Information Literacy Develops Globally: The Role of the National Forum on Information Literacy

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Information Literacy and IT Fluency: Convergences and Divergences

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Critical thinking: implications for instruction

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Justify Our Love: Information Literacy, Student Learning, and the Role of Assessment in Higher Education

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The Learning Library in Context: Community, Integration, and Influence

The learning library is a construct based on the sociocultural theories of Lev Vygotsky and Jean Lave. These theories hold that learning happens through social interaction, that learners move through increasingly complex zones of development through the assistance of more capable others, and that real learning is situated only in specific cultural environments. The learning library bases its programs and services on these ideas through programmatic partnerships with specific groups such as learning communities and cohorts of students; through curricular integration so that learning about information resources is situated within the daily life of the college or university; through using the library as a locus for, and facilitator of, sustained interactions among students, faculty, and librarians; and by using the social interactions developed among communities of learners to extend the influence of the library throughout the institution. This article examines how these facets of the learning library are reflected in four programmatic models at George Mason University's Johnson Center Library: the course-integrated model (New Century College, NCC), the course-related model (English 101: Composition), the orientation/peer advising model (University 100: University Life), and the information/term paper counseling and coaching model (partnership with the University's Writing Center, WC). © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.No embarg

Playing on "Practice Fields": Creating a Research and Development Culture in Academic Libraries

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The Johnson Center Library at George Mason University

Purpose – This article sets out to discuss the Johnson Center Library, a gateway library in a multipurpose academic commons building first opened in 1996 at George Mason University, to identify the successes and limitations of this type of library concept, particularly in the context of more recent thinking about various types of information commons in libraries. Design/methodology/approach – Descriptive information is provided about the architecture and layout of the library, its collections and services. The final part of the article uses a lessons learned approach to identify key experiential and consensus-based observations of library staff, library administrators, and others about the changing mission of the library over a decade (1996-2006). Findings – The key findings of the authors focus on the need to revitalize the mission of the Johnson Center Library in order to move beyond the original gateway library concept. The findings also focus on the need to develop programmatic linkages with other stakeholders when a library facility is located in a multipurpose building; to create better architecturally defined spaces in order to enhance collection security; to design more flexible spaces that can be repurposed for changing needs in the networked environment. Originality/value – The paper discusses a different approach to library services, a variation on the information commons concept, and shows how library-as-place is still very significant because of the blending of the social and the academic lives of students, when a library is part of a blended social and academic student center such as the Johnson Center itself.No embarg