[LINK] Library naming (was Apple iPads for Victorian School Students)

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Wed Jun 16 08:44:39 AEST 2010


Ivan Trundle wrote:
> On 11/06/2010, at 9:34 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
> 
>> TAFEs and universities are upgrading their libraries and calling
>> them "Learning Commons" or "Flexible Learning Centres".
> 
> It's amusing (and sad) that the term 'Library' has to be re-invented
> and re-named every ten years or so. ...

The ANU and University of Canberra have sensibly retained the name 
"Library", but then use the new fancy terms for the facilities inside.

A good example of a building for schools is the Lilley Centre at 
Brisbane Grammar School. Its flexible learning and teaching spaces 
appear to be based on the designs in the University of Queensland's 
General Purpose North Four (GPN4) building: 
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2010/06/australian-computer-equipped-school.html>.

> ... 'librarian' was originally a scribe or copyist, back in the days when
> being such a person was to be of very high status. ...

Yes, librarians have been doing more than just stopping people from
stealing the books for a long time.

> 'Flexible Learning Centre' is a perfect collection of waffle words  ...

"Flexible Learning Centre" matches the type of service at the TAFEs
well. These are very flexible and very focused on learning.

> If Libraries are to be renamed 'Learning Commons', what of the
> lecture hall or classroom?

The classrooms can be inside the library. I like the University of
Queensland "Ezones" which have glass walls. When not needed for classes,
the space is open for library users:
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2007/12/ezones-at-university-of-queensland.html>.

There will be little need for specialised lecture halls. The university
might still need some big rooms for talks, but those can be
multi-purpose rooms also sued for functions. For ANU I suggested a 
commercial conferecne centre, which can double as a teaching space:
<http://blog.tomw.net.au/2008/03/hi-tech-conference-training-and.html>.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au





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