Santa Clara Univ - Learning Commons

Santa Clara University (SCU) - Santa Clara, CA
http://www.scu.edu/is/lctcl/

3 years ago the doors opened for a new building at Santa Clara University that had 3 academic hubs under one roof:

1. Harrington Learning Commons
2. Sobrato Technology Center
3. Orradre Library

Learning Commons are a somewhat recent trend, and serve as a way to create a 1-stop shop for students looking to study and learn, do homework, and continue their education outside the classroom. Learning Commons typically marry the library with at least one other service: tutoring, career services, computers/technology, etc.

The Learning Commons at SCU, while it does not include tutoring, is a beautiful and powerful facility with excellent resources. They have a website (above), but the best way to get a look at it is by watching the YouTube video posted on the official SCU YouTube channel:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiFZd2--tf8

The student narrator describes the building as "the perfect place to get work done." And this statement does not seem embellished. Everything about the building seems user centered. The Library is a pretty traditional library in terms of service, but with special features like requesting a book from your computer and picking it up from the main desk without having to retrieve it yourself.

The rooms are large with plenty of natural light, and there are lots of seats (1,000), tables, and computers throughout. For students who bring in their own computers, the building has WiFi throughout, and there are ethernet jacks at every station in the Technology Center as well as throughout the building. It is not a shushing library, but they have designated quiet areas, as well as study rooms that can be reserved in advance.

Two very special building features are: 1) It is a green building. It was constructed using recycled materials, has lower energy lighting, and reclaimed water/plumbing. 2) The Cafe. Strong cases have been made for libraries to have cafes, since students bring food and drinks in anyway, and since they presumedly have food and drinks near the books they check out and bring home with them anyway as well.

Perhaps what makes the building most user-centered is the fact that before plans were made and finalized, a survey went out to faculty and staff asking for input into the construction of the building. A Construction blog was kept charting the building's progress from pre-construction until 1 year after it was built, continuing to discuss openly things that were still being developed for the building like better temperature control (http://www.scu.edu/newlibrary/construction/index.cfm). A survey was also issued 1 year after the opening to assess the building's impact on its users, and the results were largely positive (http://www.scu.edu/is/lctcl/survey.cfm).

There are only two significant things I can see that need improvement in the center. One is the incorporation of tutoring services if appropriate. The other is that the website is not fully up to date, nor does it really show off the building as well as it could. The video is good, but it is not linked anywhere on the website.

I am going to try to push for creating a Learning Commons model for our University, even though we are extremely small. I don't think the Learning Commons concept only works with large universities and I think it benefits the students significantly, and certainly makes serving them in these capacities more straight forward.