Information Commons Services for Learners and Researchers: Evolution in Patron Needs, Digital Resources and Scholarly Publishing

Since approximately 1990, the Information Commons has emerged as an effective model of integrated library public services. The Information Commons combines traditional, paper-print, high-touch library services and resources with computer technologies and digital resources in a relatively seamless service environment. Extensive computer resources for Web research, free Web resources and proprietary electronic databases complement the full spectrum of productivity software and specialty scanning, digitization and multimedia resources. Numerous examples from North America and elsewhere and links to others will be provided. The Information Commons model considers change and evolution in patron needs vis-à-vis 1. staff training and attitude, 2. quantity, quality and type of information resources, 3. unmediated access and personal control in patron learning and research (especially in search technologies), and 4. architectural layout and aesthetic nature of the library facilities. The learner and researcher share many needs, but the complexity of high-level research often warrants special consideration. High-level research needs and knowledge creation are the focus of the budding Research Commons at a few institutions. The Open Access (OA) movement pays special attention to evolving research and scholarly publishing needs. Since the late 1980’s, academic libraries in higher education have focused more strongly than previously on patron-centered, learner-centered, user-friendly services. This has been especially true in North American (NA) institutions. Models of “integrated library public services” implementations arose in several areas and proliferated through the first half of the 1990’s; many of these implementations are known as “Information Commons” (IC). With the evolution from the Internet (text-based) to the World Wide Web (GUI – graphical user interface – and hyperlinking) in the mid-1990’s, and ever-greater access to electronic information resources, Information Commons have proliferated into hundreds of institutions and continue to evolve into more effective delivery of patron services. It might be helpful to describe the variety of academic programs and patrons, which are commonly supported and served in NA academic libraries, where IC’s have proliferated most extensively. The NA higher education structure and environment differ significantly from those in many other parts of the world, and the IC model emanates from this structure and environment and from the needs of these users. North American higher education consists of numerous types of institutions, which educate and train students. This education and training include the “liberal arts” academic programs (humanities, social sciences, arts, natural and earth sciences), pre-professional and professional programs (education/pedagogy, nursing, business, law, medicine, etc.: http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/majors/majorSearch.asp, or http://www.a2zcolleges.com/Majors/), and (especially in NA two-year community colleges) many vocational programs, also known as the “illiberal arts” (trades, including culinary arts, electrical, auto, technology hardware, crafts, etc.: http://www.cpcc.edu/degrees/ ). Also, each US state has a “land grant” institution (e.g., Texas Agricultural & Mechanical/A&M University), whose educational missions are broad and include many fields of study, “liberal arts”, pre-professional and professional. The library at each of the institutions is expected to serve and meet the needs of the full range of student and faculty as their primary patrons; however, patrons from the general public are usually considered a secondary but important patron cohort. Thus, there is 1) a broad range of informational resources (breadth of subject areas and depth of collections), 2) a wide variety of learning styles, and 3) extensive variation in informational needs and readiness to use available resources to meet these needs. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has developed a set of articulated “information literacy” (IL) standards (with articulated goals and competencies http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm). As quoted in this document’s introduction and definition, information literacy requires an individual to “’recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.’” It further states that an “information literate” individual will be able to: • “Determine the extent of information needed • Access the needed information effectively and efficiently • Evaluate information and its sources critically • Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base • Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose • Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.” Information literacy is the curriculum that information professionals teach within the Information Commons framework. Information literacy and the Information Commons are complementary organizing principles for effective library work. Information literacy provides intellectual touchstones for understanding and articulating what we as information professionals can teach our patrons (cf. Benjamin Bloom’s 1956 Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, cognitive domain: knowledge > comprehension > application > synthesis > evaluation). The Information Commons model helps in designing, selecting and organizing resources (informational, technology and staff) and space for the most effective patron-centered public services. There is “pre-Information Commons” precedent for “integration of library and related services” in the US. In the US, community colleges (or junior colleges, as they were earlier known) have long provided multiple, integrated services in their libraries (Learning Resource Centers) out of practical necessity (cf. Maricopa and Mesa Community Colleges in Arizona). Small liberal arts college libraries have long done something similar in terms of integration, although in the liberal arts college library the integration had a bit much to do with the concepts of “interrelatedness” and “interdisciplinarity” at the core of the liberal arts traditions. However, in neither of these two cases was the integration of services conceptually and intellectually based on learner needs in a high technology environment. This planful, explicit integration is at the heart of the Information Commons. The Information Commons concept focuses on the need to provide • Research guidance and technical support for patrons, who need access to information in all formats, with an ever-increasing quantity of digital resources; • Access to appropriate hardware and production/presentation software to process the acquired information as needed and support for these hardware/software resources; • Appropriate physical spaces to allow, support and enhance patrons’ research and production (Bailey-Tierney, 277). It is important to look briefly at a couple of pertinent issues. One is the series of major changes, which occurred in the world of libraries about a decade ago. Libraries have traditionally had collections at the core of their existence. With the advent of the Internet evolving into the Web, patron services have risen as equal to collections in importance. Collections are no longer only or primarily housed and waiting in the library “just in case,” where library professionals can respond to questions about access, use, etc. The “collection” is a fluid combination of on-site materials (paper, fiche, etc.), proprietary databases, electronic journals and aggregator databases, open-access archives (e-prints, pre-prints, digital collections, etc.), resources often created at-time-of-need (“on-the-fly”), Web catalogs (e.g., http://lii.org/), growing “collections” like Google Scholar, Google Print, and Amazon’s “search inside the book,” and, of course, the full range of search-engine accessible resources on the Web. To make appropriate use of this vast quantity of variegated information, the learner and the researcher need unique and effective support and service. The value of “collections” is now balanced by the value of “services”. The second issue is the question of who our learners and researchers are, what their learning styles and habits are, and how we can most effectively serve them now and in the foreseeable future. Several recent publications bring important focus to pertinent characteristics and habits of these learners, who will soon be our higher education researchers. EDUCAUSE recently (fall, 2004) published Educating the Net Generation and CLIR (Council on Library and Information Resources) published its Library as Place in February, 2005 (see links to e-texts of these in the Bibliography). In these and similar studies, we realize the necessity of rethinking, revising and patterning our services on the changing needs of our learners, our researchers, our patrons: the Net Generation, Millenials, Neo-Millenials, Digital Natives, those born and come of age since the early to mid-1980’s. Library collections and services designed for 1985 or 1990 may not survive the first decade of the 21st century unless they adapt. The “commons” concept provides some insight into possibilities for effective adaptation to survive and thrive. What follows is a description of the most common elements of integrated services in an Information Commons. An Information Commons: • Is physically located on one or more floors of a library • Provides access to traditional library services, “high-touch” and face-to-face – provides general information, library catalog access, reference/research services, reserves, circulation, interlibrary loan/document-delivery, etc. • Constitutes a high-technology-rich environment, “high-tech” and easy, often high-speed remote access – networks, public access computers an