A recent publication sponsored by CIC and the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), Libraries Designed for Learning, explores the extent to which recent library design projects have been driven by an understanding of how students learn and how faculty teach. CIC Senior Advisor for the Transformation of the College Library project, Scott Bennett, the emeritus director of Yale University’s libraries, wrote the report based on an extensive study of the motivations and planning methods for library renovation and construction projects undertaken in the past decade.
     Bennett conducted a web-based survey of more than 380 institutions (including 65 CIC colleges and universities) that had renovated or built new libraries between 1992 and 2001, representing a total investment of $4.5 billion. He also conducted follow-up phone interviews with 31 library directors and chief academic officers. He concludes that while most of the projects are serving users well, they have rarely been informed by a systematic assessment of how students learn and faculty members teach. Bennett suggests that planning based on such an assessment could equip the library to serve an even more vital function as a space for teaching and learning.
     “In designing library space we attend too exclusively to library operations and not enough to student learning. The success of the library is best measured not by the frequency and ease of library use but by the quality of the learning that results from use. This is a fundamental shift for librarians trained in a service culture, comparable to the shift that faculty are making from a teaching to a learning culture for higher education. We know how to design library space that is operationally convenient and efficient. There is ultimately nothing but our own inattention that prevents us from designing library space that fosters effective learning,” Bennett argued.
     The report is intended for academic librarians who are responsible for library construction and renovation projects, and for academic and planning officers who decide how library space can advance the core learning and teaching missions of their institutions.
     Libraries Designed for Learning is available in its unabridged form on CLIR's website at www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub122abst.html. A print version that excludes some of the data analysis can be ordered through CLIR's website for $20.

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Last updated: August 2004
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