You have to hand it to the folks at LSU. Even after Katrina, they forged ahead with an impressive (both in terms of scale and services offered) computing space buildout, taking advantage of a new coffeeshop and some other underutilized space on campus to create an excellent hybrid technology environment. Loosely themed as a “collaborative environment where library and IT resources blend,” the Information Commons at LSU takes what are now mostly separate concepts at Chico — computer labs, library reference area, computerized group study rooms, tech-centered “soft area” seating, adpative spaces, and assistive technology — and does a pretty good facilities-style mashup.
The presentation focused on much of the nitty-gritty organizational collaboration that the project required. Integrating the coffeeshop and providing vending machines (for things like — and this really cool — USB keys and CDs) took developing a brand new working relationship with the auxillary organizations that control those areas. Standardizing on assistive technologies and campus-wide lab equipment meant getting buy in from academic departments, the disabled student support areas, and the copier/printer services area. They also secured $420,000 in funding from the Student Technology Fee committe — and, if I understood the presentation correctly, this is a yearly investment.
While the political hoops the IT group at LSU had to jump through to make this happen were impressive, the real meat of the presentation was the overview of just what this space actually is.
As stated in the presentation to the Student Technology fee committee, the info commons space would contain:- Adaptive Technology
- Library Reference
- Multimedia Development Studio
- Personal & Collaborative Workspaces
- Social / Mobility
- Copy/Print Areas
- I.T. Enablement (this is LSU’s term for helpdesk)
The group study (“NetStudy”) rooms in Chico’s library are severely impacted this time of year — I just checked my email and there were 17 reservation confirmations in the past hour. I am also seeing a growing number of “adaptive” NetStudy-type areas all over the library where there is a table and wireless access.
The number of courses that require some multimedia production feels like it is way up, as does the number of students who elect to use multimedia in a course to complete some project.
I also really like the idea of putting the library reference support area in the same area as the technology helpdesk. Our current setup has the reference folks on the second floor and the tech helpdesk on the first, so there tends to be an “out of site, out of mind” mentality in both areas until something comes up at one desk that requires the attention of the other. I would love for my students to be able to walk a student with research/reference questions across the room to the reference desk and do a “warm hand-off” instead of pointing them to the stairs and saying “go up”.
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