- Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE)
- AUDE promotes excellence in the strategic planning, management, operation and development of Higher Education estates and facilities.
Designing the academic library and learning centre
Academic and college libraries are taking radical new approaches in their response to changing patterns of usage and service delivery.
Websites
- Learning Spaces
- Access the home page and link to the searchable database.
- Learning space attributes: reflections on academic library design and its use
- The continuing preferences of students for library space is examined in the light of a hierarchy of needs made up of layers of access and linkages, of uses and activities, of sociability, comfort and image. A space which combines attributes from all four levels is an ideal learning space.
- Libraries of the Future
- The Libraries of the Future project was established to help those running academic libraries to plan for the future. The scenarios were developed by the Academic Libraries of the Future (LotF) project which ran from September 2009 - November 2011. The project was sponsored by the British Library, JISC, the Research Information Network (RIN), Research Libraries UK (RLUK) and the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL).
- Library User Experience Community
- Practical design thinking for libraries. Blog dedicated to user experience, with a focus on academic libraries.
Articles, reports, toolkits
- Challenges for academic libraries in difficult economic times
- A guide for senior institutional managers and policy makers, published in 2010 by Research Information Network in association with SCONUL, focusing on strategies to deliver value in the context of continuing budgetary constraints.
- Changing a cultural icon: the academic library as a virtual destination
- An intelligent and insightful analysis of the impact of digital technology on the previous supremacy of the library as a source of information, written in 2006 by Jerry D Campbell, Chief Information Officer, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
- A changing space: a case study of the Research Hub at University of Leeds Library
- A case study published in SCONUL Focus, Issue 69, 2017.
- Collecting Space Use Data to Improve the UX of Library Space
- An article examining projects at two US academic libraries where space use data was collected several times a day to track and help improve user experience.
- The future of libraries
- A designer's perspective on the 'third generation' academic library in the USA - a space for 'learning to learn'. December 2016.
- Higher education and public libraries: partnerships research
- November 2018. A report for Arts Council England prepared by Katie Pekacar
- Learning space attributes: reflections on academic library design and its use
- The continuing preferences of students for library space is examined in the light of a hierarchy of needs made up of layers of access and linkages, of uses and activities, of sociability, comfort and image. A space which combines attributes from all four levels is an ideal learning space.
- Learning space toolkit
- A resource for designing and sustaining technology-rich informal learning spaces.
- The library as place: rethinking roles, rethinking space
- A 2005 report produced by the Council on Library and Information Resources as a series of essays including: 'Changes in learning patterns, collections, technology and use' and 'Space designed for lifelong learning'.
- Library study space design: Intentional, inclusive, flexible
- 'While the libraries offer a wide variety of services to our patrons, one of the biggest and trickiest areas to get right is the design of our physical spaces.' Literature search and recommendations from Duke University Libraries, 2021.
- The natural enemy of the librarian
- The curious history of the abiding tension between practical design and aesthetics, between librarians and architects. An article by Marvin J Taylor.
- NMC horizon report 2014
- The report describes findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry worldwide. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving library leaders and staff a valuable guide for strategic technology planning, particularly in academic and research libraries.
- Off-the-shelf solutions
- Times Higher Education article on redesigning the university library in response to an increasing focus on electronic and online resources, and the effect of this trend on learning spaces, with many examples from university libraries across the country.
- The UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit
- A toolkit designed to share best practice when creating learning spaces. UCISA, 2016.
Books
- Creating a learning commons: a practical guide for librarians
- A research-based guidance for academic librarians and other professionals charged with creating a learning commons. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
- Design for the changing educational landscape: space, place and the future of learning
- This book looks at all the forces driving the provision and pedagogic performance of the many spaces, real and virtual, that now accommodate the experience of learning and provide pointers towards the creation and design of learning-centred communities in schools, HE and FE, businesses and cultural spaces. Routledge, 2013.
- Redesigning the college library, 2018 edition
- This report published by Primary Research looks closely at the capital spending plans and building renovation/construction policies of academic libraries, predominantly in the USA and Canada. The study covers capital spending and space allocation plans with highly detailed data on recent library spending and future plans for the construction or renovation of library cafes, seating space, lighting, atriums, classroom space, information commons and other technology-oriented spaces and more.
- Universal design
- A practical guide to creating and re-creating interiors of academic libraries for teaching, learning, and research. Chandos, Oxford, 2012.
- University libraries and digital learning environments
- Ashgate, 2011. The digital environment offers opportunities and challenges for librarians in all aspects of their work - in information literacy, virtual reference, institutional repositories, e-learning, managing digital resources and social media.
See also
- Technology and digital services
- A guide to resources on the impact of technology in libraries, with particular focus on developing digital library services.