News

Multi-format learning hub will offer study diversity

[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 1, No. 14  17 September - 1 October 2007 ]

By Christina Buckridge

The diversity of learning spaces on campus to suit students’ varying learning styles is being boosted with work soon underway on the Eastern Learning Hub (ELH).

While some students prefer to browse the shelves for an appropriate volume to study in quiet contemplation, others want ready access to IT databases and electronic journals and a place to work in groups on project-based assignments.

The University libraries – designed in earlier times for a smaller number of students – have limited spaces for either individual or collaborative study, so the University has brought in Associate Professor Peter Jamieson, an expert in designing learning spaces, to develop additional areas for today’s students.

Student feedback such as – ‘people work differently; some need quiet, some can work with noise’ – confirms the needs for diverse learning spaces.

The ELH is the first of up to five such learning hubs across campus. When it opens in 2008, the Education Resource Centre library and the adjacent Frank Tate building will provide significant student, social and community spaces. The converted Plaza Conference Centre will become the first Student Hub under the Melbourne Student Services Model.

Two large, sculptural pavilions will bring it all together, transforming the Tate Plaza into sheltered and habitable spaces for study outside to complement the internal spaces.

It is an integrated one-stop shop for wide-ranging student services alongside an Information Resource Centre (IRC) – four floors of rich scholarly collections, including high-use undergraduate material and material supporting research by students and staff.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Peter McPhee says the development of the Eastern Learning Hub will transform the ERC into a true multi-format library learning hub.

“The ELH is designed to encourage students to spend more time on campus, and provide a sense of place for students, supporting the student cohort experience,” Professor McPhee explained.

“It will provide a safe and secure setting, for either group or individual learning, with extended library hours and access to collaborative, social learning spaces supported by a flexible IT environment.”

Some student collaboration areas in the Frank Tate building will be furnished and equipped to enable group work on projects.

The majority of the new IRC will be devoted to discipline-related collections – including the reference and open-access collections and high-use items for Engineering and Education study and research, multi-disciplinary Media Collection (including DVDs), open-access and multi-disciplinary Research Collection, and map collection – supported by digital resource access and IT rich, collaborative and individual student study environments.

Computing resources will provide access to a diversity of information online, such as journal and newspaper articles, eBooks, encyclopedias and reference sources, conference papers, standards, statistics and industry information.

During the ELH construction, a substantial proportion of all ERC collections, including half the B and AB collection, will remain in-situ – with access and full library services available to academic staff and students. The remainder of the B and AB collection will be temporarily relocated with retrieval services.

Read about Eastern Learning Hub at www.infodiv.unimelb.edu.au/tss/hub/index.html