For immediate release:
October 14, 2008
For more information, contact:
Crit Stuart
Association of Research Libraries
202-296-2296
crit@arl.org
Washington DC—The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released the ARL Learning Space Pre-Programming Tool Kit, by Crit Stuart, ARL Program Director for Research, Teaching, and Learning.
Research libraries have a large and growing commitment to deliver new or improved learning spaces for their primary users. The most-targeted user is the undergraduate student. Information commons and learning commons have become virtual "must haves" for libraries seeking to refresh and deepen their engagements with undergraduate learners. And new constituencies beckon.
While it is tempting to mimic space solutions delivered by other libraries, such appropriation circumvents staff-owned discovery processes that create a deep understanding of what is being built. The best implementations of informal learning spaces are "home grown," reflecting deep understanding of populations being served. And smart pre-programming assessment techniques, with their focus on tapping into user wisdom, learning habits, and research needs, provide a helpful framework for identifying needed solutions.
This tool kit enables library staff—without reliance on outside experts—to conduct pre-programming assessment and customize their learning spaces to fit their local circumstances. The kit includes an overview of the planning process for building a learning commons as well as easy-to-use, one- to two-page guides to implementing a dozen different pre-programming assessment techniques. The techniques have been tested in several libraries and consistently produce excellent data for developing informed building programs.
The techniques covered in the tool kit are:
The tool kit is available for free download from the ARL Web site via http://www.arl.org/rtl/space/.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 123 research libraries in North America. Its mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/.