More Information
When Jason Burton, director of sciences user engagement at UCLA Library, looks out his office door, he sees groups of students poring over anatomy kit body parts, workshopping concepts on whiteboards, and quizzing classmates while sharing snacks. It’s a long way from the silent study once associated with libraries, but, says Burton, this is the new normal in the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library.
And far from the outdated stereotype of a librarian “shushing” students, Burton, with the support of a generous grant from The Ahmanson Foundation, is helping create a new space designed specifically to support this new generation of students.
The area will accommodate 80 students and include a lounge, presentation space, four collaboration areas and eight study rooms. It will serve a similar purpose to the popular active learning spaces in the Science and Engineering Library, which The Ahmanson Foundation helped repurpose and update in 2021.
Burton said creating the Collaboration Hub, as librarians have dubbed the new space, was “a rare example of everything falling into place at the right time.”
When campus reopened after the pandemic, librarians noticed a huge influx of undergraduate students into the Biomedical Library, which supports health and life science students. The Library offered quiet study areas, but had little group study space.
It turns out the way these students wanted to study was different, “it was very social,” said Burton. “Remember that the students who graduated this year were the ones who missed their senior year in high school because of Covid.”
At the same time, students were flooding into the Library, testing methods changed and demand for a large computer lab disappeared.
“So, we had a new space and an emerging student population who preferred to work together, so this was an obvious solution,” said Burton. “The grant from The Ahmanson Foundation came at exactly the right time to make it happen.”
For Athena Jackson, Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian, the Collaboration Hub embodies the Library’s mission. “Our goal is to provide students access not only to the research materials they need, but also to modern, learner entered spaces and services that support their academic success, professional development, and belonging within the university. We could not ask for a better partner than The Ahmanson Foundation.”