Maurice York
Head of Information Technology
North Carolina State University

Realizing the vision required converging physical and virtual spaces. Unlike library spaces that support undergraduate study, research-focused physical spaces require complementary virtual spaces. Thus, infrastructure is a core enabler. The building’s data center design, IP and AV fiber networks, HPC and high-performance storage (integrated with campus infrastructure), are all designed to support extensible use of spaces and to minimize operational staff support. As the most technologically advanced building on campus, Hunt has quickly become the test bed for new technologies on campus. As the physical infrastructure settles into operation, new service areas are emerging. A core service offering will be “project cloud” space, which will enable students and researchers to easily “check out” computing power and transfer large projects in and out of the library’s environment. Technology staff have been retrained and redeployed to support the new capabilities, and an academic technologist added to consult with researchers and match their needs with the building’s capabilities. Since all library services must be scalable, technology staff effort is focused on identifying good pilot projects that can serve as prototypes to be converted into templates for future projects.

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/huntlibrary
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/12/18/2553438/ncsus-hyper-modern-new-james-b.html

Presentation Slides (PDF)

Teresa Walker
Head Integrated User Services, Library
University of Tennessee

Martha Kyrillidou
Senior Director
Association of Research Libraries

Mary Ellen K. Davis
Executive Director
Association of College and Research Libraries

Kara J. Malenfant
Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives
Association of College and Research Libraries

How Libraries Contribute to Student Success: Findings from LibValue
(Fleming-May, Kyrillidou, Walker)

What do we know about the ways libraries contribute to student success? The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) LibValue grant is a three-year effort testing different methodologies articulating the value of the library and return on investment. One of the areas of investigation is the contribution of the library to student success. This session will highlight two areas that relate to student success: the physical space of the library and teaching/learning environmental interventions. The results of two perspectives will be discussed, one from the commons surveys and the second from the surveys of instructors and students. Both perspectives highlight the importance of a positive environment that inspires studying and the articulation by students of positive outcomes.

Presentation (Walker)

Assessment in Action: ACRL’s Newest IMLS Grant-Funded Project (Davis, Malenfant)

The Association of College and Research Library’s (ACRL) Value of Academic Libraries initiative has ambitious plans for the next few years. This briefing will provide an overview of the new Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)-funded project “Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success” (AiA). The grant funding will support ACRL, in partnership with the Association for Institutional Research and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and build on their IMLS 2011 Collaborative Planning Grant, which convened two invitational summits. In the first year of this three-year project, 75 campus-wide teams from all types of institutions will be selected to develop and implement action-learning projects that examine the impact of the library on student success. Each participating institution will identify a team consisting of a librarian and at least two additional team members as determined by the campus. The librarian team leaders will participate in a one-year professional development program that includes team-based activities carried out on their campuses. A blended learning environment and peer-to-peer network will support the librarian team leaders. As part of AiA, they will document and share their work so that others in the wider academic library and higher education communities can benefit.

http://libvalue.cci.utk.edu/
http://www.ala.org/acrl/AiA
Presentation (Malenfant)

February 28, 2012

In this podcast, CNI Director Clifford Lynch & Associate Director Joan Lippincott report on various recent conferences & reports:

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2012 meeting
• Annual Personal Digital Archiving 2012 meeting
• EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) Conference
• New Media Consortium’s Horizon Report (http://www.nmc.org/)
• Designing Libraries for the 21st Century, conference planned at U. Calgary (see also U. Calgary Taylor Family Digital Library talk at CNI meeting http://youtu.be/F42t64f2VZQ)
• Chris Dede project EcoMobile
  http://ecomobile.gse.harvard.edu/
• SCARLET
  http://mimas.ac.uk/news/2011/08/scarlet/

We hope you enjoy this program and we welcome your feedback.  For questions or comments related to CNI Conversations, please contact CNI Associate Executive Director Joan Lippincott at joan@cni.org.

Malcolm Brown
Director, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI)
EDUCAUSE

Jeanne L. Narum
Principal
Learning Spaces Collaboratory

Sept. 6, 2011

In this report, CNI director Clifford Lynch discusses some of his summer reading:

• Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information by Manuel Lima
• Cartographies of Time: A History of the Timeline by Anthony Grafton
• A new CLIR report, Rome Wasn’t Digitized in a Day: Building a Cyberinfrastructure for Digital Classics, available at http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub150abst.html

Cliff also describes a range of issues related to research data management that were discussed at several summer meetings and conferences.

Joan Lippincott, CNI’s associate director, talks about digital scholarship centers, with an emphasis on services for graduate students.

We hope you enjoy this program and we welcome your feedback.  For questions or comments related to CNI Conversations, please contact CNI Associate Executive Director Joan Lippincott at joan@cni.org.

Listen to the June 1 CNI Conversations: http://wp.me/pGewu-44

CNI Conversations is available at http://conversations.cni.org/ (to subscribe to the audio feed add http://conversations.cni.org/feed to iTunes, or any podcatcher).  We hope you enjoy this program and we welcome your feedback.  For questions or comments related to CNI Conversations, please contact CNI Associate Executive Director Joan Lippincott at joan@cni.org.

Columbia University Libraries is building three Information Commons facilities, focusing on the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Called “Digital Centers,” these facilities will provide support for research and learning in the sciences and humanities in high-end, collaborative, technology-rich environments. The Digital Social Science Center was completed in January 2009, the Digital Science Center was completed in January 2011, and the Digital Humanities Center is slated for completion in Fall 2011. This project briefing will provide an overview of the Digital Center effort, including the assessment, planning, implementation and iterative approach in building the centers, along with lessons learned to date.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/dssc
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/dsc

Presentation (PDF)

Steven R. Fleagle
Chief Information Officer
University of Iowa

John Maclachlan
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in New Media
McMaster University

“Transform, Interact, Learn, Engage (TILE): Innovative and Collaborative Learning in High-Tech Classrooms at the University of Iowa”
(Fleagle, Soderdahl)
The University of Iowa has rapidly transformed several classrooms into engaging, active learning spaces, and it has shifted the curriculum of 56 faculty members since the fall of 2009. Students are engaged in their learning as instructors move from the traditional role of “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side.” The rooms have been branded TILE to signify four basic principles: Transform, Interact, Learn, Engage. This session will include discussion of some of the challenges faced during this project, with particular attention to the use of active learning spaces in arts and humanities, and planned next steps including current assessment projects.

Handout (PDF)

“Uses of the Lyons New Media Center in Mills Library, McMaster University” (Maclachlan)
McMaster University’s Lyons New Media Center (LNMC) opened in Mills Memorial Library in September 2010, incorporating a help desk to assist with questions concerning new media (including software), video and audio editing workstations, a consultation space, a gaming theatre, and numerous additional features and benefits, including pedagogical. Numerous classes from across campus use the LNMC as both a permanent and occasional classroom and even more have created assignments to take advantage of the space and the expertise associated with it. This presentation will discuss how courses have effectively used the new Center, and will feature examples of student projects that have been created using LNMC resources.

Presentation

http://its.uiowa.edu/instruction/tile/
http://library.mcmaster.ca/lyons

Susan Malisch
Chief Information Officer & Vice President for Information Technology Services
Loyola University Chicago

In January 2008, Loyola University Chicago opened a state-of-the-art information commons (IC) operated by the University Libraries and Information Technology Services (ITS). The award-winning building has become the center of campus intellectual life, a technology hub, and a gathering place for Loyola students and faculty. The success of the project has been due in large part to the Library-ITS partnership which has stressed close cooperation and communication from the initial planning through implementation to day-to-day operations. There have been challenges along the way but these have been met by managers and front-line staff working together. The briefing will describe the management of the IC, lessons learned, changes made, and future directions in an effort to help others who are plannning an IC or similar service.

Joan K. Lippincott
Associate Executive Director
Coalition for Networked Information

Anu Vedantham
Director, Weigle Information Commons
University of Pennsylvania

When libraries renovate spaces and develop learning or information commons, they often provide collaborative workspaces for students, a variety of hardware and software for content creation, and services that may incorporate library reference, help with information technology, and student services such as writing assistance. The investments made in the renovations and in the array of equipment and services offered are high, and yet libraries often have unclear notions of what the commons has achieved. How are some libraries conceptualizing their informal and formal assessments of the success of their learning or information commons? This session will include discussion of two different approaches to this challenge:

The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Norlin Commons opened in 2009. The Commons is a technology-enhanced, flexible, and holistic space offering a variety of learning environments including individual study, collaboration stations, classroom, and group study rooms. Open on a 24/5 basis during the academic year, the Commons is home to the Laughing Goat Norlin café, Bugbusters IT services, and the Writing Center. Culshaw will describe why they believe the Commons has been a resounding success in its first year of operation.

The Weigle Information Commons at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries opened in 2006 and is a crowded, exciting crossroads on campus. Focused on undergraduates, the Commons brings together three program partners for academic support in reading, writing, academic planning, research, public speaking and technology. Facilities include self-service video-recording rooms, Data Diner booths, a full-service media lab and a high-tech teaching space. Vedantham will describe how the Commons works closely with faculty and students in several academic disciplines to support new media class projects including videos, posters, comic books and Web sites, and provides extensive training and professional networking opportunities.

The presenters will invite input and ideas from attendees.

http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/norlincommons/index.htm

http://wic.library.upenn.edu/

Handout (PDF)

PowerPoint Presentation (Culshaw)

PowerPoint Presentation (Lippincott)

PowerPoint Presentation (Vedantham)