for a chat. This is a tremendous opportunity but it is a competitive national process. The consultant's name is Karen and she will be travelling with Roger Stack or myself. Please make her welcome. Once I know her schedule I will let you know. Her brief is to 'have a look and to come up with possibilities'.
They are coming on Tuesday. Any thing specific you would like to include. We will give them a copy of your blog page.
Debra
Interesting...It will be a huge challenge to really change all our 11 locations to "learning commons." Achieving economies of scale might be possible in 2 or 3 large locations, but to duplicate it across 11 campuses, not to mention the others due to come in to the system in the future, will be very expensive.
ReplyDeleteEffective IT support and involvement will be crucial for it to work, and if library managers/librarians are going to be given extra responsiblities for managing or coordinating other student support services, they will need extra library staff and a higher level of pay.
Also, the focus of any support services to be included in a learning commons should be academic support, ie. help with study skills, referencing, time management and maybe literacy. I am not sure student counselling, disability services and pastoral care are appropriate.