Reconfiguring Auburn University's Main Library for Engaged Active Student Learning

Abstract

In the face of changes in teaching and learning, academic libraries are responding with changes of their own. New pedagogies are creating opportunities for libraries to connect directly to the curriculum and support students who are being asked to work in new ways. It is one thing to recognize that change is needed, however, and another to design changes that will effectively support emerging ways of teaching and learning, especially when it is still early days in the change process. Such was the case at Auburn University, where a project to construct a new classroom building specifically for Engaged Active Student Learning (EASL) classes provided the library with an opportunity to renovate its main floor. The new Mell Classroom Building will incorporate in its entry atrium the library façade, and the library’s third and fourth floors will connect to hallways in the new structure. Library leaders seized the opportunity to provide space specifically to support the out-of-class-time academic activities of students in EASL classes.