A Learning Commons Journey

A Learning Commons Journey: 10 year transition from Camilla Elliott

The recent School Library Assoc of Victoria conference focussing on school library design and change was an opportunity to share our 10 year library transition at Mazenod College. The physical transition has been from a 1970's style library, through to a revamp that breathed in new life and flexibility, until finally in March 2018, moving into a competely new building.

Whilst the physical transition has been complex. Before anything could be achieved we needed to have all library staff on board for the journey. This commenced in 2010 when I introduced the concept of School Library as Learning Commons and the idea of changing the day to day library philosophy to a student centred approach. Library in name but with a Learning Commons philosophy. (See writing on this topic).

Bringing staff on board is an essential first step with any change. When a school library transitions, the first step is development of a shared vision and, in our instance, an understanding of the role of the library in the life of the student. The change required involved a commitment to professional learning and growth for each staff member.

This is often an overlooked first step and as a consequence, the library building changes, is refurbished and renewed and the libray staff remain the same. The outcome of a focus on building over staff results in dissatisfaction, resentment and a lack of ownership. 

A new library building is wonderful but the foundation of success in the construction of that building is an involved and committed library team equipped to offer a vision of school library appropriate to today's society.  Be informed, be involved, be ready.

Makerspaces: creating an opportunity

It's been an inspiring three days at the Expanding Learning Horizons SchoolsTech Conference 2014 in Lorne, Victoria.  Having time to gather ideas and explore them with a group of colleagues in a focussed environment is a great opportunity.

Makerspaces: creating an opportunity is my presentation exploring the combination of Makerspaces with the Learning Commons model for school libraries.  It was interesting to see the interest stimulated by Gary Stager's keynote which introduced many to makerspaces for the first time.  See more links to makerspace resources to follow up further.

Makerspaces: creating an opportunity from Camilla Elliott

Library 2.013 - 2 days of collaboration

Over the past 2 days Steve Hargadon and the team at Library 2.0 have facilited the third annual worldwide conversation about the future of libraries via the Library 2.013 Worldwide Virtual Conference.   Held entirely online, around the clock, in multiple languages and time zones, it's been a fabulous conversation.  I only caught parts of it but am looking forward to catching up on those missed via the Session Recordings.

Alignment of the Conference Schedule to each time zone made keeping track of sessions simple e.g. the Melbourne Schedule.  All sessions were broadcast via Blackboard Collaborate. Twitter hashtag was #lib2013.

I was particularly pleased to attend Virtual Learning Commons by Dr David Loertscher and Carol Koechlin who have applied their extensive knowledge of learning and libraries to provide a framework that can be adopted by any school library.  Having spent the day with Carol in Toronto last year, this was a wonderful opportunity to further consolidate knowledge of the Learning Commons concept.

Kelly Gardner from State Library of Victoria, coordinator of the SLV/ School Library Assoc of Vic (SLAV) Personal Learning Project (#vicpln) presented Delivering Library Learning Online.  Kelly described how the concept of the VicPLN is now being applied to other services within the State Library.  A clear indication of the flexibility and opportunities offered via the online format.

The variety is astounding with presentations from experienced and highly qualified library professionals across the whole range of public and academic libraries.  Sprinkled with the experiences of developing African libraries, social media, knowledge management and MOOCs, this is a truly valuable resource.

Thanks again Steve H and team for making this collaboration and learning possible.