Session Number
3
Keywords
Library space, research support, innovation and technologies, organizational alignments
Description
Research libraries in U.S. have continued looking for new ways to use library spaces to support the needs of learning, teaching, and research, with rapidly changing information technologies and high expectations for dynamic learning environment. Students and faculty look for research libraries to enable their collaboration, innovation, and explorations. The enhanced library space often features contemporary architectural and aesthetical design, at convenient locations, with concept of facilitating formal and informal learning, easy access to collections, technologies, supporting services, and flexible furniture arrangements to support a variety of learning activities. Since early spring 2020, library personnel at Auburn University in the United States, as with library colleagues around the world, have witnessed the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19. Through this period, the Libraries also re-examined the organizational structures, staffing mobilities, and the use of library space to meet users’ expectations. In this paper, the author will share experiences in re-imagining learning space and providing technology-enhanced services to fulfill the mission of research libraries and their parent institutions.
Included in
Re-imagine the Spaces at Research Libraries during the Most Challenging Times
Research libraries in U.S. have continued looking for new ways to use library spaces to support the needs of learning, teaching, and research, with rapidly changing information technologies and high expectations for dynamic learning environment. Students and faculty look for research libraries to enable their collaboration, innovation, and explorations. The enhanced library space often features contemporary architectural and aesthetical design, at convenient locations, with concept of facilitating formal and informal learning, easy access to collections, technologies, supporting services, and flexible furniture arrangements to support a variety of learning activities. Since early spring 2020, library personnel at Auburn University in the United States, as with library colleagues around the world, have witnessed the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19. Through this period, the Libraries also re-examined the organizational structures, staffing mobilities, and the use of library space to meet users’ expectations. In this paper, the author will share experiences in re-imagining learning space and providing technology-enhanced services to fulfill the mission of research libraries and their parent institutions.