University Commons: a Case Study One Year After Opening

I attended this session, presented by Karen Keiller, UNB-SJ. The presenter talked about her experiences with the university’s new Hans W. Klohn Commons. The building opened in September 2011 after one year of construction and several years of planning, with a cost of $25 million. The Commons includes study space (tables, carrels, and study rooms), a collaborative classroom, writing centre and math/science help centre, technical support, computers, stacks, open stack compact shelving in the basement, a glassed-in reading room and a café. She reported that the space is very open, with lots of windows and glass walls allowing for natural light, and very well-used by students. They recently changed their hours to accommodate the students from the MBA program who never used the old library, but who now frequent the Commons.

The building has more seating than the old library, but fewer stacks; she advised participants thinking about establishing a similar commons to think seriously about the amount of stack space which will be needed. She has found that they could have used less than they planned for; in fact, due to a last minute error with the shelving provided for the reference section, she had to cut the section down by a third. Those materials were left in storage and have not been needed since. She emphasized that the commons is “about bodies, not about books.”

She also spoke about the need for quiet. The building’s open design and the number of students using it lead to occasional problems with noise. There is a glassed-in reading room, but seating is limited. She advised that planners take into account the need for space for quiet work, as well as for group work.

She also spoke about the need to plan ahead for power requirements; changes in building plans led to a lack of plugs, or plugs located too far from desks/carrels. She mentioned, as well, a lack of control regarding construction and infrastructure elements: problems in having furniture moved from the old building to the new, delays in getting equipment into the collaborative classroom, even such mundane tasks as having bulletin boards installed. She also added that, before making a change, planners should get baseline measurements of factors such as noise levels, gate counts, etc., to compare new and old spaces.

She discussed the idea of the differences between the traditional library and the learning commons, and said that, as yet, the change in the building has not had a great effect on the services they provide, aside from doing more retrieval of materials in storage. Writing Centre and Math/Science Centre staff are included in various discussions and meetings. She said that one goal of the learning commons is to transform learning on the campus. As they have not yet been open for a year, and all of the equipment is not yet in place, they have not been able to gauge fully the effects of the Commons on learning, but that the students have responded to the openness and inspiring spaces in the new building.