For links to other IC sites go to: Information Commons: a Directory of Innovative Services and Resources in Academic Libraries, a web site maintained by David Murray at Brookdale Community College.

Background

The idea of the Information Commons comes out of the planning Philip Tompkins did for new learning environments at Maricopa County Community College District in Arizona, specifically for the renovation of the existing library at Mesa Community College and for the design of the new campus at Estrella Mountain Community College.

He began with the assumption that the electronic technologies of the Information Age were a natural and positive extension of the print technologies of the Industrial Age. But he also observed: "We have crossed the frontier into the Information Age without the infrastructure to adapt."

What he found was a strictly bounded set of cultures, each focused on its own "product" (print, av, computer) with policies and staffing and budgets to perpetuate that focus. His mission was to break down those barriers to avoid this scenario: "campuses running on two or three tracks - the old and the new cultures claiming legitimacy and vying for ever-diminishing resources."

How does the Information Commons concept address this dilemma? By giving the client the greatest latitude and ease of access through the integration of information resources and computer technology. And by providing a team of support personnel who can respond to any information need: library resources, retrieval strategy, application, navigation, output. It is more than a Library Reference Room, more than an open computer lab, more than either of those two services separately. It is a concept a student might come up with to make learning more fruitful, economic, interesting.

The Information Commons Movement

Thompson's idea caught on around the world. As academic librarians considered new buildings or renovations to accommodate the new technologies, they traveled to Arizona, to Los Angeles, to Iowa City to see the innovations and variations on the new integrated service centers known variously as Information Commons, Information Arcades, or simply "the open lab in the Library." Sometimes these were accompanied by or prompted by an organizational integration of library and computer services. Often the organizational structure grew out of experience.

Information Commons: a Directory of Innovative Services and Resources in Academic Libraries is a website with links to these libraries and is kept current by David Murray at Brookdale Community College.

The Bankier Library

The Information Commons opened in September 1999 as part of the new Library. It is described in the 1997 Program Statement as a marriage of networked resources and the print resources of the Library's Reference Room. A central open area includes nineteen Y-shaped tables with a capacity of 114 desktop computers. The Help Desk staff includes librarians, technicians and support staff to serve the information access needs across all formats. [See Floor Plan: 1st floor, 2nd floor]

What can students do in the Information Commons? Start with the Library Home Page for access to the online catalog and to licensed databases on remote servers, e.g., Infotrac or Ebscohost. Each computer is loaded with the latest versions of Microsoft Office, Eudora, Explorer and Netscape. Curriculum software is loaded at the request of the instructor. Assistance for any of these activities is readily available at the Help Desk.

The Information Commons also includes three teaching rooms with a capacity of 25 networked computers in each. These rooms serve the Information Literacy needs of the curriculum. When they are not booked for use by classes, these rooms are opened to become part of the Commons.

Every individual study carrel and collaborative study room on the 2nd floor of the Library has network access. That's about 200 more access points, for future expansion of desktop technology or for students to bring their own laptops. General network access is available anywhere in the Library.