In late September, 2005, several people from the University Libraries (Dean Ford, Kay Cunningham, John Evans, Clark Nall, and Betsy Park) went to Georgia to visit the Learning Commons at Georgia Tech, Emory University, and the University of Georgia. Below is a summary of those visits.
Georgia Tech
URL: http://www.lwc.gatech.edu The Library West Commons • part of a library addition; • located in the front of the building; o Print reference collection reduced by 50% and moved to second floor o Heavy reliance on electronic resources • 24 hour area which can be isolated after regular library hours; • desk staffed by people from the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the Library. o 9:00am to 8:00 pm by OIT and reference librarians o 8:00pm to midnight from OIT o midnight to 8:00am by Information Associates I, II, & III (classified staff with high levels of technical and reference ability and specialized training in both.) • all the technical support provided by OIT • general productivity area has 70 Dells & 10 Macs o one to two seats per machine group work occurs mainly at night • Multimedia Center o staffed by OIT and 1-3 student workers. o students do a lot of technical teaching, typically hands-on o not open 24 hours • Rehearsal room that students can reserve to practice presentations.
Map of Georgia Tech 1st floor
Computers in Library West Commons, Georgia Tech
Emory University
URL: http://infocommons.emory.edu/ • • • • One of the oldest Information Commons, opening in 1988. The entire library is the Information Commons o computers on all four levels, interspersed with print, microforms, etc. approximately 150 stations, many with dual monitors and scanners. Information Commons Coordinator is a member of the Reference department faculty
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o 22 Information Commons students o proficient with technology and trained to answer basic reference questions. Service desks on three levels o 8:00am-8:00pm staffed by reference staff and students o 8:00pm-10:00 staffed by students o 10:0pm-8:00 am no staff only library security guards.
Computer workstations, Emory
University of Georgia, Student Learning Center
URL: http://www.slc.uga.edu/ Student Learning Center (SLC) • Opened Aug. 18, 2003. • Partnership between the Libraries, Computing Center and Instructional Design. • Mixture of general education classrooms, an electronic teaching library and computing functions. • 26 classrooms, with 24 to 280 seats; • 500 workstations (includes labs which are opened up when not in use), • 96 group study rooms. • Quiet reading room with 100 seats. • Coffee house • Staffing o IT and librarians 7:30 am-10:00pm o IT 10:00pm-midnight o security guard midnight to 2:00am
Computers at UGA
Group Study Rooms at UGA
UGA reading room