Extended and experimenting: library learning commons service strategy and sustainability

The purpose of this paper is to share a compelling example of a library’s willingness to develop and design itself as an open-ended process.

The case study provides a historical review of the library’s founding design, and an overview of the process and approach to redesign. The study contextualizes the library within current academic library research and literature.

This paper explores the research, engagement and planning process behind the library’s exploration of new models and service configurations. The project was an engaged, inclusive, transparent, library-led process. The commons reestablishes the library as the “nerve center” of the campus.

The paper offers an update to a 1969 report, and later book by Robert Taylor on the Harold F. Johnson Library at Hampshire College, designed as a prototype of an academic library. This paper will be of value to academic librarians, administrators, and historians.