By Matthew Fowler, Managing Editor
Returning Newman students and particularly observant first-year students might have been surprised to see that the first floor of the Dugan Library is a lot more open now.
The Learning Commons, a new study and collaboration space that was paid for as part of aTitle III grant that Newman received, now occupies the spot where the library’s first floor collections were housed.
But the change has not inhibited library services, said Wesley Cornett, director of The Learning Commons. The new space aims to better provide students with the resources and people they need to grow in their pursuit of knowledge.
“We really want to emphasize with the change in the space … that libraries are not just about places to have a collection of items,” Cornett said. “A lot of what libraries are doing is about connecting people with the items and the ideas that they need.”
Included in the space are a variety of seating arrangements, digital whiteboards able to save and send out work, and printers with standard, large-format, and 3D capabilities.
Although the creation of the new space moved books, resources, and services to different areas of the library, these collections and services are still available.
Standard printing is now accessible from students’ and faculties’ personal devices after they set up an app that can be found with instructions at print.newmanu.edu. Newman computers also will still be available for public printing near the library’s front desk.
Large-format and 3D printing can still be requested using the library’s homepage on Newman’s website. Students or faculty with questions or in-person requests are encouraged to visit the front desk of the library.
The federal Title III grant that helped pay for the Learning Commons has also financed other projects to help students across campus, including the Navigator program, the Teaching and Learning Center, and the Student Success Center.
Lori Steiner, the dean of the school of arts and sciences and the director of the Title III grant, said that this space is one of the many ways that this grant will benefit students.
“I hope that the implementation of these major activities will impact students’ persistence to graduation as well as their career preparation and readiness,” Steiner said.
Cornett said that he hopes this space will also encourage all members of Newman’s educational community to form strong connections with each other and facilitate the exchange of knowledge more freely.
“I do think that it is a good reminder that there is a real opportunity here to not just stay in your own little bubble with your education but to remember that a lot of education, a lot of the things that you can get in a university, … is that opportunity to have relationships where you get in contact with other people that have their own expertise, their own backgrounds and that you bring those things to the table as well, and that, then, mutually, you can build upon each other and forge new ideas out of those relationships,” Cornett said.
The Learning Commons is open for students and faculty to use now, but the space will have its official grand opening from 8:30 to 10 a.m. on Friday during Jet Friday.
PHOTO: Dannicka McGrath, Photographer
