What is a Learning Commons?

MA School Library Transforms into New Learning Commons

Article by Debra Lau Whelan School Library Journal 12.10.2008

An article was published in school library journal which caught my eye. It it was concerning a Teacher Librarian who transformed her Library at Chelmsford High School in Massachusetts. It was a run down library but....the kids kept coming back. The Librarian Valerie Diggs, as the High School Media Specialist, knew a thing or two about the value of a good library.

Even though the library looked like a prison (it had iron bars) , the teachers still visited with their classes and kids took advantage of its listening lunches, coffee gatherings and other great programs.

Now the library is even better due to a major makeover and has been transformed into a Learning Commons, a true virtual and physical 21st Century learning space.

Diggs received $150,000 from her town to refurbish her 6000square foot library complete with a Java Room coffee bar, 38 new desktop computers, a 58" flat panel TV, new furniture, flooring and paint.

A Learning Commons according to David Loertscher, a professor at San Jose State Uni and coauthor of The New Learning Commons Where Learners Win:Reinventing School Libraries and Computer Labs, 2008, states that it is "a collaborative space created by users that turns the library into the 'centre, the network, of social, cultural and learning in the school."

On returning from a visit to this Library Loertscher commented that this library has "achieved
much of the open commons idea.....................the parade of good things, the culture of student productions in its listening lunches, its popularity as both a social and an intellectual space is evident."

Circulation has risen by 20% since the new library opened its doors.

Wow!!!!