Creating the Learning Commons
Course
Developing the Learning Commons Mindset [7:11]
The second step to transforming your library into a learning commons is to have a "mindset shift." We can't simply transform our space by adding computers or adding a collaborative workspace.
Libraries have been the same for nearly 3000 years. We were all about preserving and protecting materials and providing access. But our big job was taking care of those materials. Making sure that they were used carefully and that they came back. And then in the late 1990s the internet happened. So we responded by adding computers into our space which was the right thing to do. Sometimes we were the only place in the school with access to the internet in those early days.
And then in the early 2000s, this other thing happened. The internet starts to grow exponentially. I just read some great statistics from Cisco, like knowledge doubles every 12 months. Or it took humans 25,000 years to generate one exabyte of data and now we generate that every two days. Now Wi-Fi has become ubiquitous and we have devices with internet access available in our pockets, in our classrooms, and in our homes. And information we can find on the internet is sometimes better than what we have in our library. It's certainly more current or it's nearly identical. Take eBooks for example. They are nearly identical in print and online. And now the library and the web intersect and provide multiple ways to get the same information.
So why do I need a library now, if I have this device in my pocket, with more, better, certainly more current information than is available in my school library. My device is interactive, I can read books, do research, type a paper, ask questions of experts, I can still chat with my friends. All of the things that traditional library provided for me, but I can do these things on my phone now, while in my classroom, on the playground. I could be sitting at Starbucks or in my bedroom. So this is where we need to shift our mindset.
This is a quote from the fabulous Joyce Valenza: "We need to stop being the grocery store and become the kitchen. We should emphasize hospitality, comfort convenience and create work environments that invite exploration and creativity." How wonderful is that? Don't you want that, out of your library or your Learning Commons? Were no longer the place that protects and preserves information and gives it out through strange processes with unwelcoming rules. We're now the place where our users create. They create new knowledge, they create projects, they write papers, they make videos, they draw posters. All of these things from start to finish, in our space.
We also need to shift the way we think about our students too. Our students are no longer consumers in our libraries. They are creators in our Learning Commons. I like to describe the mindset shift like this: a traditional library is an archive of books, tools, and resources. And the Learning Commons is a lab for creating. I use the MIT Media Lab as inspiration for my Learning Commons now. I also love to look at pictures of Google's workspace. You can see the real work gets done in that space. They have easy access technology, collaborative rooms, independent workstations, with mobile furniture, so their employees can customize the space as needed. The Learning Commons mindset is this: creating that flexible customizable space that anyone can change. We don't buy furniture that doesn't have wheels anymore.
And now that we have these customizable spaces, we also need to have flexible and adaptable policies that focus on our users. Here are two of my favorite quotes about circulation policies that I've heard at conferences in the past couple of years. Here's the first one: "If you're not losing 10% of your collection to theft, you're buying the wrong books." What? That's crazy. I know it's kind of inflammatory, isn't it? If you're not losing 10% of your collection to theft, you're buying the wrong books because people don't want to steal them bad enough? I love that idea. But here's another one: "It's not about getting books back, it's about getting readers back." Now that something you can sink your teeth into.
So let's all step back and take a look at our policies and make sure they're about getting readers back, not getting books back.
A Learning Commons does not use things like newspaper polls or hard plastic magazine covers, these are weird things librarians do to preserve and protect some of our least expensive library materials. Nobody wants to read a newspaper on a pole or a magazine in a plastic cover, where you can't even see the title. These are expensive, they take a lot of time, and they make our users feel like we don't trust them.
Speaking of trust. Security gates are definitely not user centered and they don't belong in our Learning Commons. Students think their metal detectors are overdo detectors or they treat them like jokes and try to slip books into their friends' backpacks to see the reaction from the library staff. They're expensive too. Companies will donate them to a library, but you have to pay a yearly maintenance fee and buy and install all the security strips in your books. Remember the quote, "It's not about getting books back." It's also not about losing books, it's about the possibility of losing readers because they don't feel trusted.
So imagine once again, what it's like to walk into your Learning Commons for the very first time. Can students customize the space? Can they change it for different needs? Do your students feel more like consumers or creators in your space? As long as you've shifted your perspective on why we need a library now, your users will shift theirs too. It may take time but if you shift your thinking, their thinking will shift too.
Establishing a mindset for the philosophy of the learning commons is an important step, as the implementation of user-centered programs and spaces draws from this foundation. To explore the kind of thinking that guides a learning commons approach, Pam Harland offers the following quotations in Lesson 2:
"We need to stop being the grocery store and become the kitchen. We should emphasize hospitality, comfort, and convenience and create work environments that invite exploration and creativity." (Joyce Valenza)
"If you're not losing 10% of your collection to theft, you're buying the wrong books." (unattributed)
"It's not about getting books back, it's about getting readers back." (unattributed)
Select one of these three quotes, and do a "quick write" to explore your response. You might write about the following prompts or follow new directions of thinking. Do you agree with this idea? Why, or why not? What questions does this idea invoke? What might a stakeholder in your school (principal, teacher, student) say to this statement—and what might be your response?
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Creating the Learning Commons: Quick Write on Thought-Provoking Statements." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1987399?learningModuleId=1987406&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2122726
Additional Resources
About the Author
MLA Citation
Harland, Pam. "Creating the Learning Commons. Developing the Learning Commons Mindset [7:11]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1987399?learningModuleId=1987406&topicCenterId=2247903.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1987399?learningModuleId=1987406&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 1987399