On May 22nd, a publication commemorative seminar for “Learning Spaces Change Universities,” edited by Professor Yamauchi, was held at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, Fukutake Hall, at the University of Tokyo. I had other commitments and could not attend. It is such a shame! I really wanted to go.
“Learning Spaces Change Universities” Publication Commemorative Seminar
http://blog.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ylab/2010/05/post_227.html
Professor Yamauchi tweeted about how “many universities are interested in learning commons” and that “how to provide learning support is important, and sharing that knowledge is required.” For learning commons, one should not just think about the space itself; one must consider the layout and design of the library as a whole. It should allow access to paper media, such as archives and general bookshelves, as well as information on the Internet. Furthermore, one must also consider dividing the space for those who want to study alone and those who want to study collaboratively. It would be strange if a bizarre space suddenly appeared, wouldn’t it? Regarding the spatial aspect of learning commons, I think any kind of space is fine because each university has different educational problems, but what is difficult is that learning support. Especially the human support aspect.
Recently, I think this is the case at every university, but while they will provide money for facilities, they are reluctant to provide money for people. Yesterday, in the rebroadcast of the episode “Shujiro, Regret” of Ryomaden, Katsu Kaishu, played by Tetsuya Takeda, also said angrily, “They said they’d pay for the ship, but they wouldn’t pay for the people.” I sympathized with him, thinking, “Ah, I know, I know” lol.
Kanazawa University was able to successfully build and open a learning commons this time, thanks to the cooperation of Professor Yamauchi, but I had reviewed domestic and international library-related magazines and papers before that. While doing so, I was thinking about Professor Yamauchi’s tweet.
University libraries that operate learning commons know that learning support is important, and as learning commons have been reviewed in university library journals for several years, it seems that there are problems unique to libraries that prevent this from being done well.
First of all, libraries cost money. The first problem is the issue of electronic journals, which has been a topic of discussion in recent years. This is more of an industry problem than a library problem. The number of electronic journals increases every year. Depending on the research field, some are read frequently and others are not. As a library, of course, there is a desire to contract only for journals that are read frequently, but not all faculty members on campus are in major research fields, and the companies providing electronic journals also want to cover the losses from journals that are not read much, so in many cases, such contracts cannot be made. It becomes a bundled contract. Since the number of journals increases every year, the contract price increases every year. It seems quite difficult to tell the upper management to provide money for human support on top of that. It would lead to complaints from other departments.
Universities that have university-wide support with learning commons as the main pillar, or that have received GP (GP is also received by the university, and the president goes to the interview, so it is university-wide support), are creating writing centers and career centers like American libraries, or organizing students to provide learning support, so I think they are still doing well, but generally, it is painful to pay for human support in libraries.
Also, there is a strong trend of reducing library staff and outsourcing. Library staff have demonstrated expertise in information management centered on paper media until now. There was also the Information Commons that emerged in the 1980s, and libraries existed as places for information literacy education, and the power of library staff was demonstrated. However, even if that is recognized within library staff and the library industry, I think there are parts that are not easily conveyed to the outside. There is the aspect of book lending operations, and there is a judgment on campus that full-time staff are not needed for such tasks. This movement is spreading nationwide, and the expertise of library staff is now being questioned.
If the learning commons is a place that has the implication of managing the learner’s learning, not just information (words from Makoto Inoue @ Doshisha University. I received her book. Thank you very much.), then support for that learning management can also be one of the areas of expertise for library staff. However, it will be difficult to establish this immediately. Since they do not know the research findings and practical knowledge regarding learning support that have been produced in educational technology and learning science, I think it will be a difficult situation even if they try to do it superficially. However, since they are expanding their expertise to include learning support, they must study thoroughly, and if library staff do not study, they will be driven into an even more difficult position. The expertise of library staff is also discussed in university library-related journals. When I read university library-related journals, most of them did not even verify the effects of learning support. Most of them explain the operation of the organization and fluctuations in the number of visitors (I think there were many such stories because the decline in the number of visitors was a major problem for libraries. That is also very important, though).
Perhaps the background of library staff acting empirically is that the organizational structure makes it difficult to cooperate with departments on campus. Departments basically dislike having a high workload outside their jurisdiction, so it may be difficult to ask for cooperation from departments other than the library. Perhaps even if a learning commons is built, other departments will only make unreasonable demands on the library, and in reality, nothing will happen. Of course, I think the side making the requests does not even grasp what the library can do. Or which on-campus organization is managing it. Each department needs to understand the library as a place of learning and the learning that uses the learning commons, and convey that it will also be a plus for their own departments.
It is necessary to build a system to support the learning commons as a whole university, and for that purpose, it is important to gather people who will cooperate from various departments and hold study groups. Also, since a huge investment called a learning commons is being made, it is necessary to organize what is needed for its effective use, consider the system, and convey it to the upper management. We must conduct surveys and effect verification and convey them in a form that the upper management can understand. Also, the fact that the results report is shared only within the library industry may be a problem in itself. Since libraries have a strong relationship with the information management system, findings are reported to some extent at information processing and information engineering academic conferences, but when it comes to learning support, I don’t think it’s possible to say “focus on the information system…”. There are many educational academic societies, so I think it is fine to take the stance of reporting and sharing the results in cooperation with universities that have or want to have a learning commons, and even go as far as to create a single field in the future.
Building or establishing something new is quite difficult, and while movements within the university can be slow, once the process of destroying an organization begins, it is difficult to stop. The speed only gets faster and faster. Reducing or outsourcing library staff is a very dangerous thing for the future development of the library as a place of learning, but unless we appeal that there is expertise in library staff called learning support, that they are making efforts to acquire that expertise, and that they are producing results even little by little, I feel it is difficult to suppress this speed. Just like the FD/ICT Education Promotion Office I am involved with was reduced… I think it is better to be aware that the crisis of reduction and dismantling is right in front of us.
I have been a person who has been holed up in the library since I was an undergraduate, joining the ESS. In the library, I would form a group with everyone in the ESS, gather evidence to support my arguments according to the theme, and discuss and create logic with everyone. But in the library at that time, we were not allowed to talk loudly, and we had to go outside to have such conversations. It was really inconvenient, and I always thought, “It’s a troublesome organization that doesn’t understand anything.” However, now, the learning commons is about to be reborn as a learning space where you can do various kinds of learning based on paper materials and digital materials. I think this is an effective space not only for students but also for faculty and staff. Even in our university’s learning commons, I see faculty members using it in addition to students. Towards university-wide support, understanding and support from faculty and staff, as well as a change in consciousness and rapid movement of library staff, and appeals to the outside are required. We need rapid decision-making and action, not walking slowly.
It has been said for a long time that learning support is necessary, and I can guess that sharing is probably necessary, but the fact that the discussion is still going on, or that even if it has started, the recognition has not spread to the field, I think it means that there was a lack of speed in terms of action and public relations (I think this applies to the entire university organization, comparing it to when I was in a company). In most cases, there are many things that cannot be done due to organizational problems, but now, as the figure of the university as an educational and research institution is being questioned, I think that creating a learning commons, a learning space, and a university where students and faculty and staff can be happy by sharing information and consciousness organizationally is what is required.
# Regarding concrete learning support, I contributed to LISN, No. 144, which will be published next month.
# It is 4 pages long, so it is really simple and at the draft level, but since library staff were the main
# target, I hope it will be helpful for the library staff.
