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  Re-think It Conference Proceedings

  Grand Valley State University, Matt Ruen, Mary M. Somerville, Lori S. Mestre, Eric Kurt, Ilana Stonebraker, Tomalee Doan, Corey Seeman, Jeffery Scherer, Christine Tobias, Christina Mune, and Sharon Thompson

  Essays contributed by participants in Re-think it: Libraries for a New Age, a conference on library design, services, values, and visions, which was held in the Mary Idema Pew Library Learning and Information Commons at Grand Valley State University, August 10 - 12, 2015.

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  Building Fundraising Momentum: Message, Relationship, and Alliance Essentials

  Mary M. Somerville

  Inquiry-based and user-centered facility design catalyzes constituency engagement, creates shared vision, and builds stakeholder partnerships through signature ‘participatory action research’ and ‘library as lab’ initiatives that advance collective learning and energize renovation planning in the library and on campus. This user-centered design approach also informs energetic fundraising strategies which produce $32.8 million in multi-year State appropriations and cash contributions. Essential elements - creating messages, furthering relationships, and forging alliances - invigorate the capital campaign and sustain renovation fundraising momentum.

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  Excuse Me. Is that a Video Studio in Your Library?

  Lori S. Mestre and Eric Kurt

  Although many faculty now require student projects to be presented in a multimodal format, it is rarely feasible for each department or school to acquire all of the technology needed to support those efforts or to require that each student purchase the equipment. This article provides details of the Video Production Studio in the Media Commons at the Undergraduate Library, which serves as a centralized service space that houses a robust loanable technology program and collaborative studios that facilitates the creation of video and audio projects. It is an environment that helps to foster discussion and collaboration from students and faculty to help create solutions through technology. The Media Commons is a service space that offers faculty, students, and users the ability to create, disseminate, use, and curate digital media. It meets a need for broad access to media creation tools, video and audio training, and instruction in media literacy.

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  Undergraduate Learning in Libraries: Space Design for Academic Course Transformation and Re-Thinking Campus Culture

  Ilana Stonebraker and Tomalee Doan

  At Purdue University, the Libraries participate in a provost-initiated, campus-wide course redesign program for student success called Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT). As part of the campus strategic plan, this program aims to bring active learning to foundational courses traditionally taught through lectures.

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  Where You and I Are Going to Spend the Rest of Our Lives: What a Future Library Looks like When There Is No There... There.

  Corey Seeman

  Academic libraries have long envisioned a future where new services and functions are added to our existing structure of student and collection space. However, our future might be more driven not by what we gain, but by what we lose. In this presentation, a library that went through a massive change learned more quickly about the “library of the future” when they lost both student and collection space during a massive construction project. This presentation will share how the staff at this library adapted from a full service library to an information service unit; the service model of an “ethereal library;” and how they grew within this much smaller footprint. We will showcase how this library was able to retain its library services, its staff and its connection with the academic community at the school.

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  The Library as a Social Contract: Lessons Learned

  Jeffrey A. Scherer

  This paper is based on the premise that how humans are treated and their needs met defines a community culture. Cultures that do not meet the needs of their people will wither. It is a very personal statement and is not intended to be a lengthy treatise of library technologies, collections, service models or architecture. It focuses on the messiness of dealing with the complex realities of today’s culture and the intersection of the library as a place of service and a sustainable part of a community.

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  From Dandelion Seed to Cottage Garden: The Transformation of User Experience in the MSU Libraries

  Christine Tobias

  The user experience movement is gaining momentum in libraries, but its adoption and adaptation into an organizational culture may present unexpected challenges. In June 2014, the Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries created a User Experience unit and in a short time, established a solid and reputable team of practitioners. This success, however, was not achieved overnight. User experience work tends to be team-oriented and project-based, and initially, unit members struggled to adapt their roles within the unit and the unit’s role within the organization. To guide the unit forward, an in-house retreat was held to give unit members an opportunity to better understand each other as user experience professionals. Through a skills audit and a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, respect for others’ skills was gained and a shared vision was established. The User Experience unit now effectively functions as a productive, collaborative, synergistic change agent, holistically integrating user experience into all services at the MSU Libraries.

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  From the Commons to the Spartan Floor: Enhancing Digital Literacy Through Technology-Integrated Spaces

  Christina Mune and Sharon Thompson

  San José State University’s Spartan Floor represents a suite of services and spaces designed to promote digital literacy amongst university library patrons. This happens through the use of formal and informal knowledge transfer – technology training workshops, front-line hardware and software support, integrated collaborative technologies – in spaces strategically collocated so that students have staff support or resource access when and where the digital literacy need emerges. A variety of data-driven methods are employed to assess space usage, services, and collections on the Spartan Floor. Some or all of these services, spaces, and methods can be recreated by libraries interested in supporting digital literacy for their populations.