Is there a certain place within this wiki we can discuss the development of our virtual learning commons using Google Apps Education? I am currently working on developing our homepage with Google Sites and I need suggestions on the best way to organize our opening page. I would like this page to give quick access to all the learning units taking place but I don’t just want it to be a page of links. I would like it to also be a display place for sample projects taking place at any given time. I am working with teachers and students in our building but I would like to know what others have done. Thanks, Lori Pringle

check out http://furnware.co.nz/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx - for neat furniture ideas too. Shipping costs might be a bit high but some great concepts to get local people to follow up with. :-) Greg

That article is a must read, since we see how Valerie made this shift over time -- indeed, form followed function! I like the way we can read in this article how, for example, her cafe began and her rationale for it. Having been in attendance at the grand opening of the Chelmsford Learning Commons, I can attest to just how vibrant a space it is and how so many different things occur in it at the same time.

What's in a name? a library by any other name is still a library? No, not at all. A library that becomes a learning commons is so much more in the minds of all those who come in contact with it!

Check out Valerie Diggs article in the Arpil issue of Teacher Librarian 2009 titled: From Library to Learning Commons: a Metamorphisis.
Valerie is a terrific high school librarian in Chelmsford, MA and developed much of what Koechlin, Zwaan, and I had in mind when we were creating our vision of the learning commons.

I recently discovered a furniture company that has many chairs and tables and other library furniture on wheels. It is http://smithsystem.com

I saw their furniture at ASCD, March 2009. It looks very promising.

I just found the wonderful slideshow of the new Ann Arbor library at http://skyline2.aaps.k12.mi.us/mediacenter/Skyline_Library/Slideshows/Slideshows.html. I'm wondering whether we could have a page on this wiki to gather links to such slides/pictures/videos of libraries that are embodying the Learning Commons philosophy in the way they furnish and use their space. I understand that the client-side philosophy is the most important piece. But if we have some available funds, changing the way the library looks will make it easier to change the way it works. I'm thinking of tables that can be easily moved and reconfigured, for example.... Carol

In the October Issue of Teacher Librarian, we tried to gather a number of stories of folks who are turning client slide in their concepts and practices. i do believe, however, that some volunteers should test many of the ideas in microcosm that that we could begin to get reports from the field of successes and challenges. It is certain that continuing on the old model is neither getting us into the center of the mind of the learner or into the curriculum of the school. There are, of course, exceptions, but the decline of jobs for full time professionals is not just related to economic factors.

Dr. Loertscher, you pose wonderful ideas and suggestions throughout all of your works. However, I would like to conceptualize what all this would look like in the real world. Could you include examples of teacher librarians throughout the country are implementing their programs along the constructivist lines. I appreciate web pages like Joyce Valenza's, but I need more. What is her typical day like? How do the other teachers get involved? What are the case studies to demonstrate that this increases student learning and interest in school?
I am asking this because I am being the process of applying for school library jobs where none of the job descriptions even remotely resembles what you are proposing. The basic school librarian job requirements include class research projects, cataloging, book purchases, overdue notices, textbook collection, etc.. Technology is only briefly mentioned. Collaboration, reader's advisory, information technology, and student-centered learning are practically non existent. Since I, along with a few progressive minded teachers will lead the charge, I need models and mentors to guide me towards success.
Thanks,
April Geltch---July 9, 2008

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