Information Commons
a directory of innovative services and resources in academic libraries

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To the IC community:

In June 2001, I finished a half-year sabbatical by posting this Information Commons directory. Sorry to say I don't have the time to keep up with the proliferation as IC plans have become realities around the world.

I'll leave the site up with a disclaimer that the last update was December 10, 2004.

If someone wants to take over the maintenance of the site, I'll send you the files. Just a warning that the "flat file" structure of the site imposes a great workload on the person(s) doing the updates. It really needs to be redesigned as a database with a browser interface so IC managers could do their own updates online. Had I another sabbatical, I might give it a shot.

David Murray

Planning a new library? Renovating an old one?

Thinking about proposing an Information Commons to your program committee?

Follow the links on the navigation bar to visit the Information Commons concept as it has been implemented at dozens of colleges and universities. Read planning documents and mission statements detailing different approaches to integrating library and computer application services. Many sites have floor plans and images to give you a sense of the variety of physical spaces.

University of Southern California's Leavey Library, one of the earliest ICs, celebrated its tenth anniversary in September, 2004 with "a weeklong slate of activities, with opportunities for friends and donors, faculty and students, and the general public to participate in the festivities." The last two days were devoted to a "an advanced discussion among information commons professionals exchanging lessons learned, best practices, and models of operation." Information Commons: Learning Space Beyond the Classroom has links to all the presenters' .ppt or .pdf files.

Russ Bailey and Barbara Tierney, UNC, Charlotte, have organized three ALA/ACRL workshops on the Information Commons and they are doing it again at the ACRL 12th National Conference, Minneapolis, April 7-10, 2005.

Their web site with links to the previous workshop presentations: http://library.uncc.edu/infocommons/

Where to start? After surveying the existing installations, you will probably want to write a proposal, a program statement, or a concept paper, related to your institution's mission statement and political realities. Here are some of the more insightful:

Brigham Young University's Information Commons Project Team. Project Manager William Baer and his team of librarians, faculty, student service and IT staff toured eight ICs, assessed the needs of BYU students in light of the University mission and recommended three possible configurations: "Blue Sky," "State of the Art," and "Upgrade to a Commons."

"Dalhousie University Information Commons::" Transforming Learning: An Initial Formal Draft of a Concept. June 18, 1999-September 23, 1999.

The University of Arizona and the University of Calgary, two of the largest, most successful ICs, have posted their planning documents as well as useful floor plans and images. These web sites are the next best thing to a field trip.

A recent addition to the literature on innovation in academic libraries, sponsored by the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) and hosted at Dartmouth College, is Collaborative Facilities, "a project designed to collect, organize, and disseminate information about model "collaborative facilities" on college and university campuses... in an effort to assist institutions in planning, implementing, and evaluating these facilities."

CNI has posted a companion web site to its June, 2003 ALA Preconference: Planning Collaborative Spaces in Libraries: An ACRL /CNI Preconference, with presentations by Joan Lippincott, Betsy Wilson, and Barbara Dewey.

updated December 10, 2004