Ms Catherine Quinlan, University Librarian of The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at University of British Columbia (UBC) gave a talk on 24 May 2006. The talk was held at NUS Central Library and well attended by over 40 people.
She suggested that we re-think how library space is used and not just as a place to store and access physical collections. She viewed the library as a symbol of learning which also acts as a neutral place for discussion and debate in addition to interaction with resource managers and reference librarians. She also viewed the library as a virtual place, providing information services and access to electronic collections, which was still an important concept in the digital environment.
These ideas drove the design for the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre which would be a place that integrated activities like information, technology, academic, research, learning, and teaching from academic units and student services. It aimed to support personal, interactive and collaborative learning activities and a wide range of learning styles. It would also provide access to physical and digital resources at and beyond the library and serve as the gateway to global learning spaces and resources for the university community and the community in British Columbia (BC).
The new library is a 250,000 square foot facility with an Automated Storage and Retrieval System for its 1.8M items. It contains an auditorium, classrooms, learning commons, media lab & digitization facilities and a community concourse. It has ‘Learning Zones’ that connect library resources with teaching/academic spaces with space to showcase innovations by the community.
It was very enlightening to hear about the development of her library from information commons to learning commons. It was also heartening to hear that her library was able to get funding to open up its resources to serve the community and to increase the role that the library plays in the community.
Sara Pek from NLB had the opportunity to visit the Learning Centre and you can read her account. For more information and graphics on the library, see http://www.ikebarberlearningcentre.ubc.ca/.
Contributed by Yeo Pin Pin