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What is the Learning Commons Service Model in North America?

Presentation by Barbara Tierney for the Japan Association of National University Libraries (JANUL) Symposium, University of Tokyo, January 29, 2016

Part Two

  • The emergence of the internet & the world wide web as vehicles for delivering scholarly information has altered the way people use the library
  • In order for academic libraries to thrive in the 21st Century they must reshape their spaces, services and resources in support of technology
  • Libraries now are becoming defined by their services and programs, instead of simply by their collections
  • While traditional libraries have collections at the core of their existence & are used for knowledge seeking by individual researchers….LCs have student services at the core of their existence & are used for knowledge creation by students collaborating with each other
  • Today’s Millennial students take courses that often are team-based and oriented to problem solving.  Their coursework often involves the creation of knowledge objects such as multimedia presentations, design projects, lab data interpretations, and power-point presentations.
  • LC staff help students complete a series of tasks…..from identifying, locating and evaluating information resources to creating multimedia end products 
  • LC staff teach Millennial students Information Literacy skills