The link is as follows: http://www.educause.edu/LearningSpaces

Strategic Partnerships: The question of future funding from the state for community colleges is a cause for great concern; “it’s not whether the cut from the state will or won’t take place, it’s how deep will it be and how will we deal with it.” How then will community colleges meet the needs of a growing student body with shrinking state dollars?

With state funding in doubt and pressure to keep tuition costs competitive, partnerships with private industry within the community along with philanthropic support is seen as the way of the future. 

At the White House Community College Summit, held on October 5, 2010, private corporations were strongly encouraged to partner with community colleges with the goal of graduating an additional 5,000,000 people to enter the workforce by 2020. That same day, a $35,000,000 grant by the Gates Foundation, targeting Ohio as one of the nine states, to improve the graduation rate at community colleges was established.

Changing Perception: Community colleges have long been in the shadow of their 4 year counterparts. In President Obama’s words, expressed during a speech at the October, 2010 White House Summit on Community Colleges, “they are the unsung heroes of our American education system.” There is a tremendous opportunity in this pivotal time in the history of these colleges to change their perception from being a lesser educational experience to being the college of choice and a first step in a high quality education. Community colleges are literally reinventing themselves by developing higher caliber, student-focused service capabilities. They are expanding their reach as a result of growing their distance learning programs, and offering stronger, transferrable, and more varied curricula. 

How can we as designers make a difference at community colleges? I believe that the answer lies in listening to and collaborating with students, faculty, and administrators to create flexible, high quality learning environments that can impact student behaviors in a positive and meaningful way. Creating spaces that promote academic excellence, that reinforce the student-focused mission and values of these colleges, and that provide a forum for a rich educational, social and cultural experience, are just some of the strategies that we can employ to support the change in perception. By altering perceptions, community colleges are moving away from the “13^th Grade” and toward their becoming the college of choice among future students…

“One may think of the diagram as the five fingers of the extending hand of the library. Central (middle finger) are the Collections; or, more broadly, the information resources; the fingers of Discovery, Access, Service, and Preservation add value to resources and enable their use.

The base (upper ends) of the fingers describes traditional library activities and roles that will continue, to differing degrees, into the foreseeable future. The extending tips of the fingers highlight evolving and future directions. Technology fuels this movement, raises expectations, introduces challenge, and enables change.

The center of the diagram is the institution of the library, which is evolving from a sole source of responsibility of discovery, access, collections, services and preservation to a shared source of stewardship, playing both a leadership and a collaborative role with other intellectual partners at the table. In the context of the hand metaphor, it is the mix of choices and directions that we hold in the palm of our hand. Choices are acted upon to different degrees according to character of institution and point in time.”

This diagram may be of value to library leaders in the context of strategic planning, budget building, library programming, space configuration, staff planning, performance expectations, etc.

Thinking about designing spaces for the “Millennials” (and the generation after them) begins with trying to understand their behaviors and what motivates them, how they learn, their likes as well as their dislikes. The second half of this generation (post 1995) was the first born after the widespread use of the internet. They are hopeful, collaborative, polite, determined and goal oriented. They are multi-taskers, active and inquisitive and are up to meeting new challenges…all while seeking to keep a healthy balance between work and family. Check out this link to “Speaking Their Language: Boomers, Xers, & Millennials” to learn more.

Our challenge as architects is when thinking about designing for the student of the future we need to create spaces that will foster collaborative learning, will adapt to constantly evolving technologies, and will prepare this new generation for the challenges in life after college. More to come…

One reason for this phenomenon is that today’s college students have heightened expectations and demands for academic libraries based on new approaches to learning. While the Internet can provide 24/7 access to information, it can also isolate learners. In contrast, the new academic library model provides a forum for students to collaborate, enjoy fellowship, engage in healthy debate, create and challenge ideas, and experience learning and discovery in a multitude of meaningful ways. The following 12 trends define how the library has evolved to maintain its essential position within the academic landscape.

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